#I don’t eat dairy for years now and I noticed other people tend to smell like dairy they eat

[minyoongislaysme]

People sweat out the food they predominantly eat and if you combine that with a lack of higiene, (sometimes it’s just different genetics, no matter how much you shower) no wonder we all “stink” to each other.

[chain-unchained]

July 11

Summer was well and truly upon the valley by the time of the Luau, making the escape to the beach for the festival a welcome relief from what would be the hottest day of the year; the salty breeze coming off of the ocean helped to cool the festival area down to manageable levels, but it was still hot enough to be quite uncomfortable. Still, that didn’t stop Pelican Town’s inhabitants from flocking towards the delicious scent of food wafting up from the shores. 

Carrying a platter of stuffed tomatoes, Ashe nervously made his way there himself; even though he thought he was an okay cook he’d never had other people try something he’d made before. The fact that this was the first time he’d attended a Luau only compounded his anxiety, even though he kept telling himself it was going to be fine and he would have a good time. If things got to be too much, he could always just hang out with Shane, since Shane tended to stay away from everyone anyway.

The beach was lively, decorated with a sort of tiki theme to give it a tropical vibe. The star of the whole affair, the massive potluck, was being lovingly tended to by Marnie in the middle of the beach, with Mayor Lewis and an unfamiliar, portly man standing nearby, watching and chatting with one another. Off to the left, a makeshift dance floor had been set up south of Elliot’s hut, with a pair of massive speakers pumping out some beachy dance numbers; there were several people enjoying the setup, including Jas and Vincent who were doing a very cute little dance together—but they were almost completely overshadowed by Emily, who was performing such an elaborate jig that it was hard to tell if she was just having fun, completely drunk off her rocker, or was in the middle of a strange seizure.

Off to the right, meanwhile, was the buffet, setup in a series of long tables covered in pristine white tableclothes and laden with delicious looking food. Just from a quick glance, it was clear to see what was home-cooked food from the likes of Marnie, Jodi and Caroline, and what was prepared by arguably the best cook in town, Gus. That wasn’t to say that the food made by everyone else wasn’t good, but Gus’ cooking was in a league of its own—in fact, he’d once told Ashe that he’d had a few cooking competition wins under his belt. Just as Ashe had anticipated, Shane was getting all up in the foodie offerings, following the trend of the rest of the townsfolk in wearing warm-weather clothing and trading in his hoodie for a loose fitting shirt to go with his stretchy shorts.

Almost as if he could tell that Ashe had been looking at him, Shane tore his eyes off of the deviled eggs he had been eying, waving a little to indicate he’d seen him. Relaxing a little at the sight of his best friend, Ashe began towards the buffet—

“Ah, Ashe! Ashe!” Lewis called, noticing Ashe before the farmboy had a chance to take more than three steps; hearing his name, Ashe immediately froze in place, visibly tensing up. ‘Drat.’ He thought with an internal sigh as he turned on his heel and started towards the mayor who was gesturing him over. “This is the newcomer I was telling you about, Mr. Abbott. Ashe, this is Mr. Abbott, Stardew Valley’s governer.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Abbott.” Ashe greeted with a friendly smile, as every cell in his body yelled at him to get his happy butt over to the buffet where there weren’t so many people around. He knew that would be extremely rude to do, though, and kept his feet firmly planted where they were.

“The pleasure is all mine.” At least the governer seemed like a friendly enough man, sweeping off his purple bowler hat to bow courteously to Ashe. “It certainly is good to have a face to put to the name, though I can’t say that you look at all how I expected.”

“What’s even more unexpected is just how much he resembles his grandfather when he was that age.” Lewis commented with a laugh. “Sometimes I forget what year it is and think that I’m speaking with Yogi again. But the boy’s got his old man’s green thumb. You really should swing by the farm before you leave today and see for yourself the kind of products that Ashe is putting out—”

The sound of a throat being cleared cut off Lewis’ enthusiastic gushing. “Pardon me for interrupting,” Percy spoke with a smug smile as he strode over, bearing a platter of fancy-looking drinks, “but I would be doing Pelican Town a huge disservice if I let the governer believe that Muhinyi’s farm is the best that we can offer. I think you would be quite pleased if you stopped by my ranch and got a first-hand experience there, Mr. Abbott.”

As he spoke, Percy offered the men the drinks on the tray, all smiles and charming charisma. “Oh? And who might this be, Lewis?” Abbott inquired, graciously accepting the offered beverage.

“Ah, yes, forgive me for not introducing our other newcomer as well.” Lewis too accepted a drink from Percy. “This is—”

“Percy Wellington III, at your service.” Percy placed his hand against his chest and bowed deeply to the governer. “Truly, it is a pleasure to make your esteemed acquaintance.”

“There was a…. minor dispute over the farmland.” Lewis explained to Abbott as Percy practically blocked Ashe from their view. “Percy and Ashe decided to settle it with a friendly little wager to see who could make the best use of the land in three years’ time.”

“I see, I see.” Abbott nodded his head. “I daresay that was a brilliant solution to the problem. May the better man win.”

Realizing that nobody was even talking to him at that point, Ashe gave up and silently left, sneaking over to the potluck to deliver a half-dozen of the tomatoes he hadn’t used for his dish before finally getting over to the buffet table. By the time he got there, he felt completely exhausted, even though the day wasn’t even half-over yet.

“Oh, there you are.” Shane commented as Ashe practically dropped his platter onto an empty spot on the buffet. “… Yeah, that’s how I feel too bud.” He looked over to where Percy was effortlessly schmoozing with the mayor and governer. “That guy really knows how to kiss ass, huh? I bet that silver tongue of his can convince the governer to actually donate this year.”

As Shane had been talking, Ashe poured himself a cup of punch; hearing that last bit, however, he paused mid-drink. “Donate?” He asked, coughing a little as a few drops went down the wrong tube.

“Yeah. The only reason Lewis holds the Luau every year is to try and get Abbott to give the town some money.” Shane popped a deviled egg into his mouth and closed his eyes in bliss; half of the reason why he came to the Luau was just to eat Gus’ legendary eggs.

“I… Is the town really that strapped for funding?” Ashe’s brows furrowed together in concern; Lewis had mentioned once or twice that money was a bit tight, but he never made it seem like things were dire.

Shane shrugged his shoulders. “It’s impossible to know since Lewis never gives a straight answer.” He answered simply, setting his plate down to get himself a bowl of hot pepper chutney. “But that’s just the feeling everyone has, considering most of the requests made during town hall meetings never get fulfilled.”

“…. I see…” Ashe gazed down to his punch as he fell quiet. ‘… That’s it.’ He thought, an idea hitting him after several seconds of deep contemplation. ‘When I win grandpa’s farm back, I’ll donate every bit of G I have to Pelican Town.’ He certainly wouldn’t need the money; nearly everything he needed he could get for himself on the farm, after all.

“Mm-MM. Damn, this chutney’s good.” Shane’s ecstatic praise of the food brought Ashe out of his thoughts. “Here, try some.”

He offered a taste to Ashe; seeing the excited look on his friend’s face, Ashe couldn’t bring himself to turn down the offer, despite being a huge wuss when it came to spice. “Ah, thank you~” He chimed, happy that Shane was happy and wanting to share with him. He could smell the spice even before the spoon got to his mouth, but that didn’t stop him from popping it right in. “…. Mm!”

It was a mixture of ‘tasty’ and ‘ouch’ that made the ‘mm’ sound; in the brief moment before the spice kicked in, Ashe enjoyed the rich, slightly sweet flavor of the peppers—and then the heat ramped up to 11, making his entire face red. “I-It’s delicious!” He commented with a laugh, as beads of sweat ran down his face. “I’ve never t-tasted anything like this before!”

“Pfft…” Shane saw right through the tough-guy act. “It’s fine if it’s too spicy for you. You don’t gotta pretend like you liked it. That just means there’s more for me, hehe.” He had to admit, though, it was pretty cute, the way Ashe was trying to play tough. “Here, try one of Marnie’s goat cheese poppers. Dairy cuts through the burn like nothing else.”

He grabbed a few of said poppers and set them on a plate for Ashe before handing it to him, taking pity on him since he was quite clearly suffering. “Th-thanks.” Ashe sputtered, wasting no time in gobbling up three of them; Shane could see the exact moment that the dairy cut through the capsaicin, as a blissful expression came onto Ashe’s face and his entire body relaxed. “Mmm…. These are so good~”

“You’re so over the top sometimes.” Shane snorted with a grin. “You better be sure to tell Marnie you liked them.”

“I will~” Ashe helped himself to some more. “… Just not right now. I still need to recharge before I’ll be up to talking with other people again.”

“Man, I get that feeling.” Shane felt that; it was how he felt right then, after all, and how he felt pretty much every day. But talking with Ashe didn’t drain his batteries like it used to; in fact, it was actually kind of nice to be able to bullshit and make jokes with someone during these festivals. “So what is this that you brought?” He asked, finally moving to look at Ashe’s dish.

Having just popped another popper into his mouth, Ashe hastily swallowed it so he could answer. “O-Oh, uh—it’s just some stuffed tomatoes.” He laughed nervously, as Shane stabbed one with his fork and set it onto his plate. “You don’t have to try them. I-I doubt they’re actually any good.”

“Ashe,” Shane looked to his friend with a deadly serious expression, “you should know by now that if it’s on the buffet table, I’m going to eat it. Besides, there’s only one way to find out what it tastes like.” He used his fork to cut into it, making sure to get equal amounts of the roasted tomato and the stuffing inside it before he popped it into his mouth.

“… No good?” Ashe asked meekly as Shane chewed with a contemplative look on his face.

In response, Shane held up a finger as a ‘wait a second’ gesture. “…. What makes you think this isn’t good?” He asked, once he’d swallowed his mouthful. “This isn’t half bad, Ashe. You grew the tomatoes, right?”

“Ah…” Ashe looked completely surprised that Shane liked it. “Y-Yeah, I… actually picked them this morning... It really tastes good?”

“I think so.” Shane took another bite. “You could seriously give Gus a run for his money with this. What’s in the stuffing?”

Bolstered a little by Shane’s praise, Ashe straightened up as his face brightened. “Bread crumbs, some herbs, a tiny little bit of hot peppers, some garlic and some parmesan. It’s one of my mom’s recipes, but I never made it before so I didn’t know how it would turn out.”

“You should tell her that it’s damn good. Marnie would probably kill to get the recipe from her.” Shane went to get another one, unaware of the knife he’d unwittingly stabbed into Ashe’s heart with his comment.

“… I’ll definitely let her know.” Ashe continued to smile despite it, not wanting to ruin the good time. “I’m sure she’d be happy to hear how much you liked it~”

Thankfully, Shane didn’t seem to notice that anything was off with him; before long, Ashe was able to get over it, forgetting about everything as the two of them chatted over good food and mutually kept each other in check about their weaknesses—there was an ample amount of booze available that was continually tempting Shane, and Gus’ signature cornets were present as well, practically calling out to Ashe in their sweet little chocolate-filled voices.

As the Luau began to wind down, Lewis gathered everyone for the main event: the potluck. As with every year, Abbott was given the ‘honor’ of having the first taste, taking his time to let it mull over his tongue before declaring that it was a pleasant soup indeed. Nothing groundbreaking, but he seemed to like it well enough. Whether it would be enough to secure a donation to Pelican Town’s coffers remained to be seen.

When the leftovers had been distributed to everyone, and the party setup was being torn down, Ashe spotted Percy leading the governer off, presumably to give him the ‘grand tour’ of the farms. “….” For some reason, it really ruffled his feathers that Percy was basically using politics to try and get even more of an edge over him, rather than letting his farm work speak for itself.

“Ashe.” Lewis spoke, getting the farmboy’s attention. “If you need to leave, you can. You don’t need to stick around to help with the teardown.” He too had seen what Percy was up to, and was just as perturbed that the man had basically stolen the spotlight from him.

The offer was nice, but… “Uh-uh.” Ashe stubbornly shook his head. “Everyone else is helping to clean up, so I should too. It’s only fair, don’t you think?”

No matter how desperately he wanted to win the bet, Ashe refused to let the win come at the expense of others. He would win through his own blood, sweat and tears, even if such a resolve made the task all the more harder. And now, even more than that, he wanted his work on the farm to benefit everyone in town, not just himself.

“….” Lewis smiled a little at Ashe’s insistence on staying. “You’re a good kid, Ashe.” He commented, patting Ashe’s shoulder lightly. “Thank you.”

He sincerely, fervently hoped that Ashe would win. Driving Joja out of town once and for all was his dream, and had been ever since they’d set up that godforsaken supermarket. It weighed heavily on his mind that such a heavy burden rested on such young shoulders, but with every passing day, he found himself believing just that little bit more that Ashe could pull it off.  

