Day 141: Use Essential Oils for Various Uses

I put a few drops of peppermint essential oil on my tongue for energy and fresh breath, good news is I was only temporarily blinded from the intensity of it. It's like Listerine on crack. I rubbed some Lavender on my neck for chronic neck pain and inhaled some for peace of mind. I used some Peace and Calming on my temples for more of that sort of thing. Whenever I go to bed, I'll use some more to try to aid in sleep which I could most definitely use. These are supposed to be some pretty powerful oils with real benefits, so we'll see if any of it works or not. 

Day 140: Book Signing

We got to meet Tony Hale at Happy Up Inc. in Edwardsville today! I love Arrested Development and he's written a children's book, "Archibald's Next Big Thing" and is doing a book signing for it. Nice to meet someone I'm a fan of as well as doing my first book signing. He was really cool. "This party is gonna be off the hook!" - Buster Bluth. 

Day 139: Make a Lava Lamp

All you need is a bottle, water, cooking oil, food coloring and Alka-Seltzer to make a temporary lava lamp. This is a pretty cool and cheap idea to do with kids. 

Day 138: Drink a Bud Light "Rita"

That's pretty much all I've got. It's been a long day people. 

Day 137: Write a Thankful Email to a Former Professor

I had one professor during my time as an advertising major that really had an impact on me. I also was a research assistant for her at one point and she taught me a lot through that as well. She was a great professor and I feel like anytime someone has an impact on you like that, they should hear it. 

Day 136: Eat a Burger With Peanut Butter and Apples on it

It's called the Billy Madison Burger and it's at Stacked in Saint Louis and it's AWESOME. I've been seeing more and more places offering peanut butter on their burgers so I wanted to try it. Stacked is pretty awesome. Anyone in the area should definitely try it out. 

Day 135: Learn a Fact about Every Country

Day 134: Fill a Backpack Full of Food for a Hungry Child

No kid should ever go hungry, period. Next to preventing and raising awareness of child sex slavery and abuse, providing kids with clean drinking water and food is the second biggest form of charity that I care about. If I had millions of dollars, half would go to these two things because all kids deserve better than that. If you're following along and have a minute today and a few extra bucks laying around, go to your charity of choice for preventing child hunger and donate. If you do, you're awesome and thanks!

Day 133: Build a 3D Puzzle

When life gives you lemons... build a 3D apple. 

Day 132: Bring My Own Booze to a Restaurant

The Magic Kitchen in Springfield, IL, let's you bring your own alcohol to drink while you eat. Good beer with a good friend. 

Day 131: Donate to the Brain Trauma Foundation

I had a severe concussion in high school from football that ended up having a pretty profound impact on my life in unexpected ways. So, brain injuries and anything to do with mental health is close to my heart. The more they find out about concussions and brain trauma through research, the better. 

Day 130: Apple Cider Vinegar and all of its Uses

Apparently apple cider vinegar is supposed to be some kind of crazy medical miracle according to the news and health nuts worldwide lately. It's supposed to do everything from aid in weight loss to detoxify your body if you drink it. You can also use it to whiten your teeth, wash your hair with it to make it shine, make a skin brightener solution out of it, make a room spray out of it, on and on. I'll be using it for as many uses as I can find throughout the day including all of the above mentioned things. Yes, I'll be washing my hair with it too.

Day 129: See a Movie Alone in a Theatre

I doubt many people I know would want to see this this movie with me anyway so it all works out. "Boyhood" was shot over 12 years and is supposed to be pretty incredible so I'm excited. I never even thought to go to a movie alone before, but maybe this will be more refreshing than anything and even a little cleansing, mentally. 

After seeing the movie, I was really pleased with it. It was unlike anything I've ever seen before and was a very personable movie that I really enjoyed. Great movie. 

Day 128: Make Peanut Butter

Bought a food processor, opened it... wouldn't turn on. I used my blender instead... broke my blender. But hey, I have peanut butter! Really good peanut butter, actually. 

Day 127: First Baby Shower

No better baby shower to be my first one than my brother and sister-in-law's. Sometime in the next 5 weeks I'll be an uncle! 

Day 126: Build a Lemon Battery

A lemon, a couple of wires, some zinc, some forks or nails and some tape and you've got yourself a citrus powered battery. The acidity of citrus fruits generates the electricity. In the words of Jesse Pinkman, "YEAH, SCIENCE!!!" 

Day 125: Play Poker

I won the only hand I've ever played of poker! We played a hand of Texas Hold Em'. It was a first for 4 of us. I want to play more now. I see a poker night in my future. 

Day 124: Donate to the 9/11 Memorial

I don't need or want to make a big post here about 9/11 because anything that could be said already has been, especially across social media. I just made a donation to the 9/11 Memorial through 911memorial.org, and hopefully that memorial will continue to grow and always immortalize what happened that day and who we lost. 

Day 123: Kale Chips and a Pepino Melon

Sounds like the name of a band... tastes like crap. Well, the Pepino Melon from Ecuador was decent, but I really didn't like the kale chips too much. Now that the 1/3 mark is down for 365 Firsts, I might be trying some different approaches to stuff such as doing things I don't believe in, etc. I'm excited to see what's coming up and how it'll all play out. 

Day 122: Karaoke

First time ever gracing others with my majestic voice over the mic was last night at Drunken Travis... I mean Drunken Fish. Only a few eardrums ruptured. Side note: I'm now officially 1/3 of the way through 365 Firsts! 

