Creamy Crack Claims another Coiffure

Not sure if I'm in violation of the Boot Camp on KISS because a tiny snippet was made at my ends today.  At first it felt like this stretch was kinda eh cause there wasn't major length retained but my hair feels super thick and considering I dyed it last week still feels super healthy.  I did stretch out the sides to show you were they are hitting but didn't do the back.  Next wash day I'll get out the length check shirt and we can make a good comparison of any gain.  Last week we noticed some breakage in the back and I have said it the last few relaxers but I have to do better.  It's a small section dead center that is hidden by the rest of my hair but it's super annoying.  This may have been more of a health stretch than length stretch but feeling where it is and what it's looking like among other factors makes me super happy.  Without further adieu here are the photos.

So Zumba...yeah

I decided I couldn't continue to be a lazy bum tonight and went to workout.  I was prepped to do my Wii Fit stuff but said you know what that Zumba fitness game has been sitting there looking pitiful and untouched since you bought it.  I opted to at least try it and if it was boring or I hated it I could turn it off.  I tried it and knew I was in trouble with the tutorials.  But I did the three for the calypso a few times and then did the calypso warm up--it's 5/6 minutes and while I didn't need the tutorials for it really let me just say I was almost in need of an oxygen mask.  I made it through any score ended up around 550 or so which is allegedly a Zumba pro.  It was exhausting and I was sweating more during that warm up and tutorial than I have usually in my 30 minutes of Wii Fit.  I will definitely have to keep it up but woo that was murder and I wasn't expecting it.  On the plus side I wasn't as hungry afterwards so I didn't eat a lot and as normal I felt better.  Yeah working out.

Insomnia is totally upping my movie watching

The only upside to having insomnia besides the random cleaning spurts is there are a lot of weird movies on and that some of them keep your attention more than you think they might upon initially reading the info box.  I may have mentioned a few of these before but in no particular order here are some of the random things I've seen because I can't sleep.

Suspect Zero (stars Sir Ben Kingsley and Aaron Eckhart and Carrie Anne Moss) is a movie about serial killers on the surface but it's also about a secret government program that taught men with special skills how to project their thoughts into the minds of those suspected killers in an effort to catch them.  Aaron is a disgraced agent trying to track down Sir Ben after Sir Ben keeps reaching out to him.  Well sort of reaching out to him.  Sir Ben has been driven crazy by the project and instead of helping to catch them is now killing serial killers and believes there's an alpha serial killer (suspect zero) who all other serial killers are either trained by or spawned from and who will never be caught.

The Skin I Live In (stars Antonio Banderas and Elena Anaya) is a movie about well it's just a screwed up movie that is told in various time frames jumping from the present to past randomly.  I seriously couldn't describe the move justice and it is subtitled so don't be surprised by that.  It's fascinating but really creepy. 

Immortals (stars Henry Cavill, Mickey Rourke, Stephen Dorff and Fredo Pinto) was totally kick ass.  It's dark a lot of the movie so that your eyes really do focus on what you can make out what's happening on screen.  On it's face it's an epic hero story as the hero comes to embrace his role.  And don't get me wrong that part is well done and I was embraced by Cavill and Dorff in their respective roles.  BUT OH MY GOD the scenes when the gods show up as themselves and not those shells they use to interact with humans were EPIC.  I am usually not shocked by much or can figure out what's going to happen in a movie which I hate but in this case I totally didn't care and was stunned quite a few times by the visuals and movements of the gods when they made their all too brief appearances.  And hats off to Mickey Rourke for showing he's still fantastic when given a chance to do so.  Oh and Zeus was BEAUTIFUL, so was Cavill as Thesisus.

Hair Updates

This may or may not be long.  When I got back from the interview last week I was really looking forward to wash day and then Sunday came and I wasn't so much--I think because I didn't have to teach on Monday night.  So Monday I said well yeah I'll handle that today and then I said nope it's a holiday and I need to mail stuff on Tuesday.  I contemplated doing it today but I'm getting may hair relaxed on Friday and that just seemed silly.  I completely forgot about it after I watched tv, bowled, made pizza and then watched Immortals.  I think I'll write a separate post on my movie watching habits lately.  It was very intriguing and that kept me semi awake so I figured I'd oil my scalp and seal my ends.  I haven't done it in forever and my scalp went woo girl what has been the hold up.  I have to do that more often than I have been cause seriously my hair and scalp is doing happy dance.  No picture cause it looks like NOTHING lol.  Just tied up for the night.  I also found some Hot Buns on eBay.  I have been wanting some for a minute but really didn't want to buy them from online cause I've been hearing tons of complaints online about shipping, delays, and overcharging.  They worked out to be the same price and no chance of random double billing.  I'll let you know how I like them.  Okay I think that's it for now on hair.  I'll tell you all about the movies soon.

