Day 8, 22 to go

Eat Your Vegetables

Today, I decided to be somewhat resourceful and healthy! Those of you who know me may die of shock. Yesterday, I put cucumber slices on my eyes and was left with almost a whole cucumber. No vegetables for me, so rather than waste a perfectly good vegetable I decided to use it for something new today. I tried a cucumber!!! I never eat vegetables, so I decided early on that it should be on my list. My roommate tasted it first to let me know if it was a good cucumber. She didn't want me traumatized for life if the first cucumber I tried was a nasty one. She gave me the OK and here's the photo story:

First bite...


Thinking it over...



Eh, it was OK....


Well, here's the verdict. It didn't have much taste, I thought, I didn't hate or love that. But I didn't like the mushy texture of the seedy middle against the more crunchy outside. I would have liked to try it with some ranch, but we didn't have any here. Next time. I think I could almost enjoy a good cucumber with a little ranch.
I did eat a few bites to give it a fairer try. It was ok, but I didn't love it or want more. I was really hoping that I would like it so I could find a good vegetable to enjoy. Oh well. I tried!

Day 7, 23 to go

Cool as a Cucumber

Today was kind of an indulgence. I have always wanted to put cucumbers on my eyes. Supposedly this has many benefits. I decided to see what the hype was about before I tried it. It is believed the cucumbers can help reduce puffiness, bags, and dark circles under the eyes. The technique: Put slices on your eyes for 10-15 minutes. Simple? Couldn't be more so. Effective??? That's another story. From what I read, the cucumber has nothing to do with it. It is just the cold. You could basically get the same effects from a cold washcloth. Hmm... I was a little disappointed to hear that, I won't lie. However, I still wanted to try it out for myself. To add to the experience, I decided to do this with complete silence. Normally, I would have to have music or some kind of background noise. Since I had basically found that there really were not a lot of benefits from the cucumber, I wanted this to be mostly about relaxation.

It was a little difficult to get a picture, and I know it is not the most attractive look - but here's the proof:





Needless to say, it was cold!! It did feel good and refreshing. I can't wait to try this on a hot summer day to cool down and relax. An added bonus, the scent of the cucmbers was relaxing. I did feel a bit like I was in a spa. When I took off the cucumbers, my eyes felt nice and tight. Don't know if there are any lasting benefits. Maybe I'll need to do this more regularly. Conclusion: cool cucmbers are good for the eyes and the soul.

Day 6, 24 to go

"Do the Watermelon Crawl"


Today, a necessity became my new thing! My sister asked me to bring a cut up watermelon to my nieces' birthday party. Strange as it may seem, I have never bought and cut up a watermelon on my own. I have helped cut one up, but this was all me! I really wanted to stop at a road side fruit stand on Saturday to purchase one, but every one I drove by was not selling watermelons. This was a shame because I wanted to have that as my new experience for that day. Anyway, off to Winco for other groceries in addition to a large watermelon. It was really big!! I didn't get a before picture of it, but I could have fed about 30 people with it!!!


So, my roommate had an awesome knife and I got to work.








Thanks to watching/helping my mom, I have learned the best way to cut a watermelon. It's easy!!! Success!! This is what it looked like when I was done:


Told you I could feed 30 people!! There was SOOO much watermelon.

Now, picking out a good watermelon is always iffy. I've always been told to thump it, and listen to see if it sounds hollow. If it sounds hollow, it should be good. Well, I don't know about you, but every watermelon sounds hollow to me. Another setback is that I don't even like watermelon. How to know if it was good? Enter my awesome roommate, Heidi. She tried a bite and, again, success! Not mushy and very sweet!!! Yeah! Then it was time to pack it up and head out to party. Look at me, I'm such a homemaker!!

Day 5, 25 to go

I Wanna be a Rock Star


My brother and sister-in-law frequently pack along Rockstars to drink whenever we go on vacation. Particularly a lemonade flavored, low calorie variety. They always say it is really delicious, and it has piqued my curiousity. So, today's new thing was to drink a Rockstar. On my way from Provo to Salt Lake to enjoy an evening with a friend, I stopped at a gas station and picked one up.

Don't Drink and Drive!!


