I don’t normally see very many Minis on my drive home from work. I’m thinking not a lot of people out where I live own them or something. So as I turned off the main road to head toward my house, I was pleasantly surprised to see a blue Mini up ahead (that wasn’t my neighbor).

I drew closer and prepared to wave. Right as I was about to raise my hand, a hand shot out of the open window of the other car. Do my eyes deceive me? I thought to myself. Could this Mini be waving first? In fact, it was!

So I know I said I’d consider it a success when someone else waved to me first. But…two days? Really? I’m thinking it was some sort of fluke, despite never being waved to first in this town before. Hmm.

Yes, this is still not a Europe recap. I’m sorry!

When I first bought my Mini Cooper back in 2007, I received a handbook instructing me how to act as a Mini owner, called the Unauthorized Owner’s Manual. The disclaimer in the front states, “This manual is not intended to help you understand the operation and maintenance of your motor vehicle. Rather, it is meant to provide you with invaluable information that would, under normal motoring conditions, take most MINI owners months to discover for themselves. Information has been painstakingly gleaned from many hours of vehicle operation.”

One of the first things this book tells you is that MINI owners do not obsess over the cleanliness of their cars. Which is something I’m good at doing, as washing my car really rarely crosses my mind. It states, “Maintain proper perspective. MINI owners do not irrationally obsess about such things. Bug guts on the grille and muddy fenders are signs of a healthy, well-motored life. Imagine it’s like tooling around town in an abstract painting.”

Continuing through, the book informs you how to make out properly in your car and tips on how to flirt at red lights.

But the real point of this post is on pages 26 and 28 of the manual. Page 26 states, “Dating back to MINI’s birth in the UK, there exists a time-honored tradition of owners greeting each other when they pass on the streets. The moment you first sat in your MINI, you became a member of the family. So, as is customary, try and refrain from acts of shyness, aloofness or woeful complacency. When you pass another MINI, say, ‘Hey.’” Page 28 has graphical representation of different waves you can do to other vehicles.

I was excited when I first read this. I like it when people wave to me. I dated an abundance of guys with Jeeps in 1999 and 2000, and they all taught me about the ‘Jeep wave’, so I was excited to have one of my own. And then I figured out: no one in this town follows the manual.

I was shy at first, so I was waiting for people to wave to me. But no one ever did. In the first year and a half of owning my car, literally the only other Mini owner who waved to me was my neighbor who lived three doors down and also had a Mini. I don’t know if this is because we both owns Minis or because we are neighbors. Maybe it’s both.

When I went to Europe, Mini Coopers were practically every third car, especially in Paris. I kept wanting to wave to them. Even the parked ones. But I would look like a fool, considering I was an American tourist walking around on foot. So I returned to the States with a new resolve to restart the Mini wave here in Nashville. Hence, Operation: MINI wave was born.

Except Minis are NOT every third car here. They are quite rare. And when I see them, they are on the wrong side of the road or in some other location that makes it impossible to wave to them. So I was a little disgruntled when I got back and could go for days without even seeing one of my own kind.

Until yesterday.

I performed my first successful wave yesterday to a guy in a white Mini on West End Ave. Rock on. (For the curious, we both partook in a Commoner Wave.) So Operation: MINI wave has officially begun. I will consider it a success when people start waving to me, without me waving first. I would also consider it a success if I get a certain local celebrity who drives a Mini to wave at me.

So, if you happen to be a local Mini driver, please do your part. Let’s be friendly car owners!

Okay, I promise a total recap of my Europe trip in the coming weeks. But, first, I wanted to talk about some revelations I had about life while I was gone.

Since Ben and I split, he has complained that I’ve changed. It hit me that it hasn’t been me that has changed, but my focus in life.

When we were together, I wanted what I thought I was supposed to want…which I’ve really wanted all my life; I won’t deny that. I wanted us to grow up, settle down, buy a house in the suburbs, get married, start a family, etc. I wanted stability. It was to the point that I had mapped out our entire lives in Quicken so I could figure out where we would be financially when we both retired, even after paying college tuition for our two children. Ben, on the other hand, was always more spontaneous than me. I planned. He did not. I wanted to be what I considered an adult. He did not. We did not have the same focus in life, and, thus, we were doomed to fail.

Since our split, I started thinking a lot. Is this really what I want? Or is this just what society is telling me I should want? I thought about things that I enjoy in life. I love being in the security of a relationship. I love to travel. I love the thought of being spontaneous, though I’m really not, which is why I usually tend toward spontaneous guys when I date. I started imagining the life I had previously wanted. My life revolving around my children. No freedom to do what I want anymore. All my money being slowly sapped away for 18+ years. It seemed bleak. I started looking at my house that I bought less than two years ago, and just really, really wanting to sell it and move somewhere random. Maybe I’m just associating it with bad/sad memories; I don’t know.