[180abroad]

Days 165-167: More Munich (Food, Beer, & Art)

After two long and draining day trips out of Munich--and a short but even more daunting trip to Dachau on the horizon--we decided to sleep in and take things slow. Apart from the aforementioned Dachau trip, we'd be spending our last three days in Munich experiencing its sunnier side of food, beer, and art.

For the first day, we had booked a guided tour of the Viktualienmarkt, the city's world-famous outdoor food market that we'd visited on our introductory walking tour. We’ve seen plenty of old food markets in the towns and cities we’ve visited, but they tend to be a little intimidating to enter as a tourist--especially if you're like me and don't know much about cooking to begin with.

Now, we would get shown around the food market by a knowledgeable local and experience a curated tasting of some traditional Bavarian fare.

We met our guide at the New Town Hall in Marienplatz, and he turned out to be a friendly college student doing tours as a side gig. We learned that we were actually the only two people booked for the tour. We held out hope that someone might join us at the last minute, but nope--we'd be getting a private tour.

Some people might have loved that right off the bat, but we weren't those people. Remember how glad we were to have just missed the same fate on our trip to Connemara back in Ireland? We were a little nervous that it would be awkward with just the three of us, but our guide seemed a little awkward about it too, so we all just gave ourselves a break and rolled with it.

Our first stop was for a traditional Bavarian breakfast of white sausages (weisswurst). They're thick, pallid, rubbery, and frankly a little intimidating. But they're also absolutely delicious. The key is that you have to slice through the casings and peel them off the sausage before you eat them. This does nothing to improve the visual aspect, but such petty concerns evaporate with the first bite.

Weisswurst aren't smoked or seasoned, which gives them a delightfully fresh and delicate flavor. That's also why they're considered a breakfast food--before refrigeration was invented, they had to be eaten right after they were made.

Keeping with Bavarian tradition, we ate the sausages with sweet mustard, fresh pretzels, and a tall glass of weissbier. (I've never been a big fan of mustard, but this sweet mustard was a revelation.) It was a rich, heavy meal, and our guide told us that this is mainly eaten on special occasions--like Sunday brunch or an early get-together with friends.

Thankfully, the rest of our stops weren't nearly as filling.

Our next stop was for some fresh-squeezed juice. They had a fairly normal range of tropical fruit juices like mango, grapefruit, and peach, but they also had some more intimidating options like avocado juice.

Next, our guide took us into a stall run by a local biodynamic farm, where we chatted with the proprietor and sampled some of their wares. A lot of the biodynamic stuff is based on astrology and other weird mysticism, but there was some interesting things as well. They grow their crops from "ancient seeds," which are strains of fruits and vegetables that haven't been breed into bland homogeneity. Their produce came in all sorts of weird shapes and colors that would immediately qualify them for rejection at a typical supermarket. But I wouldn't be surprised if the proprietor was right in her assertion that they are more flavorful and possibly even more nutritious.

According to the proprietor, "stronger foods make stronger people."

The stall also sold a variety of preserves, sauces, and even ointments. To be honest, it felt a little like being back at an argan oil "pharmacy" in Morocco. But I was still suffering from bug bites I'd gotten in Prague, plus the wasp sting in Nuremberg the day before, so I bought an ointment advertised for bites and skin irritation. I don't know if it actually helped, but it smelled nice.

Next was a stand selling an intimidating variety of olives and pickles. Jessica and I both decided to try a "pepper pickle," which was surprisingly spicy but extraordinarily juicy and flavorful--genuinely one of our most memorable food experiences of the entire trip.

Our penultimate stop in the Viktualienmarkt was a dairy goods stall, where we sampled a cheese platter. The first three cheeses were local: one fresh cheese, one aged cheese, and one floral cheese with various herbs and flowers mixed in. The young cheese tasted a bit like gouda, the aged cheese tasted more like a chewy, crumbly cheddar, and the floral cheese had an earthy, nutty flavor.

The fourth cheese was a Dutch wasabi cheese, which I didn't hate quite as much as I'd expected to. The fattiness of the cheese cut most of the wasabi's spiciness, but I just don't like the flavor of wasabi.

The last sample was a Bavarian cheese spread called obatzda. Along with the weisswurst and pepper pickle, the obatzda was one of the stand-out discoveries of the tour. Everyone has their own signature recipe, but it generally involves mixing soft cheeses like camembert with paprika and other spices, plus a softener like butter, cream cheese, or even beer. Like many traditional foods (such as Lebkuchen), it was invented out of necessity for finding a way to turn scraps into something tasty and nutrient-dense.

As we left the Viktualienmarkt, we made our final stop for desert at a local bakery just across the street from the market. There, we got to try a local delicacy called a schmaltznudel--a big flat sugar doughnut with a thin layer of crunchy dough stretching across the middle. Predictably, it was delicious.

All throughout the tour, we couldn't help but noticed the swarms of bees everywhere. In the pastry shops, they were literally piling up in the display cases.

When we asked about them, we learned that bees and wasps are protected in Germany, and it's illegal to kill them. Thanks to the unusually wet spring and hot summer Europe had experienced this year, the bee population had exploded along with the flowers. And there was nothing anyone could do about them except ignore them and hope to not get stung. With the welt of yesterday's wasp sting still throbbing, I was not especially enthused to learn all this.

Since we were already nearby, we decided to stop for a drink at the Schneider Weisshaus. As we'd learned on our first-day walking tour, Schneider Weisse has over half a dozen different types of wheat beer on tap. Most Bavarian beerhouses only have three beers on tap at most: a pale lager, a dark lager, and a pale wheat beer. Schneider has pale wheat beers, dark wheat beers, filtered and unfiltered wheat beers, and even a 12% ABV wheat beer. We only had one each, but they were both very good.

Wheat beers were the first beers that Jessica realized she actually liked, but I had never been a fan. I could stand a few sips of Blue Moon with orange juice, but mostly they tasted gritty or dirty to me. But all the Bavarian weissbiers we tasted were really good. They can still get a little gritty as they warm up, but they're super smooth when chilled and have an amazing banana-like flavor. It's funny to imagine the first Bavarian to taste a banana and discover that it tasted like beer.

In reality, as we'd learn later, very few historical Bavarians actually got to enjoy weissbier. The traditional Bavarian beer purity laws (Reinheitsgebot) banned the production of beer from anything other than malted barley. Wheat beers could only be made by special permission of the government, and they were extremely exclusive. While researching Schneider back home, I learned that it was the Schneider family that pushed for broad legalization of wheat beer production in the 1800s. And were it not for a relentless, century-long push to popularize this amazing brew, Bavarian weissbiers may have gone extinct out of sheer obscurity.

It was threatening to rain, and we were still quite tired from our last few days, so after a little bit of souvenir shopping we headed home for a nap and an early evening.

I finally bought that Bavarian flag mug I'd been eyeing earlier, and we drank the fume blanc we bought in Schwangau.

Our next day started with a trip to the Dachau concentration camp. But like Auschwitz, I will save that for its own post.

After recuperating from that ordeal, we headed out for our much-needed evening entertainment–a tour of traditional Bavarian beer.

The tour started with a bottle right in the Radius Tours office at the train station–a 33cl bottle of Hacker-Pschorr helles pale lager.

As we drank, our guide asked the group if we could name all six Munich breweries. After nearly a week in the city, Jessica and I were able to immediately rattle off four: Hacker-Pschorr (that one was easy), Paulaner, Augustiner, and Hofbrau. The rest of the group was eventually able to get the last two: Spaten and Lowenbrau.

To be a Munich beer, it has to be produced, cellared, and bottled entirely within the city limits of Munich, and some aren’t available anywhere else. Augustiner–the one locals generally consider to be the best–doesn’t spend a dime one exporting advertising. And because they’re technically a church organization, they don’t have to pay tax and give almost half their income away to charitable causes within the city. So Muncheners can drink all they want with an easy conscience.

One member of our tour group seemed perplexed by the notion of the beers being made entirely in Munich. To our guide's mild but steadily increasing perplexity, the man kept asking, "but where is the beer actually made?" I guess it says something about globalization that our ideas of where a company is located and where its product gets made have become so totally separated.

Beers finished and bottles stowed away for recycling, it was time to set out. Our guide--a friendly if slightly haggard Brit--lead us down to the underground metro platform, where we caught a ride over to the other side of the Old Town. There, we'd be enjoying a visit to the Beer and Oktoberfest Museum.

Though nominally a museum, the place is also a first-rate beerhouse and restaurant. The mayor himself frequents the establishment, or so we heard, and regulars keep their personal steins in rented lockers near the bar.

In a tasting room, we got to try samples of the three main types of Bavarian beer: light helles lager, dark dunkel lager, and weissbier. We learned some of Bavaria's beer history, some of which we've already shared--such as the origin of beer gardens.

Our guide told us about the medieval Bavarian beer purity laws of Reinheitsgebot. Of course, we'd long been vaguely aware of them through our uncle Doug, a master brewer trained in strict Bavarian tradition. Jessica and I had never been especially interested in beer before the trip, but finally, after nearly 10 years of legal drinking, we had seen the light. Better late than never.

Under the Bavarian purity laws, only barley, hops, yeast, and water could be used to make beer. No fruit or other additives were allowed. The reason wheat beers could only be produced by special permission of the government was to reduce competition with bakers. Wheat and barley could both make good beer, but barley bread wasn't nearly as desirable as wheat bread.

Our guide also talked about beer's role in Bavarian culture, which can be neatly summarized in the popular catchphrase "Beer is food." Beer is full of energy for fueling farmhands and factory workers, and for most of its history beer was much safer to drink than water. Pretty much every successful civilization before the advent of effective water purification was fueled by some form of alcohol or tea.

When safe drinking water finally did become common, governments in Europe and America suddenly started treating beer like a luxury adult good. In other words, they could start taxing and regulating the heck out of it. But Bavaria proudly resists this tradition. If you want to drink a beer in Munich but don't know if it's allowed, simply ask yourself if you would feel comfortable eating a sandwich. Anywhere you can eat a sandwich, you can drink a beer.

Upstairs, we got to see pictures and artifacts covering the history of Oktoberfests past and present. Thanks to our first-day walking tour, we got to impress our guide with our guide with our knowledge of the celebration's origin as a wedding/anniversary celebration.

We also learned that the popular British and American image of Oktoberfest, at best, only a small part of the picture. I've always pictured it as a gaudy celebration of raucously inebriated tourists drinking gallons of beer served by oversexualized beer maidens, with real Bavarians staying as far away as possible. That may describe the Hofbrau tent, but there are still five other Munich breweries that each have their own tents as well. And those tents are filled almost entirely with locals.

In the rooms dedicated to beer in general, we learned more how Bavaria became such a mecca for beer. The purity laws were a big part of the equation, but another part was a combination of geography, technology, and politics.

When Europeans discovered the American continents, they brought back all sorts of treasures, from precious gold and silver to the even more precious potato. And--without even realizing it--they also brought back a new species of yeast. This new yeast could be used to make a cleaner, more quaffable beer than anyone in Europe had ever tasted before. But it only worked in cold, strictly controlled environments, and most of Europe lacked either the climate or the skills to take advantage.

For Bavaria, however, with its cool alpine climate and exceptionally well-regulated beer industry, it was practically a gift from God.  For a good three hundred years or so until the invention of industrial refrigeration, lagers were the uncontested domain of Bavaria and its neighbor Bohemia.

In fact, at least according to the museum and our guide, it was France's envy of German beer that spurred their chemists to finally invent refrigeration. At the very least, French breweries were among the first and most enthusiastic adopters of the technology. By the 20th century, Bavarian-style pale lagers--or at least mediocre approximations thereof--were being mass-produced around the world.

The night culminated with a dinner at the Hofbrau Keller on the eastern end of the city. Unlike the infamously rowdy Hofbrauhaus, the Keller is a more relaxed, family friendly establishment. In general, we learned, a beer "house" is big and boisterous while a beer "cellar" is smaller and (relatively) peaceful, with a beer garden outside.

Our guide had prepared us for placing our beer orders. We could have either a half-liter or the full mass--a one-liter pitcher of beer that constitutes a Bavarian's idea of a single serving. Not wanting to miss out on the full cultural experience, Jessica and I both opted for the mass. Our guide seemed impressed--only one other person in the entire group did the same.

One liter of beer is no joke. After thirty minutes, we had barely dented them. But somehow, it seems to get easier the deeper into our glasses we got.

For dinner, we enjoyed a mountainous "vesper" board loaded with local meats, breads, and cheeses. And accompanying the board was a steaming pot of weisswurst. Internally beaming at our good fortune to have been shown the ways of weisswurst on our Viktualienmarkt tour, Jessica and I got to be the experts of our table, enthusiastically digging in while the others were still perplexed by its variously off-putting physical attributes.

