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....

Domestic?

I have been feeling quite domestic lately. I said this to Corbett earlier and he just laughed at me. My mom is out of town for teacher conferences and has left me in charge to man the fort. It is only 3:10 today and already I have taken Liam to school, had my car serviced (hoorah for operational windshield wipers), and picked up Emily from Episcopal. I am sitting at her orthodontist office waiting for her right now and people watching.

In the next few days I will be packing lunches, carpooling, watching basketball practices, cleaning, doing dishes and leading sleepovers. This will be entertaining. My mom thinks that Liam and I hate each other, but we are actually quite civil when left alone. Whenever I watch him or we do something together we get along great and we actually have interesting conversations. Well, as interesting as it can be with a nine year old. On the other hand, when we are with my mom we bicker and argue, leading our mother to believe we hate each other. I think that in actuality it's just a problem of age difference. I was raised as an only child and even after nine years I have not been able to adjust to sharing my mother. And he is basically an only child eight months out of the year, which leads to us competing for attention when I am home. It makes me feel like I am also nine years old, but it is not intentional. It's just how we are.

So the next few days should be fun, spending a good amount of time with Liam. I am saying this after only 8 hours of being temporary head of the house. We will see how I feel on Saturday.

I Hate Television

(I posted this from my phone and I don't know why it formatted like this. I have no Internet here so I will fix it tomorrow when I am home. So. Lo siento.)

I don't fully understand my aversion to television. I think it's just the act of sitting down and mindlessly staring at a screen. Although I have no ppoblem with sitting down and staring at my computer screen for hours. Watching YouTube videos, episodes of Psych and renting movies is fine in my book. So why not TV? At least when I'm on the computer I'm reading and learning something, or talking and
socializing. Sort of.

I am in Fort Lauderdale right now and I have had an incredibly lazy day. I have sat in front of the TV since 6:30, and I am ready to pull out my hair. I am just waiting until I am tired enough to sleep, but that isn't going to happen any time soon. I have watched some movie with Marsha, then Harry Potter, the Soup, and now Chelsea Lately. Even though it is hilarious i hate sitting here. Most people have no problem with sitting down and watching a thirty minute or hour long show but I cannot do it. I fidget and look for something else to do the entire time. Even a half hour drives me out of my mind, and now I have watched five hours of nothing.

I don't understand this strong aversion to television. When I was younger I watched way too much TV. Up until 9th grade I had a TV in my room so it was constantly on. Freshman and sophomore year I had a TV in my dorm but never turned it on. This year I just gave my TV to Lauren to have for the year. I won't use it and it is a waste of space.

There are shows I will drop everything to watch, although they are few and far between. Right now: Jersey Shore. It's hilarious and terrible and painful to watch, but that is the charm. Freshman year it was Shot at Love, which says a lot about the types of shows I watch. Horrible ones. (I feel like this is a good transition into discussing Tila Tequila. I have been in love with her since I was in 10th grade, and this is basically common knowledge. Although lately I cannot stand her. Between her naked UStream rants that last 4 hours and how she has acted since Casey Johnson died, I have decided that she is bat shit crazy.)

Back to my TV watching. Please god let me get tired and go to sleep. I don't want to sit here much longer.

Sent from my iPhone

"Some People"

This is amazing. It is a comic of short stories focusing on the relationships between people and first impressions. I love how it comes in a full circle, and nothing is what you expect it to be. If you can't see the whole image, or if you want more info about the artist, click here

This video is incredibly haunting, especially with my recent sleepy driving/hallucinating experience. But it is a must see.

NYE and whatnot

Jenn and I have described New Years as simply "interesting." Yes, it was lots of fun, but it was just interesting. Interesting people, interesting events, interesting places.

NYE in a nutshell: picked up Corbett, went to Kickbacks, went to Preston's, to the Pearl, then back to Kickbacks and Preston's.

The Pearl was fun, as always. It was empty until about 11:30, then it cleared out at 12:20. We left before one and went back to Kickbacks for some brownie bites, which are always delicious. Although while we were enjoying our delicious fried brownie batter, all of the action was three blocks down at Preston's. When we walked in the door Cory just walked over to be and said, completely dead pan, "Dude. You missed all the action." Corbett appeared from the next room and lead Jenn and I to the bathroom, where there was a guy standing with a blood soaked shirt, with another shirt pressed against a huge gash in his head. Well, alright. We meandered over to the next room, smoke filled, with people just laying around. Literally. We waded back into the living room to find a place to sit. All o the ice from the kegs had melted, and it mixed with all of the dirt from the outdoors, turning the floor into a muddy pond. At one point it was basically a puddle, standing still on those old hard wood floors.

The day after New Years Jenn and I washed our cars by hand. We got her car really clean, and even cleaned out the inside and conditioned her leather. I wish I had started to condition my leather when I first got my car because now the seats are cracked, and they look like they are 10 years older than they are. We went to the Orange Park mall, tried on the most intensely padded bras known to mankind, got dinner from Arby's then home.

