Day 21-Chick-N

Okay this will be the last food one for a while because it seems like that is all I have been doing and the point of this project is to get out of my box, but today an old friend from college was in town and is a vegetarian so I thought it would be the perfect time to try a vegan restaurant. I was a vegetarian for a long time, and after that chili fiasco on Saturday, I am ready to give the meat eating another break. I forgot to take any pictures but the restaurant is fairly new and is called Stellas. The decor indoors and out is wild. Skulls, gargoyles, arcade games, dark inside but pops of bold colors. In a word I would describe it as Rad.
The food was good too, although the fries were too spicy for my taste. I got the vegan "chicken" sandwich and my friend got the vegan chili and hamburger. They served our drinks in mason jars which was pretty cool too. Both of our meals came under $10 so not a bad deal. I definitely plan on going back. I hope it stays open-we were the only customers in the place.

Day-20 Baked

A lot of my new things have centered around food lately. Food is probably the easiest way to change up the routine. Today I decided to get all domesticated and made apple crisp for the first time. It pretty good, but I could really use an apple corer. I used Betty Crocker's recipe.

Day 19-Is it chili in here?

Today Mike and I decided to rub elbows with the towns folk and went to a good old fashioned chili cook-off. So we headed on down to the American Legion and sampled chili from about 10 contestants. I do not like hot things and I do not like to eat red meat so I knew I was getting myself into something I might regret. It was pretty fun though, despite losing the skin off my tongue and getting sick afterwards.  It is fun to try new things and get away from the city every now and then.

I voted for a white bean and chicken chili and Mike voted for a tequila white chicken chili.

Chef Boy R D? No. Chef Charlie.

Day 18- MMM Que delicioso!

Mike and I went to the Beltline Bar tonight  for dinner and he conveniently left his wallet at home. I didn't mind though, he picks up the tab most of time time anyways. The wait to sit down was long, the food was good (world famous wet burrito (chicken)), and the service was fantastic. She was completely on point, one step ahead, and wasn't annyoing in the slightest. It really made up for the 30 minute wait. So tonight for the first time, I didn't try to tip by the 20% (ish) etiquette, I tipped based solely on service.

Day 17-Something Fishy

Back to work today. I was struggling without my morning pick me up of a crisp diet coke so I was very much ready to go to lunch today. For some reason I was craving a tuna sandwich. So I googled tuna sandwich in Grand Rapids, come to find out there was a restaurant within walking distance downtown that I had never tried before. So today I tried a new restaurant. I followed my stomach North a couple blocks and over to Gardettos, Ghirardelli's, Gardellas Tavern.
It was a nice small, bar style restaurant. There were mason jars filled with peanuts with a candle on top of each table. I don't think we were supposed to eat the peanuts. I was seated close to the front door so it was a little more brisk than I would have liked. And their pop machine was down when we got there. I have never heard of that before. Overall I would go back there, maybe when the weather is nicer.
You may be wondering how the tuna sandwich was. Well I'm not sure, because I got turkey.

Day 16-Tapping into my problems

Today from the advice of Oprah, I gave myself time to meditate. I decided I rather watch a video on how to do it than read an article so I searched on youtube. Admittedly, I am a card carrying member of the fastforward generation.  So when I started looking at all of the videos with their deep explanations of how meditation works and the history, I felt myself growing impatient. I want to meditate now dang it..and fast!
Eventually, I came to my senses and gave a woman with the username averagegoddess a shot and it was pretty interesting.
She explained a technique called EFT Emotional Freedom Technique. She described it as acupuncture without the needles.
This is how it worked. You think of something that is bothering you. You give it a rating of 0-10.
Then tapping these 9 different parts of your body, you recite what is bothering you but say despite this you still love and accept yourself. Then after you tap all the parts you rate yourself again. This is supposed to release the blockage of upset feelings.

I tried it twice-once for something that has been bothering me personally and the second time was for my flu to go away. I still feel the same, but I figure the first time is just a test run and I will need to keep doing it repeatedly.

If you are looking for a MUCH better explanation than I can give please see her video:

Day 15- Sealed shut

Still not feeling great, so today I looked up simple home remedies to cure the flu or cold. I found this very interesting idea to put unpeeled onions in bowls around the house and it is supposed to help relieve symptoms of the flu or prevent it. Unfortunately we were out of onions so I wasn't able to try it.
However googling household tricks did lead me to what I was able to accomplish for today's new thing and that is unsealing a sealed envelope without damaging it. All you have to do is put the sealed envelope in the freezer for a couple hours and then use a butter knife to open it up. I wanted to see if this actually worked and it did-sort of.
The first envelope I tried was a piece of junk mail from a credit card company.

After 2 hours in the freezer the seal would not budge. So I tried using a different envelope that I had licked shut and after an hour it came open easy breezy. I was then able to re lick it shut making my previous entry undetected. This probably was a far more impressive skill back when people actually used the postal service, but nevertheless it was fun to feel sneaky.

Day-14 Will you be my Valentine?