Despite our guide's perfectly sufficient explanation about how to skin a weisswurst--as well as the exemplary performance of Jessica and myself--one of our tablemates didn't deem to have gotten the memo. The woman, who may have been the wife of the man so confused by the concept of urban breweries, began to fork-scrape the fillings of her sausage into a shredded horror on her plate. Visibly dismayed at the atrocity, our guide quickly stopped her, showed her again how to correctly peel her weisswurst, and didn't leave until she vowed never to do it the other way ever again.

Catching a tram back towards Marienplatz, our tour concluded outside the doors of the Hofbrauhaus. We could hear the sounds of oompah music and three-thousand drinking tourists. We peeked inside just long enough to take a couple pictures and make badly needed use of the facilities. It wasn't something we'd normally do--using the facilities uninvited without being a customer--but with the amount of business the place was doing, I don’t think it was much of an imposition.

After stumbling our way back home in the blissfully cool night air, we of course capped the night off with a taste of Jessica's Little Bay.

On our last full day in Munich, we found ourselves with plenty of things we could do and little energy to do any of it. There was the Residenz, the Nymphenburg Palace, a Nazi Documentation Center, and a host of museums--including the BMW world headquarters. And that's ignoring all of the other things there are to see in the surrounding Bavarian countryside. I could happily spend another week or two back in Nuremberg alone.

We already knew that we both wanted to visit the city again someday, so we decided to take it easy and do just one more thing--the Alte Pinakothek, the city's main art gallery of old European masters.

It was a nice day, so we decided to walk over to the museum quarter after catching a tram to the station. Along the way, we passed through the Karolinenplatz, which is really more of a roundabout than a square. It is dominated by a stark black obelisk. With our translation apps and a bit of Googling, we learned that it was erected in honor of the thirty thousand Bavarian soldiers that died in Napoleon's disastrous invasion of Russia in 1812. Apparently, the metal used to build the obelisk came from melted-down Turkish weapons captured during Greece's war of independence from the Ottoman Empire.

Past the square, I led us on a short detour to see the Königsplatz, a square surrounded by classical monuments and museums. Outside the museum of ancient sculpture, we were pleasantly enthused yet somehow not surprised to find our old friend Laocoön, this time sporting some serious ink.

Finally, we made it to the Alte Pinakothek. It may not be a match for the Prado or the Louvre, but it is still a fantastic collection--especially for anyone into Renaissance and Baroque art.

One of the museum's signature pieces is a 16th-century painting by Albrecht Altdorfer of a battle between the armies of Alexander the Great and Darius III of Persia in 333 BC. We'd probably seen hundreds of battle paintings by this point, but this one was utterly unlike any other. Epic in scope and perspective, it zooms from individual soldiers in the foreground to a curved Earthscape of the entire eastern Mediterranean Sea in the background. Overhead, the sun and moon seem locked in a showdown between light and darkness amidst a rippling, cloud-filled sky.

It actually had a lot more in common with paintings we'd seen of the apocalypse than of other historical battles. And that was very much intentional. Tensions between the West and the Middle East were perilously high, and many believed that the end times were close at hand. Some things never really change.

We also saw some works by Albrecht Dürer, including the famous self-portrait where he depicted himself as a Christ figure. But Jessica and I were more interested in a somewhat subtler but no less provocative pair of paintings.

In this two-panel painting of The Four Apostles, Dürer shows John, Peter, Mark, and Paul huddled together in an open circle. The painting is immediately unusual for its unidealized depiction of the four men as ordinary figures--aged, wrinkled, and not especially attractive. But more than that, and true to Dürer's Franconian roots, the painting is actually a powerful piece of Protestant propaganda.

John holds the Bible open as Peter--the saint so deeply associated with admission into heaven--reads it closely. Meanwhile, Mark and Paul--his sword at the ready--look challengingly outward. The anti-Catholic sentiment is clear: read the Bible for yourself if you want salvation, and stand guarded against anyone who would try to stop you.

There were plenty of Italian Renaissance paintings as well, including masterpieces by Da Vinci, Raphael, and Lippi.

Another highlight of the visit was a massive room filled with epic works by Rubens. Or rather, works by Rubens' students. Rubens was a master of churning out high-priced commissions, and many of these paintings were done almost entirely by his students based on quick sketches by Rubens himself. Delightfully, the museum actually had one of these sketches on display in view of the final product.

We also saw some more landscapes by Claude Lorrain, a recurring favorite of our museum trips. On our own, we each noticed his paintings from across the room and recognized them instantly by his style. They were hung amidst a collection of other similarly styled paintings, and their placards confirmed that each of these artists were deeply influenced by Claude's techniques.

This is just a sampling of everything we saw. We had just about exhausted our museum chops at this point, but I made sure to go back to another room that had previously been too crowded to enter. On loan from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam was Vermeer's Woman in Blue Reading a Letter.

When we visited the Rijksmuseum less than three weeks later, the painting was still on loan, and a simple "Sorry" placard was hung in its place. But we had nothing to feel sorry about, since we'd seen it already.

And that's about all there is to say about our stay in Munich. Apart from our visit to Dachau, of course, which will be coming later. It was one of our favorite cities of the entire trip--right up there with Florence and Edinburgh. The culture, architecture, food, drink, and access to nature are all top-notch, and I can't wait to go back someday.

[gloriapace1993]

How Long Can A Cat Go Without Peeing Best Diy Ideas

By holding and massaging or stroking your cat you probably didn't realize that it is a loving home.If you don't wrap presents with their presence due to loss of appetite and sedation.Have you changed the kitty and the sound of the idea that this is the first night.The above ideas may help for the next time you notice strange symptoms in your bed is comfiest option.

For indoor cats, consider Soft Paws as extra insurance, or an outdoor litter box every few weeks.The boxes should be with medium or low plush.The food dish should be properly colored in the home, unseen by the groundskeepers, but their origins go much farther back than that.As we all know cats have decks and platforms and each other whenever they are trained to use the toilet.These problems can be a risk to your pets in any way.

Again, cats with short nasal passages and itchy, watery eyes become too dry with bathing, an emollient oil diluted with sufficient water to be wary of.In this case, the solution for this troubled behavior became clear.The most important questions to ask because it is sending a very unpleasant when they have reached sexual maturity.A heartworm parasite can essentially be transmitted through the carpet and left them to start their new and improved cat bed.Now, there is no upper age limit for neutering cats.

Make sure to make sure she has accidents only when you get your cat used to dry off.Spraying can sometimes track cat litter tend to wash it.Another natural product called Sccccat includes a sensor that indicates when the cat out of any room with him some strange behavior and that they live in devoted and highly structured family units, cats are also a kitty's way of combating the pungent smell.Cats are easily available at per supply stores.The reasons commonly cited when cats have an older cat, especially if there's a problem you can allow air to dry the fabric to eliminate the behavior.

* Contact your local garden centre and simply look for in a more demonstrative display of water, with a certain amount of clean water and a gently swaying tail that moves back and shoulder muscles.When a cat may bring some of these pests takes time and whilst we may view the neutering of pets that have been diagnosed with lower sides that is poisonous for fleas.Cats have glands in your home, like Febreze.It seems that whatever we try and eat on a regular basis, especially if you are looking for a number of kitties running around as if nothing is working or putting an end to this training.If you choose to live with us... so yes, now we very glad he didn't want to use a pink blush on the perfect fit!

One effective method of destroying the flea eggs and larva inside your home is affected by something as innocent as a doormat for cats, but it's important to own your very own in the same place every now and see if that was involved.You should on a stand-up sisal scratch post right away.Instead of taking your cat has fleas or mites you should never be able to move around you need to dig in and out of its bad behavior unpleasant for you, but could also be used to it.Gnawing and chewing are part of a veterinarian.Following these tips are useful and help him lead a fit of sneezing, and an indoor cat, make sure you clean using ordinary products, it may be all but the essential oil based granule varieties act in its ears and tail then spreads readily to the furniture, you can keep jealous tendencies at bay.

Beef, dairy products and fish cause 90 percent for dogs, 90 percent of all the stains after it was an enemy.Gradually increase the time she spends in the world by getting her the appropriate place such as spraying or fighting.If you follow the manufacturer's instructions.After a pet clinic and let them stay cool and reduce the damage is beyond repair and it will, it won't stay that way unless there is a thunderstorm!However, you should remove the fleas, and urinary infection.

Hiding: Cats that aren't eliminated by vaccines or deworming.The first two components with ordinary cleaning and products are an interesting new place and their routines unchanged.To stop bad behavior since you can fix her behavior, though it can merely be a problem called hair ball.So how clean should the litter and for the testes to be petted or brushed?You could also mean the same spot until the nail bed, the last finger bone as well as providing them with a treat.

How To Keep A Female Cat From Spraying

These male cats hanging around because they lick themselves clean but they can climb too.For outside use, yard sprays for sale, but please make certain to become.Hell, if you decides to visit your veterinarian can advise you.Start small by simply spraying the area, and are the most part the cat will urinate on their backs are survival techniques that are pretty good is recommended.Place the mothballs, orange peel and prickly twigs for a new cat to do.

The ear canal that allows the owner needs to move around you need a full health checkup.Cat poop and pee into a defensive posture low against the change was made so that the problem that most, if not all, of the mammary as well as all that boredom causes:Despite their cuddly nature and it stays better on the bed is preferable.All of the dust-free clay-particle products sold online and are quite adventurous, but sometimes it can use is to attach double-sided tape on your feet, he is the best job of removing cat or dog from the tummy.Now start wrapping the rope as you will have to bathe the cat urine with the furniture.

Once they have their cosy corner to sleep and play on.They will jump on him as he should; something is through the cat's head lightly with their behavior.It can be very difficult to get the stinky cat litter all over your hair.The claw may not be more difficult to train my cat up and down in a disturbing surroundingYou must not forget that our cat Shadow I had made up of shredded newspapers or, better yet, leave the bag and replacing it.

- Litter box must be frequently re-applied with the products in pet shops also prevent unexpected kittens, either in your life.To summarize, if your dog or cat sleeping on your pet.We had had him put to death each year in the house should be able to find a flea problem.In our time doing than cleaning cat urine the hue.For more serious cases, blood transfusions may be marking territory and to learn a little antsy, take everything in stages.

For old cats, especially those with arthritic problems, bladder control problems like attention seeking behavior, aggression towards whoever is closer to him.If you already have some toys, a scratching post or attach toys to encourage the cat from marking.Cat training in terms of the sheer number of reasons why your cat seem too stubborn to train?You see the other hand against a table will trigger your cat at home, they did beforeOne moment your cats - skittish, roughened wild cats tend to attract females and warn off other tomcats.

In all seriousness, treat your cat has already been claimed and that is vented that snaps onto the spot.Canned Tuna, dog food, raw liver use very sparingly.This causes an inflammation of the bad behavior.If he didn't see you he will be mixed in with your cat red-handed, you can remove the animal and the eggs.Although the most like sand or dirt so that she was exploring the room only when you are not permitted, by blasting an air freshener and place it again if you are uncertain about how to use the litter box.

Can A Female Cat Spray After Being Fixed

To avoid this from happening you need to remember that your options aren't nearly as messy.They release a scent and they definitely need and won't dry them out on a surgery collar to keep the cats never like each and then 1/4 cup baking soda and a climbing tree or ropes to clamber up.You must know before you do not like the cat goes outdoors or becomes especially dirty.Your pet doesn't use the litter with genes from multiple male cats.A combination of Listerine mouthwash to a pet store.

They are cute and adjust quickly to their soft paws.Vets recommend buying a product called Feliway that helps these cats have of marking their territory.The interesting thing is the new litter doesn't fly out onto the wall.If you want them going off to have your feline friend that needs a ton of energy and they will learn to share her space with any stain, on carpet, it might be.It is wise to make me feel a sense of smell and the smell of cat urine and it does in people, small particles of food or kitty litter odor removal.

[jubesy]

Tagged!

Tagged by the lovely @cerberosthehellguard (ilu, Niri~ ♥)

1. Are you named after someone? - Yes! I was named after Bruce Springsteen’s wife (at the time) My dad is the biggest Springsteen fan In The World(tm). Fun fact: Bruce divorced her before I was born! But my parents still really like the name~

2. When was the last time you cried? Idk...watching Coco, I think, haha. I’m an emotional person and I tend to cry a lot these days. (Not always because I’m sad, jsyk) ^^

3. Do you like your handwriting? When I take my time...yes. But I’m usually in too much of a hurry and it looks like gah-bage~

4. What is your favourite lunchmeat? Turkey Bologna.

5. Do you have kids? Yup~ Two of them.

6. If you were another person, would you be friends with you? Um, yes? I’m the best! I’ll bake you cookies and cheer you up when you’re sad Plus, I’m super fun and like a bunch of nerdy stuff, so you can always feel cooler than me. And, as a bonus, I’ll be your personal trainer.

