Thursday, January 31, 2013
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
100 in 100
"Just try it." Wife
"Nah..."Me
"Come one, just once." Wife
"That's okay, just tell me what it's like." Me
"I don't see why you won't just try it once." Wife
"No thanks, I don't like that."
"How do you know if you've never tried it?"
"Because I can see it."
"You're such a chicken."
That's the conversation I've sat through almost my entire life. Replace wife with, brother, friend, mom etc. and that's my life. I like what I like and I'm really not that interested in things that people think I'll like or what they want me to try. It can be a new food, vitamins, new music, new movies, books, jumping off a cliff in Lake Powell, snowboarding instead of skiing, you name it I unjustifiable hate it. I dislike it so much that if I do ever decide to try it out, after consistent prodding, my brain has already preconditioned my preferences to confirm my dislike.
I have, since I was small, used my personal holidays as a sort of New Year's Resolution time. If my birthday was coming up I would make a list of things I wanted to do better or change about myself in the coming year. I missed my birthday this year, I made a mental list in my head around my birthday, but broke those resolutions 5 days in. I also missed my chance to change as a better husband on my 2 year anniversary. I'm making my new New Year's Resolution today. Maybe because today is no holiday my resolution will last longer. Not as much pressure.
My resolution for the 2nd of June 2009 is to try 1 new thing everyday for 100 days. I will keep track of my redesigned lifestyle right here for all to see; succeed or fail. Wish me luck. Also if you have something you think I might like or you would like me to try feel free to comment!
"Nah..."Me
"Come one, just once." Wife
"That's okay, just tell me what it's like." Me
"I don't see why you won't just try it once." Wife
"No thanks, I don't like that."
"How do you know if you've never tried it?"
"Because I can see it."
"You're such a chicken."
That's the conversation I've sat through almost my entire life. Replace wife with, brother, friend, mom etc. and that's my life. I like what I like and I'm really not that interested in things that people think I'll like or what they want me to try. It can be a new food, vitamins, new music, new movies, books, jumping off a cliff in Lake Powell, snowboarding instead of skiing, you name it I unjustifiable hate it. I dislike it so much that if I do ever decide to try it out, after consistent prodding, my brain has already preconditioned my preferences to confirm my dislike.
I have, since I was small, used my personal holidays as a sort of New Year's Resolution time. If my birthday was coming up I would make a list of things I wanted to do better or change about myself in the coming year. I missed my birthday this year, I made a mental list in my head around my birthday, but broke those resolutions 5 days in. I also missed my chance to change as a better husband on my 2 year anniversary. I'm making my new New Year's Resolution today. Maybe because today is no holiday my resolution will last longer. Not as much pressure.
My resolution for the 2nd of June 2009 is to try 1 new thing everyday for 100 days. I will keep track of my redesigned lifestyle right here for all to see; succeed or fail. Wish me luck. Also if you have something you think I might like or you would like me to try feel free to comment!
Sunday, December 14, 2008
D.C. day three.
So day three on my own in DC.
I woke up to Heather knocking on the door and cursing her stupid hotel key for not working again, stupid hotel keys. We went to breakfast/lunch at a little place called Cosi. It was very very good. I had a flat-bread sandwich with some chicken, some sliced tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and fresh basil, mmmmm. Heather went back to work and I did a quick google search to find the exact intersection to tell the taxi driver to take me to.
I hopped in the cab, "Could you take me to the National Art Museum on the corner of G street and 9th?" he responded with something that sounded affirmative. He drove for a lot longer than it looked like it should have taken on google earth and I was just about to say something to him when I saw G street and relaxed a little.
The National Art Museum was huge and it took me all day to go through it. I really liked the old Abraham Lincoln artifacts, they had a huge assortment of Civil War era paintings including a really old painting of Joseph Smith with an interesting blurb about the Mormons rapidly growing and evicting residents from their homes. Weird. Other items I really liked was the photography and portraiture exhibits and the marble sculptures. There was one such sculpture whose robe was sculpted so well I literally had to touch it to see if it was cloth or marble.
There was also a very weird exhibit. I'll try to explain in words as best I can. Imagine a room the size of a 2 car garage tall enough for a camping trailer. On one wall of this room were 16" TV's floor to ceiling; maybe about 10 TV's tall and 40 TV's wide. 2/3rds of these TV's were playing nonsense, no discernible reason to what it was showing, just video clips of very random things. Like men skiing, dancing people, cows, fences, roller skate wheels, bugs. then the other third of the TV's were all playing the same thing, which was also a bunch of randomness, save for the center TV which was playing........well porn.
Well I guess it wasn't full on porn, but it was just a bunch of different clips of naked women laying on a couch doing weird things. One would kiss a woden totem-pole statue; Then one would hug a clear glass sculpture. One would try to make a cat lay next to her on the psychiatrist style leather couch, then another would push her boobs together and make a pouty face. Oh but it's okay it's art right? It was supposed to represent our plugged in world that's out of touch with reality. It was just nonsense and weirdness if you ask me. The little TV in the middle on the right up in that picture was the naughty one.
