Tonight is the blog post where I ask my readers for honest, decent advice. Each day I have a certain item at lunch. No, no, no I am not talking about my peanut butter sandwich. The second most important item in my lunch is my daily banana. When I went on a diet for my wedding I started eating them each day as a compliment to my peanut butter sandwich. Although the big day has passed and about a third of the weight lost has returned, I am still eating a banana at noon every Monday-Friday.

I always eat a banana with my lunch.

Although I love bananas, I had two big dilemmas when it came to caring for them. Luckily, one was recently solved.

I had no idea the brief amount of time it took for bananas to become too ripe. I quickly learned that even if I bought green bananas on Sunday they would be more black than yellow on Friday. Thanks to my mother-in-law, she gave me a special plastic bag that is supposed to keep my bananas in good shape, or, as she said, “Looking pretty.” Not only will it keep my daily fruit from losing its optimal taste, it will also allow our fruit bowl to look more presentable for a longer period of time.

My mother-in-law gave me this bag to put my bananas in.

My second problem is yet to be solved. I transport my lunch in my gym bag. In the morning I throw my banana in the bag, drive to campus, get my workout in, and go to the office. When I arrive at my desk, I take out the banana and put it on my desk to protect it. However, by then, my banana is often bruised or lightly smashed. This takes a lot of the joy away from eating it at lunch as I have to throw the damaged portion (s) away. Please note that when I am carrying around my gym bag I am mindful of the delicate fruit inside so it is not like I am acting careless.

Can you give me advice for securing my banana? Give me your best Pinterest-inspired tips and tricks. Whatever you tell me, please just make sure it will still allow for me to carry it in my gym bag (this would be way too easy if you just told me to carry it in my hand). I appreciate your consideration in this matter. Don’t Blink.

I normally don’t wear accessories. Necklaces, earrings, and grills just aren’t my thing. Shoot, I don’t wear hats all that much either. But when Sidney and I married in June a piece of jewelry was automatically added to my daily dress.

For over three months I have proudly worn a wedding ring. Until we said “I do” I had never worn a ring for longer than a day in my life. To go from never wearing something to wearing something almost 24/7 is an adjustment. However, that transition period was much shorter than what I thought it would be.

Although a little strange at first, it really was just a matter of days before I got used to the shiny ring Sidney bought me. By the end of the first week it truly felt like a piece of me. Today marks the 102nd day I have worn my ring but because the ring feels so familiar it kind of feels like the 10,200th day I have worn it.

I have now worn my ring for over 100 days and it feels completely natural.

However, just because the ring feels comfortable and natural doesn’t mean I haven’t established some habits with it. For starters, I take it off two times each day: when I work out and when I shower. Having the ring get caught on a weight or a machine is not comfortable. Also, perspiration causes my ring to slip off my finger. Thus, you can probably guess why I take it off when I shower. Water seems to encourage my ring to slide right off so I always remove it before exercising or bathing.

With the exception for those two instances, I keep my ring on. I eat my meals with it on. I sleep with it on. I do all my work with it on. Sidney and I do ring checks on each other quite often and I think I am 100% for having it on when she performs her inspection.

Fr. James LeBlanc, pastor of St. Andrew Parish in Myrtle Beach, looks on as we sign our marriage certificate. I had worn my ring for about 30 minutes up until this point. (photo courtesy of Nicholas Gore Weddings Photography).

One thing I do find myself doing is tugging at my ring when I am thinking or watching TV. Using the thumb and middle finger of my right hand I will pull it up about halfway on my ring finger and then drop it back down into its proper spot. I can do this over and over at a frequent pace.

But besides my habits of taking my ring off, wearing it, and tugging at it, there is one thing that causes me to think about my marriage symbol a lot. Unfortunately, that “thing” is the fear of losing it. Always in the back of my mind I fight off the possibility of misplacing my ring. Even when I take it off to shower I will step out and dry off only to freak out for a split second because I forgot that I purposely removed it. I continually question myself about how I am going to make it through the rest of my life without ever losing it. The normalness of wearing the ring set in quickly, the paranoia of losing it did not. I hope as time goes on my fear will subside.

