Chapter 2: Is that mint in your water or are you just happy to see me?

Water or vodka? You be the judge.

I mentioned that one of my other, more boring New Year's resolutions is to drink more water -- and that's how I came to buy today's Amazon find. When I'm out in Palo Alto for work, the hotel I stay in always has the tastiest infused water in the lobby. They change it up -- sometimes it's lemons and oranges, sometimes it's cucumbers and mint. Some combinations I like more than others, and I'm always sad when I come running to the lobby with my S'well bottle only to find some jackhole has put blueberries in there. Pass. Superfood my ass. So I decided not to leave my flavored water happiness to chance. No longer will that blueberry fan harsh my mellow, because now, thanks to this little Amazon find, I infuse my own damn water. This bottle comes in lots of nice colors and has a 32 oz capacity -- although it's a bit less once you jam all your fruit in there and drop the infusion core thing in. Because, physics. It's sturdier plastic than I expected for the price (about $15, give or take), though, which is great. They also give you a little booklet with some infusion ideas to get you started, although you can find all sorts of ideas online. And, yes, there is absolutely no reason why you can't also use it to infuse vodka or other spirits. #KnowYourAudience Downsides: the lid on this thing is just dumb. It's huge-mongous and bulky and it flips back and there you are holding this thing, trying to drink out of the weird spout on top with this huge, bulky lid right next to your face. Definitely not a smart or sleek design. And, and most frustrating, the lid design is not intuitive to open the first time. At all. So much so there are entire comments about it on Amazon, plus they put stickers on the bottle to try and tell you the secret, and then they know that doesn't work so they send you a follow up email saying "In case you're wondering how to open your new bottle...." Once you KNOW, it's actually dead simple, but the fact that you have to TELL ME how to open the bottle? FAIL. I still like it just fine. I just don't use it in the manner I thought I would -- I infuse the water in the fridge, then pour it into a giant insulated cup to drink, refill the bottle and put it back in the fridge. Repeat as needed. So I guess I'm really using it more like a small infusion pitcher rather than a traditional water bottle, but that's actually kind of nice because it is compact and doesn't take up much fridge space. In any case, for the price it's just fine, it works well, materials are sturdy, and it's definitely done the job of helping me get my water intake up. BTW: strawberries and oranges FTW.