It was really good! Tasted like a pretty sweet Country Time Lemonade. I was now waiting to see if I would get a "buzz" or worse. No shaky, anxious feelings though. Probably because I am sl used to caffeine due to my Diet Code addiction... I did feel pretty good, however, a good amount of energy and no sluggishness at all.




Caffeine + B-vitamins = a natural high.

After I downed the entire thing, I had two concerns: That I would be wired and unable to sleep or that I would have a bad crash after it wore off. To my surprise, neither effect. Now my worry is that I have found a new addiction to get me through the day... Gotta get my vitamins somehow!!!

Day 4: 26 to go

Berets, Snaps, and Poetry

Today, I decided to get my beret, notebook, annd pencil, and do some writing. I have never in my life written a poem unless it was some sort of school assignment, so I thought I would try my hand at poetry. I felt somewhat bohemian as I sat down in my chair in the quiet to just write some poetry. I didn't have any ideas of what to write about and no inspiration whatsoever. I was worried it would take me ALL night, but I had a thought and I just began to write. Before I share my finished product with you, I want to preface it by saying 2 things:
1. This poem in NO WAY whatsoever has anything to do with my real life. I honestly don't know how this idea came to me, but not from any experience in my own life.
2. I am not a writer. I wrote this fairly quickly, and as I said, I haven't ever written a poem just for me before, so it's somewhat scary to put it out there for the world to read.

Having said that, here goes:

WORDS

The words from your mouth race through the space between.
The death of a friendship I'd never foreseen.

The words from your mouth bring tears to my eyes.
So cruel, so hateful, so full of lies

The words from your mouth are knives in my back.
From so true a friend comes a vicious attack.

No more words from your mouth and as you turn away,
I see the knives in your back, from my words of yesterday.


Again, I don't know where this idea came from. I was just kind of intrigued by the idea that so many times we are unaware of how the things we say or do may hurt others. We are quick to blame and anger to those we love, but how many times are we at fault? Are we as quick to forgive as our loved ones may be? Are we impatient with others while they are patient with us? Anyway, It was actually quite fun to sit and write just for fun and expand on a random thought that came to me. All in all, a much better turn out than I expected when I decided I would write a poem.


***It's been a few days since I wrote the poem, but I realized where the idea came from. If you watched So You Think You Can Dance last season, you may remember a dance choreographed by Travis that Kent and Neal danced to. It was about two friends. One of them betrayed the other. In that dance, if I remember, one friend did betray the other and walked away. I was thinking about this piece and thought, what if the other friend was also at fault and was unaware? What if the betrayal was provoked? Anyway, that's what inspired my poem!

Day 3, 27 to go: Money, Money, Money

I have heard that money is one of the dirtiest, germiest, and all around disgusting things around. Have you ever wondered what happens to your money after you spend it???

So, today I did something super simple, but something I thought was kind of cool and wanted to do for a while. I entered all of the bills in my wallet on wheresgeorge.com (don't worry, there weren't that many!!!)
If you aren't familiar with this website, here's how it works. You enter in the serial number of your bill or bills, and then after you spend it, if someone else enters the bill online as well, you can track it to see where your money ends up. None of the bills in my wallet had been entered yet, but if someone else enters it, maybe I can see why money is so dirty!!!

Day 2: 28 to go. MUCHOS GRACIAS

So, today's new adventure is more educational than excitement, but new nonetheless.

I really enjoy learning other languages. I took four years of French in high school, between a few members of my family speaking Spanish and my students learning Spanish, plus sign time at school, I feel I have had somewhat of a well rounded exposure to foreign languages. I thought it would be fun to learn how to say thank you in 10 new languages. I already know French, Spanish, German, Japanese (thanks to Mr. Roboto) Hawaiian, American Sign Language, and Italian so here's a few more added to my list: I also added them phoneticaly in case you want to know how to say them yourself:

Arabic: shukran (shoe-krahn)
Finnish: kiitos (kee-toas)
Norweigian: takk (tahk)
Russian : (can't type it because it's different characters and my comp. won't let me copy and paste) but you say it: spah-see-boh
Swahili: asante (ah-sahn-teh)
Tagalog: salamat po (sah-lah-maht poh)
Polish: dziekuje (dsyen-koo-yeh
Swedish: tack (tahkk)
Hebrew: toda (toh-dah)

and my favorite:
Afrikaans: dankie (dahn-kee)

I hope you learned something new. I did today!