No Wonder My Back Hurts

Purse BKLM (before Kuala Lumpur move)

Purse: a lovely, compact black Coach with matching wallet
Contents:
- wallet
- 4 lipsticks
- lip liner
- face powder
- pen
- sunglasses
- key chain with approximately 7 keys

Purse AKLM (after Kuala Lumpur move)

Purse: all weather nylon shoulder sling bag. Think parachute pant material. Quite the fashion statement.
Contents:
- chapstick with SPF
- 4 lipsticks (some things never change)
- toilet paper/tissue packet (the lack of toilet paper in some bathrooms is a very real concern)
- umbrella (for the impromptu rain shower or hot midday sun)
- mini deodorant (it's freakin' hot)
- cash (no credit cards)
- house key card
- hair claw, clips and bands (again, freakin' hot)
- sunglasses
- pens
- camera (for feeding my Flickr obsession)
- face blotting papers (powder just mixes with the sweat and makes a...paste)
- spare flip flops (if I'm wearing my "going out" shoes, which I can only do if we are cabbing it. Then, if we can't get a cab home, I'm all set with my walking shoes)
- cards (so Matt and I can play gin at the pub - we like to live on the edge)

The cuty, tiny clutches that are so popular right now are just a pipe dream for me.

Can you imagine when we have kids? We won't be able to leave the house without one of those luggage carts you find at the airport...

Love Is...

To borrow a title from Donna, love is...allowing your husband to pick the hike that you do on your weekend break.

See, I married the poster child of REI. (For those of you who aren't familiar with REI, it's a US-based store for the outdoorsman (or woman), filled with handy camping, mountain biking, kayaking and various outdoor gear.) I, on the other hand, am not driven to many bouts of physical exertion unless it involves walking to get ice cream.

But I think it's important for spouses to at least make an attempt to try some activities that the other spouse likes. You don't have to like it, but at least try it, you know? That's how I found out that I like tennis. It's all about compromise. So they had these hikes, and Matt really likes outdoor activities. He says it helps his stress levels, and he just genuinely enjoys them. I understand. Little Debbies snack cakes do the same thing for me.

So, they had several hikes, and I told Matt he could pick one, as long as it's not the hardest one. I like being outside. I don't mind getting dirty. I just don't like scaling the side of a mountain on my vacation. For me, vacation = massages and drinks with umbrellas in them. Well, the hike brochure was a bit misleading, as it stated that the hike Matt picked was the fourth or five most difficult trail out of eight or so. Wrong. So wrong.

So after about the fifth round of scaling up the mountain, then back down again (the down part? No picnic either), I turned to Matt and asked him if people really did this for fun. He replied by telling me that he owes me big. Took the words right out of my mouth, he did!

I can barely walk today, and I know tomorrow will be worse. In exchange for the hike from hell, Matt has to go to the spa with me this weekend. Somehow I think he got the better end of the whole deal, if you ask me....

Why Do I Torture Myself?

Masochism = shopping for jeans in size sub zero land.

The women in Asia need to eat a burger. Or maybe I need to stop eating so many. One of those. I vote for feeding the tiny Asian women.

My calves will barely fit into some of these jeans. It's just plain wrong.

Grumpy

I've been sort of gloomy and grumpy lately. It seems like these things come in cycles since we've moved. When we first got to KL, everything was so new and different that it was sort of a honeymoon phase. Then, after we'd been here a couple of months, things became more difficult. We had been here long enough to realize all of the little inconveniences and we would get more easily frustrated at being ripped off by a taxi driver, sweating all the time and maintenance taking two weeks to fix the leak in our bathroom.

But then we started to come out of it. I guess we just got used to the differences of everyday living here, and we wouldn't get bent out of shape by the little annoyances. But for the past week or two, I can feel myself sort of slipping back into the grumpies. I'm not sure what exactly is causing it; I could give you fifty different possibilities, but I know that's not the root of it. Maybe I'm still in the adjustment period...blah! I thought I was out of it!

Okay, that's my whine for the day.

Selamat Datang!

So, here it is.....my very own blog! I have finally joined the masses of my peer group, most of whom seem to find witty, intelligent, thought provoking, hilarous things to blog about - the most I hope to do is not bore you silly.

The Husband and I are American Expats living in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (although you probably got that from reading my blog title), and since we are going through so many changes right now, from recently getting married and moving to the opposite side of the planet, I felt obliged to share some of the craziness of our "new" life with the rest of the world, via the blogosphere.

Here's hoping I have some funny shit to say.