Day 21: Gleeking Out

You should probably sit down when I tell you this: today I watched Glee for the first time. This is honest-to-Grilled Cheesus my first venture into the award-winning, cult-pop show...and I loved it. Okay, I loved it with conditions. For the record, this was the episode where Kurt's farther suffers a heart attack and Corey(?) finds an image of Jesus in his grilled cheese (calling it "Grilled Cheesus"), and the Glee club confronts religion.

Clearly, I chose the most emotional episode with the heaviest storyline and theme.

I laughed, I cried, I followed the stories without having ever seen the show before, and I thought they treated the religious theme with a lot of balance and respect. The characters were thoroughly lovable, Kurt and Sue delivered some serious acting cred that brought me to tears, Mercedes singing gave me chills and Corey made me laugh. 

It's plain to see that Glee has a great thing going, but I was super distracted by the lip-synching and slightly distracted by the cheesy-factor. If Mercedes can lip-synch as well as she does, the others need to take some cues. I know, the cheesy-factor is probably planned, but if they toned it down, I'd keep coming back for more. Well, I'll probably watch another one just to check out a happier episode.

I'm going to end up being a Gleek aren't I?

Day 20: Taking My Magazines Seriously

While purchasing magazines for the troops, I came across the newest edition of ELLE, with Lauren Conrad on the cover. I'm a sucker for both, and I figured that my altruistic "something new" for day 18 warranted an indulgence for myself, so I plopped that fashion mag in my basket. Hey, no one is perfect.

Luckily, my friend Katie's soon-to-be husband, Rian, offered up a great idea for how to challenge myself with my new treat--by reading it cover-to-cover. No skipping ahead to the article I want to read most, making sure to read every word from, even the articles I'm less-than-interested in. So, for Day 20, I read ELLE like a book.

This is a totally unnatural way to read a magazine. Seriously. It was w-a-a-a-y harder than I anticipated. My immediate reaction when picking up a fashion magazine is to skip straight to the pictures and photography, then bumble around the feature articles, stopping when I lose interest, and later getting back to the short articles in the front on fashion trends that I will never be able to afford or wear.

While reading, my attention span waned, my mind got weary, I felt like I was reading articles about things I could hardly relate to and probably never remember after I turned the page. Reading a magazine cover-to-cover is a surefire way to make your brain as exhausted as reading a textbook. And do you know how many captions there are in a fashion magazine??? Too many for reading it like a book. I made it about halfway through before tuckering out before bed. Didn't get to the big editorial pieces or the pictures. Sigh.

Overall, a cool challenge. Would I do it again? Likely, no. If I could barely keep my mind attuned to frivolity, I would assuredly fail at trying this with Time or National Geographic. Again, no one is perfect.

Day 19: Troop Lovin'

In the spirit of giving money to the firefighters, I’ve been thinking about a little something I can do for other people who keep up safe. Over the past few days, I’ve been doing research on which organizations are best and most reputable for sending care packages and letters to the troops overseas, as well as what kinds of items troops need. I found one, “US Troop Care Package” that had a variety of programs and options for donations large and small, from simple letters to combat gear. 

After selecting the organization I wanted to work with, I researched the kinds of things that the troops were looking for, discovering that no matter where I looked, military men and women wanted reminders of home and entertainment for downtime. After looking at my budget and what I could do, I decided to send the troops magazines and a letter expressing my thanks for their sacrifices. 

Remembering when I taught at summer camp and how much I got excited when my camper’s parents would send us magazines, I’m hoping they will enjoy the gift as much as I did--a silly example, but it’s the best I’ve got right now in my life.

I picked up some Men’s and Women’s Health magazines, Sports Illustrated, Newsweek and the like. And a Hooters magazine, since Mark suggested that any magazines about scantily-clad (“delightfully tacky!!”) women would go over well. I’m no dummy. If it makes it overseas, the men in uniform will like it. As for the ladies, please accept the Women’s Health with Carrie Underwood on the cover.

Day 18: Reflex-ions

Today, during a massage at G Salon & Spa, I had one of the most unique and new-agey experiences to date. Since the massage was scheduled for just thirty minutes, the masseuse said that she wouldn’t be able to do a whole body massage and that I could choose an area and she would focus on that. I told her that she could do the massage that she was best at. She replied with “have you ever tried reflexology?” Keeping in the spirit of trying new things, I told her that no, I had never done it but would love to try. Thus, my new thing for New Thing Day 17 was that I tried reflexology.

Reflexology is an Eastern therapeutic tradition that says that certain parts of the head, hands and feet correspond to different places on your body. By stimulating those areas you stimulate the part of the body it corresponds to. Likewise, by identifying knots in these areas and by massaging them, you can get rid of those stresses in the body. Sounds ludicrous, I know, but this woman was like a freaking palm reader of where my tensions were and how to get rid of them. 

I didn’t tell her anything about my tensions before she launched into the massage. She found knots on either side of my pinkie toe that correspond with tensions in the shoulders—If you’ve ever seen me hunched up and typing, you know that I store all of my tension in my shoulders. Then she found another knot towards the middle of my foot that she said corresponded with my bladder—I had to potty for probably thirty minutes before the massage and I was definitely bothered by it. She also started rubbing my arches simultaneously and I felt tingly in my back. She said, “this will be the best back massage you ever get!” So true. So freaky. So wonderful.

You, reader, need to experience this. I’d like other people to say “oh yeah! I’ve had that too, it was crazy!” to make me feel less crazy about talking about how this non-scientifically proven, Eastern “medicine,” stuff works.

Car Dancing Party / Pump, pump, pump it up

This is a first! A blogging two-fer. Now three-fer!

Today was an uncommonly beautiful day outside in Atlanta, so everyone in traffic had their windows down and radios up, myself included. When stopped at a red light on my route, I happened to be car dancing and noticed that the ladies in the car next to me were car dancing too. The driver-side lady pointed at me and smiled, and I pointed back. Party time. As if it were a sign from God that we should be dancing together, it just so happened that 'DJ Got Us Fallin' In Love' by Usher was playing through both of our radios, and, (I know you would have too) I car danced with the people in the car next to me.

 --------------------------------------------------------------

A couple days ago I noticed that my "check tires" light was on in my car. Now, I'm all about keeping this new (ish) car in good shape, because apparently I wasn't very good at that with my last car--being that it died before 100,000 miles and I had cupped tires from never (read: not even once in seven years of ownership) checking the tire pressure. You could probably say I'm as hyper-vigilant over this new car as I would be if it were my firstborn child.

Realistically, however, I can't afford to just take this thing to the dealership whenever there's a problem. I'm less than a year into my real-world big girl job, and believe myself capable enough to learn how to change oil and address tire pressure problems. So, today's something new was that I put air into my tires all by myself. Quik Trip has free air (as it should be, in my opinion) and eHow is surprisingly useful. Blog fodder? Likely, no. Awesome independent girl, take-care-of-myself accomplishment? Absolutely.

Awkward but useful