I woke up Monday morning with a terrible sore throat, fever, and body aches. I slowly but surely got myself out of bed to drive to the store and get as much medicine as I can. I would have just stayed home and used my Nyquil and Dayquil but mine seems to keep “mysteriously” disappearing and Mr. Nobody keeps taking it. So, I make my way to the store to go drop $22 bucks on anything I think will make me feel better.

I will be honest; I didn’t brush my teeth before I left. I know it’s disgusting but I just wanted to get the medicine and get out and lay back in bed. So out of common courtesy of others, I politely kept my coat sleeve over my mouth. The old lady at the checkout stand told me “looks like you have the right idea, this thing is going around. And why are you covering your mouth? Do you have a toothache as well?”

Even though I know that she meant well, I really just wanted to exhale really slow and say “no” so she could get a little breeze of my so called toothache.

I got a gift certificate for a spa called, The Allison which is located in Newberg and decided to use it today. I am only 5’3” so when they gave me my robe to put on I was somewhat embarrassed. The robe was huge on me even though it was a small and I looked like a 4- year old. But, you get to relax in the lounge, and sauna, and steam room while waiting for the masseuse. Overall, the whole atmosphere is very soothing and relaxing with the peaceful music and dim lit areas.

However, I remember one time I got a “deep tissue” massage which really was one of the worst experiences. It was probably my third professional massage and I thought I would take a step up. I had tears in my eyes the whole time. It was ridiculous, the masseuse would use her elbows and knuckles and what not. At the end your body of course feels really, really good but I really don’t think that the hour in pain was really worth it. I am just going to end up leaving the massage place and getting in my car just to have somebody pull out in front of me to almost cause a wreck, and then my whole body tenses back up and the stress comes back.

Either way, I am completely fine with paying the money to get a massage, and I have found this to be an addiction. I think that it’s a good addiction and unlike some, it is making my body healthier by its release in toxins in my body…and while the deep tissue is said to help reduce cellulite temporary… I will just stick with just the basic release in toxins.

If you put a medical book in front of me, I will seriously gag just looking and reading. If someone gets a scratch on their arm, I will turn the other way and try and get the visual out of my head. So I am sure you are quite curious as to how I am even alive after watching a baby being born. But honestly, I did not even flinch during the whole thing!

I had to leave at 4:30 Friday morning and got to the Providence in Portland at 7:30. Fourteen hours later, Megan had baby Sophia. I got so in to the birth that I was bawling at the end of it because it was so amazing watching my “niece” being born and it’s something that people should really experience. Megan’s mom and I were just glowing with excitement and joy throughout the whole thing and were cheering her on the whole two hours.

Watching was such a beautiful experience because it bonds you with the baby almost instantaneously. Also, being able to watch something come to life is just so hard to even grasp, it was just insane. Not too many people really get the chance to watch a baby being born unless you’re the father or the person giving birth but my mom had C-sections with all of us so she didn’t even get to watch.

The one thing that was really making me gag though however, was the placenta. They pulled it out and placed it in this dish and they wouldn’t take the cart away. It was right by me for twenty minutes and I just wanted to give it a kick so it would go out the door. Not an image I want to be permanently stuck into my mind, but it is. A lot of foods have now been cut out of my diet if they seem to resemble anything of the sort, but I know that in a year or so, I will be able to not have to worry about it bothering me. Also, if you want a cheap version of “birth control” you should just go watch a baby being born because let me tell you, child birth is not something that I want to experience for a very, very long time.

I sell a product called Cambozola Black Label, which is a blue cheese. So people will come up to my stand and pick up a piece of cheese, put their little noses up to it, and it almost touches their noses. Then they make an awful face (if they dont like blue cheese) and put it back on the tray. Um ew. Nobody wants to eat the cheese that has been on your nose. So then I have to throw away and waste cheese.

One of my other favorites is when people go out of their way to come over and look at the cheese and they sit there and will analyze it while I am introducing it to them and either they wont say a word, or after 15 seconds they will look at me with a smile and say “I am vegan, I was just curious as to what you were sampling.” Could you not tell by the signs that say “Blue Cheese” that it was cheese?

I guess my arguemnet would be that people just dont know when their opinion doesnt matter to the person that they are talking to. I hate when people try it and do a huge dramatic scene if it wasn’t what they were expecting and that they still like “Oregon Blue Cheese” better. I just don’t really care..

Dont get me wrong though. The ratio of people liking it would probably be 15:1. Most everybody enjoys the cheese and it is becoming incredibly popular. And if you are a blue cheese fan you will probably enjoy it. But during every shift there are those couple people…if you dont like it just say “thank you”, and move on!

Coming from the small 20,000 populated town, word gets around fast. Tenley Molzahn is, as of last night, one of the last four standing in The Bacehlor.You can click to see Tenley on this link:    http://katielewelling.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/tenley.jpg. Iwould never even think about possbily missing a Portland Blazer game to watch a reality television show but I think that it’s pretty cool to see her on something watched nationwide. And lets just say this makes my Monday something that people drend, that for me is something to look forward too.

You remember the recent “big news story” on the man who was accused if using Craigslist to arrange group sexual assaults on girls? A story that makes your stomach turn and twist as you keep reading on? Well give a big standing ovation for the town of Newberg because that is another reason that we also got on the map.

Newberg also has a special rehab center were celebrities such as Robin Williams, Kelly Osbourne, etc. have been enrolled in to. Which is also really exciting, and we also just built a five star hotel and spa called “The Allison” in our beautiful wine county that hopefully will be getting a lot of attention from the big celebrity world.

