It's Summer Alright

I woke up and stuck two pieces of honey-nut, whole grain bread into a toaster. As I periodically kept pushing the leaver on the toaster up to make sure that its crappy six year old technology didn't burn my toast, I pulled up a seat, grabbed my nicely browned bread, and ate breakfast (By the way, has anyone ever tried toast with peanut butter mixed with honey and cinnamon? It's quite delicious -- But that's beside the point.) I looked at the clock; it was seven in the morning.

It was my second official day of summer; why was I up so early? I should have at least slept in till ten or eleven, but I suppose that’s the beauty of summer; the laid back mornings of waking up regardless of the time, and feeling reassured because the next morning you can wake up with ease without the irritating forehead wrinkling screech of an alarm.

Anyways, I feel there was a reason for my unusual early waking. The night before I only had three hours of sleep plus the thirty to forty minute nap I took during a viewing of Alice in Wonderland in my friend's living room. Due to lack of sleep, I ended up crashing and burning on my couch while watching an episode of Anthony Bourdain on the Travel Channel at around five in the afternoon. All I remember is curling into a ball, facing the back of my sticky leather couch and blanking out. Sometime later, when the sun was down, I woke up lying down on the guest room bed with a black fitted sheet on top of me. I was wide awake, and I had a strange curiosity of how I ended up there. Nonetheless, I got up to go to the bathroom and proceeded to the kitchen where I tried to get ice from the fridge without unnecessarily waking anyone. I looked at the clock; it was one in the morning.

Great, eight more hours till the rest of the family wakes up, and I can't fall asleep, I thought. Despite the fact, I returned to the guest room, laid down next to a pile of folded laundry and fell asleep for six more hours, which brought me to where I was this morning -- eating toast. Turns out I received a grand total of sixteen hours of sleep-- double the amount I normally would get.
That's how my morning was, and now I'm sitting on a futon listening to an irritating song by Franz Ferdinand waiting for my laundry to dry. In fact, I actually have to finish packing for a week long trip which will commence tomorrow. If there's anything I dislike to the highest degree, it’s packing. Honestly, if I could, I’d just bring a copious amount of underwear in a Wal-Mart shopping bag with me and all would be well in the world. In any case, my mother would definitely not allow that, and honestly, I'm a hypocrite for pretending that would not also disgust me in some way.

My destination will remain unrevealed until I return. Nevertheless, I'll be taking a lot of pictures and notes for a blog post when I return
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:Julia

The Buried Life

For those who do not know, the Buried Life is a reality show on MTV. Unlike most of the current vulgarity on that channel, the Buried life is probably one of the safer shows. The show basically follows four friends (Duncan, Ben, Dave, and Jonnie) as they travel all of the U.S. completing a list of one-hundred things they want to do before they die. However, there's a twist. For every item they cross of their list, they have to help a stranger achieve one of their own goals/dreams. Throughout the show they encourage other people to achieve their dreams, and create their own list. In addition, everywhere they go they ask people they meet one specific question -- "What do you want to do before you die?"

The Buried Life.

It's pretty similar to the movie The Bucket List, and truth be told, I don't watch the show to often. However, that doesn't mean it still didn't inspire me to create my own list, because it did. What do I want to do before I die? Honestly, I've never really thought about it too much, and I haven't ever thought it to be such an important thing to do considering how temporary life actually is. Nonetheless, I thought it'd be a fun addition to my blog, and perhaps I will actually try to cross some of the things off. Here is my list, and you may think it to be quite lame, but I am a lame person.

The Buried Life

 

Eat at the toilet themed restaurant in Taiwan the Modern Toilet.
I thought that this was one of those odd contradictions. Eating from toilet bowls? Doesn't that defeat a major purpose? Perhaps. Anyways, I found this very interesting, and some day I'd like to eat here. After all, I believe all the items on the menu are edible (That'd be a major health hazard other wise), so why not?

Visit the Great Pyramid and Sphinx of Giza Egypt.

Why not visit one of the Seven Wonders of the World? Egypt is just one of the priceless places to visit.

Ride an actual gondola in Venice, Italy.

Sorry, Las Vegas, I need an authentic gondola. I've always wanted to visit Europe and Italy even more so. Riding a real gondola would be a very cool thing for me to do.

Reach the peak Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Challenges are nice -- especially physical ones. I'm not that much of a risk taker to climb the world's highest mountain (Everest). However, why not Africa's? It's the next best thing.

  

Successfully read all the novels written by Jane Austen.

Goodness gracious, she may be dead, but Jane Austen is and will always be a beautiful writer. I got this book from Barnes & Noble the other day that contained seven novels written by her. Hopefully I'll finish it by the end of this summer.