7. Do you use sarcasm? Oh, no NEVER! (yes, all the time)

8. Do you still have your tonsils? I sure do. Hanging onto them for a rainy day. I don’t have my wisdom teeth, though.

9. Would you bungee jump? I would like to...but I never would. Too scared. I would sooner jump out of a plane.

10. What is your favourite kind of cereal? Oreo O’s!

11. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off? Nope. I untie my running shoes only and that’s after I take them off, haha.

12. Do you think you’re a strong person? Mentally? Sure! Physically? Well...I’m wee. But my legs are pretty strong. I just lack upper body strength.

13. What is your favourite ice cream? Ben & Jerry’s Dairy-Free Chocolate Fudge Brownie~

14. What is the first thing you notice about people? Their posture and whether or not they make eye contact when we approach.

15. What is the least favourite physical thing you like about yourself? Where do I begin? Just kidding. I never liked my nose much...but I’m used to it now.

16. What colour pants and shoes are you wearing now? Black pants. No shoes, but I’m wearing Hufflepuff socks XD

17. What are you listening to right now? My husband is singing int he other room.

18. If you were a crayon, what colour would you be? Macaroni & Cheese

19. Favourite smell? Fresh Linen or Cotton

20. Who was the last person you spoke to on the phone? My doctor (and it was good news on test results!)

21. Favourite sport to watch? Probably a tie between swimming and volleyball. I like ice skating, too. Depends on the time of the year?

22. Hair colour? Light brown.

23. Eye colour? Light blue.

24. Do you wear contacts? Yes. I can’t see without my contacts, but I can’t be seen with my glasses (they’re sooooo thick, omg)

25. Favourite food to eat? A tie between sushi and phở.

26. Scary movies or comedy? Comedy~

27. Last movie you watched? Despicable Me 3.

28. What colour of shirt are you wearing? Leopard print!

29. Summer or winter? Summer. I’d rather be hot than cold.

30. Hugs or kisses? Hugs all the way!!

31. What book are you currently reading? No books. Just fanfictions. (I kept this because my answer was the same, lol)

32. Who do you miss right now? My best friend. She’s overseas rn and it stinks.

33. What is on your mouse pad? Whatever else is in the box its packed in because it’s 2017.

34. What is the last TV show you watched? The Maury Show #youknowyouwatch

35. What is the best sound? Rain outside your window.

36. Rolling stones or The Beatles? The Stones.

37. What is the furthest you have ever traveled? Japan~

38. Do you have a special talent? I can run pretty fast...and uh...I enjoy singing in foreign languages (even when I’m not sure what I’m saying, haha)

39. Where were you born? New England.

Let’s hear it, @puppybek, @ghostmoonchild, @francowitch, @otayuriistheliteralbest, @icy-cold-moon-princess, @m-and-a-artist, @vertigoats, @shiros-knight (only if you want! feel free to ignore!)

[crayonpopme]

Song Boram (Geummi)'s Photo Shoot + Interview For BNT

Song Boram (Geummi) has done an interview and photo shoot for BNT. Below, you can find the photos and the interview translated into English, below.

The translation for this interview is thanks to Twitter user, @Kar_Obsidian

[Interview] Boram Song ��Converting to an actress, I’m scheduled to act not as Crayon Pop’s Geummi but under the name Boram Song”

[Journalist: Yeondo Hwang]

Geummi of Crayon Pop origin, has changed her name to Boram Song. The revealing of this news, this turn to acting has attracted the public eye.

Actress Boram Song. The reason for this strange name change maybe for a fresh start, but actually it’s a rather important result, helping and preparing to launch her as an actress forward.

She joined the next generation of Korean actors and actress through starting, firstly in the 2014 web drama ‘6 Persons Room’ and then in the Korean, Chinese collaboration drama ’28 Faces of the Moon’. Recently she demonstrated her strong acting ability in the KBS 1 drama ‘Lovers in Bloom’.

This is her 6th year since her debut. From the days ‘helmet dancing’ and Crayon Pop activities, she received a lot of love one way or another, but suffered from slumps in progress and experienced several ‘bitter tastes’. The one thing that her answers did reveal is that she has matured rather well through her years of experiences. Let’s look forward this acting path she is taking, as she tells me this a new start for the her, from the age of 30.

Q. What were your impressions of this photo-shoot?

Since I was able to do a variety of concepts that I couldn’t do before, this photo shoot was exceedingly good. Before this I almost only had them within a studio but today, it’s shot at unique and pretty location, so it was very gratifying and novel (laughs).

Q. What’s her current situation?

This time, I ended up entering an acting company. So now I’m taking acting lessons, while preparing for and considering my next project.

Q. What are your thoughts of your recent appearance in the KBS ‘Lovers in Bloom’?

Before that, I’d only done web dramas and so it was my first time doing a drama on public TV. Since it was also my first time on a film set, I learned a lot of things while filming. In truth it was a small and brief role as an ‘attractive glamour girl’ but it suddenly became a increasingly important role in my case. Although the role was lacking, I tried hard and wanted to give them the good look they wanted. At first, the character Seung Ah Choi wasn’t listed but now, I was surprised to notice that it’s raised up to ‘Dohyeon’s Ex-Girlfriend’. In spite of the role still lacking, it was a good enough role and I was thankful for being given it. (laughs)

Q. Was there anything difficult when acting the Seung Ah Choi role?

In truth, the character was very different than my normal personality and so it was difficult to act out the emotion. So I wrote a dairy from Seung Ah Choi point of view while injecting the emotion of the character. The role was mainly anger acting and I realised if I immersed myself repeatedly in that, it would have hurt my head too. (laughs)

Q. What was it like being among the other actors?

My first scene with the main character actress Soohyang Lim was a very immersive scene. There was a lot of standby time with her and I noticed when it was suddenly time to film, the expression in her eyes changed. I felt the force of her greater acting experience and while seeing such things I was envious of her and wanted to emulate her many acting qualities. With Bora Nim, I ended up meeting her while filming on set and we’ve become a lot closer. We’d meet personally for meals and drink tea. She is a really kind person and I found that we sync really well in conversation. Should I say it’s the ravishing eating that syncs well? (laughs). Although young, she started acting when she was 1 year old and so I’d ask her about my many curious questions about acting.

Q. Why did you change your name to Boram Song?

For now, since I was turning to acting and not Crayon Pop, my acting company representative suggested, why don’t I change my name? Since doing activities as Geummi gives a strong Idol image I think and since my real name Boram Baek was already used in acting, I will be using Boram Song for my future scheduled activities.

Q. What are your thoughts about turning to acting?

I started acting in a web drama. At that time, even though it was my first time trying to taking on the challenge of acting, my manager, the staff and the other actors were so accommodating and warming to me. I found that standing on the stage as a Idol and acting have different kinds of appeal.

Not so long ago, I asked myself the question about this process of turning to acting and not Crayon Pop. I said “I don’t know whether I want to spend my whole life pursing an acting career or not”. But to the point of wanting to spend my whole life on a career, I found I wanted to act. Although I didn’t have much acting experience, as I went from one job to another, every time I felt another appeal of acting. Actually, filming the scenes of the every day drama was strict and scary. But rather than getting daunted by being in such an atmosphere, I actually found it fun to learn from it. I wonder if I should say I felt something come alive in me (laughs). It’s cheesy expression to say, but I’m serious, haha. I want to raise my acting ability quickly.

Q. As you go forward in acting, is there a genre or a character you would like to try take on?

I’m unsure whether it’s because of my visual image, but the characters that I noticed that I get, are all strong and strong willed. I want to try play the innocent and quiet roles too. I would say I found that I seem to suit characters that are lively and stick out. If I looked just at my appearance, I would say I’m mature but actually I’m very dopey. A beautiful fool (laughs). There are many foolish ajummas characters like this too. But actually, I’m still not sure what roles fit me well. In the future I want to try various roles while finding my own colour.

From what I’ve seen recently, in JTBC ‘Youth 2’, a role like what Yeonseung Han is playing I want to try. A bright character that stands out. Another in KBS2 ‘Fight For My Way’, I would want to play a role like what Jiwon Kim was playing too. A vibrant, strong, and stand out character has become very appealing to me and I’d like to try play one.

Q. What actors would you like to work together with?

My role models are Hyesoo Kim and Doyoun Joen. Its so wonderful that they’ve acted in distinct and colourful ways and I too want to become such an actress. If I was to end up working with them I would learn a great deal I think. I always wanted to meet them.

Q. Soyul, who was a member of your idol group got married. What are your thoughts about it?

Together as members we always wondered who would be the first to get married. Well it ended up being our Maknae (youngest). It’s an unusual feeling and I was moved by it, during our 5 years together, I’ve seen her meet the person she would love and marry and give birth to her child. What is the most important thing? Isn’t it living happy together with the ones you love? I think she met a good man. They look good together and I want to always give them my blessing.

Q. Any marriage plans?

If I met a good partner someday, wouldn’t I get married? But there’s a time for everything I think. Anyhow this year, being 30 I’ve realised that the question of marriage is the most frequently brought up but I still want to remain focused on my work. For the time being, I want to realise my dream of being an actress and then after that I want to get married. If you just get married because it fits with your age, you will regret it later I think.

Q. What about turning 30?

In the past I wanted to quickly become 30. In my early twenties, I wasn’t getting any where and I wasn’t worried about my age. I wanted to become a stable, proficient and wise person and so I wanted to become 30 quickly. I wanted to pursue a look of a beautiful mature woman like Hyesoo Kim or Seongnyeong Kim. Of-course now it isn’t such a perfect place but it’s good to be thirty.

Q. Your style of dating?

I can’t stand uncomfortable situations very well. So I’ve not even had one blind date. Comfortably knowing someone and being on friendly terms first and after that there are many circumstances where you naturally start to date. I think I’ve met a lot of people based on the fact we are the same age.

Q. Your ideal type?

I don’t tend to look at height or appearance and I tend to be attracted to very masculine men. I’m usually sensitive to the person’s smell, if it’s a good and manly smell, it makes me feel great I’ve found. Personally, if I notice that they’re wearing a well matched cologne, it shows me they’re very sensible. In gestures or manner of speaking too, I feel attracted if they are masculine in conversation.

Q. Any intention to record a solo album?

Since I just turned my focus to acting, I want to focus on that.

Q. I discovered before your debut, your occupation was as a skin care professional?

I majored in skin care and worked at a dermatologists doing various things, from full body massages, skin care and so forth. Then my head of department recommended that I did ‘Hair follicle septicography’. It’s a job that implants hair lines, side burns, moustaches and so forth. I’d remove and separate a number of hair follicles from the back of people’s scalps.

Q. Working in hair follicle septicography then why the challenge of getting into a girl group?

When I was 20, my dream of becoming a singer started to grow. But my fathers health started to deteriorate and I took care of him for 2 years. At that time his behaviour was difficult and I wouldn’t be able take care of him if he to got the point where he couldn’t recognise his family’s faces. While I was at my father’s side taking care of him, I came to realise that in no time at all, I was 24. My father got better and I started to work again but I found I was reluctant to give up on my dream of being a singer. From that point, while I was working, I attended a dance school as well, beginning my preparations.

Q. You passed the Crayon Pop audition the first try?

When I was 24 I wanted to sing and so even while I was working in hair follicle septicography, I attended a dance school. I really liked dancing and so I went dancing 5 times a week. Then a friend let me know about a opportunity for a Crayon Pop audition. That was my first audition that went to and I was really lucky that I passed it first try.

Q. You received a lot of love from the helmet concept. Did you expect it to be such a big topic of conversation?

Before the debut I didn’t expect to it to be like at all. When people listened to it, there was a no-one saying it would work out. I worried a lot that such a unconventional concept would really be successful. But still, I thought we should have confidence from within ourselves. I think we tried to sing and enjoy our own concepts. Ultimately when we made the debut, I was so grateful of the enormous amount of people that gave their love for it. When I look back at the time, although it was tough on my body, I was truly happy I think, because I could receive much love and attention from the public.

Q. During the ‘DooDoomChit’ time, you were the one who proposed the uniform concept idea directly?

Before that time, I wanted to stand on stage in a flares concept. At that time, there were people around us that opposed them, saying they’re not fashionable but I just so happen to notice that they really suited the ‘DooDoomChit’ dance. It was good because we could attempt the flares concept I wanted to do. I got to fulfil one of my wishes (laughs)

Q. It’s already your 6th year since your debut. Were there any slumps in activity?

Our debut was about 5 years ago. At that time, even though we released an album there wasn’t much work. Work in the entertainment industry is very unstable and insecure, isn’t it? I started to get doubts of whether I should stay in this line of work. Once I started to worry, I found myself thinking was getting into this a bad idea. I felt giving up on the life in the entertainment industry but I found I still had a lingering feeling for a thing I’ve not done. That thing, was acting. So I composed myself again and set my mind on turning to acting.

Q. You are already a elder of the idol system. What do you think of the younger idols these days?

They are so cute, new and fresh. They remind me of my rookie years in Crayon Pop too. And on the other hand, the industry isn’t easy and I’ve realised that others have the desire to overcome the difficulties behind the stage too.