Post Interview Post

I don't have anything pivotal to update you on.  The interview was interesting.  Very reserved so either I really sucked or they were really exhausted from the stressful week they discussed while I was waiting for folks to come in.  On the upside since I didn't have a scheduled dinner the night before I got to see my line sisters which was fabulous especially since I haven't been in town in a minute.  We turn 9 this Friday--on my creamy crack day lol--so I was sad I couldn't see them this week but it was nice to see them at all.  Got a call for another interview in a few weeks.  I have to say I was surprised how well my hair held up.  A few fly aways but at 12 weeks post what else could be expected.  Hair was still super soft and bouncy.  Oh and Walgreens was having a crazy sale on hair dye.  I probably won't dye it all the time but I couldn't pass up 2.50 for a box of normally almost 10 dollar Feria.  And the sales girl had coupons so I got another dollar knocked off each box.  Considering I only went in for Organix Macadamia hair masque I spent more than I thought I would.  However, I only spent 18 bucks for the hair masque (8), French manicure nail polish kit (also on sale 4 bucks) and 6 bucks for the hair dye.  Here's a photo of all of us.  Updated the blog for my nieces too so they could see my random job traveling self.  I'm trying to watch the all star game but these long intros, warm-ups and always being on commercial when I flip back has left me less than enthused.  Have a good night.

Pre Interview Hair Do

I wasn't sure I was going to be able to get in and see my hairdresser but as usual she was a life saver and hooked me up.  We consulted for a bit and opted to dye my hair.  My roots turned dark purplely black.  My gray hair keeps saying give me free I swear.  We had to do another cycle of black dye on just my roots and I left looking less like a blue black flower and more like a normal human type girl.  I have used my February heat pass since we blow dried and flat ironed my hair.  I am almost 12 weeks post so my roots were in need of something since I opted to not go in for my quarterly dose of creamy crack.  However, I did get that scheduled and will be getting relaxed on one of my projected dates.  I'm going to roll it tonight and tomorrow night but I have to say my hair is SUPER soft and very bouncy right now which I adore and my hairdresser hit me with some heat protectant before she flat ironed.  I love her and she's part of why I hesitate about leaving here.  She's great and works with me a lot.  As she was playing with my hair she noticed the natural curl pattern and again encouraged me to go natural.  I told her yeah I can't right now cause my brain won't let me.  However, we did talk about maybe texlaxing or giving a longer stretch a try if I can stay up on things on my end.  I love my curl pattern around this part of my stretch too BUT I also like the ease of my relaxed hair without having to flat iron or do anything special to it when I want it straight.  I'll keep going back and forth on that one but I'm sure for now the most I'd do is texlax.

All in all today was a good day.  I did some work on my presentations for Thursday.  I took mom to run errands and managed to hit the bank, DMV (got my tags and mom's new i.d.), Wal-mart, the beauty supply store and get my oil changed and brakes checked out in two hours.  I was very proud of myself lol.  And I managed to not take more than a cat nap before I left for the hairdresser.  And I remembered to take her the braiding hair that I never use that has been sitting in a closet and the coconut oil I gave up on.  She was THRILLED with that lol.  Awww love her lol.  Okay I'm gonna finish unwinding and working on things for tomorrow since I've now checked in for my flights.  Oh and I got mom to take some pictures of the hair do before I laid down and crushed it lol.  You're probably gonna have to click on them to make them bigger cause she's not good with the zoom yet lol.