But as of now…we are on the map for something absolutely disturbing and disgusting. So I am on here to let people know that Newberg is known for just more that Craiglist’s ads subjecting people to have sex with girls along with other nasty mental images that we don’t want to hear. Diappointing, really.

I think that it is pretty reasonable because you usually sign a “Terms of Agreement” when you sign up for the sport in which you are prohibited from drinking and drug use during your athletic season. Kids who are obeying the rules should be rewarded a position or what not if a team member has decided to break the rules and agreement that they signed. Also, most kids hopefully, are still underage for the drinking age if they are still in high school and I think that dismissing them from the team is a completely reasonable consequence. People need to learn.

As for treating the star player as same as the benchwarmer…it should be that way, but unfortunately, for most high school sports is not. I played soccer, basketball, tennis, track, and swimming throughout my four years in high school and out of all of those, swimming was the only sport that didn’t fit into that stereotype. Everyone was treated equally and the amount of sportsmanship and team spirit was unbelievable. High school sports are all about politics. Who knows who, who is the favorite, what parent put more money and time into the sport, etc. It’s all one big joke.

People have usually heard from their parents “back when I was younger we had to work for the things we wanted.” As the generations of young adults move along we find ourselves in a rut of wanting and not doing. With this at mind, kids are learning that they are going to be able to get what they want just by saying it and not actually taking any action in doing it. When they are told to do something they rebel against it in order to make their point that they are free to do whatever they want, and say whatever they want. It’s completely obvious that the way kids have been raised has affected the world. My parents have said that they never locked their doors when they left their house. Now we have crime rates that are sky high. Take for example the supermodel, Katie Piper. She was walking and someone who was hired by her ex-boyfriend, came up to her and threw sulfuric acid in her face and chunks of her face instantly started falling off. She is now blind in one eye, had work done to make a fake face and is forever scarred and ruined. You just can’t do hardly anything these days.

Young adults also learn that rebelling gives you a reputation that most want because of what we have learned from the media. Movies, and television make it look like it’s glamorous to act out and against what you are told to do and that in doing so will give you a name that is highly admirable. Parents can spend years and years teaching kids that underage drinking is not acceptable and often comes with many consequences and to stay away from drugs. But realistically, how many kids grow up and end up drinking underage and doing drugs? The one thing my mom told me to please not do when I turned eighteen was to go and get a tattoo. I had been playing on getting a tattoo on my birthday for over a year and that is exactly what I did. I came home and showed her and she did not talk to me for over a week.

As we are younger, we always listened to what our parents said. If they went to church on Sunday, then we went to church. And if they said prayers before dinner, then we said prayers. We were too young to realize that later in our life these routines would soon fade away and we would comprehend that maybe this isn’t the lifestyle that we want. Parents who were incredibly strict on children when they were younger either grow up to be very disciplined or grow up completely opposite and get into things they shouldn’t have because of their lack of freedom.

There may not be a possible way to teach a certain individuals values and morals, but the main thing you can do is try. As the generations continue parents are loosening their grip on their children which causes “Young people, intent on following their urges, are making life difficult for themselves and everyone around them and are filled with resentment without knowing why.”

I believe that because of these slogans, and because of the shows that they are airing on television and films that they are letting pass through and onto the big screen is creating this sense of world that allows young adults as well as adults to behave out of hand and act completely crazy, and catty toward others because it shows it as being something that people are going to look up to. People who speak their mind clearly and lay it right out on the table has become the common thing anymore. Problem is: people are speaking their mind in a non respectful way causing verbal harassment and verbal assault as well as leading into larger things such as violence.

Television is becoming progressively worse. Take for example the new Carl’s Jr. commercial featuring Kim Kardashian. It features her in a silky robe that is opened just enough to see her cleavage and she is lying on her bed seductively eating a salad with her fingers. A little bit of salad dressing drops and falls which makes the camera focus in on her boobs. Then she goes to “clean up” in the bath tub with bubbles over her boobs. Okay, I get it. It’s a hot commercial. But honestly..are we seriously reaching that point of desperation that we need to start featuring this “crap” for a stupid salad from a fast food place? Round of applause America, round of applause. Not.

The most interesting part of Chapter 1, for me, would have to be the section called “Brain and Mind at Work.” I find it interesting that there is a production phase and a judgment phase that work together during problem solving and decision making.

I guess that I don’t ever really think about what is taking place in my brain while I am thinking. And I love the line “poor thinkers judge too quickly and uncritically, ignoring the need for evidence and letting their feelings shape their conclusions.” (8)

I think that we are all at fault for judging and speaking our mind too soon before we think about the situation, and sometimes, unfortunately, end up regretting what we say. Oops.

After reading Chapter 1, I hope in terms of this class that I will be able to slow down when it comes to writing and my thoughts, and be able to work through the million other things going on in my head and become a successful, organized, writer.

Film making is becoming more crude and sexual which makes it incredibly difficult to find a movie where you can sit down with you family and watch without feeling uncomfortable. Don’t get me wrong, I love the crude movies just as much but at the same time, it’s nice to be able and sit down and watch a movie without my mom sitting uptight in her chair horrified with the things that are allowed in movies these days.

A true story of a young man, Michael Oher, who goes on to play professional football after having being raised in a not-so-well spot and gets taken in by a wealthy family who helps him reach his goals. He goes on to inspire the many people around him with the actions that he takes and obstacles he overcomes.
The Blindside teaches that “the little things” that individuals take to help other people is incredibly rewarding.