For those of you who know me, it comes as no surprise that I tell you I have a lot of quirks. For those who know me well enough that you are in my phone’s contacts, you have most likely experienced one of these quirks on every major holiday. With that said, it is with a little bit of sadness that on this Halloween evening I need to make an important announcement and lay to rest one of my personal traditions.

I am ending my holiday text message greeting.

For the past nine years, I have spent time, thought, and money creating a text/picture message for every major holiday to send my contacts. These messages have always been over the top and rather silly (for the complete background on how these holiday greetings came to be, click here). Meant just as much to make fun of myself as they were to jab at the people who sent a generic “Merry Christmas” text to their entire contact list, they started to become more and more popular over the years. They also started to become more time consuming too.

For over a decade, I staged over the top photos to accompany holiday text messages. My Christmas Eve photos were always a little wacky. Besides sending these photos to my family and friends, I have never published any of these photos before because I considered them an “exclusive” for those I especially cared about.

After about the fifth year of sending out holiday messages, I started asking myself what can I do this time around? How can I top last year’s Christmas Eve reindeer stable message? How I can top last year’s makeshift Easter egg hunt greeting? I started to go to greater lengths to make more outrageous messages and at times it took away from my time actually enjoying the holiday. As my wife and mom might be able to tell you, it started to get a little out of control.

Easter and Fourth of July photos were always fun to do.

But I am not ending my holiday text message greetings just because of the time component. Factoring into the decision is also the fact that I am now 30. I am married and I have a baby on the way. At some point you have to grow up just a bit. Unfortunately wearing Santa costumes, sporting goofy hats, and writing sappy messages aren’t quite in tune with the “growing up” process.

I will miss having an excuse to connect with my friends and family I don’t get to talk to often. I will miss the texts of gratitude I received from people who would text back and I say I brightened their holiday. I will even miss the mean texts from my college friends and brother who would always text back saying I was an idiot and embarrassing.

For the Christmas Day photos I always tried to “class it up” a bit.

What I won’t miss is the stress of coming up with a concept for each holiday. I won’t miss driving from party store to party store looking for different props. I won’t miss going up to random doorsteps asking people if I could use their holiday display as a backdrop for my photo. I won’t miss ferociously sending out the message on the morning of every holiday.

I want to thank everyone who has been a recipient of my messages over the years for tolerating them. You all have been a gracious audience. If anyone else wants to pick up the torch and start sending out your own holiday messages, I can sure hook you up with a bunch of old props. Don’t Blink.

For today’s Sunday blog post, I wanted to share some good news about an issue that has caused me some inconvenience over the past year. Thankfully, it has a happy ending (at least for now).

A year ago, I was informed that I had received a ticket for tinted windows in the state of New York. At the time, I was a little perplexed considering I had not visited New York in seven years and I had never even thought about tinting my windows. It became obvious that some scumbag had stolen my driver’s license information.

After a couple long frustrating hours on the phone with New York’s Traffic Violation Division, it became clear that I would have to fight this charge and prove that it wasn’t me. I had to submit an Affidavit In Lieu of Appearance form and provide evidence that would make you think I was on trial for murder. However, my efforts paid off and I was cleared of the violation.

I went on with my life but a few months later I got another shady letter from the state of New York. This time around I supposedly disobeyed a traffic device. I called the New York’s Traffic Violation Division to plead with them that they not make me go through the long and pointless process again. I begged them to do some type of police work to bring the criminal using my identification to justice. My effort fell on deaf ears. I was sent another Affidavit In Lieu of Appearance form and to my knowledge nothing was done to investigate the loser with my information.

Okay, let’s fast forward to this past week. I got home from work and checked the mail to find an envelope from the Pennsylvania State Police. In the back of my head I thought it probably had something to do with my stolen identity issue. I was actually expecting the worst, thinking “I” had been pulled over in a whole different state for another infraction. I was pleasantly wrong…

I received this letter from the Pennsylvania State Police on Thursday.

I opened the envelope to find correspondence from a Pennsylvania State trooper telling me that he had stopped and arrested someone who had in his possession a fraudulent identification card with my information on it. The trooper encouraged me to call him for more information. Ecstatic, I called the number as soon as I could whip my phone out. It connected me to the Pennsylvania State Police Office. I asked for the trooper who had made the arrest. The person who answered the phone told me he would not be in until 11 p.m. that night. As you can probably imagine, I called back at approximately 11:06 p.m. later that evening (I wanted to give him some time to get in the office and get settled).

The envelope had a packet inside that informed me someone had been arrested who had a fraudulent identification card with my information on it.

When I called the second time I was immediately put into contact with the excellent law enforcement officer who had recovered the fraudulent ID with my information on it. He was kind, professional, and helpful. After exchanging pleasantries, he asked me if I had dealt with any identity theft problems before.