I took the Metro back to the hotel and waited for Heather to come back so we could go to her work dinner with her co-workers.
Bad idea. The dinner was at a Moroccan restaurant whose name I don't recall and it was gross. Heather wanted me to try some new foods, but this was so disgusting. Oh it can't be that bad, you might be thinking to yourself right now, but it was. To start with there was bread that was the consistency of cornbread mixed with a glue stick and the flavor of some carpet-based bread concoction. Next up, soup. The soup wasn't that bad, some tomato basil snap pea soup, which to me tasted exactly like a can of Campbell's vegetable soup, except instead the the familiar shapes and colors of vegetables, this new soup had strange shapes and most things I saw in the soup when I dared to look were white, and last time I checked, neither basil, tomatoes or peas are white right? Then after that they started serving this turnover looking thing which smell absolutely delicious and I was getting hungry after picking at my other food. The little turnover thing looked very good indeed, and then I cut it open. Apples? Honey? Pie Filling in the Center? Nope, chicken. Yep meat was wadded inside of this little turnover that was covered in cinnamon and powdered sugar, I tasted it and I had to swallow my gag.
At this time the belly dancer came out to dance which had a little too much belly and was little too old to still be a dancing, I tried not to make eye contact and told everyone at the table to avert their eyes so as not to lure her over. The main course then came consisting of "free-range" chicken and lamb Currie. I scraped all the weird looking stuff off of my chicken and ate just the meat part, tasted and very much disliked the lamb, it kind of tasted like fridge burned deer meat. I didn't get my hopes up for dessert which was a good thing because it was just honeydew and cantaloupe squares that were too soft and a very hot minty tea. I agree it's good to try new things to get yourself cultured, but I am not going to eat Moroccan again. Oh and also this all took place over a 3 hour time period, very slow service, and everyone else who works with Heather was getting drunk and trying to belly dance and/or arm wrestle anyone who was up for it. It was a fun weird night and dinner.
Long post I know.
-Reluctantly Cultured
I woke up to Heather knocking on the door and cursing her stupid hotel key for not working again, stupid hotel keys. We went to breakfast/lunch at a little place called Cosi. It was very very good. I had a flat-bread sandwich with some chicken, some sliced tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and fresh basil, mmmmm. Heather went back to work and I did a quick google search to find the exact intersection to tell the taxi driver to take me to.
I hopped in the cab, "Could you take me to the National Art Museum on the corner of G street and 9th?" he responded with something that sounded affirmative. He drove for a lot longer than it looked like it should have taken on google earth and I was just about to say something to him when I saw G street and relaxed a little.
The National Art Museum was huge and it took me all day to go through it. I really liked the old Abraham Lincoln artifacts, they had a huge assortment of Civil War era paintings including a really old painting of Joseph Smith with an interesting blurb about the Mormons rapidly growing and evicting residents from their homes. Weird. Other items I really liked was the photography and portraiture exhibits and the marble sculptures. There was one such sculpture whose robe was sculpted so well I literally had to touch it to see if it was cloth or marble.
There was also a very weird exhibit. I'll try to explain in words as best I can. Imagine a room the size of a 2 car garage tall enough for a camping trailer. On one wall of this room were 16" TV's floor to ceiling; maybe about 10 TV's tall and 40 TV's wide. 2/3rds of these TV's were playing nonsense, no discernible reason to what it was showing, just video clips of very random things. Like men skiing, dancing people, cows, fences, roller skate wheels, bugs. then the other third of the TV's were all playing the same thing, which was also a bunch of randomness, save for the center TV which was playing........well porn.
Well I guess it wasn't full on porn, but it was just a bunch of different clips of naked women laying on a couch doing weird things. One would kiss a woden totem-pole statue; Then one would hug a clear glass sculpture. One would try to make a cat lay next to her on the psychiatrist style leather couch, then another would push her boobs together and make a pouty face. Oh but it's okay it's art right? It was supposed to represent our plugged in world that's out of touch with reality. It was just nonsense and weirdness if you ask me. The little TV in the middle on the right up in that picture was the naughty one.I took the Metro back to the hotel and waited for Heather to come back so we could go to her work dinner with her co-workers.
Bad idea. The dinner was at a Moroccan restaurant whose name I don't recall and it was gross. Heather wanted me to try some new foods, but this was so disgusting. Oh it can't be that bad, you might be thinking to yourself right now, but it was. To start with there was bread that was the consistency of cornbread mixed with a glue stick and the flavor of some carpet-based bread concoction. Next up, soup. The soup wasn't that bad, some tomato basil snap pea soup, which to me tasted exactly like a can of Campbell's vegetable soup, except instead the the familiar shapes and colors of vegetables, this new soup had strange shapes and most things I saw in the soup when I dared to look were white, and last time I checked, neither basil, tomatoes or peas are white right? Then after that they started serving this turnover looking thing which smell absolutely delicious and I was getting hungry after picking at my other food. The little turnover thing looked very good indeed, and then I cut it open. Apples? Honey? Pie Filling in the Center? Nope, chicken. Yep meat was wadded inside of this little turnover that was covered in cinnamon and powdered sugar, I tasted it and I had to swallow my gag.