Part of the reason I started thinking about this stuff was due to two former Weddingbee bloggers writing about why they will or won’t have children. I had started trying to catch up on all the blogs I’d neglected to read during my downtime last month and came across these posts. Ellie (Mrs. Lovebug) wrote about her decision to be child-free. I’d link to it, but it seems she’s since made her blog private. In response, Sara (Mrs. Creampuff) wrote about how she used to not want children, but why she will probably have them. You can read her three-part post here, here, and here. I found that I agreed with all their reasons to not have children. This confused me for a bit. I’ve always wanted kids. Ask anyone that knows me. I was kind of obsessed with it. So, the fact that I was suddenly thinking that I didn’t really made me open my eyes a little (okay, a lot). That’s when I started thinking about the whole what I want vs. what society wants thing. I’ve had people point out that maybe I just think I don’t want them because I’m not currently in a relationship with anyone, and that once I meet the right person, I’ll desperately want to have his children. Maybe. Maybe not. I’m not going to say that I definitely never, ever want children; I’m just going to say that I’m leaning that way right now, as I know I am not currently financially, emotionally, or mentally prepared for such a difficult task that would change my life forever.

Anyway, so back to my actual point. The revelation that I may not want children really threw my life focus into some sort of whirlwind. I mean, that was the Ultimate Goal. I had to rethink everything. I mentally changed my focus to ‘fun’ while I gave it more thought, and that’s where I was for the majority of the month of May.

Then I went to Europe.

Paris was the first stop, and I absolutely fell in love. Head over heels. If someone offered me a job today and said, “But you’ll have to move to Paris,” I wouldn’t give it a second thought. I’ve always been fond of large cities. This is where I hit revelation #2: Living in the suburbs kind of sucks. If I were going to live in Paris, I’d want to live IN Paris. In some tiny apartment in the middle of everything. Large house in the suburbs is also apparently not something I really want anymore. Strange. Although, I guess if I don’t plan on filling it with children, there’s no real need. I also have an overwhelming desire to sell most of the crap in my house.

I decided that I needed to move somewhere with an awesome Metro system. Best. Thing. Ever. So, yes, I do think I will be moving at some point in the future. Probably out of state. Probably somewhere with a Metro system. And preferably somewhere on the coast. I mentally kicked myself for not pursing that job in San Francisco a few years back. I didn’t for several reasons, the main two was that I didn’t want to move far from Ben in case we got back together (we were on a break at the time) and that I was scared to death of moving by myself. I’m working on my fear of doing things alone. I went to a bar last night by myself for the first time ever. I survived. I actually had fun.

So two major things had been knocked out of my original life focus. What was I supposed to focus on now? I still want to get married, of course, as nothing is more important to me than love, and I can’t EVER see that changing. But the rest of it? Not what I want anymore.

I decided that my focus should be to live. Don’t overplan, as I have a tendency to do. It surprises a lot of people when I tell them I didn’t plan my Europe trip. Sure, I booked hotels and transportation. But that’s it. When we stepped off the plane in Paris, my mom asked how we were supposed to get to our hotel. I didn’t know. But I figured it out. And that’s all I’m trying to do now. One day at a time. Figure it out.

I’m in Europe, so I’ve scheduled this to post while I’m gone. The first list is getting there… Um, and I rearranged a bit. I removed “buy land for a house”, moved “build a snowman” to later, and added “go to Vegas”.

Before I’m 28, I will:
• watch “Citizen Kane”.
• read at least five books on my books to read list. (I think I need a new list. Or not keep myself to a list. I keep reading things that aren’t on the list.)
• get a passport.
• see a live musical. (I can cross this off in September.)
• make a new friend.
• buy (or acquire) a dSLR camera and learn how to use it.
• volunteer for something.
• watch a sunrise.
• take a class of some sort.
• travel to Europe.

Before I’m 29, I will:
• kiss under a waterfall.
• read at least ten books on my books to read list.
• hold a formal 4-course dinner party.
• do landscaping on the yard.
• hire a maid.
• go skydiving.
• learn to knit.
• go to Vegas.
• write to a congressperson about something that’s really important to me.
• travel to a beach I’ve never been to.

Before I’m 30, I will:
• get a promotion.
• read at least fifteen books on my books to read list.
• write a novel.
• pay my parents back.
• pay off all student loans and credit cards.
• put 10% of my paycheck into my 401k.
• build a snowman.
• stop thinking of 30 as old.
• see at least one of the following bands/artists in concert: Tool, Coldplay, Nine Inch Nails, Jack Johnson, or Daft Punk. (Stupid Coldplay is coming while I’ll be in Europe. Not to mention that the tickets are like $120 each.)
• travel to California.

