Day 184

Blurb: This is a rare occurrence, I actually sat down and watched a movie.

Backstory: Today I just laid low, mom and dad were out of town all weekend and I'm not feeling well. I pretty much spent the day on the couch watching tv, I spent so much time there I actually decided to watch a movie I rented from the library. For some reason I'm not big on sitting through movies, I'm much more of a tv person and I can't explain why. In fact I can't even remember the last movie I sat through a movie that wasn't in the theaters.
Today's flick was the classic Cool Hand Luke with Paul Newman, my first exposure to one of America's best actors outside of his organic treats. Newman did live up to every handsome remark that's ever been made, plus he had a very voice. The most surprising part of the movie was how they were able to advice the story with little dialogue. When you watch it you realize there's not a lot of talking, but there's a lot of physical acting. It wasn't my favorite movie but I did appreciate it.

Day 183

Blurb: Too bad this was the best part of my meal, it's the worst fast food item you can eat in America.

Backstory: As a general rule I don't eat at Outback Steakhouse, I'm not crazy about the food and it's notorious for having a high calorie count. But I'm happy to go if someone suggests it because, let's be honest, I just like eating out. Megan and Brian had some wedding gift cards so it was graciously off to the Outback for dinner. Let's just say I was reminded of why I don't eat there, none of us finished our food and Brian and I refused to take our leftovers home. Plus, we're pretty sure our server was on something.

Day 182

Blurb: In real life you can't pick up a Smurf because there's actually a person in there.

Backstory: Today marks the halfway point in the year, and I actually did something pretty cool, even if it was unintentional. The Smurfs movie is coming out this weekend and part of the promotional campaign was bring in three little costumed characters to play with our anchors. This is me with Papa Smurf, Smurfette and Clumsy Smurf. The funniest thing about this is that each of these characters is actually a high school cheerleader. The costumes require a very specific size: you have to be under 5'3 and under a size four and of course the perfect sized person for this is a high school cheerleader.
It was extremely cute because they couldn't see very well with the costume heads on so we had to lead them around. So I was holding a little smurf hand and walking them through the studio. It's probably one of the funniest things I've ever done just because you know these are high school girls, yet these are your favorite characters from childhood come to life. So in my mind I'm just going to pretend that I was holding hands with the real Clumsy Smurf.

Day 181

Blurb: I can seriously not stop creepin' on my new place.

Backstory: For the second time in one week I had dinner at what appears to be my favorite restaurant in the city: Dirty Franks. Jenny and I decided mom finally needed to visit and even thought we were very disappointed in her hot dog choice we had a good time. My little sister spends most of her week in Cincinnati so she's never seen my new place, lucky for us it's only about 10 blocks away from Dirty Franks (this does not bode well for my future).
For the second time in about two weeks I went to my new place and walked around the court yard; let's be honest with ourselves this is very creepy and I know that. I just open the little gate and walk right in like I'm already living there and take people to walk around the house. Thank goodness the tenants who live there right now always keep the blinds closed or else I would have the police called on me. When they move out in August I'm seriously considering getting a jump start on weeding the flower beds and planting flowers. This might require a call to the land lord so my new neighbors don't think I'm super crazy (even though I might be).

Day 180

Blurb: Look at me being an industrious little feature reporter.

Backstory: Even though I've had a couple stories appear in a local magazine I've never been to one of their editorial meeting, but tonight I broke that streak. They had a meeting for their August issue and I went in there, made a couple pitches and ended up with my biggest load of assignments yet. It's pretty exciting but I'm also a little nervous because I have four stories to get done in one week. Working in tv you get used to working on a deadline so this shouldn't be a big deal, but I do have some butterflies.

Day 179

Blurb: Some days you just run out of everything.

Backstory: This week has already started off being a little difficult because my sleeping schedule didn't click correctly on Sunday night. When you work the graveyard shift if that first night of correcting your sleep doesn't go well your week can be very rough. I've been trying to right my sleeping ship but it hasn't gone very well, and today I just needed to catch up on the essentials; that meant picking up prescriptions from Target, grocery shopping and getting my reserves from the library. For someone who works normal hours this wouldn't have been a big deal but my schedule only allows for one activity a night and this trifecta of stops was mine.

Day 178

Blurb: This is what fried Kool-Aid looks like.

Backstory: The best thing about summer is that people get more creative with the things they can fry. This year's new fried food trend is fried Kool-Aid and being that I work in local tv, we put the challenge out there for a chef to come in and make it. This is definitely a more high class version of what they'll serve at the fair; the chef created these little balls by adding Kool-Aid to benya batter then filled them with a Kool-Aid jelly and rolled them in packets of Kool-Aid.
Don't get me wrong, I grew up loving this stuff but it was a little bit too much, even for me. The actual ball filled with jelly was ok but the raw mix took the creation over the edge, and it was not an edge I was pleased with. For all the adults out there who don't remember raw Kool-Aid is actually very tart, hence why we add tons and tons of sugar. My final verdict is that I would not waste your money on this if you see it at the state fair, it's probably the biggest food hoax there.