HOUSEKEEPING! Oh, and Mayo

Forgive me, readers, for it’s been a week since my last confession post. This could possibly be because it’s been between 80 and 90 degrees in Seattle for weeks, and I’m working on the most epic tan. I don’t think I’ll ever see my skin this color again. I mean, if I don’t have to sit inside, in front of a computer all day, I’m not going to.

If I really had to put blame on my brief absence though, it’d be that I’m spending the majority of the time I do spend in front of a computer, trying to do actual work-related stuff such as editing my resume and working on a personal branding project. This includes coming up with a logo, style specifications, fonts, business cards and a Web site. Time consuming stuff, but just a few more tweaks and then I can hit the job ground running.

I have been wanting to ask a few housekeeping questions. Such as: are you having trouble loading my blog or leaving comments? I’ve had a few people reach out and tell me that the black background is all that shows up, so they can’t read the text. Or they can’t comment. I’ve tried to fix both, but please let me know if you continue to have technical problems – obviously I want the reading experience to be as smooth as possible. No one likes a crappy Web site.

Also, I am currently hovering somewhere around the 80 readers mark for my feed, and I want to do a giveaway at 100 readers. I like to celebrate these milestones, and well, giveaways are kinda fun no matter what. So, IF I were to host another giveaway, what would you most like to be gifted (lock your answers in below. Multiple choice is accepted):

In the meantime, I’ll eventually knock out the long list of anticipated blog posts I’ve been collecting. A few of them include getting around to discussing decorating, with pics from my bedroom, and a post about my thoughts on growing up in separate states across this very large nation of ours. I’ve also been dying to share this with you:

Only my biggest obsession since, um, I gave up my drug habit a few years ago. (I kid, I kid). But really – I can’t stop talking about this wasabi mayo from Trader Joe’s. It gives everything a kick. Recently, I’ve thrown it into deviled eggs (wasabi deviled eggs = YUM), tuna for a little spice or onto sandwiches with turkey, roast beef or ham. The stuff is freakin’ addicting. Unfortunately, it’s not that great for you, but fortunately, a little goes a long way. I highly recommend purchasing it. AND, if you don’t have a Trader Joe’s in your area, I’ll put on some black and wear a veil over my eyes to mourn your loss.

Until next time, blog lovers, cheerio!

Currently Feeling: Stoked about my progress this week, and really excited about a few jobs I’ve seen posted that I want to get in the running for!
Currently Anticipating: Barbecues galore tonight, my first Girl Power Hour meeting, catching up with an old college acquaintance tomorrow, and sunbathing with high school girl friends and my sis on Friday!
Currently Eating: A smoked turkey wrap with chilled sweet potato bisque. YUM.

One person’s junk is another’s treasure

Oh garage sales. What a seriously interesting sociology experiment into the human mind. Someone should write a book on garage sales and what people will sell and buy – I took a sociology class in college called “Deviant Behavior” where we analyzed the social workings behind gangs, gambling and sexual deviance (David Carradine, what?!), I think that a little section there about garage sales would have been equaling interesting. Although, garage sales aren’t necessarily deviant… so that blows my whole theory, but I digress.

This past weekend, the BF and I combined piles of our junk (me from moving out, him from the divorce and general junk collecting since he owns a house and has more space than he knows what to do with. I guess this equals a lot of junk purchasing) and threw a garage sale. This is my first experience in selling my crap for others’ purchase.

I started out with good ole fashioned advertising – a Craigslist post and some neon signs that a college girl friend helped me decorate. She happens to be unemployed too, so we spent last Tuesday afternoon, coloring the signs and seriously mapping out our route for where they’d be hung. I bet we never would have guessed that four years after college, decorating garage sale signs while unemployed would be the highlight of our week. Oh how I love you, Recession.

