Welcome to the world, Carly Ann Winn!

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.

A long time coming…

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.

My name is Jessica, and I’m a Scorpio.

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.

Taste Tripping Party

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.

And now it’s time to make fun of people.

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.

I miss blogging.

“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.

Why is the Easter Bunny so creepy?

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?

30 Before 30 Update!

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.