Sometimes we do a thing in order to find out the reason for it. Sometimes our actions are questions not answers.

Man in a box, or The Human Doing, is doing a lot of cooking lately.  I've seen him searching his phone, presumably looking at recipes, whilst preparing dishes.  I've seen him watching television while using the computer (multitasking!).  But that's about it.  I read that he was out dog walking today.  The whole "living in a box" thing doesn't exactly seem true.  More like "mostly living in a box".  Oh well, it's still interesting. He's at the halfway point of his whole expedition, so I haven't got much time left to peep!  Speaking of peepers, this was my favorite FB wall post he got today:  "Do you like living in a box at night"  Creepy!  Especially with the absence of any sort of punctuation.

I'm on day 3 of my melatonin/valerian root tea combination.  It's working out alright.  I think you get a small window of opportunity when you start to get sleepy to actually fall asleep, otherwise it just becomes hard again.  Unfortunately, I tend be always be doing something (like writing a blog or what have you) while that window of sleep opportunity arises.  I should time this out a little better.

I had a pretty superb find the other day.  I found all three flavors of Hello Panda in the dollar spot at Target.  For those of you who aren't in the know in regards to Hello Panda, you may remember a delicious treat from the 90's called Koala Yummies?  It's basically the newer knockoff version of those.  Same packaging, even.  Except Koala Yummies had a wider variety of flavors.  Speaking of Koala Yummies, apparently, they still exist and they are called Koala March's now.  I wonder why.  "Yummies" was a much better choice to use in the product name, in my opinion.  So much more memorable and fun.



Oh, I guess it's technically Friday.  Which means it's safe to use a Rebecca Black meme:


I can't wait until the day that I am perusing old blogs and come upon this one and ask myself, "Who the hell is Rebecca Black?", and then I go to youtube and watch her video and feel like I've rickrolled myself from the past.  I am pretty sneaky.

Anyways, time for a "cannot unsee" photo!:

Not until just before dawn do people sleep best; not until people get old do they become wise.

I am trying a new sleep regiment.  I have been plagued with irregular sleep patterns pretty much forever.  I've always been a bit of a night owl.  I have tried many things to try and normalize my sleep patterns.  I've tried sleep therapy, over the counter drugs meant as sleep aids, over the counter drugs that have drowsiness as a side effect (those tend to work best so far),  a variety of prescription sleep aids, prescription antidepressant/sleep aids, benzos (these work, but they're only meant for short term use, as they have too large of a risk for dependance on the drugs, so they're pretty much useless if I can't take them long term), changing sleep habits, avoiding rooms meant only for sleep, changing eating habits before bed.  Seriously, you name it, I've tried it.

Lately, I've been trying various combinations of things.  So far, the combination of sleepy time tea with a valerian root supplement in it and benadryl have been working pretty well.  Today, I am starting a new regiment which includes the valerian root tea and melatonin, which I have just taken.  I'm a little nervous about the melatonin because I'm taking 3mg which, from what I read is somewhat high.  Doses that high can cause irritiability, headache, and nausea.  The other two I can handle, but being nauseated pretty much debilitates me because I am emetophobic (I'm a vomit phobe), so I'm crossing my fingers I don't have that side effect.

My old tried and trusted remedy is Nyquil.  It doesn't always work, but it has the greatest success rate for me.  The only problem is it's pretty unsafe for your liver.  My doctor was appalled when I told her I was taking it every day.  So, I've been open to trying new things that I hear about.

I'm pretty sure that I have Delayed sleep phase syndrome.  Which you can read about here.  I once had a doctor try to prescribe me a "full spectrum lamp" as a part of light therapy, which is one way of managing delayed sleep phase syndrome.  I didn't get it because it cost quite a bit of money and I was a teenager who didn't want to spend over $400 on a glorified lamp.   After researching it quite a bit, it sounds pretty likely this is my issue, as the description of the disorder fits my issues almost exactly.  I have just never done a sleep study or monitoring beyond a clinical interview to be properly diagnosed.  I have no issues sleeping, I just have issues sleeping when I'm supposed to.

That was pretty uninteresting, I'm sure, but maybe someone else reading this has similar sleep issues and can be helped?  Oh, and I became a card carrying member of the National Geographic society today.  Well, it doesn't go into effect until April 1st, but I got the certificate today.  Which, I believe, allows me to talk about things that no one cares about from time to time.  Actually, all it really entitles me to is a subscription to National Geographic magazine.  Oh well.