I’m leaving for Paris in 2.5 hours! I’ll be back with hopefully lots of good blogging material in two weeks after Paris, Bellagio, Venice, and Florence!

Here’s a shot from my bon voyage get-together last night to tide you over before all the Europe photos come pouring in.

Each month, I want to list out five things in life that are small but never fail to brighten my day. It’s like at the beginning of “Amelie” when the narrator lists what the characters enjoy. I’ll start with what inspired me to write this post to begin with.

#1: Licking cake batter off the beaters after mixing a cake.
This is something I always enjoyed doing as a child (I think it’s the only way my mom could get me to help her bake…I’m not worth much in the kitchen). Yeah, sure, there’s a risk of salmonella from the eggs, but I eat raw cookie dough too and still haven’t died.

#2: Narrators in movies.
Speaking of “Amelie”, I have discovered that I really like it when a movie has a narrator doing voice-overs. I have no idea why. This occurred to me a couple days ago, when I was watching “Little Children”.

#3: The curve of ballerinas’ feet.
Every time I go to the ballet, I always watch the ballerinas’ feet when they are en pointe. I really like it when they have a good arch, haha. I’m so weird. I swear I don’t have a foot fetish.

Source: raek6g6 on Flickr

#4: Having exact change at Chick-fil-a.
I get a chicken sandwich and a brownie when I eat there for lunch. At the Chick-fil-a across the street from where I work, this comes to a total of $4.26. This means I need some one dollar bills, a quarter, and a penny. Today, I only had a twenty. Oh well. Can’t happen all the time.

#5: Receiving a card for no reason.
Okay, this hasn’t happened in quite some time, but I’ve always really liked it when it does. Cards are like flowers. They are better when they are given when they don’t have to be.

Thanks for all your concern about my last post! I’m doing better; it was just a rough day. We all have them from time to time.

The good news is that I have a vacation on the horizon! In a little over three weeks, I will be traveling to Europe for two weeks! I cannot be more excited. My mom will be accompanying me as we take a quick tour through Paris and Italy.

First, we will fly into Paris. Our hotel here is the Classics Hotel Bastille in the 11th arrondissement.

Things are a ton of things I want to see in Paris, so I hope we can fit most of them in. I definitely want to see the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, and the Louvre. I’d like to walk by the Moulin Rouge and take pictures (apparently the hotel is within walking distance, so that shouldn’t be an issue). The Science and Industry Museum sounds cool. Then, of course, things like the Notre Dame Cathedral, Sainte-Chapelle, Orsay Museum, the Pantheon, the catacombs, and Versailles would all be awesome to see. We will be staying there for three nights.

Late on our last day there, we will be catching an overnight train down to Milan. From Milan, we are traveling to Como, and from Como up to Bellagio, which is our next stop. I’ve read that Bellagio is rated one of the most beautiful cities in all of Europe, so I’m excited to see it! Our hotel here is the Hotel Bellagio, which is on the lake and not far from the gardens. I’m sure carrying our luggage up these steps will be fun.

We are spending two days on the lake before catching a train to Venice. In Venice, we are staying at the Comfort Hotel Diana, which is just off St. Mark’s Square.

After two days in Venice, we will be renting a car and attempting to navigate our way down to Florence! We will be keeping the car the entire time we are there, so we can explore Tuscany and take a day trip to Pisa. In Florence, we are staying at the Hotel River, which (obviously) is located on the river.

We have four nights here, so we’ll (hopefully) have plenty of time to drive around the countryside, as well as see all the sites in the city. After that, we’ll be flying back to boring ol’ Tennessee.

I can’t wait!

I thought some people may have been concerned with all my recent depressing Facebook statuses…

Soon after Ben and I officially parted ways back in February, I had a doctor’s appointment. It was mainly a general checkup (since I hadn’t been to a GP in, oh, 10 years), but also to get medication for my asthma that I’ve had for roughly 9 years and never did anything about. During this check-up, my blood pressure was taken three times. It was high every time. My doctor was, of course, concerned. I explained I was going through a rather traumatic breakup, and she said that could definitely do it. She scheduled another appointment for two months later so she could check up on how the medication was doing and whether my blood pressure was still high.

Cue April. My asthma medication wasn’t working, so she put me on Advair (which is working great, by the way). My blood pressure was again checked three different times. (Can I just say that I’ve almost started hating the blood pressure cuff thing as much as needles?) Again, it was really high. She told me to monitor it over the next few weeks (by checking it at drugstores) and to report back. I have yet to do this because I highly doubt that it’s gone down. I have another doctor’s appointment at the end of June, so I’m hoping to rectify it before then.

