Author Archives: Meagan Sean

Tattoo Talk

11 Tuesday Jun 2013

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My little brother getting his first tattoo at Ink Manifesto in Biddeford, ME

I started planning my first tattoo when I was a kid. It’s a good thing a 7-year-old can’t get inked or I’m sure I’d have an american flag tramp stamp. (What can I say? I went through a very patriotic phase.) Tattoos always make me ask questions, and I’m always interested in the stories behind them. In a way that’s one of the reasons I decided to get tattoos, almost to record certain times in my life and to remind myself of the important stories behind them.

I think the most important things to keep in mind when someone is considering getting inked are the 3 P’s: Pain, Permanence, and Perception.

When it comes to the pain I’ve come to 2 conclusions, the first is that the bone-y-er the area, the more painful. The second is that everyone has different pain thresholds, but if someone wants to know how it feels to get a tattoo they should think of it as a constant cat scratch that just won’t stop when you’re ready to say uncle.

When it comes to the permanence of tattoos there are a few things to consider. For one, whatever you decide to get put on your body is permanent, unless you have a junk yard made of gold. I have a few “rules” that I try to follow while making my decisions about tattoos:

  1. Don’t get words that might make you miserable later. No boyfriends, no best friends. Only family names should be considered. Even then, I’d be wary.
  2. Don’t put a tattoo in an area that you might get stretch marks.
  3. I usually opt to put tattoos in places where I won’t be able to see them too often. This happens to be a rule I have broken.
  4. ALWAYS APPLY SUNSCREEN IF YOU WILL BE IN THE SUN. The best way to fade/ruin your tattoo is to have too much sun exposure.

The last thing on the list is perception. There are a lot of people who love seeing tattoos, and there are a lot of people who don’t want to see them at all. There are still people in this world who don’t want tattoos showing during for employment, and there are always opinionated family members to deal with… like my dad, who just growls every time I come home with new ink.

I don’t regret a single tattoo. I’ve always been the kind of person who collects photos, magnets, movie tickets, fortunes, key chains, and even more random junk as make shift souvenirs of different parts of my life. The mortality rate of these things is never so good, so now I use tattoos as symbols of different places in my life that I feel are important.

Do you have any thoughts on tattoos? Any stories about your decision behind getting one or why you decided it’s not for you? I’d love to hear them, so feel free to leave a comment!dirty

First Beach Walk of the Summer

09 Sunday Jun 2013

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The little bro and I got bored and decided to take a walk on the beach.  One of the best things about living with my parents is the proximity to the prettiest stretches of beach… it’s only about a 10 minute drive from our house.

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The weather was beautiful but it was really hazy as well.  I think it actually made for some cool photos, since the fog in the distance kept what I was focusing on, well, in focus.

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Little bro declared that we had found Sand Circles, which seems to be the aquatic variation of Crop Circles.  It was pretty, a floral design in a huge rectangle.  Obviously we have found signs of life beyond the surface of the ocean.  Mermaids.

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Dirty Dozen: My Favorite Things About Being Single

02 Sunday Jun 2013

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1.  I can spend my money however I want.  I can pay my bills, or buy a new purse, or give a friend gas money, or buy makeup, or go to a concert, and I don’t have to ask anyone’s permission to do it because it’s my money and I can spend it where I see fit.

2.  I only have to deal with MY parents.  As much as I am looking forward to expanding my family someday to include in-laws, I can at the moment barely handle my own parents.  Some days are better than others, and I don’t need to have two sets of people who are older than me causing me to pull my hair out right now.

3.  I can invest my time wherever I want.  I can spend lots of time with God.  It doesn’t always happen, but I have the option that I foolishly pass up on a regular basis to have that alone time with my Creator.  Or I can lavish it on friends.  Or I can be alone.  No matter what it is, it’s my decision. 

4.  I don’t have to consider anyone’s opinion on my appearance but my own.  I like to change it sometimes for no reason.  I like to wear what I like, do with my hair what I think is awesome, wear the makeup that I want to wear.  I like to do what I want with how I look, and I am grateful that I don’t have to deal with anyone else telling me how they want it to be.

newgirl tv all day5.  I can watch TV all the time.

6.  I can be sad about being single and not feel alone.  When I am emotionally destroyed, even when I’m being a miserable and annoying idiot, I know that I have single friends who can understand where I’m coming from and relate, and attached friends who can pretend they remember what its like being in my situation and give me sympathy.