At this time the belly dancer came out to dance which had a little too much belly and was little too old to still be a dancing, I tried not to make eye contact and told everyone at the table to avert their eyes so as not to lure her over. The main course then came consisting of "free-range" chicken and lamb Currie. I scraped all the weird looking stuff off of my chicken and ate just the meat part, tasted and very much disliked the lamb, it kind of tasted like fridge burned deer meat. I didn't get my hopes up for dessert which was a good thing because it was just honeydew and cantaloupe squares that were too soft and a very hot minty tea. I agree it's good to try new things to get yourself cultured, but I am not going to eat Moroccan again. Oh and also this all took place over a 3 hour time period, very slow service, and everyone else who works with Heather was getting drunk and trying to belly dance and/or arm wrestle anyone who was up for it. It was a fun weird night and dinner.
Long post I know.
-Reluctantly Cultured
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
D.C. day two.
Today while Heather was in meetings I went to walk the streets in search of some shops to take her to later. After forgetting to grab my umbrella and running back up to the room to get it and tuck it into my backpack side pocket, I started my long walk south toward the Georgetown shops. I was actually walking up to check out Urban outfitters of D.C hoping it had some cooler big city clothes than the clothes at the U.O in S.L.C. Too many acronyms?
There are a ton of people who walk the streets of this city, and surprisingly most were my age. Normally you see a lot of families or old people out, but this neighborhood is strangely young. With the neighborhood so young you'd think that most people would be here for the same reasons as myself, just wandering looking for shops. Of the conversations I heard they were all business conversations, people talking about meetings they had been, what the company needs to be doing, costs, projections, travels and company idiots. It makes me feel like there is hope for young people, such as myself, in the business world. Where I live the business class is so much older and it's very disconcerting to someone who wants to start there business career.
After stopping buy some shops and making note of a few I know Heather would like to visit, I walked back towards and past my hotel to grab some lunch at a sandwich shop I noticed the day before. In a crowded intersection there's a small patch of grass and some park benches, in between the benches, on a grassy little knoll stood a women dressed in a tattered overcoat and a winter Russian style hat was screaming at the top of her lungs.
"You're stealing my life! This is my life and your taking it from me!" It was weird and kind of frightening actually. I wonder what this crazy lady would do if I yelled back at her. Do you think you're the only one who has a hard life? Everyone walking on this street is struggling with there own problems, why do you think we owe you anything!? I half considered walking up to her and slapping sense into her and screaming right back in her face.
I made it to my sandwich shop and sat at a table right by the window to watch people scurry by. After I ate and stood up to clear my table I noticed a small sign above. Handicap accessible only. Whoops. I made my way back to my hotel and up to my room, sat down and turned on the TV to the one movie channel we have, Blair Witch project was on. I was just starting to get into it when a tap tap tap came on the door, room cleaners at 3 o clock?! I was just leaving, I lied and went back down to the lobby to start my book. The Road by Cormac Mcarthy. The first twenty pages are great.
That was my second day on my own in D.C.
-Unexpectedly Grateful
There are a ton of people who walk the streets of this city, and surprisingly most were my age. Normally you see a lot of families or old people out, but this neighborhood is strangely young. With the neighborhood so young you'd think that most people would be here for the same reasons as myself, just wandering looking for shops. Of the conversations I heard they were all business conversations, people talking about meetings they had been, what the company needs to be doing, costs, projections, travels and company idiots. It makes me feel like there is hope for young people, such as myself, in the business world. Where I live the business class is so much older and it's very disconcerting to someone who wants to start there business career.
After stopping buy some shops and making note of a few I know Heather would like to visit, I walked back towards and past my hotel to grab some lunch at a sandwich shop I noticed the day before. In a crowded intersection there's a small patch of grass and some park benches, in between the benches, on a grassy little knoll stood a women dressed in a tattered overcoat and a winter Russian style hat was screaming at the top of her lungs."You're stealing my life! This is my life and your taking it from me!" It was weird and kind of frightening actually. I wonder what this crazy lady would do if I yelled back at her. Do you think you're the only one who has a hard life? Everyone walking on this street is struggling with there own problems, why do you think we owe you anything!? I half considered walking up to her and slapping sense into her and screaming right back in her face.
I made it to my sandwich shop and sat at a table right by the window to watch people scurry by. After I ate and stood up to clear my table I noticed a small sign above. Handicap accessible only. Whoops. I made my way back to my hotel and up to my room, sat down and turned on the TV to the one movie channel we have, Blair Witch project was on. I was just starting to get into it when a tap tap tap came on the door, room cleaners at 3 o clock?! I was just leaving, I lied and went back down to the lobby to start my book. The Road by Cormac Mcarthy. The first twenty pages are great.
That was my second day on my own in D.C.
-Unexpectedly Grateful
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