There are two reasons I think it’s so high, and I’m sure they are related: stress and lack of sleep. I haven’t slept for a full 8 hours since….December? I started having severe asthma problems around the end of December (hence, prompting me to schedule the February appointment) which interfered with my sleep, and my body just hasn’t corrected itself. This may be due, in my opinion, to stress. There are currently three major things stressing me out at the moment, two of them being work and Ben’s presence (no offense, Ben, but you know it’s true). I’m not going to get into the third, because it’s a really stupid thing to be stressing out over.

All this stress pretty much reached a climax over the past two days. I had a major argument with Ben over various random things yesterday, and then my work stress peaked at about 4pm today. What everything basically boiled down to is that I felt that no one was appreciating anything I did, no matter which part of my life it was. I’ve always thought of myself as a pretty selfless person, but, as I said a few weeks ago, I think I’ve turned into kind of a doormat. The problem is that I get frustrated being a doormat and all that frustration comes out at one time.

That day was today.

Being in a bad mood, for whatever reason, also causes me to have all sorts of other negative thoughts like how I’m scared I’m going to be alone for the rest of my life and that I’m never going to find love again and all this other emo crap that I don’t normally think about.

I tried, tried, tried to get out of the house to calm myself down, but no one was biting. I had already eaten dinner at Mellow Mushroom alone, and the last thing I really wanted to do was spend more time with my frustrated self. I wanted to just go sit somewhere other than my house and listen to someone else talk and maybe get a nice hug. That didn’t happen. In all my frustration, I stopped paying attention to important things like walking and fell down my stairs and hit my head. Ouchie. So now I’m frustrated and stressed out with a mild concussion (although the headache has gone considerably down) and still unable to sleep. It’s not been a good night.

I dug out my childhood teddy bear to comfort me, but I think I just depressed him.

Here is to tomorrow, with hopefully no stress (at least it’s Saturday and I won’t have to deal with work) and no concussions.

As most of you know, yesterday was the day I had spent over a year stressing out over and planning every meticulous detail about. Therefore, I was concerned that it was going to be a huge letdown to not have any of that happen and would be moping all day. Not because I think that we should still be getting married (I do realize that it’s for the best, and I am over the heartbreak for the most part), but because so much time, energy, money, and excitement was put into something that just wasn’t going to happen. Luckily, my best friend Sabrina had other plans for me.

She showed up Friday night, with a bouquet of tulips in hand.

Then we went and hung out at the Opryland Hotel. A local high school’s prom was apparently that night, so we ate dinner and commented on the prom dresses we saw and joked about going to put on fancy clothes and seeing if we could pass for high school students.

The next morning, we headed down to Franklin, where we had lunch at Logan’s. (By the way, their mesquite grilled chicken is really good.) She had told me before I had gotten ready to make sure my legs were shaved, and I discovered why next. She was taking me to a spa! I got a 30-minute Swedish massage, which was great and relaxing. Afterward, she took me out to Chili’s for molten chocolate cake.

It was a pretty great day.

Later that evening, I went out to the art crawl with Wayne and got lots of free (albeit, cheap) wine. I was pretty exhausted after all that, so I just came home and went to bed.

I’m thankful to have great friends to keep me distracted. And I will note that it would have been raining and we had no backup plan for the outdoor wedding, so I’m sure I would have been more stressed out if the wedding hadn’t been called off, haha.

It’s been such a crazy week that I can’t believe I haven’t written a post about this! My niece was born on Monday, April 27, at 5:42 pm. This makes me an aunt x 3! I went and took some photos of her tonight, but I hope to do a good photoshoot with her and her almost-2-year-old brother Alex after she comes home.

Yes, I promised this post to a few people, oh, a year and a half ago? Hmm. I may be a bit behind.

I had a few people curious about the transformation of my house. If you’ll recall, I ended up getting a house that was covered in Pepto-Bismol pink: pink carpet, pink wallpaper in the master bath and upstairs hall, mildly pink countertops. It was bad. So I spent the first month of my home-ownership painting and having pretty much every floor in the house redone.

I wish I had more photos of the house ‘before’. I have a video somewhere that has all the rooms, but I’ll have to dig that up at a later time and post it. I’m also lazy and didn’t take any good ‘after’ photos before I moved all my stuff in. And I’m not going to take any now because, well, I don’t feel like cleaning. But I have a few I took at my housewarming and various other events that I can show you to compare.

First up, the living room and dining room.