Saturday morning the BF and I got up at a ungodly Saturday morning hour, after six hours of sleep, to throw our junk out in his driveway. I’ll let you in on a little secret – even if you put in bold and CAPS, “No early birds,” there’s always going to be some jack ass that shows up at 7:30 a.m. asking if they’re too early. And then commences the mayhem…

I was absolutely amazed at what people will buy. “One person’s junk is another’s treasure” couldn’t be more true. The items of value that I thought would actually sell – nice area rugs, a standing lamp, a snowboard and quality bar stools – remained unsold. But I got rid of a lot of stuff I thought I’d just throw out there for shits and giggles, but would never sell… half-used lotion bottles, ugly jewelry my grandmother bought me, old clothes that I thought weren’t even worth giving to the Goodwill (two pairs of gauchos that someone actually bought. Yuck!), a pink mosaic Kleenex holder, a brown juice pitcher my mom gave me for college that must have been from the 80s, a computer bag with World Vision’s huge logo on the front that I received for free when I worked there, a kinda dingy white bathroom towel, a plastic paper filer, a puff paint butterfly belt I bought at a clothing boutique five years ago and thought was cute at the time… All sold. Some guy jumped out of his car and ran breakneck speed to pick up my crappy iron for $1 that has burned junk on it so every time you iron, it leaves black goo on your clothes. Lucky him.

Seriously… who would have thought I could sell this crap? The BF thought it was so fun to make money off the junk you just kinda have lying around, that nearly the whole time we were supposed to be sitting out there together, he was going through cupboards and pantries, trying to find additional items to sell. I joked that our garage sale was like Kmart – new blue light specials added throughout the day!

And I won’t even go into the types of people who came and went… some nice little old European lady was as sweet as can be and kept piling stuff up on the table for purchase. I thought I was going to make a gold mine off her until she turned into the Gestapo and started halving all my prices, combining everything and saying, “All this – $4.” I just shrugged and let her make off with my gold teeth. (Bad joke, bad joke).

After it was all said and done, I made $100 off my junk and then turned around and posted the items that are actually of value on Craigslist. Although some have argued that $100 isn’t really worth my time, I’d say that the entertainment value alone was worth it. The $100 is just an added bonus.

Currently Feeling: Excited for my first Social Media Club Seattle meet-up tomorrow!
Currently Anticipating: Moshi Moshi all-night happy hour tonight with a big group of people.
Currently Hating: Scales. But I bought one anyway.

Slow Dance

I just received this poem in one of those always lovely chain e-mails; apparently it was written by a terminally ill teenager who has six months to live. I thought I’d share it here because I think it has a really great message. I’m a busy, busy person, and feel like I’m living life at 80 mph. I need to take the time to slow down sometimes…

SLOW DANCE

Have you ever watched kids
On a merry-go-round?

Or listened to the rain
Slapping on the ground?

Ever followed a butterfly’s erratic flight?
Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?

You better slow down.
Don’t dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won’t last.

Do you run through each day
On the fly?

When you ask, “How are you?”
Do you hear the reply?

When the day is done
Do you lie in your bed
With the next hundred chores
Running through your head?

You’d better slow down.
Don’t dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won’t last.

Ever told your child,
We’ll do it tomorrow?
And in your haste,
Not see his sorrow?

Ever lost touch,
Let a good friendship die
Cause you never had time
To call and say,”Hi.”

You’d better slow down.
Don’t dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won’t last.

When you run so fast to get somewhere
You miss half the fun of getting there.

When you worry and hurry through your day,
It is like an unopened gift….Thrown away.

Life is not a race.
Do take it slower.
Hear the music.
Before the song is over.

Currently Feeling: Sleepy. Up too late at the movie theater last night, and up too early for a career workshop this morning.
Currently Anticipating: Our garage sale this weekend! I’ve never had one. Should be interesting.
Currently Loving: The simple gold sandals with a buckle I got at Ross for $8. They dress up any outfit without having to wear heels!

I WON!!!