Day 121: Take Caffeine Pills

Been completely swamped all day so sometimes you have to improvise. This should help my insomnia. 

Day 120: Cardinals Care 6K

The ol Brother Bear and I ran the Stan Musial Cardinals Care 6K to help raise money for the areas youth through funding health, educational, recreational, mentoring, and arts programs. I love kids so it feels good to support the Saint Louis youth which could always use help, get out and get some fresh air, see the city and end it by running on the field at  Busch Stadium which is something I've wanted to do since my first game when I was 3. I'll be doing it again next year! 

Day 119: Listen to the Number One Voted Album of All Time From Start to Finish

I'd consider myself a bigger Beatles fan than the average person but not a mega fan by any means. Rolling Stones Magazine has "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", ranked as their definitive number one album of all time. I've definitely heard most of these but listening to it from start to finish is a different experience, especially with the songs I've never heard. If you're a music fan, you're a Beatles fan, even if you don't realize it yet because they have influenced music as a whole more than any other band in history. 

Day 118: Shave My Legs

Yep. Shaved my legs. I had more suggestions for this one than anything for some odd reason. I have (had) really hairy legs too so this wasn't fun. 

Day 117: Finish a Mixed Media Painting

I hope a 4 year old can appreciate abstract art 😂. He's obsessed with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles so I made my version of a TMNT painting for his birthday. On day 106, I started this as a spray paint painting and over the days added acrylic paint to it and then layered more spray paint. First time I've done anything other than just acrylic. I like mixing the mediums a lot. I'll have to do it again for future paintings. Hope Jaxon likes it, Meghan! He'll need a receipt if he wants to return it... which I will not provide. 

Day 116: Clean out a Fish Tank

Megera is a part of my life now since she's living in our apartment so I thought I'd give it a shot cleaning out her home. Not like she'd do the same for me. I know she can see the dishes piling up. Maybe I could come home and dinner is already made. Once. Just saying, Megera. 

Day 115: Contribute to a Kickstarter

Day 114: 5 Gum Truth or Dare Challenge

Here are the challenges part of the 5 Gum Truth or Dare Challenge. I made a video for the truths earlier in the day. Some of these were just plain weird but this is what I was given from the pack so here's the list: 

Dare 1) Text your mom the last text you received from someone

Dare 2) Sit on a friend for 5 minutes straight

Dare 3) Make your next decision by flipping a coin (flipped whether or not to bring wine to a friends house) 

Dare 4) Ask 5 people for directions

Dare 5) Eat ice cream with hot sauce (awful) 

Dare 6) Take a selfie at the highest point in a public place

Dare 7) Wear earplugs for an hour during the day (doing now) 

Dare 8) Explore the dark with a flashlight 

Day 113: Fantasy Football Draft

Joining the Fantasy Football world this year! The new roomie is a big football buff so we drove up to her hometown in Chillicothe for draft day. Her family is great, but they take this stuff seriously. Super serious. It's intimidating. But there's a lot of food and beer so I'm ok. I'm excited for the season to start! 

Day 112: Make a Bouncy Ball

Mix some Borax, glue, water, cornstarch and food coloring, roll it into a ball and you've got yourself a bouncy ball. Now that I know this, there shall be an endless amount of bouncy balls invading the greater Edwardsville area.

Day 111: Crown Candy Kitchen

11 pounds of food and 2 friends later, I'm in a state of bliss/pain. This place is a staple of Saint Louis and I'm glad I finally went. Soooo good. 

Day 110: Pay it Forward 15 Times

I've been a little down and feeling a little too sorry for myself lately. It's always a pick-me-up to get a little bright spot in your day so I thought I'd go to Starbucks and Pay It Forward for the next 15 customers coming through. I've done this to 1 person a lot before, but thought I'd do more today. Hopefully it makes their day a little better if its been bad or they're going through a little downer phase like me. Sometimes that's all it takes. If you're following 365 Firsts and you have a chance in the next few days, do me a favor and Pay It Forward for the person behind you at a drive-thru or in some other way if you can. Thanks. 

Day 109: Whisper App

If you don't know, Whisper is and app that allows you to anonymously post any secrets that you have. Anyone can read them that has the app, but it remains anonymous who told what secret. So, I put a secret on here and shared it with the Whisper World. It's oddly refreshing to do it actually and definitely interesting to see other peoples stuff. And no, I'm not saying what I posted :)

Day 106: Spray Paint Art

It's not done yet, just waiting for it to dry so I can add more. I've never used spray paint as a medium, so we'll see how it turns out. I started painting a few years ago with acrylic, but I like this new method so far.

Day 108: Make a Balloon Animal

It's National Dog Day so I made my first balloon animal to celebrate! It's a dog. Get it? Only 2 balloon dogs died in the making of this balloon. Worth it.

Day 107: Cook and Egg on a Sidewalk

This pretty much just didn't work. Tiiiiiny bit less raw I suppose is better than nothing. I would've thought the fact that it's 482 degrees outside would've done the trick but I guess not.

Day 105: Craps and Blackjack at a Casino

I won. I lost. Then I won. Then I lost all of it. But I played! It was fun.

Day 104: ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

I decided to break the over-exposed video chain and post pictures instead. I take part in the challenge and am also donating to the ALS Foundation. I nominate the following people to also take part in the Ice Bucket Challenge and more importantly, donate to the cause: Sarah Bly, Jordan Courtney and Josh Dill, I nominate you. You have 24 hours! 

Day 103: Infuse Water

Lemon. Strawberries. Basil. Water. Sooooooo good.