You can see the horrendous pink carpet that extended all the way into the dining room. That carpet covered every floor surface in the house, except for the kitchen, the bathrooms, and the laundry room. It got ripped up. All of it. It was replaced by a nice, neutral-colored frieze carpet, except for in the dining room and the upstairs bedrooms. My parents installed wood laminate in those rooms, as well as the kitchen.

Here’s a similar ‘after’ shot, if you ignore all the people playing Guitar Hero.

I also painted the wall that you can’t see in the ‘before’ shot red.

Now for the kitchen. You can’t see it well in this photo, but it had some very ugly pink and beige linoleum.

This was, of course, replaced with the same laminate we put in the dining room. I haven’t done anything about the countertops yet. I may at some point in the future, depending on how long I think I’ll actually be living here.

And I just realized how much crap the doors of my refrigerator have accumulated since I first moved in (when the above picture was taken). Hmm.

I have no ‘before’ shots of any of the bedrooms. (And I don’t think I have any ‘after’ shots of the upstairs bedrooms either.) But I do have an ‘after’ shot of the master bed when it was actually clean! Woohoo! The carpet was obviously replaced and I painted it gold.

The master bath was covered in pink wallpaper. It was removed (which took FOREVER) and painted gold. I’m not in the habit of taking pictures of my bathroom, so I have zero pictures of it, before or after.

The upstairs hall also was covered in pink wallpaper. It was removed and painted red.

And here’s a ‘before’ shot of the loft/office. The house came with these shelves installed in this former closet, so I just made use of them and turned it into the computer area. I don’t seem to have any ‘after’ shots. (And I complain that I have nothing to take pictures of…)

I’ll dig up the video at some point in the future so you can see the bad wallpaper.

And now for some rare insight into my inner psyche…

For the majority of my life, I have had to come to terms that I am pretty much the epitome of my astrological sun sign. My rising sign and moon sign are both Leo, which probably accounts for that I’m-an-introvert-who-wants-to-be-an-extrovert thing I have going on, but for the most part: I am Scorpio.

The majority of people I have come into contact with who know anything about Scorpios automatically are wary of me. Apparently, Scorpios have a bad rep.

I will preface this by saying there is at least one Scorpio trait that I do not think I have. Scorpios are supposed to be vengeful when they are wronged (that whole Scorpion’s tail thing). I may have been this way when I was a lot younger, but I definitely am not now. Unfortunately, I think I have actually turned into more of a doormat. I lost my stinger a long time ago.

So, I present to you things that I hate most about being a Scorpio:

First, Scorpios are secretive. True, I don’t like people knowing everything about me, especially upon first meeting me. I ask more questions than I answer. However, due to being so true to my sign, it’s pretty easy to determine my personality. All you have to do is google ‘Scorpio’. This irks me. (Yet, here I am, writing this post.)

Second, Scorpios are obsessive. Honestly, this is probably the thing I hate most. Why must I obsess over every little thing? I blow everything out of proportion, read into things way too much, and am completely distracted by my thoughts on one particular subject (whatever my current obsession is) 99% of the time. This can be a hobby, a song, a person, it’s not just limited to one thing. The flip side to this, and something I like, is that I’m passionate about things.

Scorpio is one of the Fixed signs. While this is usually a good thing and means that I finish things I start, the downside to this is I have a hard time letting go of things that I should have let go of a long time ago. It also means I’m really, really stubborn and refuse to take no for an answer (not a good combo with the obsessive quality I mentioned above).

Scorpio is one of the Water signs. This basically means that I’m emotional. Anyone who knows me, knows how emotional I am. It’s very annoying. While Scorpios can also be very analytical, they are pretty much entirely ruled by emotion. I was trying to describe to Ben one day the constant war that goes on between my logical side and my emotional side and how the emotional side of me almost always wins, despite my logical side usually having the more compelling argument. This is why I have to tell my friends to stop me if I ever try to do something that I said I wasn’t going to do. I may logically know that I shouldn’t do something, but my emotion gets in the way and overrides me sometimes. The plus side of being a Water sign is that I can be very empathic. Of course, this sometimes means that I cry when watching the news. (I seriously cried for like three days straight when James Kim’s body was found. And when that guy was beheaded on that Greyhound up in Canada.)

But, before you start to hate all Scorpios (as some people apparently do), I would also like to mention things I like:

Scorpios are very loyal. While this can be a bad thing (as I’ve been known to stay friends with people who aren’t the nicest to me), I think it’s usually a pretty good quality to have.

The aforementioned passion. Sure, I’ve gotten into many a heated argument with someone who disagreed with my opinion on something (or, even worse, when I know I had my facts right and the other person was just WRONG), but I think it’s good thing to have passion about things. And I am very passionate about pretty much everything: my friends, my family, my likes, my dislikes. “Passion” is Scorpio’s key word. To quote AstrologyZone, “One Scorpio once said to me that passion was the single most important ingredient in life, that is, to be passionate about one’s loved ones, one’s career, one’s lifestyle, for without passion, what kind of life would we have in the end? Well said!”