 

Wash Day & Stretch Notes

After saying I wouldn't do it again I didn't do much to my hair last week except tend to my edges.  I still had pretty respectable curls after a week using the snood instead of my old scarf tie down method.  There was minimal shedding in the shower but dentangled and saw a small puffball that is to be expected almost three months post relaxer but is still annoying.  My sleep cycle is still very off so I went to bed at 8 woke up and 1 napped till 2 and then got up and started working on my hair.  I prepooed for a little over an hour and realized I needed to clarify my hair because I haven't done it in eleven million years.  Okay so not that many but still a while.  I didn't follow up with the clarifying conditioner because it doesn't do a whole lot for my hair.  I went through my normal wash routine at that point and followed up with the As I Am deep conditioner for about an hour and then rinsed everything out.  The knots always multiply at this stage and I need to seriously not leave my hair in curls without a comb through first because they just laugh at me.  It took the better part of the hour to detangle.  I was going to flexi set but opted not to.  The pictures I took are crazy weird so I need to find a good spot to set up the camera and tripod again.  My hair was starting to puff and frizz by the time I was done combing through so I added some more leave ins and tied down my edges and am letting the rest of my hair out to dry straight.  Later tonight before bed I'll put them on rollers and enjoy a slight bump under before I got to class tomorrow night. 

I did notice as I was adding leave ins the sides of my hair were over my shoulders and at the longest point touching my collar bones.  I have no idea what length that will translate to when I relax but ha wet hair at my collar bones--insert happy dance or the girl doing the eff you sign language final--very very happy.  And because my hair was done well in time and I'm in a better mood than I have been the last few days I decided to show you photos of my products.  Not mine per se cause I'm being lazy but the ones I use in order.

 

The conditioners are added to the length of my hair and the Strong Roots to my scalp and massaged in.

 

 Clarified once using the rosemary mint batch.  I love the tingle from the mint.

I wash once with each of the shampoos then use the conditioners as instructed.  I think the light protein has been very helpful in keeping my hair from massive breakage during stretches.

I LOVE this stuff my hair feels great and when I wash out in the shower no tangles at all--I need to stop being lazy after I use it and rinsing out in the sink.

This has been the best combo so far.  I could eliminate one or two--and do from time to time but a dab of each makes my hair happy.

 

Almost forgot the weigh in

I'm a few hours later than I normally would be and I think it's cause I was waiting to figure out what were going to eat for dinner and mom was getting on my nerves.  My weight has gone down again--yeah, I'm closer to where I started I think and considering I was a ridiculously lazy human the last two weeks if I can just get back to the regular working out things should improve.  First six weeks have been very up and down.  I need to do better.  Check the box to the right for the official stats.

Recipe Hunting & 10 Reasons I could never be a spy (at least 10)

So once again it's the middle of the night but I'm in a better mood.  My niece had a great birthday and my suggestion of a very simple gift just for her worked out great.  Rock on for great aunt intuition and tomboy nieces.  I really do miss them and I will see them at some point this year after I know exactly what I'm doing.  I'd preferably be in the area permanently but regardless I gotta spend some time with my family.  I keep looking at jobs that would take me even further away than I am now and while I'd like to be employed immediately I don't think I'm willing to move to the coast (and near hurricane areas) just to make that happen.

The last few days I've been sorting through old magazines, cooking things, what not that I kept to look through for recipes.  I've copied the ones I've wanted into a word file for now but still have several dozen to go through and then I can dump those along with some more bridal magazines into the recycle bin for next week.  After all, I'm a very single 37 year old and keeping four year old in some cases (five I think at this point) bridal magazines just seems silly.  I had a big purge of those a while back but still have a stack to sort through.  I've found about 10 I think from main dishes to new ice cream recipes and those will go in my nifty recipe binder.  I'm also gonna add another one from What's Cookin Chicago--Asian spare ribs.  I love the PF Chang knock off but good Lord it's complicated.  If this tastes nearly as good without the work 1) you know I'll tell you and 2) I can have pretty lean ribs more often.  If you have any suggestions let me know, for recipes that is lol.  In my dream kitchen I have a shelf that's just cookbooks that cover any conceivable thing I would like to eat.  Since I'm finicky that's probably not a ton of cookbooks but still they would be there.

Since I'm up in the middle of the night of course I'm watching movies.  I've caught the end of Kill Bill Volume 1 twice now--I really don't understand why they won't play Volume 2 right after so I can get all the vengeful rage out of my system at once.  It's very frustrating.  But as I've been watching a few things occurred to me.  I could never be a spy or an assassin because I'm not equipped with most of the necessary skills with which to do said job. 

