HKG196: Etiquette Gone Wrong

my name is lori, and i misplaced my children in an elevator today. *sigh*

i try to keep this blog full of rainbows and unicorns, but sometimes i just gotta tell ya like it is.

etiquette is very different here. that's the nice way to say THERE IS NONE. every single DAMN day, we get pushed, shoved, stomped, trampled, squished, and experience any other manner of physical rudeness. most often, we have doors let go in our faces right after someone shoves past us to get out the door before we do. one of my biggest pet peeves is elevator etiquette. there is none. zip. zilch. nada. i can't even begin to count the number of times we've had people push in front of us to crowd into an elevator, but my least favorite is the obsession with the bleepin' close doors button. if you get into an elevator last, and you do not IMMEDIATELY push the close doors button...or, gasp, even worse...hold the door so that another passenger can board ... the hair on the back of your head will be singed from the evil glares. oh, and you will be unceremoniously elbowed out of the way so someone else can push that ever lovin' button.

what does this have to do with misplacing my kids in an elevator today, you ask? EVERYTHING! you see, olivia is getting to be a big kid, and she loves her some big kid responsibilities and privileges...one of which is pushing that *&@% close doors button in the elevator (self assigned... i really couldn't care less if that button is ever pushed).

today, the kids and i were getting on the elevator to go down to the playground. first of all, the elevator was open when we came out of our apartment, and of course, q made a beeline for it...i was still shutting our apartment door...mistake number one...i let the kid out of my line of sight...i know better than to do this. secondly, not only was the elevator door open, but there was a gentleman unloading a large push cart of boxes, so the doors were already cranky and trying to close (oh, yeah, the elevator closes really fast even without the help of that *&@% button...and it closes hard...i have had matching bruises on my hips more than once from getting squashed in the doors). so, livie and i are running to get to q and get on the elevator with him, and there's some jostling b/c of the large cart in the way...and livie presses that god forsaken close door button before i get on the elevator...and she keeps pressing it, so even though i am frantically mashing the button in the lobby, the doors remain closed. screaming ensues (from quinn).

i assume livie will get them off at the third floor, so i high tail it down the stairs (in flip flops) to meet them at the elevators on three. they aren't there. i can hear them screaming and crying (the elevators are not sound proof at all). i go back up to 10...i can still hear them...and then they finally come down to 10 (they had ended up going all the way up to the 44th floor). the same delivery guy with the cart had gotten back into the elevator and was in there with them (not sure how much this comforts me, but he was trying to calm them down).

so, i breathe a sigh of relief and hop on, count the number of years shaved off my life, and begin having a stern talk with olivia about that god forsaken button. we set a new rule...she doesn't touch the button unless she's told to. it's going to take some reminding...she was mashing that damn button again on our way back up after playing at the playground.

so, there you have it, the hong kong lack of elevator etiquette has rubbed off on my 5yo daughter, and as a result, she shut an elevator door in my face...with me on the wrong side of the elevator door.

heretofore, i have worked to make sure that if both kids are not holding my hands, they are in front of me so that i can see them at all times (have learned never to turn my back on q or walk away from him and trust he will follow...i have some leeway with olivia, but try to make sure she's always in front of me simply because we can get separated easily in the crowds). obviously, my strategy was poked full of holes today. note to self...start shackling self to quinn. maybe i will have to start strapping him to my body again. did you just hear my vertebrae groan in protest?!

and now for the rainbows and unicorns....

a very nice bright spot in my day...my favorite flower is a sunflower. today, olivia roped josh into helping her make me this beautiful sun flower that now adorns one lonely wall (the walls are lonely because i am a terrible decorator).

today is a public holiday (it's called the day after mid-autumn festival...that's really the name of the public holiday), so josh was home. he left for the u.s. this afternoon, so he spent some extra time with the kids this morning...they all worked on a train track designed by q and this beautiful tower designed by olivia).