Day 240: Making it Rain

Doo do doo...how to approach this post.

To the uninitiated, there's a pop culture tradition(?)/action/demonstration of wealth/*thing* where young rich celebrity men throw money in the air in the VIP at clubs. It's called, "making it rain." They can either hold a stack of money and brush one off the top until a stack is gone, or they can just throw the whole stack in the air all at once.

Why? Who knows. When you're wealthy, be crazy, right? [FACETIOUS]

On Day 240, I made it rain. Now, I did this at 7:30 in the morning after waking up in the farthest thing from a club (my bedroom) after noticing that Mark had a whole bunch of singles hanging around. I would have been a much cooler person had I done this in a club with Benjamins, but let's be honest--that's not my scene and I'm not willing to pay the $20 cover for the privilege of throwing away my cash.

But my version was plenty fun anyway :)

Day 239: Hawking

On Day 239, I went to my very first Hawks game, which just so happened to be the most important game in recent Hawks-hood. They hadn't been to the Eastern finals in 30 years, and if they had beat the Bulls in this game, they would have gone to game 7.

And, if it wasn't painfully obvious, I don't know exactly what all this means, but Mark was super stoked about the game, and I was stoked to do New Things.

Win-win.

Which is ironic since the Hawks lost. Bad. They started out bad and ended bad.

I did, however, get an awesome t-shirt.

As for the experience, it was pretty good! I mean, I like basketball. They score a lot and fouls are pretty obvious. There's a lot to be excited about. Other sports like hockey and soccer and even football can be hard for me to follow because scoring and fouling aren't always obvious. I'm a girl. Cut me some slack.

I guess the best parts of the game were the more tangible things. Mark and I had good seats. I was on the jumbo-tron within the first 15 minutes of the game. I had delicious cold Sweetwater beer and a hot date. I also got those cool wavy white balloons with which to distract free-throwers. All of that made the game awesome. Even if the Hawks lost.

Day 238: The iPhone Strikes Back

You're going to think I'm the most spoiled person ever. I'm prepared. *deep breath*

On Day 238, I got my first cell phone bill.

Thanks to my 2-year anniversary iPhone gift, I am now the proud owner of a cell phone bill as well.

This is officially the last thing my parents were paying for on my behalf (look, I'm not proud of it, but I certainly wasn't stopping it either), and definitely another baptism into the real world, complete with a data package that keeps me connected and entertained 24/7. Worth it? I'm not sure yet. I'm certainly resistant, but also acknowledging that it's AWESOME.

Day 237: Environmentally Friendly

I've been trying really hard to commit to re-usable grocery bags for a long time. I've had them in my apartment and my car, but I've often forgotten to get them out and use them up until I walk up to the check-out counter. Sporadically, I'd pull them out, but I was never super consistent with it.

Now, I try to use these things because I notice how unbelievably wasteful plastic bags are. You use them once, crumple them up and throw them out. OR, you use them and then fill up some lower cabinet in your kitchen waiting to find a reason to use 3,000 bags again. It kind of bothers me.

My family has always had this motto of "waste not, want not" and I take it to heart for a lot of things in my life; food, material things, time, etc. It only seems natural not to waste waste too.

Plus, it's plastic. And knowing that plastic will never degrade in my lifetime also makes me feel bad about the plastic waste I produce...that my children and grandchildren will have to live with for their lifetimes too. Sure, most plastic waste is unavoidable (every freaking car on the planet is plastic), but grocery bags are a plastic that I don't have to waste.

So I'm committed (read: enslaved) to reusable grocery bags. And they hold so much stuff!!

*Steps down from soapbox*

Day 236: Itchy Scratchy

So it's hard to follow up a "NEVER IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD" kind of post, so this one will go slightly unnoticed. Day 236 brought an incident where Mark scratched my foot with his foot. This has probably been done before. I know there are people with no arms who drive cars and paint pictures and stuff, using only their feet, so this little thing is a little less impressive. No less new though!!

