Things I Enjoy, Part One

1) Brushing my teeth and oral hygiene Recently my mother staged a silent intervention, if such a thing is possible, by laying out all of my oral care products on my bathroom counter. It was quite a sight. There were five tubes of toothpaste (Crest Vivid White, Crest Weekly Clean, Arm and Hammer Total Care, Sensodyne, and Aquafresh Iso-Active), all of which are used on a daily basis. Next to that were various kinds of floss, ranging from the little octagonal floss you receive from the dentist, to bags of the mint flossers with handles. There were bottles upon bottles of mouth wash, including an industrial sized bottle of the purple Listerine, the one that makes most people tear up when they use it. I end up using this every time I wash my hands, which is another issue altogether. To accompany all of these accessories is the best part of oral hygiene: toothbrushes. I have three here at home, and more at school. One is a mountain range of bristles with the nifty tongue scraper on the back. One is flat and has the color changing bristles so that you can tell when to change your toothbrush. The last is a portable one which lives in my purse with a mini tube of toothpaste and bottle of mouth wash. Every time I go to WalMart with Lauren or Sarah they don't let me wander towards the oral care aisle, knowing that I can spend too much time and money as a result if entering that glorious place. I have a problem and I feel that I may be doing more damage to my teeth with the frequent brushing and flossing. I think my obsession with brushing my teeth comes from wearing braces for nine years and never feeling clean.

2) Washing my hands. As a child I would never wash my hands, and I have no idea how I am still living. "Wash your hands before dinner!" Uhhhh... I'll just get them wet, thanks. After running about outside all day and touching god knows what I would touch my face, have my fingers in my mouth, touch my eyes, eat, etc. All with hands that had been everywhere. That makes me cringe to think about now. My obsession with washing my hands came about in 2005 when I was in Russia. Being my first foreign experience, I felt as if everything was dirty and I was going to get some weird Russian disease. While there I started carrying little bottles of hand sanitizer in my purse along with Lysol wipes. I would wash my hands every single change I got, and this has stuck with me. It is not as if I am a germaphobe or anything, I just feel dirty very fast. Especially out in public, and when shopping. When I am shopping I am touching a lot of things and I just start to feel off, and I NEED to wash my hands. I think I am OCD, but washing my hands and brushing my teeth are activities that unfortunately make me very happy.

3) Typography. Typography is something that is overlooked by pretty much everyone and their mother. You open Word and begin to type, not thinking about the font face that is the default (Times New Roman or Calibri, depending on the year of your version of Office) and the history behind it. Most people don't think that someone actually sat down and thought about the curve of the "e," and where the tail of the "e" should end. Should it end parallel to the straight line, as it does in Helvetica? Or end right after the curve like in Calibri? One of my favorite films of all time is Helvetica. Directed by Gary Hustwit, the film goes back through the history of Helvetica and how it is used in marketing and advertising today. Definitely a must see for those interested in typeface, although if you are interested, you have most likely seen it.



Mant companies have embraced Helvetica as "their" font, making it a trademark of their brand. These companies include Target, Southwest Airlines, and most apparent: American Apparel. American Apparel is known for their use of the font face, and have even created a shirt dedicated to it. Sadly enough, I am wearing this one right now:



I can't wear it out of the house since the one time I did, a black women accused me of wearing a KKK shirt and yelled at me for being racist... So if you buy the shirt here, and your name starts with a "K," be careful.

Going along with typography comes 4) Ampersands. I rarely use ampersands and when I do, I almost squeal with excitement.... in my head. You don't see them used very often, and when most people try to name it, they cannot. "Exclamation point, question mark, curly 'and' sign thing...." The ampersand was originally used to shorten "and per say - and" which is where the name comes from. It is also used in place of "et" which is "and in many languages, and when you break down the shape, it is an "E" and "T" put together. I am not sure why I find them so fascinating and amazing, but they just are.

&.

This is the first of many "Things I Enjoy." I talked about doing an A-Z of things I like a while back, but that idea sort of fizzled. Instead I will blog about things as I think of them. And now, I must go brush my teeth and wash my hands....