7.  I can sleep without disruption from another human.  I don’t have to worry about being roundhouse kicked in the back or punched in the stomach because someone is a very active sleeper.  I also don’t have to sweat my skin off, because in my experience every single male on the planet runs at about 102 degrees.  And I don’t have to deal with snoring.

knopedesserts8.  I can have bad habits.  It’s one thing to get crap about my bad habits from friends and family, but I’m really ok with not having to give up what I like that someone else doesn’t just because they want me to.

9.  I can relate to almost every Taylor Swift song.

10.  I can be delusional about love.  I can still have the fantastical idea of love being like what I read in books and see on TV and in the movies.  Ignorance is bliss, my friends.

jlaw pizza 1 jlaw pizza11.  I have nothing to prove to anyone.

12.  I can cook for myself whatever gross food I want because I like it.  You know, I think I’ll make a stir-fry that looks like regurgitated Chinese food, or a split pea soup that looks like baby barf.  The list goes on folks.

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Adventures in Hiking

27 Monday May 2013

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Some people love the outdoors. They find solitude and peace when surrounded by nature. They breathe the clean air, smell the trees, sometimes even drink from clear streams of water.

I like cities. I like being surrounded by strange noises and smells and people. I like the towering buildings and the contrast of brick against sky. So for me to say I went on a hike last week in Newry, ME, is for me to inadvertently tell you that I was not in my comfort zone.

A friend of mine asked me if I wanted to drive up to Step Falls for what he considers a very small, harmless hike. I said sure, because I had to go to Mexico to see a friend. We split the gas money and started our drive up on the back roads around 11 am.

I didn’t even know what to wear. Before we started the drive we stopped at Walmart where I ended up purchasing a pair of shorts and an obnoxious, highlighter colored sweat shirt. I wore them both, the shorts over a pair of leggings.blog2

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I got to take some really nice pictures, as well as spend time in nature like one of those outdoors-y people. It was nice, and I might even try to do it again sometime. What’s the point in having a life if you don’t use it to experience new things?blog9dirty

Dirty Dozen: Things I’m Good/Bad At

13 Monday May 2013

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Things I’m Bad At:

  1. Driving a Car – I have an incredibly irrational and intense fear of driving a car. It scares me almost as much as bees. I have driven before, but I currently don’t have a license and don’t drive. When I’m driving I don’t feel that I can keep my attention on all the things I need to be paying to attention to, and I am pretty sure I’m going to crash the car and jack up the insurance prices for my parents. Then there is the fact that I’m really bad at…
  2. Directions – Take a bumble bee. Put it in a jar. Shake it up. Let it go. Ask it for directions to Walmart. That is what happens to my brain when you ask me for directions to anywhere. I can usually find my way home from places, but that’s the extent of it.
  3. Wearing High Heels – I have funky feet and high heels seem to torture them exclusively.
  4. Working Out – I have never been one for steady exercise that is in the form of a “work out”. I know it’s important to treat your body well and to keep healthy, but I have a huge problem with scheduled exercise. In fact, once I try to put a schedule in place for myself my rebellious side overrides my plans and I start watching more TV while sitting down.
  5. Parents of Children – If a parent of a child decides to watch me interact with their kid or kids I become the worst ever. I don’t even know what to do, and I’m pretty sure it freaks the parents out to see me being all strange and awkward with their kids.
  6. Black Out Drinking – I’ve never blacked out from drinking. I’m just not that good at letting go of my consciousness I guess.

Things I’m Good At:

  1. Being a Passenger in a Car – I will make mix CDs, I will bring snacks, I will provide interesting conversations, I will grab your toll money from your purse in the back, I will always wear my seat belt, I will give you gas money, I will sing badly along to the radio.
  2. Being a Fan of a TV Show – I limit my TV time because I am so good at being into TV shows. I will absolutely let it take over my life. I have to chose what I watch carefully because I try to only watch one show at a time, so I can go through as much of it that is available as possible as quickly as possible so that I won’t loose all of my life to it.
  3. Predicting Children – I have been wrong once, but I have a history of predicting the sex of babies from the get-go, and I am currently getting good at predicting when people will be pregnant. It’s a gift I’m not always proud of. Heavy is the crown.
  4. Making up Recipes – My mom taught me this one, how to take a basic recipe and put spins on it that rock! I’m always trying to figure out the basics so that I can use them to make things my own way.
  5. Children – Surprisingly I am good with kids. I don’t know how or why, but I do know that babysitting is something I always forget I’m getting paid for.
  6. Impulse Buys – I am really good at finding super awesome things to buy. For instance, I recently purchased a Be-dazzler, and I’m pretty sure it’s changed my life for the better.

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