Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Everyone Freezes

As a prank of sorts 200+ New Yorkers made the commitment to all freeze in time at the exact same moment. I don't know what I would do if I were to walk off a train and see this. It is a pretty interesting idea. I know I wouldn't be able to stand there for several minutes, I shake too much! I am always asked if I am cold or nervous...I'm not I just shake. It would be kinda cool to be part of something like that though, I like that they truly do freeze with their mouths open or picking up papers. If a group of people did this on at a busy intersection you know things would get really crazy. It's worth watching to see everyone's reaction. I wonder how many people were actually worried or scared that they walked in to something out of the twilight zone?

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Fixing an Earache

So late last week I began to develop a cold, I took some meds and extra vitamins and decided to go on with my day to day life. On Friday afternoon my ears kinda popped and my hearing was a little muffled, I didn't worry too much about it at the time.
Come Saturday afternoon both my ears are killing me. I forgot what having an earache as a kid was like and it isn't fun at all! Seeing that it was Saturday there was no Doctors office to visit and I was thinking the only thing that could help would to decongest a bit. I looked up symptoms and solutions online and found a few tips on making it better, as well as a comment that going to an emergency room was of little help. So at that point I realized there was something I must do to take some of the pressure off.
Tips online said to take a hot shower, put a warm compress on the ear, sleep with the ear down, and take a few aspirin. I tried the compress and it helped a little but not nearly enough. I got to thinking and for some reason really wanted to somehow put some sort of suction on my ear, maybe for the strange psychological reason I wanted to see if anything would come out.
I came up with an idea as I was in the kitchen re-warming my compress. I decided to put my compress in the bottom of a small drinking glass. Because the compress was at the bottom of the cup, it didn't touch my skin so it could be much hotter and steam. Then I figured I might as well take the advice of putting the ear that hurt the most at a downward angle and hold the rim of the glass against my ear. It worked! After a few minutes I really was in a lot less pain!
This is only a temporary solution though because as soon as I removed my ear from the cup within several minutes my ears would pop and hurt just as much as before. It was a long weekend with a pair of cups, paper towels, advil, and hot water. I finally got in to the doctor late yesterday afternoon to find that my congestion had indeed caused two ear infections (something I had never really thought about before this incident) so now I am on steroids, antibiotics, and decongestants. I am feeling better today but they still hurt. Good news is the cup trick seems to have a longer lasting affect than it did before. So if you ever get a bad earache and can't go to a doctor, maybe try a cup with a hot compress at the bottom.

Friday, February 8, 2008

A Reason To Like McDonalds...



Ok so for the most part I think McDonalds is gross and bad for you as far as how greasy it is, and arteries clogging, on and on. Tonight McDonalds managed to reposition themselves in my mind, so much as to write about it. For some reason I had a craving for the McNuggets I had as a kid. Being the extremely demanding and picky consumer I am I decided I only wanted them if they were REALLY hot and fresh. I looked up the closest McDonalds number and asked them when the last batch of nuggets were made. They told me they were rotated every twenty minutes, but didn’t know when the last batch was made. I was asked how many I wanted and how far away I lived. I drove to the McDonalds and walked in thinking I would have to wait or give up, yet they surprised me. They were pulling the nuggets out of the fryer at the moment in the exact quantity I had said I wanted. Not only did they respond to a question with an action they gave me the nuggets ON THE HOUSE and even offered to make it a value meal! I was surprised since I tend to think of McDonald’s as a non-service type of factory but they really went out of their way to satisfy me. I did a research project last semester on McDonalds consumers (mostly because I didn’t understand why people ate thee as regularly as they did) and learned how loyal they were. I never truly understood why. I still think of McDonalds as junk food but tonight they repositioned themselves in my mind. I now see them as a truly service company who has been smart enough to localize themselves in every market they enter with good service. I never thought I would be writing a great review for McDonalds but here I am, a little greasier but happy.

Sunday, February 3, 2008

How Can People Be So Rude?

I do not understand how anyone could be so inconsiderate as to put something on their car that will annoy other people and potentially prevent them from hearing something important like a police siren. To believe you have the authority to wake people in the morning because "they should be making breakfast" is absurd! I guess I understand in some circles being loud and drawing as much attention to yourself as possible is cool, but I am not in that circle. These things should be made illegal.

Jewelry



For those of you who know me, it is a known fact that I love jewelry! I don't love it because it is expensive, or glamorous. I do love that it sparkles though! I love Jewelry because it is intricate and complex. It takes great skill to cut stones to specific sizes and work metal into beautiful settings. The ring above is one I really want and cannot have because my Mother has it. There are so many stones fit together perfectly to give the appearance the ring has. It takes imagination to come up with a ring design like that! Pieces of jewelry really are works of art. It takes creativity, skill, trial, and the occasional error to come up with a finished piece of jewelry. I also like to think of Jewelry as having a story. Many of the pieces of jewelry I own (or my mother owns) are antiques. My father says they have someone’s tears all over them (this is just a little joke of his). A piece of jewelry can outlive any human especially if it is well made and taken care of. When I wear old pieces of jewelry I sometimes think of who the previous owner might have been. What must their life have been like, how did they receive the piece that I now wear? By thinking about this I think I can honor them and keep them alive, even though I never knew them. Like the great paintings you see in museums which have hung on numerous walls in various places, old jewelry has had a long and interesting life as well. For example I have a pair of antique French earrings dating to about 1900. I look at them and think of the things those earrings must have been through the emotions those who owned them had about them. Maybe they were given to a secret mistress as a present. Maybe they were purchased to match a gown that was going to be worn to a ball. Maybe someone simply liked them and bought them. But the earrings have changed hands over time who knows for what reasons, hatred, need, love, an heirloom. But when I wear those earrings I know they are more than something pretty to look at they are a story or their own, and my owning them just gives them more of a story.

What I Wish Was on Every Menu

My Ideal Restaurant Menu

Fillet Mignon with a Cognac Cream Sauce, Grilled Asparagus and Country Potatoes
Three Grilled Cheese Sandwich with a Bowl of Fresh Tomato Soup
Browned Butter Linguini with Fried Sage or Rosemary
Chicken Medallions over a bed of Linguini with a Soft Dijon Rosemary Cream Sauce
Steak and Bowtie Noodles
Rack of Lamb with Spinach and Mashed Potatoes
Thanksgiving Dinner with all the fixings
Country Potato Soup with ParmCream
Beef Bourguignon
Grilled Chicken Breast over a bead of Fresh Steamed Veggies
Tandoori Chicken with Dahl and Nahhan
Country Beef Stew
Lamb Kabobs
Thin Crust Authentic Pizza
Fresh Veggie Plate
Berries a'la mode
Cheesecake
Chicken Quesadillas with a side of Guacamole and Sour Cream

And there are so many more….