Scorpio’s intuition. I can usually tell if I’m going to get along with someone like a second after meeting them. I can read people really well, and when I can’t, I just get annoyed and move on (usually). There is one obvious downside to this. I can tell if I really like someone well before they feel the same way, so I have a tendency to come on strong and scare people off. Oh, well. Who wants to be around people who scare easily, anyway?

My eyes. Scorpios are well known for their eyes. I’m fairly certain the only people I can lose staring contests to are other Scorpios. Most people have problems with holding my gaze. I also have incredible control over my eyes and can pretty much choose for them to reflect any feeling I want. I’ve had other Scorpios tell me that people have always said stuff about their eyes, but never really understood what they were talking about until they met me. I have no idea where I originally found this, but: “Don’t even both trying to identify a Scorpio. If a Scorpion is attracted to you, they will search you out. Your first hint will be the pair of hypnotic eyes that scrutinize you from head to toe. The Scorpio will then decide whether you will be accepted or rejected. Flirting is useless with a Scorpio. Scorpion’s want and demand loyalty, devotion and true passion.”

Speaking of flirting….this is actually something I like about myself sometimes and sometimes I don’t. I hate flirting. I mean, it’s fun, sometimes. But it’s so completely pointless. Just get to the point. I hate mind games, like playing hard-to-get. Just say what you feel and mean it. I hate feeling pressured into having to play these stupid games when I’m dating. They just make me lose interest and think that someone is fake. If you’re going to make me guess if you like me or not, I’m just going to assume that you don’t and go away. You know, unless you happen to fall into a current obsession. And then I’ll just be stubborn and annoy you until you actually don’t like me. (Or, in some cases, fall in love with me. My personality quirks don’t always fail me.)

But, to sum up, this is me. You can love me or you can hate me. I’m not going to change.

About a month or so again, I was reading an article on CNN about miracle fruit. They are small berries that confuse your taste buds into thinking sour and bitter foods are sweet. This, of course, sounded awesome, so I purchased some miracle fruit tablets off of ThinkGeek.

For food items, we had lemons, limes, strawberries, and sharp cheddar cheese. For drink items, we had a variety of beers (stout beers were supposed to taste chocolatey, from what we had read) such as, Guinness draught, Guinness extra stout, Newcastle, Hefeweizen, and Rouge chocolate stout. We also had cabernet sauvignon, Sauza Gold tequila, cranberry juice, and grapefruit juice.

We all took one tablet each. ThinkGeek’s site said to take half a tablet, but the box said to take a whole one. We weren’t in any danger of running out of them, so we each took a whole one. The tablets weren’t terrible tasting, which was good, since they took a couple minutes to dissolve. Someone said they tasted like Fruit Roll-ups.

Jonathan’s was the first to dissolve, so he decided to try a lime. He said it tasted like it had been coated in sugar.

Kris was next and went for a lemon. He highly approved.

Here is our general summary of each item:
Lemons - Tasted like they had been coated in sugar. Ben thought the lemons were the items that changed the most, and Kris thought they had the most intense flavor.
Limes - Similar to the lemons, although most of us thought the lemons were better. The limes were Jason’s favorite item.
Strawberries - So sweet and a popular item. I said that they were the best strawberries I had ever had. Jason thought they were delicious, and they were Becka’s favorite item.
Sharp cheddar cheese - This was sitting off to the side, so I don’t think most people tried it. Wayne thought it tasted like sweet mozzarella.
Guinness draught - People were divided on this. No one really thought it tasted like chocolate at all. Kris really liked it (but admitted that he really likes Guinness normally). Jason thought the taste changed the least of all the items he tried.
Guinness extra stout - I don’t seem to have any notes for this one, but I’m assuming it was similar to the regular Guinness.
Newcastle - Both Ben and Wayne said this was their favorite of all the beers.
Hefeweizen - Everyone was pretty much in agreement that this was the item that had its taste least affected by the tablets, although Jonathan said it “tastes like coffee, sweet coffee.”
Rouge chocolate stout - This supposedly already had a chocolatey taste, although to us non-beer drinkers, it just tasted like beer normally. This was one of Kris’s favorite items, and Wayne liked it as well.
Cabernet sauvignon - This was interesting and divisive. I normally think most red wines are too bitter, and the tablets made the cab taste sweet. Which was weird. Because if you smelled the wine and then drank it, it didn’t make any sense. But it wasn’t bad, in my opinion. Ben really liked it, but Wayne hated how the sweet taste didn’t fit.
Sauza Gold tequila - I think very few people tried this (I know I was not one of them), but Jonathan did not like it at all.
Cranberry juice - One of the most popular items. It was SO GOOD. Probably my favorite item of the night. Jason said it tasted like fruity syrup.
Grapefruit juice - Kris thought this was the item that changed the most. He thought it tasted like pineapple juice. It was also one of Jonathan’s favorite items. However, it was Ben’s least favorite.