I told him all about the state of New York.

The trooper then gave me a huge sigh of relief when he said that my story made a lot of sense because the person he had arrested was from New York. At that moment, I felt great. To have it confirmed that the New York and Pennsylvania cases were connected brought me peace of mind. Before getting in contact with the trooper that day, I feared that perhaps multiple people in different states had my info.

I listened as the trooper told me a lot of good information. The dude he arrested was a career identity theft criminal. When they pulled him over, he had presented an identification card that didn’t have my information on it. However, because of this man’s record, they decided to search his vehicle. When they did, they found the fraudulent card with my data on it. They found fraudulent credit cards but none with my info on it (thankfully). The trooper told me I could refer him immediately to New York authorities if the state ever bothered me again. He took down my information and said he would keep me updated on the investigation and prosecution of the criminal.

I would like to thank the Pennsylvania State Police for not only taking this guy off the streets but for notifying me about everything. For a certain time period I felt pretty helpless but now I am at ease. Don’t Blink.

Trick-or-Treat. It is time for the Thursday Rundown…

Surprising My Parents – If you are my friend on Facebook, you might have seen a video I recently posted. Back in August, Sidney and I surprised my parents over Skype with the news that we are expecting. My brother filmed their reactions (my mom got excited, my dad cried) and I filmed Sidney and I telling them the news. Recently I created a video from that Skype conversation. You can click here to watch it.

I created a video of the reaction of my parents after Sidney and I told them we are expecting.

Celebrating October Birthdays – A year ago, I celebrated my first birthday with the extended Mathis family at their monthly birthday celebration lunch. I wrote about their neat tradition a year ago. This past weekend, I was honored again at the 2016 October get-together. I was spoiled and they even made my choice of main course for the meal…ribs! As I did for the September celebration, I created a geofilter for the occasion.

The photo on the left is of Sidney and I with the geofilter I created. The pumpkins below represent the people with October birthdays. The top right photo is of my sister-in-law and I. The bottom right hand photo is the four of us who celebrated October birthdays (Rhonda, me, Steph, and Dylan….photo cred to Carla).

Vine Shutting Down – Twitter announced today that Vine will cease to exist in the coming months. Talk about the end of an era. When Vine first came on the scene, I was really high on it. However, the service never recovered from the huge blow it suffered when Instagram introduced video. I still use Vine personally and professionally so I will be sad to see it go.

A screen capture from my first ever Vine I took back in 2013.

Wisdom of the Day – Every now and then I feature the daily advice I receive from my “Life’s Little Instructions” calendar. The bit of wisdom for today is definitely easier said than done. It is also kind of a no-brainer too; we all know that accomplishing something tough will always make us feel good. The key is to just have the motivation to tackle a challenging task and not give up while doing it. 

This was today’s Life’s Little Instruction

From the Archives – One year ago today, I countered one of Sidney’s guest blog posts. She had recently written “25 Things You Didn’t Know About Sidney.” I responded with “Brent’s 25 Things You Didn’t Know About Sidney.” So, if you just started reading my blog less than a year ago, you can click on the two links I just shared and learn 50 things you didn’t know about Sidney!

For further October 27 reading, you can go back three years to 2013 and learn about the profession I used to view my life through. It is totally up to you of course.

———————-

Thank you for your time this evening. Have a terrific Halloween weekend and save some candy for me. Don’t Blink.

As many of you know, I really enjoy Halloween. Thus, it probably won’t come as that much of a surprise that since I love Halloween as an adult I also loved Halloween as a kid. As soon as October hit, I wanted our house decorated and our pumpkins picked out (back when I liked pumpkins). Throughout the month I would do Halloween crafts, read spooky stories, and beg my mom to buy Halloween treats.

Although I loved the entire Halloween season, nothing beat Halloween night. Between the time span of being a toddler up until right before I became a teenager, my siblings and I had a Halloween night routine we did every year.

That one year I dressed up as a construction worker.

Let me say it right now, there really isn’t anything special or crazy about what we did. In fact, when I explain our traditions it won’t take me long. However, it was always fun and memorable. Looking back 20 years, I remember all of those Halloweens very fondly. Just a few memories…

My mom would play an audio tape of spooky Halloween music and we would light our jack-o-lanterns in the kitchen with the lights turned off. We would then carry them outside to sit on our porch for the evening. We would go upstairs and get in our costumes and my mom would take photos of the three of us.

As trick-or-treaters started to come to our house, we would get very, very anxious to set out on our own trick-or-treating adventures. During the years when we needed an adult companion, my dad would take us out around the neighborhood (I probably trick-or-treated with him until I was at least eight or nine). However, when we became old enough to trick-or-treat with our own groups of friends we still stayed primarily in our neighborhood as well as the one connected right to it. As the development was large and the houses were all pretty much close together, there was no reason to go anywhere else.