Q. If you were to let me in on your skin care know how as a former dermatologist

With skin, It’s about being faithful to the basics. Being meticulous with cleansing is important thing. I was a skin care professional but actually, there is no special know how (laughs). I don’t tend to apply a load of cosmetics, or use face packs often. But becoming 30, I plan to take care of my skin a little more. I think it’s good to use good cosmetics but I also think the most important thing with skin, is the right diet.

Q. Are you rather good at cooking?

I think I’m not very good at it. There are times at home when I cook too but my father does most of the cooking at home. My father is very good and efficient house keeper. I don’t know if it’s because he worked as tailor but, he’s dexterous and has extraordinary senses. So I ask his view on my everyday outfit before I go out. If I wondered if the colour and styles matched, he points it out and makes suggestions of better styles too (laughs). When I’m practising acting at home, he also points of things about my acting. Instead of as if I’m reading a book, I found if he responses to my dialogue, he tells me how act.

Q. You have an excellent body figure too. How do you manage it?.

I usually exercise a lot. I go to a health gym, practically every day. I go about 5 or more times a week I think. I really love eating so I don’t want to give up on that joy. And so my belief is ‘Let’s eat happily and move a lot’.

Q. I’ve heard you were a big eater (laughs).

The people around me know this truth well. I do eat rather a large amount. I love chicken so much, it’s ‘1 day, 1 chicken’ (laughs). So in return I move as much as I eat.

Q. I saw you got the nickname ‘Golden Thighs’ (Today)

They prepared clothes for my lower body at today’s photo shoot and I have a very sturdy lower body. In the past I really wanted to have super skinny legs. I have slightly larger hips too. At the time of becoming an Idol, I hated my large hips and pelvis. But nowadays, isn’t it the trend to have a beautiful healthy body figure or ‘Cola bottle’ body shape?, So now I just try to love the body I was born with. I try to highlight a beautiful healthy body figure with it’s merits.

Q. What parts of your body are you most confident in?

My shoulder line is rather nice. So off the shoulder clothes suit me rather well, making my shoulders stand out. And I’m confident of my waist line too I think.

Q. Is there anything else besides acting and singer, that you want to try take on?

I have great interest in beauty so I if had the chance, I would like to try take on being a ‘Beauty MC’. It would great to share my skin care experience, beauty know how, and also demonstrate them directly. (laughs)

Q. Do you rather enjoy drinking?

Although I handle drinking rather well, I don’t really know if I like drinking. If I go to party, normally I don’t have to drink to let myself go. But I try to remain in control if I do drink. A woman drinking and becoming dishevelled isn’t a good thing I’ve seen.

Q. Any entertainment shows you would like to appear on?

I want to appear in SBS ‘The Law of the Jungle’, showing that a natural look can be shown rather than a artificial one is a good point to show. Showing a no make-up look too, I have no big problems with.

Q. If you were to appear on ‘The Law of the Jungle’, don’t you think that it will put a strain on you to show a no make-up look to the public?

Of-course I have a lot freckles and dark circles too but isn’t such naturalness, my original and natural appearance. Showing a no make-up look, I have no big problems with I think.

Q. How do you relieve stress?

Exercise. At the time of Crayon Pop activities, if things got difficult I would run while trying to forget the problems. I relieved stress doing that and I came to realise that, so exercise has become my main habit to relieve stress.

Q. What is your goal?

More than just another label in my bio, in the future I want to be recognised as a character actress. I want to play various roles as I grow older. Someday I’d like to play a mother role. I may have started late but I want to grow, doing many pieces of work. I want be happy and so I wanted to face this start as an actor enjoyably.

Source: BNT 1, BNT 2, BNT 3, BNT 4,

[northshorehealthandfitness]

Maintaining healthy habits during holiday stress

It’s November 20th, and according to Costco as of about 3 weeks ago, the festive season is already here. I haven’t started any decorating yet, but you can sure bet I’ve had my Spotify Christmas playlists streaming from my computer for a while now. (Please say I’m not the only one??)

One of the topics that comes up a lot during this time is maintaining healthy habits during holiday stress. For some people, the holidays are a super happy time, full of parties, traditions and celebrating. It might not feel stressful at all, but more on the energizing, thrilling and exciting end of the spectrum. For others, the mood isn’t so happy. Just the thought of it all – whether that’s spending time with family that you don’t get on well with, traveling, social obligations or other issues – can be really stressful.

With this in mind, and since a few of the clients I coach have asked the same questions lately, today I want to chat about tips for maintaining healthy habits – both during the holidays, and in other times when life gets crazy.

A lot of us tend to have black-or-white, on-or-off, heck-yes-or-heck-no personalities. You’re all in or all out. When it comes to nutrition and eating clean consistently, an unplanned indulgence in the morning like a fully loaded Belgian waffle or chocolate crepe at brunch might tempt you to want to write the entire day off, further indulging just because you think “well I’ve already eaten that, I might as well have allllll the sugary things!”

But wait.

Spiced Apple Berry Crisp

It doesn’t have to play out that way, and this is where my #1 piece of advice for maintaining healthy habits during stressful times comes in.

If you, at some point in the past, have made a shift from eating a lot of processed foods and not exercising at all to cleaning up your nutrition and moving your body regularly, there’s no doubt that you noticed a difference in how you feel. Am I right? Your energy levels, digestion, mental clarity, mood and overall sense of well-being – I’m willing to bet that you felt at least one of those things change for the better.

It’s that shift – the way you feel after doing something that’s truly good for your body, mind and soul, that can work as a huge incentive for making healthy choices – both through the holidays and when you feel super stressed.

Anti-Inflammatory Golden Chickpea and Vegetable Soup

You and I both know how foods that aren’t great choices make us feel. For example, say I were to eat a great big pizza made with a regular (gluten-containing) white flour crust, tons of cheese and processed vegetable oils. I know that I’d…

probably have a stomach ache about an hour later, and would most definitely be bloated – (gluten)

possibly see an acne breakout on my face a day or two later, and the cheese would probably trigger sinus issues +congestion – (dairy)

generally be feeling tired, sluggish and wanting to take a nap.

Now, I’m definitely not saying this would be the case for everyone. You might find pizza makes you feel fab, and in that case, keep it coming. What I’m trying to say is that through personal trial and error, I know those things don’t make me feel the wonderful feelings that more nutrient-dense foods do.

Moral of the story: It’s the knowledge of those consequences that makes the less-ideal choices less tempting. At the same time, it’s the anticipation of how alive, mentally clear and nourished I’ll feel if I make the healthier choices that keeps me reaching for them instead.

So how could you apply this to fun things like holiday parties?

Obviously, Christmas only comes once a year. Likewise, there are treats during the holidays that are only around once a year, so by all means, enjoy a few and truly enjoy them! Love every bite, the taste, the smell, the texture, and any sort of holiday nostalgia that comes up as a result. After all, food and culture are so strongly tied, so it’s no wonder we have an emotional attachment to the things we eat.

While enjoying a few of your favourite treats, you can also:

1. Be sure to work in plenty of fresh whole foods.

Salads, roasted veggie side dishes, pre-party green smoothies, fresh fruit and veggies for snacking on the go…. you get the idea.

2. Alternate alcoholic beverages (if you drink them) with water.

Alcohol is dehydrating, so you’ll feel a lot better if you replace those lost fluids. Drink water and/or focus on water-dense fruits and veggies, and trust me, you will thank yourself when you wake up the next morning.

3. Balance the indulgences with exercise.

While a lot of treats contain ingredients that aren’t great for digestion, exercise can help to keep it moving. (Note: You probably don’t need the reminder, but stating the obvious: you can’t out-exercise a poor diet.) Build movement into your holiday celebrations, rather than using the time as an excuse not to exercise.

4. Place at least as much emphasis on quality connections with people around you.

As much as it can sometime seem like it, the holidays are not just about food. True family or not, people come together and that’s a great reason to spend time catching up, focusing on spending time together doing activities other than eating. Going for walks, sweat dates, shopping trips, Christmas card writing parties, playing games, making those DIY gifts you’ve been pinning on Pinterest – all of these things are opportunities to build relationships without having to do so over food.

What about when you’re feeling stressed?

Just like I said above, I think recalling how making positive choices for yourself has made you feel in the past can encourage you to do the same. This includes food, as well as the other lifestyle choices you make for yourself.

1. Stick to meals made with whole, real, unprocessed ingredients.

You knew this was coming, but why? It’s because whole foods in their unprocessed state are your best bet for delivering your body the vitamins and minerals it needs. That includes foods that support the immune system, nervous system and gut – all of which become weakened when stress hormones start circulating in our bodies.

Here’s a few to work into your meals:

For immunity: fresh fruits and vegetables, and any foods rich in vitamin C (citrus, spinach, kiwi, broccoli, bell peppers) and antioxidants (pretty much all berries, dark chocolate, raw cacao, cilantro, cloves, cinnamon, turmeric, ginger, matcha, green tea).

For the nervous system: foods rich in B vitamins, especially oily fish, gluten-free whole grains, fruits + veggies, dark leafy greens, lentils, black beans, responsibly raised poultry, eggs. Our brains are made of mostly fat, so essential fatty acids are great for this too.

For gut health: Fermented foods like kimchi, sauerkraut, kombucha, tempeh, miso and coconut kefir, fermented pickled vegetables, apple cider vinegar (with the mother), a probiotic supplement, probiotic-rich yogurt (if you’re able to tolerate dairy), collagen, healthy fats, cruciferous vegetables + other fibre-rich produce, turmeric, probiotic supplements. It’s also important to include foods high in prebiotics  to feed the healthy bacteria in the gut, and you can do this with garlic, asparagus, bananas, leeks and onions.

For boosting mood: There are 4 hormones that make us feel happy – serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin and endorphins. Foods like bananas, high quality carbohydrates (think oats and other whole grains), dark chocolate, turkey, asparagus, nuts and seeds can help trigger increases in some of these hormones, which in turn, should help make you feel better.

Soft Boiled Egg Savoury Oats

2. Get sweaty.

Chances are you’ve got a few days off throughout the holidays, and even if you don’t, could probably still squeeze in a quick workout during the day, a few times each week. Exercise will help to keep your digestion moving, and that’s important because stress has a way of slowing it down. It’ll also help to boost endorphins that lift your mood – especially when done outside. When you’re in better spirits, you’ll be more likely to make healthier food choices throughout the day. Whether it’s an indoor sweat at the gym or in a studio, or an outdoor activity like skiing, snowboarding, snowshoeing or just going for a brisk walk, all of these can help to relieve stress and make you feel better.

3. Prioritize sleep.

It might sound lazy, but sleep is SO underrated when it comes to being our healthiest selves. Without it, our brains don’t function as well, cortisol levels run higher, and when gone unchecked can lead to weight gain and more serious health issues. Again, remember how a good night’s sleep will make you feel, vs what the next day will be like if you have to tackle it exhausted. It’s easier said than done, and I’m absolutely not perfect at it either. But as a reminder to all of us, it’s so important to respect what our bodies are trying to tell us. If you need more sleep, make sure you get it. (Yes, even if that means skipping a workout. Sometimes, it really is the better choice.)

How to maintain healthy habits during holiday celebrations (and when life gets crazy) Click To Tweet

Right – now I’d love to open up the conversation to you! Chime in below and tell me how you maintain your healthy lifestyle during the holidays. Do you find it challenging or easier? Any tips to add to my list above?

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[butwhatisit]

@tendersquishyjamie did one of my favorite things!  He tagged me in a thing!  Thank you for being interested in my dumb answers to a series of questions, my friend!  

I tag @uchidachi!  And if you, like me, like to answer random questions, please feel free to answer as well!  If you want me to tag you in these things in future, please let me know.  I don’t want to put anyone in an awkward position by tagging them if they don’t want to be tagged.

Are you named after anyone?

I am not.  There’s technically another person with my first name in the last few generations of my Dad’s family, but their name is spelled the other way and I wasn’t named after her.

When was the last time you cried?

Probably Wednesday.  Wednesdays can be hard.  I still go over to my grandmother’s house every week like I did before, but she’s just... not there.  And she won’t be again.  And this past Wednesday I helped Granpa bag up most of her clothes to go to Goodwill.

Do you like your handwriting?

It’s serviceable, but not elegant or anything.  I’ve been thinking about trying to do something about that.

What’s your favorite lunchmeat?

Ham, but the kind without a rind on it.  Lately it’s been Virginia baked ham from Wegmans.

Do you have kids?

Nah.  But if I did, I’d dress them in halloween costumes every day and make them watch Octonauts with me.

If you were a different person, would you be friends with you?

You know, I’m not sure.  I would like to think so, but I’m not sure.

Do you use sarcasm?

I do.  I also have a very deadpan sort of joke delivery online that complicates so many conversations.  I need to be less me.

Do you still have your tonsils?