I was trying to find an image to use for this post by googling the term "sleep", and this came up:


I don't know what the hell that is.  It's a little more "National Geographic" than "sleep", but maybe that thing is yawning.

Archaeology is the peeping Tom of the sciences. It is the sandbox of men who care not where they are going; they merely want to know where everyone else has been.

I spent a good ten minutes trying to decide what I wanted to write about, as nothing very thought provoking or interesting has come up in the past few days.  I found myself mindlessly perusing the internet and came across "The Human Doing" on Facebook.  Also known here as "Man in a Box".

Previous to this, I wasn't sure I really even wanted to post anything more about him.  Mostly because he's almost always sitting around on the computer.  Which, the first time I saw him, humanized him a little bit.  Made me feel like I was peeping instead of watching a man who decided to allow people to watch him live in a box for thirty days.  Which was interesting.  Well, now that's pretty much all he does.  I'm never around for the voting (people vote for what he should be "doing" as far as exercise goes) so I never actually have seen him "do" anything.  I have, more often than not, noticed he was missing from his box.  From what I gather, he is allowed to walk around the mall twice a day, he is allowed to grocery shop, and he has to make one healthy food choice within the mall a day.  So much for living in a box.  I pretty much do the same thing minus sleeping at the mall.

Today on my way out of work, there was a big note saying Man in a Box was at Uppercut Gym doing some boxing lessons.  I found this pretty interesting because Uppercut Gym is actually one of the unique wedding venues I mentioned to Tyler we may want to check out.  It's in Northeast Minneapolis.  Now, I live in NE Mpls.  I also commute to the MOA (Mall of America) for work almost every single day.  I know there has got to be a closer boxing gym to the mall than Uppercut.  I drive at least 30 minutes each way (which, for MN, is a pretty long commute).  For a guy who is supposed to be living in a glass box, he sure gets a lot of time OUTSIDE OF THE BOX.  His commute time today alone allowed him one hour outside of the box.  Can't they give him his outside exercise time before or after the mall is open?  I mean, it opens at ten am.  Most people exercise before work way earlier than that. 

Anyways, so, I found "The Human Doing" on Facebook.  I see all of the creepy wall messages he gets from people standing just in front of him, separated by a glass wall like, "You really sleep in there, wow", "Here's the picture I took of you", and "I'm right outside, can I take a picture?".   How bizarre!  I want to send him a Facebook wall post at 12am and say "I'm standing on the 2nd floor by Tiger Sushi, watching you sleep through the crack in the partition."  Okay, I'm not really going to do that, but it makes me laugh to think about.  It must be creepy to sleep in the mall.  I also saw Man in a Box's wife on Facebook.  I wonder how she's coping.

Anyways, here he is, boxing:


Now, for something completely unrelated.  Look how cute these guys used to be:


Well, except Kanye.  He was kind of stupid looking.  Lil Wayne looks...exactly the same minus the face tattoos and dreads (I guess that cough syrup helps you defy age).  50 cent and Usher are SO F'ING CUTE, I can't handle it!

The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.

I've had such a busy last few days, I forgot to mention something very important, a brand new interest of mine.  This is the most exciting thing that has happened to me at the Mall of America since...Betsey Johnson opened up.  It is Man in a Box.  If you don't already know what this is, it is a guy, living in a glass box.  In the mall.  For thirty days.  (read more about the details  here .)

Sometimes, I have to be in the mall pretty early, a few hours before it opens.  Also, sometimes I have to be there late, a few hours after it closes.  So, not only do I get to check up and him and see what's he's doing when everyone is watching...But I also get to see what he's doing when no one is around.

For the last few days, I've been checking up on him when I arrive and depart from work.  I've also been asking my associates to report to me what he's up to.  Today, when I went to work, he was missing.  So, I have no idea what he was up to.  Then, when my associate and I were leaving work, we went to check up on him.  He was in his shorts sitting in the dark on his computer...much like you or I might be doing at home.  It seems mundane, I know, but it's incredibly voyeuristic of him and I can't wait to see more.  This is like a legal loophole for being a peeping tom, I love it.

This is him:


For any of you interested parties, I'll try to keep you updated somewhat regularly on Man in a Box's doings.

The greatest discovery of any generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitude.

I scheduled my Lasik procedure for 3 weeks from now.  I am incredibly excited, but also a little nervous.  I did some extra research tonight, though, and that helped calm my nerves in regards to the surgery.  It sounds pretty safe.