We ended up having a little food bonanza that night, similar to what Rob and I used to do senior year. We got little meals at Arby's, then after getting dressed we went to Sake House where Jenn got the worst Sushi ever. She wanted a volcano roll, which is usually spicy and crunchy. What she got was just full of cream cheese and gross. She said something to our Hulky woman of a waiter, who used her ninja skills her steal Jenn's jacket, and the woman refused to give her something different, or even listen. As got the check, and they charged her for the rolls even though she didn't eat them. I complained and got 10% off the bill, and as we were leaving the woman said, "Maybe she want something crunchy?" Well DUH. We said that countless times. It was frustrating, yet entertaining to hear the little Asian cashier telling us that it isn't the law to make volcano rolls the same as every other place.

From there we went to Popeye's for some chicken and biscuits before going to Shanty Town. there was a band called Chicken and Whskey playing at Shanty Town, so we got some Chicken, then some whiskey from Jenn's friend so that we could participate in the show. Although we never even saw the band since it was boring. Off to North Star to watch the game for a bit, then home.

I have had super lazy days since then, and I am enjoying it.

Lack O'Blogging

So I am sitting in the Five Points Theater right now, seeing Sherlock Holmes for the third time and i feel like any second now Rob is going to slap me upside the head and tell me to pay attention or to drink my beer. When the beer next to me is horrid and I'd like to pretend it's not sitting there. This post is going to have a slew of typos as I am sitting in the theater and typing fast and barely looking at the keyboard.

Anyways, since I last posted I have come home and been home for about a week. My drive home was horrid. I left on Friday right after an exam instead of leaving Saturday and staying at Britt's for a night or so. I ended up driving through my blizzard on my way to South Carolina. Driving through it was a horrible idea. I wish I would be exaggerating when I say that I am shocked I made it alive. First, there was the weather. Snow and ice everywhere, and all of the cars. It was a nightmare. Second, I hadn't slept on three days. I was not only falling asleep at the wheel, but hallucinating. I spent a good twenty miles convinced the car in front of me was Frankenstein running away from me.

I got home last Saturday and just slept, I think. I can't really remember what I did in the next dew days besides Christmas shopping out the wazoo.

Jenn came home on Wednesday I think and that night we went to Square One, where I think I met my future husband. Although I didn't get his name or anything. He was an art dealer and an iPhone app developer. So he said. Jenn and I had a jolly time at Square One and hung out for a while after.

Thursday was Christmas Eve. I went to my dads and met Kathleen's entire family. My new step sister is like 40. The whole night was horrible. No one would talk to me. Every time I got settled in a room everyone would leave. My step sister's husband was a dick. And I got the ugliest Christmas gifts ever. My dad and Kathleen got everyone PJs to wear for Christmas and mine were hot pink with frogs. Seriously?! My dad and uncle Tim got blue plaid PJs. I want those. It was nice to have Tim and Peg there, since I haven't seen them in about eight years. Tim is hilarious and we have the same sense of humor so we get along well. It was fun to see him interact with the new family because they didn't know how to react to anything he would say. And he's always drunk, in a non-alcoholic way, so that's a plus.

Christmas day was very good, after I left my dads and got home. I got lots of clothes and books and gift arcs for Saks, Neiman Marcus, and Bloomingdales worth $1500 so I can do some damage with those. That night Corbett and I went to see Sherlock Holmes, my first time. It was amazing. And now, watching it for the third time, it's still amazing.

The day after Christmas we thought it would be a good idea to go shopping at the town center, and we were wrong. It was swamped. Worse than black Friday. I saw a bunch of people from EHS and just ran off and avoided talking to any of them, aside from Kristin Otterson.

That night Jenn and I went to Kickbacks and the old man that's always there came over and gave us out menus and it was hilarious and adorable. After Kickbacks we got ready to go to TSI, then went to Adams for a bit. We hung out around TSI, I peed in a alley behind a dumpster then we went inside. This was Saturday and it was dead. We were in the front dancing for a bit when Jenn got on stage to explore and found an ice cold, unopened 20oz PBR. Naturally I slipped it under my super stylish sweatshirt I was wearing an boogied off and we drank it in the bathroom. Good god I can't wait until I'm 21. We left TSI and went to the Casbah with Corbett for a bit, then to Shanty Town where not much was going on since it was about these in the morning.

Last night Jenn and I had dinner at Kickbacks where we saw MC and ge bought us dinner. Our dear Ron Burgundy rubbed my back lovingly while taking our orders, making me feel loved and safe with his adorable father-like presence. After we left Kickbacks we rode our bikes around Riverside and saw Sherlock Holmes. After getting coffee and bile lights and sitting at Starbucks for a while we went back to Kickbacks for dessert, then home.

Today I just ran errands, and had dinner with Rob at the Loop. Then we went to O'Brothers for some drinks before coming to the theater.

Time to actually watch the movie and drink this heinous beer. Woo.