Well this day just keeps getting better and better…

Not only did I find and buy the Holy Grail of bikes, but I was just informed that I won the contest over at Apricot Tea.! (For the letter I wrote to my younger self). How neat. I haven’t won something in a very long time – and it feels really humbling and warm & fuzzy to have something I wrote recognized.

Not to mention, I was desperate to win the book, Style Statement: Live by Your Own Design because I LOVED EvYan’s (BTW, how pretty is that name?!) explanation of it:

Style Statement helps you define who you really are, in every aspect of your life: in your relationships, in your style choices, in the music you listen to, in your favorites & dislikes, etc. This book helped me tremendously when I was on the journey of discovering my true-self. I hold onto my style statement (genuine eloquence) with absolute pride.

I’m super excited to figure out what my style statement is! And, of course, I will report back here to all of you!

xoxo

Technorati Profile

And the winners are…

All right – the contest for one of five copies of Thanks for Coming: One Young Woman’s Quest for an Orgasm is closed, and I’ve picked the winners!

In case you’re wondering how the process worked, I numbered the list of comments, adding a comment for those who were so kind to Tweet about my contest (an entry for each Tweet you made) and subtracted the comments I made in response. This was so each numbered comment would correspond with a person who entered. I then used Random.org to generate four random numbers (the first copy of the book went to Katie from Don’t Call Me Kathleen for being the first person to comment). The numbers that were generated corresponded with comments from the following people:

2. Novelwhore (Her odds were up there – she had five entries because she Tweeted about my contest every day.)
3. Nicole Antoinette from More Is Better (More ORGASMS are better! Fitting she won since she was the first person to actually respond with how many people she slept with.)
4. Single Twenty Something (Send me your address!)
5. Megan from Somewhat Voluble (Also fitting – she won this book on her blogoversary.)

I will be contacting each of you separately – except, Single Twenty Something, you’ll have to send me your address or contact info because your blogger profile says it’s private. I will try to send out the books this weekend. Thanks to all of you who entered. Honestly, I wish I had a copy for each and every one of you! I recommend picking up the book even if you didn’t win! (And those friends of mine who are located in Seattle and didn’t win, you know you have a private, reserved copy at my house).

Happy Friday!

Currently Feeling: Disappointed the weather is so gorgeous and I can’t do much.
Currently Anticipating: Possible first Mariners game of the season tomorrow. I hope my back magically feels better when I wake up!
Currently Loving: My new roommate and my new apartment!

Psst…this post is about S-E-X, oh, and a pretty sweet giveaway

A few weeks ago, I was approached by HarperCollins to do a book review of Thanks for Coming: One Young Woman’s Quest for an Orgasm by Mara Altman. My immediate reaction was, um, YES because a) I’m obsessed with memoirs and b) who doesn’t love to read/write/talk about or have sex? Not this girl!

My lovely review copy came just in time for me to pack it with me on the plane to Mexico. I started it right away while lying poolside on day one, and HELLO, I couldn’t put it down! I kinda wanted my BF to go off on solo snorkeling trips all the time, just so I could be left alone with the book. Now, if you know me, you know that I read a lot of books and a review like that should come highly coveted. [I'm not just giving a rave review for shits and giggles or suck-up points.]

At age 26 Altman realizes that she’s never had an orgasm and goes on an emotional, physical and sometimes spiritual quest for one. Immediately you’ll probably have the reaction that my boyfriend did when I told him about the book, “Not even with a vibrator?”

No. Not even that. And for the first 100 pages I was like, “Girl! Just go out and buy a freakin vibrator!” as she carefully, with the detail of a true journalist, logs all of her past sexual relationships, growing up with a sexually open “naked family,” and her emotional attachments, or nonattachments, that have prevented her from orgasming. Pretty soon, everyone in her story was telling her to just.go.out, and buy a VIBRATOR too, but for Altman, it was more of a personal journey and exploration. Altman’s quest turned from simply searching for orgasm, to searching for the sexual being in her that would let go of all inhibitions, insecurities and just LOVE being a woman, even with all the grody details that womanhood sometimes entails.