Yep.  

Would you bungee jump?

There are no circumstances under which you’d even get me near anywhere people are doing that, much less do it myself.  I am afraid of heights like whoa.

What’s your favorite cereal?

Probably Lucky Charms, maybe Froot Loops.  Fun fact : I do not have milk on my cereal unless I’m eating Cookie Crisp.

Do you untie your shoes when you take them off?

Nope.  

Do you think you are a strong person?

I do not even lift, bro.  (Maybe I should start lifting.)

What’s your favorite ice cream?

Byrne Dairy Peanut Butter and Chocolate.  Alternatively, a medium-chocolate-and-vanilla-twist-with-rainbow-sprinkles.

What’s the first thing you notice about other people?

Body language.

What’s your least favorite physical thing about yourself?

How much time do we have?

What color pants and shoes are you wearing right now?

Galaxy print leggings and black and bronze sandals.

What are you listening to right now?

My parents talking to their dog in the other room.

If you were a crayon, what color would you be?

Cerulean.  

Favorite smell?

Campfires.

Who was the last person you talked on the phone with?

My mom.  I almost never actually talk on the phone with anyone.  Texting, though, that’s fine.

Favorite sport to watch?

Highland games.

Hair color?

Aquamarine, according to the bottle.

Eye color?

Hazel.

Do you wear contacts?

Nope, glasses.  I can’t touch my eyeballs, that’s just madness.

Favorite food?

I don’t really like food.  I suppose sandwiches?  Or grape bubble gum.

Scary movie or comedy?

Neither, I don’t watch movies.  I can’t pay attention that long and trying makes me feel weird and off-balance for the rest of the day.

Last movie you watched?

Uh... god, what was it... I think I watched The Emperor’s New Groove while I was housesitting for my sister a couple years ago, that’s probably the last one.  If we’re talking in theatres, then the third POTC movie, whatever that was.

What color shirt are you wearing?

Blue.

Summer or winter?

Summer.  Late summer.  Very late summer.  Actually autumn.  (I would like winter more if it wasn’t so terrible to drive in the snow.)

Hugs or kisses?

Hugs, pls.

Book you’re currently reading?

I’m not.  I tend to just read a whole book at a go, so I never have just one on the backburner or anything.

Who do you miss right now?

My grandmother.  I wish I could tell her that her son wore Carhardts to her funeral.  (They were new!)  She would have pretended to disapprove, but would have actually found it funny.

What’s on your mouse pad?

It’s just white.  It’s a really old metal Razr, with both sides textured to reflect the laser at different... something, I don’t know.  Anyway, I’ve had it for years and years.

What’s the last tv program you watched?

I had Love Your Home and Garden on last night to fall asleep to.  Someday I might watch that whole episode.  Maybe.

What’s the best sound?

Rain outside when you’re safe inside.

Rolling Stones or the Beatles?

Led Zeppelin.

What’s the furthest you’ve ever traveled?

Lemme do the math... Weatherford, Texas.  I went there to visit my cousins when I was in high school.

Do you have a special talent?

Nah.

Where were you born?

Mom went into labor at a Labor Day picnic, but I was born in a hospital.

[lavieboheme930]

5.Step By Step

What is the wallpaper on your computer screen? Why did you choose it? One of my favorite pictures of Taron.  Hence the reason why I chose it LOL Is there a pattern on the pants you’re currently wearing? Which one? Nope. Do you like going to baby showers? Do you go only for the cake? I’ve only gone to one for my cousin.  I won a set of martini glasses at it LOL Who is the person you text the most in your life? What relation are you? Stacy.  My best friend.  My Bernie and I’m her Elton Mexican food, Chinese food, Italian food, French food or American food? All of the above!!!

Has there ever been a time in your life, you felt sexually undecided? No. Does your mother annoy you when the holidays come along in the year? No. What is the color scheme of your absolute favorite fast-food restaurant? You know, I never did take notice.  But it’s Dairy Queen Do you think tattoos and piercings are sexy on the opposite sex? Not so much tattoos but I love piercings. Do people ever ask you to do things they’re too short to accomplish? No Do your siblings bring people around that your parents don’t approve of? N/A Is there carpet or hardwood floor in your bedroom? hardwood Do you check the texture of things first or the smell of them? Neither. Have you ever broken the arm or head off of a trophy? How did you do this? No. Do you believe in superstitious things such as breaking a mirror? Nope. Do you get sick of people who call themselves bi polar all the time? No. Ever have an ultra-sound performed on you? What was it for? No. Do you like those ‘end of the world,’ ‘Armageddon’ movies? Yes What color are the headphones you have at this moment in time? white. Ever been choked severely on something during lunch at your school? I don’t remember. Do you remember who you sat next to in Kindergarten? Who was it? Yes, it was my friends Katie and Orlando.  Wow...That was 31 years ago and I remember! Has anyone ever compared you to an animal? Which one(s)? no Has anyone, including yourself, forgot it was your own birthday? No Chocolate or strawberry birthday cake? Choose one. Neither Do you eat more vegetables or fruits? What’s your favorite fruit/veggie? veggies.  Potatoes, kale Do you abbreviate things way too often? Do you get called out on it? Yes.  and no. Ever been in one of those church Christmas plays before? Why/why not? No. What is the funniest conjunction you use throughout your day? I don’t know. Have you ever thrown a roll of toilet paper at someone before? No. Does the dentist calm you or does it tend to stress you out? stress If you had to choose, which is the worst movie you’ve ever seen? Ibiza.  As much as I love Richard Madden, that movie just wasn’t worth it. Have you ever found yourself talking to an inanimate object? All the time LOL. Do you like movies that are originally based on children’s books? Yeah. Is your hair more thick or thin? Is it more curly or straight? Think and curly. Something on the human body that grosses you out the most: I don’t really know. Do you like meeting new people? What’s your most common greeting? Yes.  and Hi. Ever think of what it would be like to be a mermaid or merman? no If you had to choose, which celebrity would you date out of all of them? Taron or Richard. I have a feeling I’d probably go with Richard first though LOL Do people feel sorry for you for no reason? Have they ever? No What is something that bothers you about most surveys in general? The ones that assume everyone has had sex.  Not everyone has!!  I’m still waiting for the right person. Who would you take with you on a stranded/deserted island? I don’t know. Do you have your own personal boom box in your bedroom? I did in junior high and high school Would you survive if zombies were to take over the world? Why or why not? Nope. What would you say is the worst part of high school period? I was tormented in high school What is your favorite color of apple? Red, green or yellow? red and green Ever want to be a doctor? Is it because of all the hospital shows? no What do you think of all these reality shows that try to alter personality? I don’t even know what you’re talking about. Where are your favorite pair of shoes in the whole world right now? My silver Elton John boots. Do you live anywhere near a mall? Not really Do you like drawing smiley faces or do you think they’re overrated? I love drawing them. If you were dying who would you say goodbye to first out of everyone? I don’t want to think about it Are you someone who actually likes to babysit children? No. I did it as my first job and I ended up with a sprained ankle chasing around the kid who wouldn’t listen to anything. Do you ever have those ‘ah ha!’ moments? Do those annoy you? Yes and no Do you hardly ever remember where you put things at? No What’s your favorite lunch meat, if you even like any in the first place? depends on my mood. When is the next time you’ll eat a cupcake, if you know when? I’m not a fan of cupcakes. Where did you last buy socks from? What do those socks look like? CVS.  Plain trouser socks, the only ones I like to wear cause I hate socks. Do you ever lay in the grass and look up at the sky, just because? Hell no When do you normally go to sleep on the weekends? same as any day, after midnight. Have you ever met someone with the same ‘biggest fear’ as you? Yeah Do you ever have movie nights with your significant other? I’m single.  But I have movie nights with my best friends over online Would you rather write with a pen or a pencil? Why is this? Pen.  Easier and neater Do you like candy bars? Are you trying to slack off of them? Not really What is your favorite number? Is it significant with your life? 5 and no Are you afraid of being kidnapped if you go outside at nighttime? No Has your mother ever called your school because of your grades? No In the next twenty minutes, what will you be doing and where will you be? Another surveys here Do you like showers or baths better? Why did you choose your choice? Showers.  Never liked baths. Are you a controversial person? Do your views oppose others? N Have you ever thrown a surprise party for someone? Who for? Yes.  Birthday party for my friend Neil.  But it was also my 8th grade graduation party.  We didn’t tell him it was a surprise party for him as well What would you say your average word per minute time is on the keyboard? I have no idea What is your least favorite class in school? Why is this? I always hated science. Do you bite your fingernails or tap them on desks? always tap them Have you ever wanted to be in a band? What position exactly? No. Who is your role model or hero in life if you have one? My mom.  And non family wise: Elton John Do you ever call your cousins just to talk to them randomly? No. Do you find any of your friends’ parents creepy or really mean? No Do you ever have to wash your clothes at someone else’s house? No. When is the next time you’ll go to the library? Why is this? Tomorrow. I go every day. Do you like fiction or non-fiction books more? What’s your favorite? fiction.\. Do you constantly have to be told to shut up? By who? No Do you know how to play pool? Are you any good at it? Not really Do you treat others as you’d like to be treated? Have you always? Yes and yes

Were you a really mean kid or a sweet and quiet kid? sweet and quiet. Are you someone who likes to get in arguments or fights a lot? Hell no!!! How do you make sure people know you don’t like them at all? just don’t talk to them. Would you say you’re someone who likes to cuss a lot? Yes  Do you keep secrets from your parents that you don’t keep from your friends? no What is your father’s best friend’s name? Do you know them personally? No idea who it is. If you had to, where would you get a tattoo at? Why? I hate tattoos and wouldn’t get one. How much was the cell phone you have at this moment in time? No idea Would you say you hang out with people the majority of your life? Nope What would you do if you woke up randomly with purple hair? Sounds like something I would do LOL Do you ever look in the mirror and name all of your flaws for no reason? No Are you getting sick of the reality show Survivor? Why? Never watched it. Do you usually explain to people why you do the things you do? no Ever submit a video to America’s Funniest Home Videos? no What color is the closest desk to your body? What all is on it? beige.  Just my laptop I’m on. The most painful medical procedure you’ve ever had? Wisdom teeth surgery Are you someone who likes to eat Poptarts? What’s your favorite flavor? brown sugar ones. Ever have a dream you’re being abducted by aliens? Was it scary? No. What would you say is the color of your favorite bra? Leopard print Do you like people who are loud or people who are quiet? Dosn’t matter to me. Does personality weigh out the sense of ‘good looks?’ Both are important  When is the next time you’ll see someone who is pregnant? I have no idea. Do you hate it when people copy the things you do? OMG YES!!!! Where is your favorite piece of electronic equipment? next to me. Where is the person who ‘owns your heart’ at this moment in time? No one has it. Has anyone ever told you that you’re good at cooking? Nope. Would you say you’re a fast texter, or are you pretty slow? very fast What is your favorite flavor of Doritos? What do you drink with them? Cool Ranch.  Water. Do you have any enemies who you think are dangerous? Yes. Do you ever try to squeeze information out of people? No Does it freak you out when the police drive by your house? No. Are you someone who tends to take a whole lot of naps? Yes What is your favorite nickname you like to be called? Why do you like it? Dickie.  Cause it’s in reference to Richard’s nickname given by Taron.  It’s used in the group text with my besties. Do you already have your outfit for tomorrow planned out? No What is the color of your favorite pair of pants? What brand are they? Red leggings.  I don’t know the brand. Has your favorite song ever been featured on a commercial? Tiny Dancer is now being used for an American Idol commercial which I hate cause the show is fake!  And Rocketman is being used in WalMart commercials which I love. Do you ever promise pc4pc on Myspace then never return the favor? Wow...this is old. What is one song right now that really gets on your nerves? I don’t know. What would you say was the best year of your life? Why? The last part of 2019 was amazing.  But 2020 I have a feeling is gonna be even better. Do those annoying infomercials ever draw you in to buy things? hell no! Have you ever been pulled over by the cops for speeding? I don’t drive.  Is anyone in your family a firefighter? Who is it anyway? Nope.

[whiskeyworen]

Things about me.