We always paid homage to the era of my parents and took pillow cases with us. Always. When it came to trick-or-treating, I had decent stamina. I walked those streets until my feet were sore and my pillow case was too heavy to carry (but would any trick-or-treater really admit  to anything different?).

My brother and sister will agree, post trick-or-treating was always our favorite part. No matter what group of friends we were with or what route around the neighborhood we took, the three of us would always meet back at the house later that night. We would go down into our basement and dump out our loot onto the floor. From there we would sort our candy (big time nerds) into piles based on type. When we had our groups of candy bars, tootsie rolls, hard candy, sour candy, etc. laid out we would then trade! We traded candy for an hour or so as I would always do my best to get all the pieces that combined chocolate and peanut butter.

After we finished our wheeling and dealing, we would get large clear Tupperware containers from my mom and place our candy inside of it. For whatever reason, we really got a kick out of seeing our candy within the container. In those early years, my parents were pretty strict with bedtimes and I remember laying in my bed while our doorbell would still ring with trick-or-treaters (so depressing). However, as we got older, we would stay up and watch all the Halloween specials and movies that were on until late into the night. Awesome memories.

I cherish those innocent Halloween years. However, in the near future Sidney and I will be creating them all over again. I look forward to it. Don’t Blink.

It goes without saying that if you eat fast food, you probably don’t need to opt for dessert. However, we are talking about Brent Reser here and every now and then I like to follow up my unhealthy meal with something sweet (and equally unhealthy).

For tonight’s blog post, I want to offer my top five fast food desserts (not to be confused with my top five milkshakes of corporate America post I did in September). Although fast food restaurants aren’t really hotbeds for savory, delicious desserts, they do offer some decent choices. Let me make one quick note. Disqualified from consideration on this countdown are the fast food restaurants that specialize in desserts such as Sonic and Dairy Queen. With that said, here is my list.

5. Frosty (Wendy’s) – To be completely honest, I think the Wendy’s Frosty is overrated. It is glamorized as something really special but to me it is just sub par soft serve chocolate(ish) ice cream. However, because of its iconic status and because I would never actually pass one up if someone put a Frosty in front of my nose, I let it barely crack my countdown.

4. Caramel Apple Empanada (Taco Bell) – As a high school student and during my college years, Taco Bell was my favorite fast food restaurant. I ate there a lot. At that time, Taco Bell only had one dessert option, the caramel apple empanada. Although I probably only ordered the empanada 25% of the time, because I went to Taco Bell so much that actually equated to quite a few empanadas. I grew to like them quite a bit, even if the hot filling burnt my tongue more than once.

3. Bo-Berry Biscuit (Bojangles) – It took me until I moved to the south to try a Bo-Berry Biscuit and I immediately knew I had been missing something for the first 27 years of my life. Served warm and topped with icing, the treat is literally a dessert berry biscuit. Out of everything on this list, I think I feel the most guilty after I eat a Bo-Berry Biscuit just because each one is so heavy and sweet. If you eat more than one you will definitely get a stomach ache.

I took my first ever Bo-Berry Biscuit (football shaped version) out of this box a couple years ago.

2. McFlurry (McDonald’s) – Although a McFlurry can’t compare to a Blizzard or a Sonic Blast, it still isn’t a bad option if you want ice cream mixed with cookies or candy. Making the investment by paying a little more for extra toppings is a good route to take. I think I enjoy a McFlurry so much just because McDonald’s has good ice cream. If you don’t want a McFlurry then a cone or sundae will still satisfy you. However, I still enjoy ordering a McFlurry mixed with both M&Ms and Oreo.

1. Subway Cookies (Subway) – Nothing beats a Subway cookie right out of the oven. When I walk in a Subway, I never know if the smell of fresh baked bread or fresh baked cookies will hit me first. If it is the cookies, I will tack one (maybe two) onto my order. Subway cookies are always fresh and savory. Although I obviously like them all, the white chocolate macadamia nut is my favorite. Besides the fact that Subway is my favorite fast food restaurant, what makes its cookies tops on my list? Because it is the perfect compliment to your meal. A cookie just goes great with a sandwich and chips. Best of all, unlike the Bojangles Bo-Berry Biscuit, you won’t feel terrible about yourself after you eat one. The cookies are just light enough to make you feel justified in consuming them.

I love Subway and I love Subway cookies.

———————

Thank you for letting me discuss fast food desserts with you. Did I omit a dessert from my list that you would include on yours? Please let me know. Happy eating! Don’t Blink.