Friends, tonight I introduce you to the Etiquette Bell. Now some of you being worldlier than I will have to forgive my ignorance and humor. Here’s the deal…if you feel the need to pooter (that’s fart in “southern-speak”) just press the Etiquette Bell inside your stall and a pleasant little tune will play covering your little escapee and rendering you and fellow stall occupiers less embarrassed and/or offended. That’s right. Read it again if you think I’m making this up. Are you laughing yet? The other day while visiting the rest stop bathroom along the Korean highway, I enjoyed a song from the neighboring stall over. It was lovely but I certainly would have been okay with her letting one go in the bathroom. As it was, pressing the Etiquette Bell is almost like making a public announcement to the entire bathroom that you’ve just ripped one. I’m going to attempt to find a picture of one to post so that you can be fully enlightened as I have been.

On to Mike’s car. When Mike and I married he drove a Geo Prism. White, essentially all boy on the inside…stuff everywhere and a musky scent…and the back and passenger side windows were held up by tiny pieces of rolled up paper stuffed between the glass and the frame. You have a visual now, right? Okay, well the $300 beater here is about the same. A previous owner of the Hyundai misplaced the keys and in a desperate moment broke the small triangular window on the rear passenger side. After entering the vehicle and driving to his dorm he used the traditional Duct-tape-fix-method to protect the interior from future rain. The tape job is incredibly neat and tidy and does what it is supposed to do. Well done. Who knows how long ago the window was broken but glass shards glisten on the floor mat back seat as a reminder of good times. The engine of the car, with 185,000 miles, roars to life with double muffler vigor. It’s hot. Honestly, it runs great. A bit temperamental at times, you leave one key in the ignition (so that if you’re blocking someone they can move it or steal it…) and carry the other key in your pocket. This is in case the car has a schizophrenic moment and decides to lock you out even though you didn’t lock it. This happened to me 3 times yesterday but no worries, I had the extra key. Finally, as a safety feature the car has a sensor on the back of it to warn you if you are getting close to hitting something. I don’t know if it is accurate but I wouldn’t mind having it on my Odyssey at home.

Okay, enough from me. Hope you laughed a little. Isn’t life fun?

"For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?"
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, 1811