Tyler and I decided (we think) on a venue.  It's an old vaudeville theater.  It also has a wine bar, dance studio, chocolate lounge, tea room, adorable outdoor patio, cafe, old theater vanity/makeup room, and liquor store (don't worry, it's a really nice store) as part of the space.  Pretty interesting and aesthetically awe inspiring.  The pictures I've seen online can't even close to describe how awesome and perfect it is.  It's a little more than we anticipated spending on a venue, but not by much.  And to be perfectly honest, that extra couple of hundred dollars isn't really much extra to spend for how much more amazing it is than any other venue I've ever seen.  We're going to get some excellent photos out of this space.

The space is actually used for many different things like theatrical productions, Prince uses it to practice for months at a time, commercials and advertisements are filmed/photographed there, weddings, parties, concerts, screenings, etc.  The best part is, all of the money they make goes to their non profit organization youth programs.  On top of that, one of the classes they offer the girls in their youth programs is flower arranging...which means we could get some cheap flowers for the wedding!  Once we pick a caterer, that's going to be a majority of the huge weight off my shoulders.

Anyways, that's enough wedding talk.  Let's take a look at a photo that fits into the "cannot unsee" category...one of my favorite categories:


Ahh yes, you will never unsee that penis.  Even though it isn't really there.  If I was a religious person, this might be a good argument for people who say they do not believe in God because they cannot see him.  Because obviously, just because you can see it doesn't mean it is actually there. ....
....
....
....

I don't know why I said that.  Did I mention during my Lasik consultation they bombarded me with Twilight Zone black and white swirls?

Of those who say nothing, few are silent.

I cancelled my VPI pet insurance tonight.  I was a policy holder for about a week.  Once I saw all of the restrictions, rules, fine print, and deductables, it made almost no sense to be a policy holder versus just setting aside money for Winston's medical expenses, or opening a care credit account.  I used to have a wellness plan with Banfield for Walter when he was alive, and it actually was a pretty good deal.  It was great for your regular annual medical and dental appointments, didn't help much in the way of emergencies or illnesses, though.  It also didn't change the fact that Banfield vets are not ones I would recommend.  But that is a whole other can of worms.

Tyler and I looked at a venue today.  There are a lot of really attractive things about the venue, mostly having to do with price and convenience.  They will definitely remain a contender.  We have an appointment with another location on Sunday.

Our duplex no longer has a vacancy.  It appears someone has moved in to the lower unit.  Apparently, they play guitar as well.  Tyler is writing a song right now, and my neighbor is playing their guitar, so it's a bit like some sort of weird guitar duel going on right now.  I hope the new neighbor(s) are cool.

We booked our flight and hotel for New Orleans the other day.  We are going at the end of May.  We picked a hotel that appears as if it could be rather seedy, but it's right in the French Quarter, so we're okay with that.  

Tyler just got over some sort of weird illness.  I spent a lot of time taking care of him.  Whatever he had, I definitely do not want.  Of course, we googled it and cancer came up as a possibility, just like everytime you google or webmd (yes, I am using this as a verb) a symptom.

I have no fear that he has cancer, and like I mentioned, cancer almost always comes up as a possibility when googling or webmding, but it never ceases to give you that initial worry when it pops up as a possible cause of your symptoms.  I gotta stop doing that.

I'm a hungry hungry hippo, so it's time to eat.  

You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment if you do not trust enough.

Tyler and I have been planning a trip to New Orleans recently.  We plan to go in the beginning of May.  I am incredibly excited.  Tyler's mom and stepdad just went to New Orleans recently, and it sounded great.  I've always said I'd like to go there, but never made any serious plans to do so.  We chose New Orleans basically on a whim, it has so many things Tyler and I would be interested in. 

We want to stay in the French Quarter for obvious reasons:

It's is beautiful and the center of everything in New Orleans.  I can't wait to walk out of our hotel and get to see that on a daily basis, even if it is for just a few days.

We've discussed taking a graveyard tour, and I hear you can see Bloody Mary's grave if you catch the right tour:

Maybe while we're on that kick, we'll see what we can find in the way of voodoo:

I won't be killing any chickens, but maybe I'll buy a shrunken head and check out a themed museum or two.

We will DEFINITELY be checking out local music, probably every single day:

Also, we will be checking out the local cuisine:

Which, I have to say, I am the most apprehensive about.  I get really nervous about trying new foods.  But Tyler is really into it, and he's good at persuading me to like (or at least try) things that at first glance make me anxious.  I love some seafood, but I get the impression there's a lot of crawfish in New Orleans cooking, and I've never eaten it.  I guess I'll find out just how I feel about cajun cooking when I finally get a chance to try it out!