Visit the cannibalism themed restaurant, Nyotaimori, in Tokyo, Japan.

I don't know. This is very odd, but I suppose it's just one of those places I'd like to say I've visited just for the heck of it. I would not, however, like to eat any of the food items though. Honestly, it doesn't appeal to me. The "bodies" aren't actually real; they're supposedly dough with tomato sauce on the inside, but it's the psychological aspect of thinking I'm eating something shaped like a human body that bothers me.

Go surfing in New Zealand.

I hear the waves are good in New Zealand, but that's not enough for me. I've got to try it out for myself.

Learn photography.

It's such a beautiful art. I'd like to learn how to capture objects from an unknown point of view, and I feel photography is one of the best ways to do so.

Attempt/learn how to free run.

Honestly, if you don't know what free running is, you must YouTube it this instant. These guys that are physically capable of performing these tricks, they're pretty beastly. Modern day ninjas, I tell you.

Adopt a shelter dog.

If there's anything I want to do before I die, it would be adopting a dog. I've grown up with dogs all my life, and there hasn't been a single second where one did not live with me. Even though I am happy I have my current dogs, they came from breeders. There are a lot of homeless dogs out there, and saving even just one would be a great accomplishment and joy for myself.

This may seem like a short list, and that's because it is. I will be creating an individual page for the rest of my list later on, so make sure to check back. Lastly, while I'm at it, I was wondering, what's on your list? What do you want to do before you die? Think about it, write it down, and add it to the comment box below. I'd love to hear what you have to say! Lastly, before I leave, I'd like to mention that I added something to the "Art" page. Please check it out and give me your thoughts. I'll make sure to keep on adding more pieces to that category.

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Thank you ever so much for reading,

:Julia

Julia uses horse shampoo?!

After spending four hours in a Vietnamese hair salon, I became inspired to write a blog post about hair, or rather, hair shampoo and conditioner.

Recently, I've discovered this hair shampoo and conditioner called Mane 'N Tail. I've actually heard about it before, and I've seen ads for it in magazines (Seventeen advertises it a lot), but I've never given it a second thought. However, about a month ago I was searching through tips on Yahoo Answers to see if anyone had tips on growing hair longer. I was surprised at the large amount of people that suggested using Mane 'N Tail hair products. Sure enough, I made a visit to http://www.straightarrowinc.com/ (The Mane 'N Tail company website) and not only did I learn how Mane 'N Tail makes hair longer by strengthening it and increasing it's health, I also discovered it was originally a hair product made for horses! Yes, that's right -- horses. In fact, the majority of Straight Arrow Inc. products are intended for animal use.

As I continued to read on and further research, I learned why countless numbers of people still used Mane 'N Tail despite its original purpose for horse manes. Apparently after many horse owners used Mane 'N Tail on their horses, they realized the significant improvement and decided to try it out themselves. After all, if it's safe for horses why not humans?

I decided to try it out for myself, so I went to CVS and purchased a bottle of shampoo, and a bottle of conditioner. The total cost for this product which received rave reviews was pretty impressive. For a regular sized bottle the online it was priced at only three dollars, and for a bottle that is somewhat Costco sized, it's priced at seven dollars. Unfortunately, CVS only had the largest size, but I bought it anyways, and I must say I am highly pleased that I did.

Mane 'N Tail shampoo and conditioner

Up until yesterday I haven't had a haircut in about four months, so I had several slight split ends. Nonetheless, I still thought my hair was pretty healthy in comparison to those of girls who've fried their hair by straightening it five times a day (Of course I'm exaggerating). However, after I used Mane 'N Tail I realized my split ends were nearly gone, and my hair was softer and thicker than ever. Honestly, best hair product ever, and I'll probably never use any other. I became completely obsessed with stroking my hair after washing it. Seriously, it's that great. The shampoo thickens, adds volume, and cleanses hair, while the conditioner seals, protects hair from heat damage, and leaves it super shiny, silky, and manageable.

Other Mane 'N Tail Products

Anyways, I highly suggest that anyone give it a try, and at least start out with a small bottle if you wish (Unlike what I did), and if you're looking for a deal, I hear (I'm not positive) some Sally's Beauty Supply locations offer a buy one get one free deal. Only three bucks for amazing hair? Not bad at all. Also, if you don't take my word for it, just ask my friend Greta. She's one of my blog followers, and a fellow Mane 'N Tail user. Also, feel free to check out her blog (http://www.manicbabble.blogspot.com/), I'm sure she'd appreciate the visit. (:

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:Julia