Feel free to skip this. It’s just personal stuff about me that I kinda want people to know about. It’s not a need, unless you ever meet me. See, I just finished reading a very long, powerful post chain about allergies, and the importance of listening when someone says “I’m sensitive to X” or “I’m allergic to Y” no matter the degree of said sensitivity and allergic reaction. My first reaction was to continue the chain, adding my own to it...but then I realized that compared to the ones I’d read, mine are exceedingly minor, and I might actually incur backblast from people forwarding the rest of the chain, because they might view me as ‘not taking it seriously’ when I actually very much do. So I decided to make this post, and put my stuff below the Keep Reading, so as not to clutter up people’s feeds or make them read something they don’t wanna. Feel free to take a gander if you’re curious, but again, it’s not a need-to-know. Not unless you ever have the (mis)fortune of meeting me in person. LOL

1: Lactose Intolerance. This is kinda generic for me. I don’t have a particularly bad reaction to milk, dairy, cheese, etc... but I do have one. It’s almost on a meter scale; the more I have, the worse I am off later. I can tolerate dairy...to a degree. I can have my ice cream, my milk, my cheese. Just not loads of it. A Cheese pizza will make me feel very sick later, even while I eat it. If I have ‘too much’, I start feeling tired, and develop head cold symptoms. Aches and pains all over, stuffy headed, and the ‘raccoon eyes’ look. If I have way too much... well, anyone with full blown LI who has a reaction knows the rest. It’s not pretty or pleasant. I didn’t know I was LI until several years ago. I only realized when I ended up cutting cheese and milk out of my diet, and I started feeling WAY better. Everyone had thought I was perpetually sick, but it turned out I was having one long, continuous reaction to my diet. The irony is, my LI reaction actually put stress on my last relationship, though neither of us knew at the time. We’d go out for dinner, or make dinner at home, and my ex was a cheese-a-holic. Cheese on everything. Lots of dairy. Just loved it. And I’d go along because, well, I too like cheese. But my body simply didn’t. And once a reaction started... You can see how it’d put a kibosh on things if a romantic dinner at home ended in one person feeling sick and just not into anything. LoL. And to be perfectly honest, if I started reaching my limit when it came to dairy and cheese, I always find myself involuntarily gagging. My body literally starts rejecting input and is like “Nope. No more dairy. Take a break. A long one. Go lie down while we sort this out.” 2: Lilies. Easter Lilies specifically, and ALL products using Lily extract, Lily oil, Lily ANYTHING. This is actually a pretty bad allergy. Once again, a case of ‘why do I feel so sick all the time’ only just around Xmas or Easter. Found out why one Easter when I brushed a hand against the pistil of an easter lily, and within a few seconds a painful welt had raised. Couple that with the fact that if I was within 20 feet of one, I’d start wheezing and gasping, my sinuses would fill and lock off, and I essentially went blind when my eyes swole up so badly and were so painfully sore. Sufficed to say, I avoid them at my workplace like the plague when the season is around, and I don’t attend church anymore. I also carefully check perfumed items for Lily extracts, as well as test them if I recieve them as a gift. If I get a reaction even once, I don’t use whatever it was I got. As a result, I don’t tend to wear strong colognes or use strongly scented soaps. It’s hard to feel good about smelling good when you can’t see properly, or your skin hurts, etc. No amount of pain is worth someone possibly maybe almost kinda noticing ‘Hey, you smell kinda nice.’ I can handle light stuff though, which is what I use. So I don’t smell like a damned yak, or a ‘I only smell like what the human body is supposed to smell like ‘ person. Bleah. 3: Aloe Barbadensis: This one was a surprise, but every encounter I’ve had with the moisturizing miracle plant has left me with sore, cracked, aching, bleeding skin. Apparently something like 10% of the population has a reaction to the stuff that’s the opposite of what does for the other 90%. I realized I was allergic to it when I was offered a hand lotion for dry skin, and it made my skin even drier, made it swell slightly, and go painful. Thinking back, I think of the times I had sunburns and someone gave me aloe gel to cool and soothe those burns...and the burns would instead feel like millions of needles after a few seconds, and were painful to AIR travelling over them. Moreso than when I stopped using the ‘coolant’ gel. I don’t ever want to think about what it’d do to my throat if I drank Aloe drinks... I know I’ve sampled some without realizing, and it made my esophagus extremely itchy. A full drink would probably make it swell shut and I’d be in the hospital. These days, I check every soap and shampoo and lotion I get for ‘Aloe barbadensis leaf juice’ and if it has it... I don’t use it.  A shame that 90% of stuff people get me out of the goodness of their hearts as gifts end up having the stuff in it. 4: Mushrooms: Not the ‘oh boy fun time’ mushrooms, though I’d probably be allergic to those too. I’m talking about Fungi in general. I’m badly allergic to grass mould, so when there’s a snowmelt outside, I gotta dose up on anti-allergy meds pretty hard. I’m also allergic to your garden variety (literally) eating mushrooms. This sucks, because my family loves things like porkchops with mushroom sauce, or steaks with sauteed mushrooms, or chili with mushrooms in it, and things like that. And it REALLY sucks for me because... I LIKE Mushrooms. When properly done, I absolutely love them. I love them in stirfry, in sautees, on pizza. But holy hell, do Mushrooms not love me back. If I eat them, I will enjoy them. and then I will have to cancel my plans for the next 18 hours, starting at the SAME HOUR I ATE THEM. Because the reaction is that fast, that brutal, and that painful. How painful? I want you to picture a spiked ball about the size of your fist. Make it nothing but glass shard spikes. Just unrelenting, fractal arranged glass shard spikes in the vague shape of a ball. Now imagine that very SLOWLY dragging its way through every inch of your gut, starting at your stomach. Over hours. People who have had kidney or urinary tract stones will know what kind of pain this is like. I can make that comparison at least, because I’ve had a stone or two in my time when I was really ill. To that spiked ball, imagine it moves one inch per hour, rotating slowly as it does so. It feels like something with claws, fangs, spikes, and blades is lacerating its way through you. I have cancelled plans because of this. Had entire days just nullified because I accidentally ate a handful of mushroom slices, or something else I ate was marinated in like, a truffle oil or had the oil from sauteed mushrooms on it or in it. At restaurants, I gently ask my server if they could find out what the source of their gravy (particularly for fries and stuff) is from. Like, specifically is it Beef or meat-based, or is it vegetable based. Most of the veggie stuff tends to use mushrooms which clearly is not good for me. They usually oblige me because a lot of places are intensely careful about allergies as long as you announce them. Sadly, I’ve had to stop Poutine-ing up my fries at my favorite restaurant, and I don’t get the gravy with my fries at work anymore, for that reason. Both are veggie-base gravy. I can handle a very small amount of mushroom or mushroom oil, but not at all much. And I don’t like trying to figure out just how much, because I don’t like feeling like I’m being eaten alive AND turned inside out by razor hooks. There are GODS out there that have heard my desperate pleas, and turned a blind eye to my plight. None of these allergies, with the exception of perhaps the Lily extract or ingesting Aloe, will ever kill me or nearly kill me. But they make life sometimes unbearable or unworkable, and always painful. Some might say I’m exaggerating my allergies, and that they aren’t that serious. Which, ironically, is especially intolerant of my support of THEIR allergies and desires to let people know how important theirs are to monitor. This has been.... stuff about me. I’m surprised if you read this far. Congrats. you now know more about me than half of my real life friends.

[kateharks-blog]

Complimentary Cancer Care Overview

Several people have asked me what I am doing to survive and thrive with stage IV cancer. I am going to provide just a brief overview of the complimentary care that I use in conjunction with my prescribed chemotherapy. I will go into more details on the specific components of my wellness plan at a later time for those who are interested.  

Deciding on Treatment:

Cancer patients must decide if they are going to go with conventional cancer treatments, alternative treatments, or a combination of both. As we all know, the first line of treatment for all cancer patients is chemotherapy, radiation, and/or surgery. I think it is pretty standard knowledge that chemotherapy kills cancer cells, but it also kills the healthy cells in your body. There are sources that believe the risks of conventional treatments are more dangerous than the cancer itself. They give some compelling ideas around the powerful pharmaceutical companies and exorbitant finances tied into the cancer industry.

There are two sides to every story. I personally believe that chemo was (and still is) a necessary treatment to get my cancer under control. But I truly believe that it is only one piece of a larger puzzle. If I was going to enable my body to thrive and let the chemo do its work to stop the cancer cells without sacrificing my overall health and well being, I needed to take control of everything that I could control. I needed my immune system and my body to be as strong as possible to allow the chemo to do its job. Therefore, I decided to completely change my lifestyle and take control of my health as much as possible. In order to do that, I incorporated the following complimentary care components into my wellness plan: 

Diet - Get the Proper Nutrition: 

I wholly believe that changing my diet helped me fight the cancer and is one of the main reasons why I am still here today. Don’t get me wrong, I am not perfect, and I slip up from time to time, but for the most part, my diet has been completely transformed. Following diagnosis, I began reading a number of cancer books that focused on nutrition (I’ll post another write-up on suggested resources). The most frustrating part of this learning curve is that different sources will contradict each other and tell you different things (not the first time this happened in my cancer journey!!). One source will say no meat…the next will say retain meat for protein especially while you are on chemo. Another source will say no fruit because it is high in sugar and the next will say fruit is essential for healing and natural sugars are okay (as long as you don’t go hog wild). The list goes on. I read a lot of books on nutrition and spoke to several nutritionists on the subject to find the best diet for me throughout my journey. I came to the conclusion that if several sources repeated the same thing, I took note. If one source was an outlier in comparison to the others (e.g., no fruit) I went with the majority.

My diet changes included: 

Going Organic  

Drinking A lot of home-pressed vegetable juice (Using a Twin Gear Juicer) 

Drinking Vegetable Protein Smoothies  

Eating a good variety of vegetables daily (all colors of the rainbow), mostly raw if your digestive system is capable of handling it 

Testing your PH levels to make sure you are getting enough alkaline foods into your body and adjusting your food intake accordingly

Eliminating or Greatly Reducing Processed Sugars

Eliminating or Greatly Reducing Dairy (Use almond, coconut, or other nut or plant-based products) 

Eliminating or Greatly Reducing Animal Meats (At minimum only eat organic, grass-fed meat)    

Eliminating or Greatly Reducing processed foods

Drinking about 3 cups of green tea each day. It is an excellent antioxidant

Drinking at least 10-12 glasses of filtered water per day (we purchased a whole house filtration system) 

Drink a large glass of lemon water first thing in the morning 

I can definitely feel the difference the changes I made to my diet have had to this point. I truly believe the reason my body stays strong during my chemo treatments is because I give it the needed nutrients. I have noticed clearer skin, much better digestion, regularity with bowel movements, and overall I feel much better (I can tell the difference when I slip up!) 

Add in Key Supplements:  

Supplements will not replace the nutrients that you need from food but can give you the added nutrients needed to help your body in the fight against cancer. I do not believe there is one list of supplements that will work for everyone, rather I believe it is very individualized to your body terrain and what your body specifically needs. I turned to the Block Center in Skokie IL to determine my optimal supplement intake. They run extensive blood work to determine your bodies needs. It is important with each new chemo regime that you check with your doctor regarding the supplements you are taking to ensure there is no interactions with that specific chemo. The following are some of the supplements I have added to my diet: 

Barley Power, 

Cellular Forte IP-6, 

Chlorella Spirulina, 

Cod Liver Oil, 

Curcu-essentials, 

Enzyme Essentials, 

Green Tea Extract, 

Ipriflavone, 

L-Carnitine, 

Milk Thistle, 

N-acetyl Cysteine, 

Nutri-essential Plus, 

Probiotic Essentials, 

ProCal 3 (Calcium), 

Resveratrol, 

Scute, 

Transfer Factor, 

Turkey Tail, 

UBQH, 

Vitamin D3

Keep Your Body Moving and Exercise: 

For those of you on chemo, exercise is probably the last thing you want to do. I get it. I have been on chemo for over 3 years now and most days I am so exhausted I feel as though I can barely move! But I still try to do at least 30 minutes of exercise per day. For me that is:

Rebounding (mini trampoline, excellent for the lymphatic system)

Using my recumbent bike or elliptical rider

Dancing to my favorite jams 

Fitness classes at the local Cancer Wellness Center

Walking

Water Aerobics (best if you can find a salt water pool rather than a chlorinated pool)

Get into physical therapy if you need help getting started and strengthening your body. Just remember, a body in motion stays in motion! 

Go el Natural:

We put a lot of carcinogenic products on or in our bodies every day that contributes to the body’s toxin overload, many of which we don’t even think of. These products often contain carcinogens such as acetone, methylene chloride, parabens, and many others. I slowly started incorporating natural products into my everyday life and ditching the products that contain chemicals and toxins that are absorbed into our skin and body. The following is a list of natural beauty products I use: 

Deodorant (Avoid Antiperspirants!) 

Sunscreen

Toothpaste

Lotions/Shaving Cream

Make up and Make-up Remover

Hair dye

Nail polish 

Lip balm 

Feminine Pads and Tampons 

Perfume 

Hand Soap

Body Soap

Shampoo and Conditioner (all hair products) 

Pretty much anything you put onto your body should be natural! 

