Rise of the Twinkie (August)

Sometimes I do things without a real reason. Example...I make random noises to myself all the time. And often crack myself up doing so. Couldn't tell you why. Just do. I would like to say that this Twinkie adventure is one of those times where I had no real reason for doing what I did. But that wouldn't be true.

So here's the premise: I had a box of Twinkies. I really like Twinkies. One night earlier, I discovered I could pretty easily stuff a whole Twinkie in my mouth. The bonus of the situation was seeing how grossed out Miranda and Stephanie were. I decided that it would be a good idea to try and put two Twinkies in my mouth at once. Reason? I like stuffing my mouth full of food; I think it's funny. I also like to make messes. I figured that was probably reason enough.

The play by play:

Unwrapping Twinkies carefully requires great concentration and precision.

Please examine the Twinkies carefully. There is nothing up my sleeves, no tricks nor gimmicks. Just a girl and her Twinkies.

I would advise you to avert your eyes if you have a weak stomach. Two Twinkies. One mouth. Yeah, that's right.
Um...so they didn't fit. I really had high hopes for the two Twinkie challenge, but...nope. Turns out there's a limit to what my little chipmunk cheeks can hold.
Well...this is what happens. A bed full of cream and crumbs. Twinkie smeared across my face. Hands that smell constantly of baked goods. (Actually, that last one is a pretty nice side effect.)

The moral of the story is that I can't fit two Twinkies in my mouth at once. These are important things to know. I don't know why. They just are.

stephanie's boat

this is a shot from the terrace. it is not actually stephanie's boat. she didn't take the picture, either. i took it (with my very own camera), and she liked it.

for those confused devotees to this blog (read: Nate), this is not part of my 5 set for august. i was just putting a picture up. i might do that from time to time. prepare yourselves.

how i got myself into this

a few months ago, i wrote down about three things i wanted to do sometime in the next year. for one reason or another, i shared those things. inevitably, i was encouraged to add to the list. eventually, it became a list of 27 things to do in my 27th year. it covers a wide range of activities (from running a half marathon to skydiving to knitting a scarf to designing and getting a tattoo). so i'll come back to the list in a minute.

my current roommate, miranda, is an avid photographer. she loves fancy cameras and uploading pictures and learning terms like 'bokeh.' she takes BEAUTIFUL, GORGEOUS, and LUSCIOUS pictures...nature, food, people, whatever. she's stellar. well, with a friend like that, why on earth would i ever need to have a camera? she documents my life and uploads everything on facebook. also, why would i even attempt to take pictures near her? she's about a billion times better at it than me. and that's ok. i can kill her at things like ultimate frisbee...competitive eating...you know...the things that will take you really far in life.

so anyway. i had some assistance creating this crazy list of mine. i made some things easy, but i made some other things really challenging for me. good old #17 was one of the challenging ones. i don't know if i can even describe the way i nearly went into a panic attack as i attempted just to buy a camera. miranda and our friend, nate, did some research and looked around for options for me. miranda went so far as to send me an email with about twelve different choices.

um...decision-making may not be one of my greatest strengths.

i finally got to the point where i told miranda, 'look, you know my price range. you know the purpose of this camera. you know what i actually need as far as pixels and memory and all that jazz. when you send me options, all i really end up looking at are things like the color and the shape of the buttons. please just pick three cameras that meet all of your standards and my needs, and i will just choose the one that looks the best to me.' so that's what she did. she's a good friend.

and so i bought a camera. for those of you who care (and the fact that i prefaced this sentence that way should strongly indicate that i am not actually one of those people), it's a canon powershot a480. it's black. you should know that black is my favorite color. miranda knew i would pick this camera when she gave it as an option.

and now, once a month, i am going to upload five related pictures and write a blog about them. i cannot guarantee that this will be profound. i can guarantee that the writing will be better than the photography. my hope is that this will force me to go a little slower and look harder for the story in things. in truth, it's more of an extended writing exercise than anything.

i'll just put it out there: if you come with really low expectations, you probably won't be disappointed. enjoy. ;)