I love wearing my ring. I love how it looks. I even love showing it off! Most of all, I love that an amazing woman bought it for me to symbolize something very special. Don’t Blink.

Every now and then I flip the page on my Life’s Little Instructions calendar and I come across a piece of advice that is worth blogging about. I couldn’t help but mention today’s entry.

I have learned this all too well over the years.

Sometimes in life it takes a while to learn a lesson. It might take a quarter century or so to really understand how the world works. I read today’s Life’s Little Instructions piece of wisdom and a sarcastic smile spread across my face.

Call me gullible but I used to think a free check up, a complimentary inspection, or a courtesy evaluation was a gesture of goodwill from a business or professional. I thought a company would actually be objective during the “free” inspection and let you know honestly whether work/action needed to be done/taken. Even as someone who is in marketing and should see right through something like this, it wasn’t until a couple years ago that I really understood that these types of offers are really gimmicks.

To people who are slow like me, please heed this advice: If you take your car in for a free inspection, if you have your blog evaluated for SEO optimization (I get offers daily), or if you have an appliance looked at in your house, the person doing the “consultation” will find “problems.” It never fails.

For almost ten years I would automatically act on the advice and go along with whatever was recommended. However, after realizing I was getting burned, I learned that the concept of a second opinion wasn’t just reserved for medical professionals.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not bitter toward people in industries who offer free inspections/evaluations. It is a great way to get new customers into the shop. Also, for the most part, it is completely honest. Although most of the time the evaluator will find problems, you never have to authorize the business to act on them. Furthermore, I don’t want to generalize too much. I know there are some professionals out there who won’t find a problem with someone’s car during a free inspection.

But for the most part, I am hesitant about participating in these types of promotions. Although you can reason that there is nothing to lose by going through with the free inspection, the problems presented always weigh on my mind, even if I know they aren’t legitimate. Also, it isn’t always comfortable to decline the services of the business immediately after they gave you the free service (you can distinctly feel the pressure to go through with the recommendations). But, you live and you learn. Don’t Blink.

For the past month or so, a certain consumer trend has found its way in newspapers and on news programs. For the first time ever, bottled water sales will surpass that of soda sales. At the center of this changing drinking behavior is safety. With significant news coverage on problems such as the lead contamination in Flint, people are opting for bottled water over tap water.

You can say that Sidney and I are part of the bottled water trend. We buy our fair share of water from the store (as well as soda), however, our reasoning isn’t because of contamination. To be fair to Myrtle Beach, the water that comes out of our tap tastes just fine. Rather, we consistently purchase bottled water simply for the convenience.

Sidney and I drink a lot of bottled water.

I remember 20 years ago when bottled water was just starting to catch on. There were a few major distributors selling it and for the most part it was not in bulk. You could buy a Dasani from a vending machine or purchase an Arrowhead bottle of water off the supermarket shelf for $1. Since then, in the past couple of decades, the bottled water industry has exploded. Bottled water is now sold in bulk and the the price is dirt cheap.

I can walk inside any store ranging from CVS to Walmart to Target and buy a 24-pack of bottled water for $2.99. For those doing the math, that is less than 13 cents per bottle. The downside of course is carrying the bulky 24-pack to your car and then inside your house but I think the value is worth it.

At $2.99 for a 24-pack, bottled water is cheaper than ever.

But wait one second, Brent. What value are you talking about? Water from the tap is free. Why do you mean when you say “value”? Yes, I understand your point. However, as I said above, it is all about convenience. To me, convenience = value.

When we bring our pack of bottled water home, we rip it open and make neat rows out of the bottles in our refrigerator. From that moment on, we pluck the bottles out of the refrigerator like it is the last water source in the world.