Altman is insightful, witty (even the mere chapter titles crack me up) and delightfully honest. And what keeps the book rolling, page after page, is her secret door into the crazy underworld of sex. I don’t even know where she obtained half the contacts she did, but as she searches for her orgasmic self and the MEANING OF ORGASM, she spends time with sex workers and scientists, goes to sex shows and conventions, takes off on trips with a sex colony, interviews women that have been deemed the original, ALL-KNOWING sources of the female orgasm, and regularly experiments with her “sacred whore.”

You’ll want to read this book, if for nothing else than to kick up your sex vibe a bit – if you read about sex, you’re thinking about sex, and it pretty much makes you want to have sex all the time. I think I wanted to have sex 462 times a day while I read this book. That might be TMI, but nothing like the TMI you’ll read in Thanks for Coming…

So, the book went on sale today, but I have five lovely copies to give away to you, blog readers! Isn’t that exciting? All you have to do is enter the contest by telling me in the comments how many people you’ve slept with!

Joke.

Just leave any comment, no special response necessary, and you’ll be entered. If your comment doesn’t link to a site, be sure to leave your email or send it to me privately at whatjesaid@gmail.com. If you have a Twitter account, and Tweet about the contest, I’ll give you a double entry. The giveaway closes on Friday, and I will choose five winners at random and mail out your copy of the book this weekend!

(P.S. The first person to leave a comment automatically wins a book just because your Twitter or RSS skills rock).

Currently Feeling: Groggy. I couldn’t stop watching Trading Spouses last night. Those people are craaazy!
Currently Anticipating: Checking out some more sweet condos/apartments tonight. I’m anxious to make a decision this week!
Currently Needing: To get back into The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I opted for lighter reading during vacation, and now I’m not into it.

It looks kinda funny

That’s what she said…

…one of the oldest and easiest jokes – and a personal favorite of mine. Hopefully you’re not saying, “It looks kinda funny” about the new space. I’ve spent hours upon hours redesigning the Butterfly template from Delicious Design Studios to be my own vision – That’s What Je Said.

A little hot pink, a little leopard, a little wine, and you’ve got a bit of Je, or Jeanna (formerly 20-Something of Memoirs of a 20-Something). I’m pretty excited about my new blog brand – I feel it’s a little bit more original than the former, and a little bit more me. (Like DUH, I’m so much more a wine girl now than a martini girl).

What you see here took a lot of vector-image searching on iStock.com; (do you know they discriminate against curly haired people in the illustration world? bitches), a lot of tweaking and a lot of obsessing. You’ll see a lot of the old sidebar content, and a few new features – psst you can FOLLOW me now. Whoo! Whoo! Plus some more new features to come. Some of the site is still in transition, FYI. The link bar is not up and running yet, the feed still needs to be updated, and the new site address…

…is still in “Internet transition,” so they say. Apparently it takes a couple days for it all to populate. But, don’t you worry, my former address will redirect to the new one. If you can remember, however, it’d be lovely (and more safe) to update your links, and you’ll have to update the feed in your reader when you have the time. I’ll be here for awhile, so I promise you won’t have to do it again.

Thanks so much for your patience, and for reading. It’s humbling and fun to share my writing with the Worldwide Interwebs.

Love,
Je
(Wowza. I feel like I’m kinda coming out of the closest by not signing 20-Something).

Currently Feeling: Exhausted. Seriously, 1 a.m.? I’m crazy.
Currently Anticipating: Hanging out with Vaness and Amanda tomorrow.
Currently Loving: My stuffed pepper recipe!! I’m SO sharing it with you. Stay tuned.

