5 Easy Steps to Surviving the DMV

I don’t have a car. Yet. And I’m not allowed behind the wheel. Yet. I don’t even have a permit. Yet.  While we’re on the subject, I haven’t eaten. Yet.

But that didn’t keep me from going to the DMV with my sister while she went to go get her permit. Like most people we woke up at the butt crack of dawn in order to get there before the masses. But just like us, most people had that idea and we didn’t get there before then, but we still got a prime parking spot right in front of the building. It was literally melting outside and I was sitting in the car next to somebody who likes to smoke, and so because I like to live, I had to stay in the car with the window rolled up. While there I came up with five easy steps on how to survive the DMV

Step 1: Bring Food.

Food is a creature comfort. And while at the DMV, dealing with attitudes and clipped responses, you need comfort. So rather than talking to that creepy guy that is literally breathing down your neck behind you and smells like crackers and cologne, go sit down and stuff your mouth with some snacks. What I brought:

A Kashi bar, which this one in particular is actually a lot saltier than you’d think it’d be. It’s got chocolate, which is not overly sweet, and almonds. They’re surprisingly filling and great when you’re in a hurry or, in this case, trying to avoid talking to somebody. This is what they look like melted because in order to tell if something is good, you need to see it melted:

Don’t forget your fruit (I’m being funny, by the way, I know apples aren’t fruits):

Applesauce. We get these in boxes from Costco. And because they’re easy and portable (and I didn’t bring a spoon), I just slurped it up, using my tongue to reach what wouldn’t slide out. It’s an art form with classes available UCSAGE (Sign up before all the spots are taken!).

It was over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, when we went. So, I couldn’t forget to hydrate. I was:

♫♪ On my early-morn thirsty. ‘Cause it was early-morn and I was thirsty! ♫♪ (Guess the song and put your answer in the comment section!)

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Step 2: Bring Something to Read

There are so many different ways to read nowadays, so choose your favorite. I personally prefer the real thing to reading something on a device or getting it read to me. How do you prefer to read? If you’re not a big reader or wouldn’t know what to read, stop by the library the day before and try a new genre. Or if you usually only read romances, pick up a sci-fi or mystery. If that’s not really your thing, try a different version of romance. Like a romantic comedy, mystery romance, paranormal romance, or erotica. If it’s already hot, why not turn it up a notch?!

I brought Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman. It was my first time reading it, and  because I absolutely adored the movie I thought why not try the book? Because you always judge a book by it’s movie. I learned that from the Twilight course at UCSAGE.

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Step 3: Bring A Journal

Just because you bring a journal doesn’t mean you have to write in it, if writing is not your thing or you simply can’t think of anything to write. You can always sketch or try drawing a cartoon from memory such as SpongeBob or Diego.

I brought my photographer’s notebook from Target, and practiced drawing anime hair and eyes expressing different emotions:

I know, I know. Impressive, right?

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Step 4: Bring Music

The radio doesn’t always have what you need, I know this from experience. I clean up the kitchen every other day on rotation with my kid sister and when I do I like to listen to music. More specifically, the radio, because some of (most of) the music on my mp3 is dated. And sometimes (most of the time), when I clean the kitchen, the radio is doing a segment of about 2 hours of slow jams. Like, oh my gosh. What the frak? Jump off of her and go to sleep so I can listen to music that is actually worth my while. It is a Tuesday and you have work tomorrow you guys do not need to be smashing pancakes right now. And besides, who’s going to want to listen to a remix of Love in the Club while they’re getting it on, only for the next thing to play to be five minutes of ads? Talk about a mood killer.

Anywho, try downloading a few new songs or listening to some old songs you downloaded and haven’t heard in a while. Note: On my mp3 (which shows the wrong time, by the way), I changed the language to Korean to help me learn Hangeul, which I have actually gotten pretty good at:

On the screen it says: (top) Artist, (bottom) Shuffle Mode, (right) Album.

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Step 5: People Watch

Last but not least, there’s always the ever fun people watching. My sisters and I like to pick out people, guess their names and their background. Or we’ll choose some random guy and pretend that guy’s one of our boyfriends. Guessing what they’re saying is also a blast.

Extra! Extra! Read All About It:

You can also take selfies, paint your nails (if you’re a girl), paint your nails (if you’re a guy), play games, watch a show or movie on your Iphone/ROKU and by the time you realize all of that stuff is boring, it’ll be time to go. You’re Welcome.