Day 235: NEVER BEFORE IN HISTORY

On Day 235, I did something that I imagine has never been done before in history ever.

Can you identify what this is? If you can, you'll be the first person in the world to identify this thing that has probably never been done before. CHOCOLATE IS THE REWARD!

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Many congrats to Sunshine for guessing what this is. I made a green bean UFO! See, I accidentally left them in the microwave, and, not knowing when I'd eat them again, I stuck the bowl in the freezer.

This is what it looked like BEFORE I turned it over. AFTER I turned it over, I realized that I was maybe the first person in the world to have ever made a green bean UFO. And that makes me proud.

Day 234: Baby Birthdays

This is one of those New Things where I should have taken a picture. Day 234 was Mark's nephews 1st birthday, and, aside from my own 22 years go, it was the first time I ever attended a baby's birthday party. C'mon, don't play technicalities with me here.


And boy am I jealous of this kid. He had about 50 friends and family of all ages come celebrate his birthday, with cookout-style food, booze, a cake all for him and a bouncy castle. I mean, can I just transport that experience for my 24th birthday coming up??

Day 233: Psycho Analytics

Ever since starting this blogging project, my number one concern in the world is Google Analytics. I base my entire self-worth on the number of people who visit my blog. I know. So lame. 

Then it got worse as I got another website, my dear Atlanta Yoga Scene, where I obsess over more than Google Analytics (which measures the number of people coming to my blog, how they got there, whether they're retuning or new visitors, top content, etc.) but also Facebook stats, newsletter stats, survey stats etc. It's pathetic. I can literally spend 8 hours looking over the same four web analytics programs just salivating at the moment someone new opens, visits, likes my projects.

It's lame, it's unhealthy...and it's the biggest time suck in my day. Period.

So on Day 233, I unplugged from analytics and put myself on a "DO NOT CHECK THIS EXCEPT ONCE A WEEK ON TUESDAY" schedule. It's tough, and I have slipped up a little (let's be honest, this isn't real-time) but I'm doing infinitely better, and not wasting my life away worrying about who visits my sites.

Day 232: Headstand PIKE!

So apparently google deleted my post where I did this awesome headstand pike, and because it's that important to me, I'm posting it again. Booyah.

Day ???: I'm avoiding this blog like the plague

My innovation and inspiration has gone sorely down the toilet.


Blogging will resume soon.

Maybe.

Day 231: Cleaning my Plate

Mark made a delicious, unbelievably good roast the other day. It was a mushroom and leek soup recipe that really sucked, so he added a big ol' piece of beef to it, which, when simmered for a few hours, made a delicious meal that we ate about 5 times in a week. What was also funny about this was that I just *knew* Mago would love to eat some of this, and after giving him a taste on Day 231 at the table, he became the perfect little gentleman, awaiting more.

I, of course, indulged him because it was SO cute, and after I finished dinner, I let my dog lick my plate. It was adorable. He's better than our dishwasher.

As a side note, I am aware of the mundane-ness of these New Things as of late. I'm thinking I should have waited to either do the whole Atlanta Yoga Scene thing later, or do this blog later, but it is hard "doing" for both. I still feel like I need to justify it, as if anyone else could really manage a full time job, adventurous blog and future yoga phenomenon any better/worse than I've done. I'm hoping, maybe sometime later in the year or in the next couple of years, that I could really give this all the gusto it deserves.

Such is life.

Day 230: OFF THE COUCH

You remember how I told you that in our Mark-Leah-puppy family that Mark does everything? Well you should also know that Mago is smarter than both me and Mark combined. So on Day 230, when Mark decided that we should no longer let Mago hang out on our couch and I taught him the "Off The Couch" command, he learned very quickly that to get a treat for getting OFF the couch, meant you had to get ON the couch.

Duh.

15 treats later, we decided there was no use...and Mago is allowed on the couch again.