Ugh, today I had the flu so I knew doing something new would be a challenge. Luckily I had an idea that was simple but was important to me. Today I sent my niece a Valentine's Day surprise. I really don't think I spoil her enough and now she lives far away in Florida, so I don't want her to forget who I am. I couldn't find any decent valentines day toys so I ended up sending her a book.

Day 13- Can you keep a secret?

Today, with some reluctance, I wrote my secret to postsecret. I have always thought about doing this, but was afraid someone would find out it was me some how. I am obviously not going to post it on here, but I would like you to visit postsecret.com to see other people's secrets if you have never been there. They are updated every Sunday. Maybe you would like to send in your own?

Day 12- How ya doin' puddin'?

I wasn't able to post this sooner, because I ran out of time, but for day 12, I made pudding shots. We were invited to a  friend's birthday party and I wanted to bring something along. I had heard about pudding shots but never had had them. Well nothing has changed there....
The party started at 7 and I started making them at 6:30. Then I read the directions and found out they needed to be frozen over night. Whoops! I still made them but decided to ditch the idea of bringing them to the party and left them in my freezer. As I am not much of a hair of the dog kind of gal, I haven't tasted them yet so I can't vouch for the taste.

If you are interested in the recipe, here is what I did. I made a chocolate and vanilla batch.

1 large chocolate instant pudding or 1 large vanilla instant pudding
1 1/2 cups of cold milk
1/2 cup mint baileys
3/4 cup of vanilla vodka
8 ounces of whip cream

Blend the first 4 ingredients and then add in the whip cream. Pour into plastic cups and freeze over night. I topped them with whip cream to fancy them up.

Day 11-The elephant in the room

Today I discovered my secret calling and made towel animals just like they do on the cruise. Youtube has a ton of ideas from turtles to monkeys. After a few failed attempts at the monkey, I decided on this nice elephant. Unfortunately we don't have matching towels either, but I think the sunglasses really helps him pull it off.

Day 10- One of THOSE couples

Mike came up with this idea last night as we were getting our work clothes ready....Today I dressed up as Mike's twin. I always think those pictures where the entire family wears the same thing is so corny. But I could not resist this comical moment. Enjoy!

Day 9- Thrifty Fun

Yesterday I went shopping to prepare for today's new thing, because today I wore a thrifted outfit to work. I always go to New York and Company, JC Pennys, or Kohls for my work clothes, but I decided to try my hand at thrift store shopping. I went to a small Goodwill store near my house. I was starting to worry 5 minutes into shopping that I was going to have to pull off some serious Sex and the City wardrobe styling because I was not finding any good items. Luckily my persistance paid off and I found a cute Old Navy Cardigan in perfect condition. I also bought a pair of brown pants to go with it (the pants did not end up fitting when I got them home and washed). But my favorite $3 deal of the day was the purse I got. I have been looking for a more professional purse and Voila! it showed up right before my eyes- and appears to never have been used. My favorite part of wearing the outift was when I found out that one of my co-workers bought her mom this cardigan for $20 this winter. Score one for Amy!!

Day 8- You're so Vain

From the suggestion of a friend, today I decided to draw a self portrait using sharpies. Not my best work but there is some resemblance in the hair. Those red dashes are supposed to symbolize the redness of my skin-I was not mulled by a cat.

Day 7- Soap Box

What I had planned for today's new thing fell through, so I ventured over to the Hobby Lobby to pick up a new hobby. After browsing the cross stitch patterns of kittens in baskets and rows of pipecleaners and clay I settled on soap making. So today, I made homemade soap. I may have cheated though, because as I was telling one of the AmeriCorps members about purchasing the kit, she jokingly pointed out that I should have just used rendered animal fat.

Making soap this way is really quick-like 5 minutes quick. All you have to do is heat the soap up in the microwave for about 30 seconds  or until it is liquid, stir in a couple drops of scent ( I purchased peppermint and fresh rain) and a couple drops of dye,  pour it into a mold and BAM you have soap.
I wanted to add something to one of my bars of soap so I used one of the decorative metal keys Mike's mom gave me for Christmas and put it in one of the bars. (I love keys)

Overall I had fun making something and it was good clean fun. ( pun intended)

Day-6 Parlez vous francais?

We got a Netflix subscription for Christmas, so today I checked out some of the movies that were reccomended for me based on a quiz I took on my past favorites. Apparently Netflix thinks I am worldly because I found this little gem:

I know it looks like any other typical romantic comedy, but it is actually a foreign film, so for today's new thing, I watched a French film. Actually, I am not sure if it is French or not, but I think that is what they are speaking. The hard thing about watching a foreign film is you can't multi task if you don't know the language.  I tend to play tetris or facebook when I watch anything at home, but I knew one quick status update would leave me scratching my head over the plot (slow as it may be). I actually like the movie very much, it is not deep or an artistic masterpiece, but a good chick flick.