To anyone considering having their own taste tripping party, here are our tips:

• Try all the food items before you try the liquids. We thought the liquids washed our tongues off too much and dulled the effect.
• Lemons, limes, strawberries, and cranberry juice were our must-have items.
• If you don’t like beer normally, the tablets will not make you like it. It still tastes like beer.

Also, make sure you have Tums on hand because of all the acidity in the things you’ll be consuming. (On a side note, we thought Tums tasted like Smarties…)

I think the effect lasted for about 15-20 minutes for most of us.

Okay, I am generally a nice person. I’m one of those people who, if someone cuts me off while driving, thinks of all the possible things that could be going on in their life to excuse their terrible driving etiquette. But if there was one place where I just really wanted to make fun of people, it would be online dating sites.

I will preface this by saying I have been a member of said site since 2004, mainly because they have lots of fun quizzes to pass the time when I’m bored. I’ve also met a number of very awesome, close friends on this site, like Jason (who is coming to visit this weekend, woohoo!), Chance, and Andy. So they aren’t all losers. (Except you, Chance. )

Anywho, being on there mostly for the quizzes, I have clearly stated in my profile that I don’t want to be hit on. Not that I don’t welcome the occasional flirt, but I used to get a ton of mail on the site that was just like, “I want you,” or some nonsense (actually, to be more accurate, “i want u”). So I do that to weed out most of the people. It was even creepier when I had my relationship status set to “seeing someone” and still got those emails. Needless to say, it is marked on my profile that I “reply very selectively”. In other words, I rarely write anyone back. And today, I’m showing you why.

These are all actual messages that I’ve gotten in the past two weeks.

Thanks, person who writes like he is texting.

I suppose this one isn’t all that bad, despite lack of capitalization. But, still. If you don’t ask me a question, I’m not really sure how to respond. This isn’t a job interview. “Tell me about yourself” will only get silence from me.

I am still wondering if this was an insult or not.

This one….I mean, did this guy expect me to respond to this? I’ve been on the site for five years, and it was to mainly take quizzes. That hardly qualifies me for being OCD.

This guy apparently did not get the “do not hit on me” memo.

This one either. And note to all the guys out there: if you can’t even proofread a super short message like this and realize that “geeky” does not have two gs in it, then I probably am not going to respond. I’m even less inclined when you use a ton of question marks and exclamation points.

I would have paid to see my face after reading this one. I mean, huh? Are these song lyrics, or is this guy just deranged?

I will say that my “very selective”-ness does not just come from avoiding strange messages. I will also admit that I am guilty of not responding to people if they list certain things in their profile. Like, if their favorite band is Nickelback (okay, if they list Nickelback at all). Or they watch only reality TV. Or if I don’t like 90% of the movies they list. Or if I’m just not in a mood to talk to people. And, yes, I judge people based on grammar.

“That’s silly,” you say. “You’re blogging right now.” True. But I guess I really don’t have much to blog about these days (you know, besides creepy photos of Easter Bunnies).

When I was blogging for Weddingbee, it all came so easy. I had tons of topics to cover, and it was awesome to have an outlet for my writing with lots of readers to give me feedback. Don’t get me wrong, I love my readers over here (all 5 of you!) but anyone who has ever blogged knows how exciting it is when that comment number keeps growing. It would probably help if I actually ever commented on anyone else’s blog because then people are more likely to come read my blog, but 80% of my Google Reader is comprised of wedding blogs, and I still haven’t really been in the mood to read them. Although I do still keep up with some of the ones that I’ve been following towards the beginning. (Like yours, Ruby Slippers! Sorry I never comment! I’ve been enjoying your recaps and reading about you delving into the world of digital photography.) The remaining 20% are humour blogs (like Fail Blog, Photoshop Disasters, and Picture is Unrelated), local stuff (so I can figure out if there’s anything going on to get me out of the house on the weekend), and general decorating/party planning blogs (which I rarely read anymore either).

But lack of readers aside, I really don’t have all that much to talk about. So, the point of this post (I’m getting to it, I promise): Does anyone have anything they want to read about? I’m looking for any and all ideas, so don’t be shy. It could be something along the lines of irrational fears (one of my few non-wedding related posts over at Weddingbee) or what I think about certain topics or lists of favorite things. Or maybe you want me to go take some cool photos somewhere with my Digital Rebel and post them. Just drop me some ideas! I need to get back in the habit of writing, so I can get motivated to start my novel.