1. I'm easily distracted.  Unless I'm hot mad and pissed I really can lose focus in a nanosecond.
2. You can't really be hot mad and pissed as a spy 99 percent of the time, it seems as though that would interfere with the cool detachment necessary to off people and go have lunch later.
3. I've never seen an overweight spy unless it was a fat suit or they had been "retired" and someone was coming after them for some odd reason.
4. I really have no desire to kill anyone, if I could be in the planning side of things maybe but hands dirty just gives me the willies.
5. My hand eye coordination is seriously handicapped.  All that hand to hand combat would probably result in my getting my ass handed to me.
6. I really only know English and can read French but I learned it in Texas so yeah speaking French not a good thing for me.  Besides when do spies need French?  Cantonese, Mandarin, Russian Czech, Polish yes but French ehhh.
7. I'm not sure how well I can do poker face.  I would probably be laughing at the target and get everyone killed.
8. My mother is crazy and would call in the middle of an operation to ask if I could bring home milk.  Even if I didn't answer and she left a message she'd leave an extra long message and forget what she really wanted and I'd know that as the message was being left and just get frustrated and distracted (see point 1).
9. While I love flying, don't spies and assassins seem to end up in the weirdest freaking places?  Paris or Versailles or Rome or Melbourne sign me up.  Krakow, Berat, Bobrov, and Bampar nah I'm good on those.
10. It never seems like spies or assassins get vacations or real lives.  Families could be potential targets, relaxing without weapons could get you killed.  You never know when you might be targeted by your own people.  After all no one really likes to leave someone around who knows were all the secrets are buried.
11. This may sound like a vain one but I'll be sure to counter it with a less vain one soon.  I don't remember any prominent female spies with sizable cleavage.  A respectable B cup yes.  A DDD cup ehh not so much.
12. I think I'm too short.  In addition to being on the thin fit cute girl bra framed size of things the female spies I've seen tend to be at bare minimum 5'6;; and like to run in heels.  I am definitely under 5'6'' and I hate walking in heels let alone running in them.  Running in heels means someone is trying to kill me which in this case I guess would be valid.  But I'm really clumsy and that seems like a bad combination.
13. While I'm a great liar, and I can be when properly motivated, I usually restrict to the books I'm writing though lol, I don't always remember the ones I've concocted in my brain so those long term missions could be a problem.
14. I have just enough disrespect for authority for that whole chain of command thing to be problematic unless I was heading into the Jason Bourne school of spies.
15. There are days I just want to be lazy and let my brain turn off from work and life.  How do you do that when you are killing folks for a living?
16. I really don't like wearing leather or heavy wool coats.  Again could be a stereotype but they are never festively dressed and leather chafes after a while.

I'm sure I could come up with more but that seems like more than enough lol. I really do like the movie though which surprised me when I heard the premise.  And I was kinda pissed it was in two parts but ehh what can you do.  Oh well off to watch Sir Ben Kingsley's version of Sweeney Todd.

I'm a big old ball of emotion right now lol

I've been trying to tend to my edges more cause in the last set of photos I noticed they were breaking a bit more than I wanted them to be.  I still haven't decided on dying my hair or not so I'm not sure if that will happen pre trip.  I keep going back and forth on whether or not it's worth it since I really am okay with the gray but I'm not sure if it does make me look older than I want--I doubt that--or if it's impacting how other people see me on interviews.  I did apply for something local too and I'm diving in head long with the research thing as well.  In a holding pattern for one while we wait to hear back from IRB and we're narrowing down topics in another group.  Really if I could find even a part time gig I really loved things would be fine but I keep going back and forth about finding something now or waiting till the next round of searches are completed it's weird.  I'm sure I'll figure it out but it's confusing.  Hold on potty break.

Yes I'm sure you didn't need to know that but ehh it was in my brain.  Today is officially my youngest niece's third birthday.  I miss her terribly which is why I've been applying for nearly anything moving down near them.  I tried again in vain to get my mother on a plane to visit and I got the same diatribe about my sister in law which I just can't work around anymore.  It made me start crying because my father won't ever meet the girls, even if I was there I'd be busy working so they won't see me as much, and my mother is being a brat about seeing our only other immediate family.  It could also be because I don't have kids of my own the special days with them seem much more salient.  I was literally overjoyed when I got to talk to them a bit on Christmas via skype.  They were cute and happy and talk too much and then stop talking all at once.  I always stress balance to my clients and I swear I never have it in my own life. 