Because I just spent a good chunk of my night doing wedding research, I have to at least mention that I found 5 venues to check out for our wedding.  Three of which seem pretty interesting and unique...the other two are attractive enough and affordable.  I'm excited to check more out.  Once that piece of the planning is figured out, that helps a lot in the way of planning so many of the other pieces.  I understand now why people hire wedding planners.  Planning a wedding is no easy feat, and can be really confusing at times.  I think what is most frustrating is how greedy places can be once they find out what you are in need of is for a wedding.  They put on the pressure and sometimes even jack up the price.  It's ridiculous.  Why should something cost more if it's for a wedding than if it's for a formal affair if the services required are exactly the same?  It makes no sense.  I have already been in a situation where internally, I really wanted to punch the person helping me in the face because she was telling me blatant lies in order to persuade me to make a purchase for our wedding.  Needless to say, I did not make that purchase, and I did not punch anyone in the face.

I have made my consultation appointment for Lasik.  It is in two weeks, which means I cannot wear my contacts for two weeks.  I have gone through 3 days of this so far, and I have to say, wearing glasses is highly inconvenient.  They get dirty.  They get foggy.  I have to push them up frequently.  If I take them off to try on sunglasses or clean them off, I can't see.  I look weird.  I can't wear sunglasses, because I don't have any with prescription lenses.  I cannot even use peripheral vision because it's outside of my lens coverage area, which means I can't see.  Total bullshit.  I thought contacts sucked, because they're a bit time consuming and uncomfortable, but in comparison, they're pretty much awesome.  Lasik will be even more awesome if I can suffer through this glasses thing.

Anyways, time for bed.

G.T.L.

Gym. Tanning. Laundry.

If you know what I'm talking about, then you've watched Jersey Shore.  Or, at least read some things about it.  I am so behind, I know.  But, with being stranded in a hotel in the middle of nowhere in a blizzard on New Year's Eve, I got to watch my first few episodes ever.  I was definitely intrigued.  Then, season two became available to watch instantly on Netflix this past week.  Tyler and I have been indulging in our guilty pleasure for the last two days.  If I had any shame, I might feel ridiculous admitting I've even lost sleep, as I watched way past my bedtime.  But because I have no shame, I will say it happened, and I'd do it again.  I'm almost done with season 2 (I think.  I'm not actually sure how many episodes there are, but I think I'm on episode 10), and, while watching, I have a whole lot to say.   But afterwards, all I've got is I fucking love Snookie.  She's my little smurf midgey. Pauly D, too.  He's like my little troll doll.  With a troll/midget combo in the middle of an alcohol/testosterone/drama/tanning lotion/fist pumping fueled reality show, you were bound to get my attention.  It seems like a lose/lose situation for everybody.  We all wasted valuable time in front of a television, debatably getting dumber by the minute while we watched people get drunk, get laid, get they nails did, and fight.  They got humiliated, punched and/or slapped in the face, embarrassed themselves, got caught lying, and probably got some cancer from all that tanning, all on national television.  But we all win because while we were being entertained, they were having what will probably be the time of their lives times a million and got paid a ridiculous amount to do it.  In the future, they're going to bitch about how it ruined their lives, and we're going to balk at what a ridiculous show it was, but for now, we're going to enjoy it.

....Until next season, when they'll be staying in Italy, which will obviously spark WWIII because the Italian people will think that all Americans behave that way.

Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves.

I had a strange dream last night.  I dreamt that an old friend of mine, Sharee, and I went to Vegas.  It was her first time in Vegas and her first time gambling.  Although a novice gambler in real life, in my dreams I had quite a bit of confidence in my gambling abilities.  I directed her how to properly use a slot machine, and as a result of my expert teachings, she won 1 million dollars.  I won $35,000.  I think I'll try gambling in my dreams more often.
After this portion of the dream, My old pug, Walter, had come back to life.  I was aware in the dream this was unusual, but there was some sort of explanation for it, which made sense in the dream and I have completely forgotten now that I am awake.  Nonetheless, it was nice to see his cute little puggy face and get to hug him once more.
After that, there was a portion of my dream where I kept pulling my teeth out.  This happens a lot in my dreams.  This time, I had lost a good portion of my teeth on the upper left side.  However, many of the teeth were growing back in.  An interesting turn of evens in the teeth pulling saga of my dreams.  I googled dream explanations for losing/pulling your teeth, and there were so many explanations I couldn't begin to determine which one sounded the most likely.  So, I'm just going to chalk it up to the fruit snacks I ate before I fell asleep, which probably got stuck in my teeth.