Sorry for my slightly emo post.

I can’t sleep (perhaps I’ve been thinking about this post too much), so I decided to go ahead and write my Easter post for the year (I say that like it’s an annual thing)…

As a child, I never really liked getting my picture taken with people in costumes. (Which I suppose is ironic, seeing as now I make costumes to wear and have my photo taken with people…) I sometimes wonder if this is because of a traumatic Easter Bunny experience that I don’t remember. I don’t have any photos of myself with said bunny (and I don’t recall ever seeing one, so I’m not sure any exist), but here is proof of the creepiness of the Easter Bunny.

Source: Listicles

Source: eBaum’s World

Source: Listicles

Source: eBaum’s World

Source: eBaum’s World

Source: rubink1 on Flickr

Source: cathyschoffstall on Flickr

And perhaps the creepiest of all bunnies….

Source: Listicles
Okay, I’ve always thought that one was Photoshopped because it clearly looks like Santa Claus other than the creepy face.

Anyone out there have a traumatic bunny experience?

One more thing off the list…

Before I’m 28, I will:
• watch “Citizen Kane”.
• read at least five books on my books to read list. (Still have not gotten my butt to the library.)
• get a passport. (In progress. Mother, please have my birth certificate ready for me when I come home next weekend. I have a feeling I’m going to have to expedite the thing.)
• see a live musical. (Yay, I have “Wicked” tickets!)
• make a new friend.
• buy (or acquire) a dSLR camera and learn how to use it.
• volunteer for something. (I’ve got the applications. I just need stamps to mail them.)
• watch a sunrise.
• take a class of some sort.
• travel to Europe. (Hopefully in June.)

Before I’m 29, I will:
• kiss under a waterfall.
• read at least ten books on my books to read list.
• hold a formal 4-course dinner party.
• do landscaping on the yard.
• hire a maid.
• go skydiving.
• learn to knit.
• build a snowman.
• write to a congressperson about something that’s really important to me.
• travel to a beach I’ve never been to.

Before I’m 30, I will:
• get a promotion.
• read at least fifteen books on my books to read list.
• write a novel.
• pay my parents back.
• pay off all student loans and credit cards.
• put 10% of my paycheck into my 401k.
• buy land to build a house.
• stop thinking of 30 as old.
• see at least one of the following bands/artists in concert: Tool, Coldplay, Nine Inch Nails, Jack Johnson, or Daft Punk. (Stupid Coldplay is coming while I’ll be in Europe. Not to mention that the tickets are like $120 each.)
• travel to California.

Back in 2004, I made top 10 lists of my favorite movies. Clearly, I have seen quite a few movies in the past five years, so I thought I’d update the lists to see how everything has moved around.

Movies I might put on the list, but I’ve only seen them one time: Juno, Once, Beauty and the Beast, Gone with the Wind, The Notebook, and Interstella 5555. (Hint: This means I wouldn’t mind having them on DVD.)

You can see that comedies and animated films didn’t change alot, but the dramas did. Probably because I watch way more of them.

*Clearly, this has disrupted my car naming, since Ariel was my first car and Lilo was my second. I guess I’m going to have to name my next one EVE instead of Aurora.

I haven’t actually come up with a new design yet, but I’m reorganizing the site right now. You may have noticed that the blog is now the first thing you come to if you go to www.sweetvenus.org. The photo gallery has also been updated and is drawing directly from Facebook. This also means that all the photo galleries that were here before may not all be on the site now. This is for privacy purposes. Basically, the photos on this site are the ones that are visible to non-friends on Facebook. All other galleries are friends only and only viewable via Facebook. Make sense?

Because I’m reorganizing the photo gallery, some photos on the blog may not appear, especially those on posts before 2006, since that’s about as far as I’ve gotten on replacing them with the new URLs.

I’ll also be adding the calendar back in, but in a nicer more calendar-y format.

I need to update my Wordpress version (I’m still using version 2.0.4 here…). Then I have some plans to try to integrate my Facebook account with the website. You may have noticed that the photos and videos links take you over to Facebook now, since I’ve pretty much uploaded everything over there. However, I’m going to integrate everything better so that it looks more seamless. Or at least try to. We’ll see how that goes. I know there’s at least a Wordpress plugin for Facebook photos.

I may or may not merge the old wedding blog’s posts in with these. I haven’t quite decided. But if you’ve tried to get to jessicaandben.com (or you subscribed to the RSS feed over there), you may have noticed it’s now pointing here.

I hope to be done with all of this in a month or so. We’ll see how motivated I am.