Day-5 Dress it Up

WOW. Today, for the first time, I shopped for a wedding dress. I felt so much pressure to find "the one". It is so overwhelming to go through all the beautiful gowns there are so many decisions. The hardest part was when I narrowed it down to two, I really could have gone either way. Maybe I have two soul-dresses. I did end up picking one though, and am trying not to think about the other one. We related it to breaking up with a boyfriend. It is best to quit cold turkey and it is going to take a bottle of wine and a night of talking crap to truly get over it.

I am not going to post a picture of the dress I went with, but here is a picture my mom took of me and my faux bouquet.

Day 4-Bed and Breakfast

I added extra mints to make up for the mismatched bedding.

I am pretty excited about today's new thing. My parents are in town to watch Cirque Du Soleil tonight and for the first time ever, I am hosting my parents at my own home. I had to rush to get things ready because they came a little earlier than the check-in time I gave them. After work I rushed to the store to buy some things to make their stay enjoyable. I picked up-

Grocery Store Flowers

A box of Kleenex

2 new tooth brushes

Andes mints for their pillows

A bottle of Evian

A glass bottle of coke
Muffins and Pancake mix
Chocolate chip cookies

I was pretty dissapointed they didn't have have the trial size soaps and shampoos- I thought that would be pretty cool, but I am happy with the supplies I got. Tomorrow they will be offered a complimentary breakfast of sausuge, hashbrowns, toast, and eggs.

If they open the Evian, they will be charged $9.

Day 3- Snail Mail

I don't think I have written a letter since I was 6- back when I thought writing words was really cool. So today I decided to write a handwritten letter and it turns out writing words is really cool. Hopefully grandma thinks so too.

 It wasn't too hard to think of something to say, I tried to think of ways to incorporate birds into my letter but couldn't come up with anything (bird talk always wins her attention)

I have no idea what grandma's mail situation is, but if it is anything like mine, I think she will be pretty happy to see my purple and pink note note among her bills and credit card offers.

Day 2-Kibbe and Bits

I just got home from bowling and am really tired so I confess this won't be my best blog but I wanted to get it in  before midnight....

On Wednesdays I tutor at a local elementary school during the noon hour. Every week I pass by a restaurant that Grand Rapidians rave about -Marie Catrib's. I've always wanted to try it but never made any effort to go- especially by myself. I knew that it served food from different ethnicities that I've never experienced before, so today for my new thing I decided to go into the restaurant before tutoring and order something off a menu that I have never heard of.
My original plan was to sit down and eat by myself-as I have never done that outside of fast food, but all the seats seemed to be taken and it is a smaller establishment. Fortunately they have a to-go deli side so I was able to get something quick before heading out. Looking over the menu, I tried to find something that made me stop and say "huh??" I decided on Vegetarian Kibbe.




I had no clue what I was going to be getting and was equally unsure of how to pronounce it. I placed my order and confirmed with the employee that it is pronounced Kib-be. When my order was up he handed me a brown takeout box and asked if I wanted a napkin or fork. I had no idea what form Kibbe was going to take so I declined and hurried out the restaurant. When I got to my car I opened up the box much to my delight there was something that appeared to be a wrap. I examined it and took a bite. It was awful.

Okay that is just my opinion and I am sure there are a ton of foodies who would think it was delicious.I tend to go for the noodles, sauce, and cheese diet-sometimes throwing corn in for good measure. But I know I am not a good food critic.

 From what I could tell it had ground meal, tomatoes, red onions and yogurt in a tortillaish wrap with lots of spices. I swear I tasted cinnamon. I ate half the sandwich because I put all that work into trying something new, but I think from now on if I go to Marie Catrib's again I will try something like chicken salad.

Day 1-Toughing it out

Okay time to kick this project off! For day one, I decided to face my grade school fear. No, not change in the locker room, but close and equally embarrassing- I did pull ups at my gym.

My normal routine lately has been 30-45 minutes of treadmill and then a couple weight lifting machines. Today I decided to change up my routine and used the elliptical (not that out of the box for me) and then searched for a machine I would have normally been too scared to try.

After scoping out all the machines I've never done before, I decided on the pull up machine. Being exercise machine illiterate, I asked an employee to demonstrate and then hesitantly tried for myself. As the employee stood there watching if I could do it properly-I had Mike snap a photo. I think I look happier than I was in the photo- I was struggling to get my self back up and thinking about how much it sucked in elementary when I wasn't strong enough to pull myself up in front of the whole class.

So I am pretty happy with Day 1, I learned how to use new gym equipment and I think I will continue to use it with my new found knowledge.

Tomorrow is the Day!

Tomorrow, January 11th, will be the start of my first 365 day project. I have been so intrigued by the other blogs-why not start my own? My project will be doing something new everyday-something I have never done before. I will be doing things that are out of character for me, that are not part of my normal routine. Although, there will be some things that might come up that I've always wanted to try but haven't put the effort in until now.
I am hoping this blog will hold me accountable to trying new things and rethinking ideas and methods that I have grown accustomed to.
I am going to need some help thinking of 365 ways to think outside the box. If you have ideas which are small or big that I could complete over the next year please let me know.
I will try to document the year through photos as much as possible to keep this interesting.
I look forward to completing the project and to see what new things come into my life!