At least mom's doctor visit went well so thank heavens for small graces.  Still not falling asleep but I'm making myself even more irritated so I'm going to sign off now.  Happy Birthday pretty girl.

Superbowl Wash Day

This post would have been up much earlier but yeah I was watching the Superbowl.  I was feeling kinda safe in that love for my fictional husband (hey Ray love you boo) until a random power outage delayed the game for more than 30 minutes and then the damn 49ers started a comeback.  A decisive goal line stand stopped the last San Francisco drive and the Ravens managed to hold on after a nifty safety play.  So glad the last game of his career was a win and once I fall back to sleep I can keep planning our small lavish wedding lol. 

I did manage to wash my hair and get it up before the game came on and after being errand and repair girl for mom.  I did take a nap while my hair was prepooing and I think my hair REALLY liked it.  My hair had been feeling pretty dry and that gave it enough moisture pre-wash.  Didn't lose more hair than I expected especially for being 10 weeks post.  I opted for flexi-rods and that's what has my hair captive now.  I did take more pictures so you could see the gray in more detail.  I still have over a week to dye it but not sure if I will.  Like I said yesterday the roots and first few inches are much more salt and pepper than the rest of my hair.  It looks much grayer than it did yesterday lol.  Benefit of it being wet.  I'll try to take pictures tomorrow after I take it down for a final comparison.  Thoughts?

I watched mom buy a honking big tv, what did you do today?

Today started out great and it's kinda wrapping up that way but let me just say the middle made me want to hit people.  I actually went to bed before midnight last night and I slept THROUGH the night.  I didn't wake up till about 7:30 and that was for a potty break.  I stayed up after 8 for some unknown reason but it felt good to not be going to sleep at six in the morning.

I knew I was going to take mom to the store because if I didn't I'd hear whining from here to eternity about how I NEVER (read not the minute she wants to go) take her anywhere (read everywhere under the freaking sun).  Her tantrum started with the trip to the neighborhood market instead of the big Wal-mart and I mean she seriously got out of the car muttering about how they never have what she wants (what she wants usually doesn't actually exist in reality by the way) and never price match anything (and that's never in that it's been so long since she went into neighborhood market she forgot they do it readily).  After that excursion was done it was off to another small chain grocery store--cause she didn't try to price match anything at the neighborhood market--for bacon.  She came out with bacon, fruit, muffins and other crap I couldn't easily detect.  I needed to see if I could find a purse box that I made for my linesisters previously because one went to a bad address and was either tossed or kept but it wasn't returned.  Hobby Lobby let me down so I was ready to pull out and head home before someone wanted fast food.  Before I could even get to the road though she saw a store that just advertised tvs for sale that she remembered as we passed the sign.  I should have said no but since I'm home so much right now I really don't like fighting.  Of course she beelined for the most ridiculously large one and after hemming and hawing and being lied to by the salesman about what smart tvs do and how cable is going to magically disappear in 5 years she purchased a tv that will occupy my living room.  That's not a pun it's freaking huge.  You could serve dinner for six on that thing.  She tried to offer me the 50 inch model--that isn't really 50 inches I don't think--for my room.  Yes we have a 50 inch tv and she wanted yet a bigger one. I said no like I had the previous 12 times it's been offered.  That will have to hang out in her room with her.  I moved the Wii back into my room and I doubt it's returning to the living room because now there's no room for it and I really don't want to support what I see as a ridiculous waste of money.

I'm sure I didn't mention it but I have a new phone interview on Monday.  I'm trying to decide if I want to dye my hair since technically it's on the computer not the phone.  I'm going to share some snaps of my gray, well as much as this camera will capture.  The roots are much more salt and pepper than the length of course but I'm mostly okay with it.  Mom thinks it makes me look older than 37 and that people don't want to hire old people.  I don't look old enough to fall into old people lol but I'll take your feedback.  I'm probably going to see my hairdresser before my next trip for a wash and set.  I'm going to keep on my relaxer schedule.  Despite the up and down part of the day I came home to another round of goodies from Ferrero Rocher and Influenster since I had been such a good blogger during that campaign last fall.  I super love these things when they are cold.  So the other sleeves--yeah I finished one decompressing so sue me lol--are going into the freezer.