Stay Tuned…

I believe I mentioned a bit ago about changing my blog title – and essentially my blog BRAND. (It’s all about brand when you live in the marketing world). Anyway, I’ve decided to bite the bullet and change the “20-Something” shtick well before I’m actually 30 and probably want to shoot myself cause I’ll be feeling OLD. I also thought the three year anniversary was a great time to give the girl a face lift. (In dog years, that’s 21, so she needs a sassy, adult design).
Some of you might have seen a sneak peek since it’s been up and down in order for me to edit. Hopefully it’ll be live by the weekend. In the meantime, writing will be on a short hiatus since this blog redesign stuff takes some serious effort and time. Cheers!

UPDATE: I will be taking the blog down/making it private off and on while I edit. You’ve been forewarned.

Currently Feeling: Excited with all the projects I have brewing in my head.
Currently Anticipating: Making a stuffed pepper recipe I concocted for girls’ night tonight. Perhaps I’ll share the recipe all here with you if it turns out.
Currently Loving: Zhena’s Gypsy Tea in coconut chai. SO amazing!!

OMFG – Instant Celebrity Gossip!

Ah, Twitter.

It’s the latest CRAAAAZE ya’ll! (I can’t believe I just used ya’ll), Who knows; seemed kinda fitting. Twitter makes me loco!* I LOVE it. It’s strangely fun to tell others what I’m up to (in fact, I’m kinda addicted to it and drive the BF crazy when I’m on my phone all the time), and strangely fun to read what others are doing. But – I tend to be slightly picky about who I’m following. I like to follow my friends because I actually care about what they’re doing every minute of the day, and I like to follow some of my favorite bloggers because I read what they have to say every day. I’m also following a few recommendations from others – @Amazon MP3 because they alert you to $0.99 CDs, @condensedmovies because they’re funny, 140-character reviews of movies…

But recently I’ve discovered something really weird – there are CELEBRITIES on Twitter. Celebrities that regularly update their account with what they’re doing – and it’s legitimately them. (Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher, Rumer Willis, Punky Brewster, Ashley and Pete Wentz, The Shaq, Fred Durst, MC Hammer, John Mayer, Tina Fay… those are the participating “celebrities” I’ve found so far.) I recently started following Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher. Can I tell you how weird that is?! I read through my Twitter timeline like 50x a day – oh look, Demi and Ashton are celebrating Talulah’s birthday right now! Oh look! Demi and Ashton are in San Fran and they posted a romantic pic together on the Golden Gate Bridge! And now they are on the airplane ride home!

You know I’ve really lost it when I saw that pic and nearly texted one of my good friends who was in San Fran that weekend – “Keep an eye out for the Kutchers! They’re both in San Fran too!” Then I stopped myself – who the $#@* cares you GD loon. I think I might be *this close* (pinching fingers together at the computer screen) to being totally crazy.

Ok, I’m going to go check Twitter now.

*For those of you who poo poo Twitter, it is HUGE in the PR and Mar/Comm world – you should be reading about it and learning how to use it professionally if you’re in these industries, IMO.

Currently Feeling: More than a little behind.
Currently Anticipating: Chic chat tonight!
Currently Reading: Save Karyn by Karyn Boznak, author of Pretty in the City. It’s been awhile since I’ve read chic lit, but this one is HILARIOUS! I can’t put it down.

A tag cloud of everything I’ve written thus far

Today I ran across a neat site – Wordle - which creates a tag cloud from any sort of text or Web site you choose. I came across it while reading an article a co-worker sent me on a word cloud analysis of Obama’s inaugural speech vs. Bush. (Yes, I’m this nerdy).

Anyway, my immediate reaction was to want to know what words would pop up most in my little homespun blog here. So, I took all the text in ALL 500+ blogs I’ve written since 2006 (582 pages in Word – that could be considered a novel, couldn’t it?!), subtracted common phrases such as “posted by 20-Something” and “Currently Anticipating/Feeling”, and I got this:

Could be an interesting point about how much our generation is said to use the word, “like.” I thought there’d be a whole lot more alcohol and sex related words, but what do I know?

Currently Feeling: A little wore out.
Currently Anticipating: Possible Michael Jackson vs. Prince party at Nectar tomorrow night?
Currently Wishing: I had voodoo powers.