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For more things to do when you are bored: Check this out!

For more on what’s going on here visit “The Idea” and if you have suggestions as to things I can try visit “The Suggestion Box” or comment below I would love to hear what you have to say!

💋

When You Go To A School Function

You’re not bored – “Only boring people are bored.” Things to do When you’re Bored

photo courtesy: redshirtsunited.tumblr.com, pinterest

Are you bored? Don’t be. What to know why? Well, you’re in the wrong place because I don’t know why. Okay, let’s start over… Happy New Year! Okay, no, that’s so 2012. Happy Valentines Day, to you and your lover! Okay now that’s just weird. Hmm… are you bored?

I currently live in this little place called the middle of nowhere. To getanywhere fun is literally over an hour away. So most of the time, to entertain ourselves, my sisters and I make up our own games, and these wonderfully magical games are what are going to cure your boredom the next time you find yourself about to die with lack of anything fun to do. But so that I don’t blow your mind with awesomeness we are going to take this in steps and because I announced games first, let’s start there.

Make Up Your Own Game

Your game does not have to come from thin air; it can derive from a game that maybe you’ve played or heard about before. I came up with a game one night while I was bored called Shout. Now, I don’t know if this game is original or not or if it’s even really called Shout (I just made up the name, on the spot… just now) and to be frank I don’t really care. The rules of the game or simple. It’s a two player game and all you have to do is think of a random word, it can be anything varying from hair to elephant—the possibilities are endless. Once you’ve thought of a word, shout it out to the person you are playing it with then, let’s call him/her Player 2, is going to say the first thing that comes to mind when you say that word. For example if I was playing with my sister and I yelled out Psych she might say You or You out in the end (which is not one word, but you get the gist) because our favorite show in the world right now is Psych, because it is amazing.

picture courtesy: pinterest

Option 2: play Would You Rather. My sister and I play this game all of the time. You can think of your own or you can look up a site that has a list of them. But I warn you, not all sites are safe and some of the ‘Would You Rather’ options are inappropriate so choose a good one unless you like inappropriate things.

Option 3: play a variation of Marry, Boff, Kill which I first heard of watching 30 Rock, but to me this game is one in its own so we will save it for another day on another post.

Listen to Music

Let’s face it, music makes everybody happy. There’s not one person on this Earth that doesn’t like music, whether its polka or elevator music somebody has a type of music that they like. If you say you don’t like music, not any type of music, just to prove me wrong, well then we can’t be friends. Anyways, if you’re bored try grabbing your laptop or cell phone or ipad/pod and listen to music. Put together a new play list and turn it up on blast! You can learn the lyrics to that song you’ve butchering or look up a song that you haven’t heard in a long time. Maybe that song that goes like this: boom, pow, chika chicka bang bang, pop, move your body ooohhhhhhh. Google it. You can also try out new music. Maybe music in a different language such as Korean or French or in a different genre that you probably never would’ve thought you’d like but then you find an artist that is flipping amazing.

Read a Magazine

I know this may sound weird and totally boring, but not the way I do it, the way I do it turns a drab beauty magazine to the cure of world-weariness. Okay, so, grab a magazine it can be any type of magazine, but I would suggest one with a celebrity on it and/or one of those teeny-bopper ones that have all of the popular boy bands on the cover. You know those ones that you thought they stop making in the 90s but didn’t (the ones that had ‘n sync and Eminem when he still called himself Slim Shady on the cover). I don’t know if you’ve ever played this before, but in these magazines they have quizzes or picture mazes or something. Now, I’m not sure if they are really called that so allow me to explain. In magazines they have these question mazes (yeah, let’s call it that) and they ask you a question, then depending on your answer you go to another question bubble. For example this one to see whether or not you have long legs:

 

Take these, they’re fun and really easy and usually don’t cost more than two dollars. Another activity you can try with magazines is giving an interview. If you flip to the section with the celebrity that’s on the cover where they ask them all of these random questions you can ask the person you are interviewing, the interview-ee, or in this case the celebrity, the questions that they ask the famous person in the magazine. For example:

If in the magazine you chose they refer to guy the person is dating switch it out so that it is they guy/girl you friend has a crush on or is dating.

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Don’t know what Marry, Boff, Kill is? Click the picture below to get a taste of what I am talking about.

picture courtesy: tvguide.com

Happy Valentines Day to you and your Sweetie,
Sage