Day 229: Osama bin Laden is Dead

On Day 229, Mark woke me up saying "So apparently the U.S. just killed Osama bin Laden." Ho-lee, mo-lee. That's a first...and a last.

My first reaction was just kind of "wow." What to say? I mean, his death doesn't mean all that much, really. It's largely symbolic, seeing as how al-Qaeda can certainly function without their fearless leader. It was set up to do just that. He was the mastermind behind rallying the terrorist 'troops' to action, sure, but the hierarchy of leaders and cells and even financing are still largely a mystery. It's most likely organized chaos.

Killing a symbol in this case is probably even worse than killing a real leader, because these unorganized groups of people don't need his marching orders to carry out future terrorist attacks in the name of revenge. It's like killing the Queen of England in a way. She doesn't DO hardly anything, but it's an attack on a sacred symbol and institution that people will respond to.

I also haven't decided how I feel about the US having killed him. There are people on both sides of the argument, and their points are valid according to their worldview--"all killing is bad" and "he caused the most horrendous act our country has seen in modern history so he deserves the ultimate punishment."

I guess I look at differently. The benefits I see on keeping him alive include intelligence that we could have gathered...but that's about where it ends.

I think that killing anyone is a horrendous thing to do, however, why hold him captive and waste more money and effort on keeping him alive? He's already cost our country trillions of dollars and thousands of lives. Why risk him getting out of whatever institution we would otherwise put him in? I've heard of people in maximum security prisons still managing to get drugs smuggled in to them...who knows what kind of communique he might still manage to convey.

Again, I'm conflicted. I certainly won't rally in the streets about his death (it's a really unique sight to see our country do that!), but I don't know if capturing him without killing him would've been any more effective or impactful.

At the end of the day, this news means surprisingly little. We'll probably still be hunting terrorists in the middle east for the rest of my life (and probably the lives of my children, too), and we'll never, ever, ever "conquer terrorism." So long as one terrorist lives, be they from the hundreds of terrorist groups like al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, the Taliban, the Irish Republican Army, the USDF of Colombia or what have you we've failed that mission..and always will.

Should we keep fighting? That's another question with ideological answers based on your experience and worldview--a post for a different day and a different blog.

But day 226 brought this very, very, very interesting piece of news.

Day 228: Whistle while you work...

My mother has the most beautiful whistle. She can whistle just about any song with the greatest of ease and make it sound completely tune-ful and harmonious. It's amazing. Somehow, I didn't get much of any trait from my mother, least of which is whistling. I can't whistle at all. My one pathetic note sounds shallow, tinny, and completely un-respectable. It's sad. And I've been trying for YEARS at this.

I remember in first grade, my friend Elizabeth and I had a pact that I would teach her how to blow a bubble if she would teach me how to whistle. I taught her how to blow a bubble and she NEVER taught me how to whistle. I've been in a rut ever since.

So I made it one of my missions to whistle a tune for the blog, and Day 228 (after numerous practice days before it) was supposed to be the day. For my tune, I selected Frere Jaques, because I thought the ease of the song would play in my favor. Fewer notes, less complicated refrain, simple note transitions--should've been a piece of cake...but the day has come and gone, and all I have is a very irritated dog. I debated putting up a video, but it would be a pretty pathetic show, and I would rather you see me drain water through my nose than whistle pathetically.

Day 227: Herb

One of my original "New Things I want to do" was to plant an herb garden, not kill it, and eat the herbs in real food. It's one small step towards farming my own food one day, so that when peak oil strikes and no one can get around and lettuce costs $20 a head, I am prepared with my own stock.

Well, I didn't exactly plant my own herb garden, but Mark and I bought an herb garden (from the Sandy Springs Farmer's market, no less) with 5 herbs in it--cilantro, parsley, rosemary, thyme, oregano and basil. On Day 227, I picked basil and used it in a a caprese salad, meaning I picked and ate my own herbs!