When we go to bed at night, we each take a bottled water to the bedroom. When I get home from work, I grab a bottled water. When I am sitting around watching television, I help myself to a bottled water. By the end of the week, our bathroom trash can is filled to the brim with empty plastic bottles.

There is no guilt drinking the water at this rate simply because it doesn’t hurt us in the checkbook. Likewise, when you don’t have bottled water, you have to grab a cup from the cupboard, fix some ice, and pour water from the faucet. When you have bottled water in the fridge, you don’t have to go through that process. I know I sound like the laziest person in the world but it is true. The abundance and cheapness of bottled water in stores everywhere has caused us to buy more of it and actually drink more of it as well.

One thing we are guilty of in the Reser Household is not paying as much attention to the environment as we should. Yes, I have heard that when it comes to our planet it is not the best practice to consume bottled water. To those who don’t agree with our bottled water habits, I apologize.

However, rest assured that at least today I won’t purchase another pack of bottled water. Why? Well, I bought one on Thursday and we still have a couple more days to go until we need a refill. Whether you consider bottled water a scam, a risk to the environment, or a lifesaver, this much is very true: it is a major industry that is doing very well. Don’t Blink.

Good evening to you all! Who is ready for the latest Thursday Rundown? Here we go…

The Countdown – Did you know there is a Twitter account called Christmas Countdown (@ChristmasCount)? I discovered it yesterday and the account gives you a lot more than you bargained for. Besides the countdown to December 25 you also receive information on how many days remain until other holidays such as Halloween and Thanksgiving. And, as an added bonus, you are also treated to emoticons galore. For those who love the holidays, I wanted to put you in a good mood right from the start of my Thursday Rundown.

This Twitter account and the way this Tweet is formatted just made my day.

Great News for Geofilter Fans – Sorry for the back-to-back social media items but I wanted to alert all the Snapchat users out there about something. When I talked to people about the On-Demand Geofilters that became available for everyone to produce several months ago, I heard one consistent complaint: What about us non-designers? You see, to create a geofilter you needed to design it in Photoshop or other similar program. Not anymore! When you go to the geofilter website, you can now choose an already-made template and just fill in the blanks! I discovered this when I visited the site last week to upload a geofilter I made for our monthly birthday celebration gathering. Although I plan to continue to just make my own, I might use a template in the future if I needed to activate a geofilter at the last minute and didn’t have time to create one.

When I went to upload this geofilter, I saw that Snapchat now offers geofilter templates that anyone can use. By the way, I am with my nephew Harrison in this photo.

The Final Three of “Big Brother” – Here I go again with possibly alienating a lot of my readers but I wanted to drop a quick note on Big Brother 18. Last night the final three was established. For someone like Sidney and I who have watched the entire summer, it is kind of a big deal. With James, Nicole, and Paul the last people standing, I 100% want Paul to win. For most of the season I didn’t even like him but I just think he has played the best game in the house and deserves the prize. Also, to be honest, and don’t tell anyone I told you this, but Paul has also rubbed off on me just a little bit.

Comic Relief – As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I now make it a point to read the comics each day. Despite reading 20 or so on a daily basis, I never really find any worth sharing. However, this one I saw today kind of speaks to my dry sense of humor. Yes, after reading thousands of comic strips over the last several months, this selection from the strip Shoe is the one I decide to share.

My dry sense of humor goes well with this strip.

Seahawks Follow Up – Because I wrote about it this past weekend, I just wanted to quickly congratulate the Seattle Seahawks for standing with unity on Sunday. I thought it was a beautiful and powerful team act. Thank you to all the players and coaches for participating.

This was so cool! Special shout out to Brock Coyle (#52 in the photo), he was a marketing intern for us when I was at Montana. – Photo courtesy of USA Today

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So there you have it, another Thursday Rundown in the books. I wish you the happiest of weekends and I thank you for your readership. Remember, only 101 days until Christmas. Don’t Blink.