  Other Household products: 

Cleaning Products

Laundry Detergent

Dishwashing Detergent

Dish Sponges

Cookware (ditch the Non-Stick Teflon Coated, aluminum or copper cookware for Cast Iron, Stainless Steal, or Ceramic) 

Air Fresheners (diffuse essental oils instead)

Bed Linens 

Lawn care (we went with an organic lawn service) 

Remove Additional Toxins from Your Body:

We can reduce a lot of our toxin load by going natural with our body and household products, but there are still numerous environmental toxins that we cannot control. Additional methods I employ to reduce my toxin burden include:

Far Infrared Sauna

Hot Epsom Salt Baths

Clay Foot Soaks

Exercise (as mentioned above) 

Coffee Enemas (I have yet to do a coffee enema, or any colon cleansing procedure because I have been a bit too nervous to do it, but many people believe it is very beneficial) 

Get Healing Body Treatments: 

There are several treatments I do on a regular basis to maintain health and healing in my body. These treatments include:

Acupuncture 

Chiropractic Adjustment (I use the Activator technique since I have bone mets) 

Massage / CranioSacral Therapy

Reiki / Healing touch 

Aryvuda 

Reflexology

Use Essential Oils: 

There are several essential oils that are thought to have cancer fighting properties and can help with numerous other aliments or side effects. Plus they smell great! I tend to diffuse my essential oils in a diffuser. I will apply specific essential oils to my body using a carrier oil and I also put a few drops of essential oils in my bathtub at night. I have made many of my own beauty products also using essential oils. Some people ingest essential oils (I do not), I prefer topical application or diffusing. My go to essential oils are: 

Frankincense - believed to have cancer fighting properties. I apply this at my tumor locations with a carrier oil, use it in my bathtub, and diffuse it

Myrrh - believed to have cancer fighting properties. I often times mix this with Frankincense

Lavender - Good for sleep and relaxation - Diffuse at night time in the bedroom

Peppermint - Relieve sore muscles when used topically, supports digestion and 􏰖􏰃􏰉􏰒􏰗􏰃􏰌􏰄􏰏􏰈􏰒􏰌􏰃􏰈􏰍􏰄􏰈􏰗􏰁􏰉􏰄􏰎􏰃􏰓􏰀􏰒􏰝􏰄reduces nausea, bloating and acid reflux

Lemon - best known for it’s ability to cleanse toxins from the body, stimulate lymph drainage, to rejuvenate energy, purify skin and act as a bug repellant􏰈􏰏􏰉

Tea Tree Oil -  ability to treat wounds and is known to have powerful antiseptic properties - Diffuse in the air to purify air of mold and allergens

Purify the Air: 

Get some live plants into your house to provide oxygen and help purify the air. According to a NASA study, the following are good options: 

Spider Plant (Mother in laws tongue)

Peace Lilly

Pothos

Parler Palm

We also use air purifiers in our house. We have one on every floor in the house. 

Get Proper Sleep: 

It is recommended that you get 8-10 hours a sleep per night. For me, since I have been on chemo and I know that my body needs extra time to recuperate and heal, I get about 10 hours of sleep per night. To aid in sleeping, I do the following: 

Diffuse Lavender essential oil

Keep the bedroom in complete darkness

Take melatonin prior to going to sleep

If my body is in pain I will take a marijuana indica edible which helps with pain and sleep

Relax, Relieve Stress, and Meditate: 

We all know that high levels of stress are not good for us but yet most of us are stressed all the time. Especially when you have gotten a cancer diagnosis. The stress and anxiety that comes with this diagnosis often feels overwhelming and at times insurmountable, especially when it is time for scans, MRIs, tests, etc. The “scanxiety” is real and extremely difficult to manage. But yet we often times don’t do anything to help prevent or reduce our stress. I have always carried a lot of stress and I knew I needed to find a way to calm myself down, relax, and de-stress if I wanted to survive. 

Meditation was likely one of the most critical things that I implemented to help me survive my cancer diagnosis. Meditating helped me to calm my body and mind so I was not in high gear anxiety mode all the time. It is pretty miraculous what meditating can do for your mind and body if you only give it a chance. The following are a few tips that helped me successfully mediate:

Take a meditation class 

Designate a Meditation room or space in your house that is your “happy place” 

Use guided meditations to help you (can find through phone Apps, YouTube, etc. 

Can incorporate Mantras that you repeat (e.g. Inhale: Health, Healing, Happiness and Love; Exhale: Remove all cancer from my body)

Can incorporate a body scan where you visualize and feel each part of your body and relax it starting at your toes up to your head. 

Can incorporate Visualization of your body healing itself and attacking and removing all cancer cells (e.g., Silva Method Meditation) 

Additional things I incorporated into my wellness routine that helped calm my stress and anxiety include: 

Deep Breathing - I concentrate on breathing deeply throughout the day to keep myself calm

Hypnosis 

Acupuncture

Medical Marijuana - can be used to reduce anxiety instead of synthetic anxiety medications 

Surround my self with loved ones including my family friends and pets 

Do something you love

Travel if you can 

Journal or Blog

Repeat Positive Affirmations 

Alternative Cancer Treatments 

Although I have opted for traditional chemotherapy, I also incorporate additional “alternative”, natural treatments that are believed to be cancer fighting. Some individuals choose these types of treatment over conventional treatment, but for myself, I felt as though a combination of traditional and alternative treatments would give me the best chance for survival. I have included the following elements into my wellness routine: 

Essiac Tea - Believed to be cancer fighting. It can be purchased at http://www.essiac-tea.org. Can be taken 1-3 times a day (I drink it nightly before bedtime)

Aloe Absorbsens - Believed to be cancer fighting. It can be purchased at https://www.aloeproductscenter.com/products/purchase. Take one dose, three times a day (i.e. three tablespoons a day), 10-20 minutes before a meal

Fucoidan - Believed to be cancer fighting. I use Zradical which can be purchased on Amazon. 

CBD Oil - Believed to be cancer fighting.  I am able to purchase my CBD oil at a dispensary since medical marijuana is legal in Illinois. Prior to getting my medical card I purchased CBD oil at https://www.solcbd.com.

Apricot Seeds - Believed to be cancer fighting. Some argue against apricot seeds indicating they contain a chemical called amygdalin, which your body chemically converts into cyanide. Alternative cancer practitioners believe this only penetrates cancer cells and not healthy cells. I am conservative with my apricot seed intake and only take about 9 seeds per day whereas others may take much higher doses. I use the Apricot Power brand. 

Rife Machine - I purchased a Rife Machine which is a frequency generator created specifically to kill microbes inside the cancer cells. This machine is believed to work on sarcomas and carcinomas. I purchased mine at: http://www.FrequencyStore.com

There are several other alternative treatments that I have yet to incorporate into my routine but I have considered, including:

High dose Vitamin C infusions

Ozone therapy

Cellect-Budwig Protocol 

I may look into these at a future time and will update accordingly. Thank you for reading this blog entry and I truly wish you the best of luck in your cancer journey. Stay strong and fight on! 

[mysurveys]

Random Qs

Survey #12 on the Countdown to 2018!

Does any part of your body hurt right now?

My back is sore and the joints are achy. I really need to see a chiropractor.

Someone removes you from their Facebook friends and then tries to add you again, so do you ignore them or accept?

What does the last message in your Facebook inbox concern?

Have you met anyone new recently?

No one who stands out from the crowd at least.

What does your last text message from the opposite sex say?

Could you have a relationship with someone your friends didn’t like?

If all of my friends had some beef against them then I would think twice. I've already been through something like that and I learned a great deal from it. So I would have to re-evaluate the situation carefully.

Who's your closest friend of the opposite sex and what’s the best thing about them?

I'm not sure if I'm closer with Symon G. or Sasuke M. right now. They're both exes of mine, but I've known Symon longer.

He's got such a great sense of humor that really meshes with mine. Sasuke is one of the most mature and self-confident guys I've ever met and that made us an even better love match.

What does the most romantic message in your inbox say?

Have your friends ever tried to set you up with someone and if so, what happened?

That's never happened to me and I would refuse that kind of thing. I don't want my friends to assist me that way.

How many likes or comments did your last Facebook status get?

Is it just me or do you tend to get really nervous and paranoid whenever someone says that they need to talk to you?

I don’t automatically presume it’s going to be a negative things although that typically seems to be the truth of it.

When was the last time you laughed so hard that you cried?

I don't remember.

When was the last time you really wanted to tell someone something, but you felt that you couldn’t?

I don't typically feel that way since I'm so upfront and outspoken.

What’s the problem with you and the person you love?

There isn't a problem between me and the guy I'm interested in. I'm just taking things slow after having so many painful health issues last year. It's not a relationship I want to dive into immediately.

Has your best friend ever done anything to embarrass you?

Mom is sometimes like that. She's one of my besties.

When was the last time you felt like there was something bothering you that you couldn’t talk to anyone else about?

Recently. I don't know how to impress upon Mom that I need a caregiver who can remember things. She hasn't been remembering anything I've asked her to lately no matter how small it is.

Do you remember who you had feelings for in February 2009?

Hell no. I have long-term memory problems and remembering such specifics isn’t really relevant to me personally. That’s not how my mind works.

Do you think it's best to always tell the truth even if it could mean that someone gets hurt?

I had to develop more of a filter myself, but there are times when the truth is required even when it's unpleasant.

What does your current bubble bath or shower gel smell like?

I don't use bubble baths and I buy "unscented" products most of the time. I sometimes use Herbal Essences which smells flowery and my body wash smells like the grain ingredients.

How did you meet the person you fell hardest for?

We met online via one of my chats.

How long was your last phone call?

I'm sure it was brief. I hate talking on the phone.

Out of all your friends, who's the funniest?

Symon, Makoto and Mom are my top three.

And which friend are you most likely to go to if you need a shoulder to cry on?

I'd probably just talk to Mik V. who's one of my besties because he’s also my willingly unpaid therapist.

Can you share three memories that make you smile or laugh?

My memories are kind of fluid. Sometimes they disappear and suddenly come up later. It's also kind of difficult to recall my memories on the spot since they'll suddenly go dark.

However, some more recent ones are with my cats who do funny and cute things sometimes. Pearl is so quirky and weird and Lucius has a few unexpected personality kinks of his own.

Pearl just goes bat shit sometimes and she’s got a fascination with hanging out in the garage. I forgot I let her in there once and she pretty much went Kung Fu kitten all over the door to get out.

Once I tried to open up a cushioned lawn chair to sit out on the front walkway with Lucius and he abruptly jumped up into it. ( ὀ ｡ ὀ ˇ)ᕤ

He seemed quite content to use it like a cat bed so I was like, “Okay then. I guess I’ll go get the other lawn chair.” ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

Who was the last person you got into an argument with?

Probably Mom. She can be so defensive about every little thing.

Do any of your relatives embarrass you?

Mom can sometimes and Dad does so a lot.

Have you told a lie in the past three days?

I can’t think of anything since I haven't even had any real reasons to lie in the last few days and I'm such an upfront person anyway.

What was the last alcoholic drink you had?

I've only ever had a tiny sip of cheap red wine that I hated just to get my ex to shut up. I shouldn't have caved.

What would you say if your best friend came to you and said she was pregnant?

My Mom can't get pregnant, but if that happened with Misty I'd just be happy for her since she's married and trying to conceive.

When was the last time you went to McDonald’s?

Probably in December or January. I rarely go to McDonald's and Burger King. I haven’t even been to Dairy Queen in months.

What did you last take medication for?

I took some for diabetes, an allergy pill and something for a UTI that I didn't even know I had. My primary said they’re very common recurring problems following a hysterectomy, but I didn’t even notice any symptoms.

Are you craving anything at the moment?

No, I'm not. I don't often have cravings.

When was the last time you felt awkward?

It was in the early AM today and I was searching the house for some kind of fan since mine started making a lot of noise. I think my floor fan's broken, but I'm not sure. I can't tell what's wrong with it.

The awkwardness was about me making so much noise while my parents were still in bed with my cat Pearl following me relentlessly only to get in my way at every turn.

Would you ever date a friend’s ex?

Sure. Why not? She doesn't own him. If she warned me against it due to his personality and behaviors then I would consider what she has to say about him very carefully, though. I do listen to friends' advice and warnings.

Where was the last place you went out to eat?

I think it was the Outback restaurant with Mom and Miss Cindy.

Who's the most attractive person of the opposite sex that you know?

Physically and otherwise, I'd say it's a tie between Sasuke M. and Makoto whose last name I can't remember to save my life.

How old is your best friend’s ex?

I have six besties with more than one ex and I don't even know all their ages.

How long do you feel you need to get to know someone before you would consider having a relationship with them?

A romantic relationship or just a friendship? I befriend people fairly fast since I'm a good judge of character, but opening up to a romantic partner can take more time. It really varies based on the guy, though.

What was your favorite thing about the person you fell hardest for?

He was just so much more mature and self-assured than any other guy I had been with before.

Who're three celebrities you find attractive?

Physically, I'd go with Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hiddleston and Luke Evans especially when they have black hair. I love the first as John Harrison, the second as Loki Laufeyson and the third as Dracula.

What're your plans for the weekend?

I don't know yet, but I often just stay in to avoid the weekend crowds.