Year of Firsts...July

 My senior year of high school, I remember my friend telling me that she and her family did something where they put a candle in their ears, lit the end on fire, and then had all their earwax suctioned out.   For the past 14 years, that memory resurfaces at random.   I have been known to request random activities amongst friends in the spirit of "bonding."  Waxing.  Juicing.  And what I now know to be called ear candling.  Every time I suggested ear candling in the past, or any of my previous mentioned bonding activities, I was always answered back with blank stares.  What better excuse to finally get people to try it with me than, "It's something I've never done before.  It's a first."

It's actually quite scary.  An open flame and ashes burning down a wax strip hovering above your face and hair.  You can practically see the fear in my eyes.

Upon preparing for this activity, I read a lot of information about ear candling.  Supposedly the negative pressure of the smoke going into your ear is supposed to suction the wax out of your ears.  All recent articles warn against ear candling and say that it is highly discredited.  Most of the wax that is in the candle upon completion is actually just the wax from the candle itself, and not your ear.  Regardless, I finally got my 14 year long wish to try ear candling.

I even got Angela to try it with me.  We only had a couple near burning experiences, but we survived.  Here are our remnants in the candle....or shall I say, here is the wax from the candle itself.  My ears didn't feel any differently afterward, but the heat flowing into my ears during the burning felt kinda cool.  Mark that off my bucket list!

Year of Firsts....June

Half way through the year and still loving my New Year's resolution.  Anyone who knows me knows how much I love Cirque du Soliel shows, so when my friend Hailee's husband was out of the country doing an internship the whole summer, I maximized the opportunity and made her and Angela take a Vegas trip with me.  

Like every vegas trip, we had to get our pool time in!  We got settled into our condo and decided to have a snack.  I was beginning a healthy eating adventure, so we decided to make smoothies..... Well, I guess I don't know how to operate a magic bullet because this is the result.

I really don't know what happened other than I couldn't figure out why it was so difficult to screw the bullet into the base without losing all the smoothie mixture.  haha

After we had sufficient pool time, and after Hailee had practically walked around and debugged the whole pool, we decided to hit the town.  We stopped by the garden room at the Bellagio and watched the water show.

 But the real reason we were there was to watch "O" by Cirque du Soleil!  I have wanted to see this show for years, and what better way to see it than while trying to accomplish my "year of firsts."  Despite all its quirkiness and weird statues, Vegas is a quick and easy weekend getaway that never disappoints.   And I would highly recommend "O!!"  So good!!