In my best Charlie Brown voice AAUGH!! or why I heart my hairdresser

So today has been busy, well my today as I haven't been to sleep yet.  My teaching schedule is locked for the next year.  I have an idea of what I'll be doing for the summer (meaning yeah money) and I have a committee appointment.  It was a busy few hours lol.  And after watching the Heat lose game four (go Pacers) and dealing with Mrs Shops a Lot I sent a text to my hair dresser about my nifty plan to dye my hair gray cause you know my plans are always air tight and stuff.  Turns out yeah not so much lol.  We would have to completely bleach my hair first and then dye and it and that would likely result in some serious breakage.  I told her that sucked and she laughed at me.  At least she didn't say sure dummy let's see how much of your hair is left once we're done and do it anyway.  Soo AAUGH!! to my dramatic gray hair plans but have to love someone who is good at taking care of me and all my silly ideas.  I am so going to miss her I swear.  I'll have to email her after I get settled and decide on a new hair dresser which I am totally not looking forward to.  I really don't mind the gray I just mind how quickly it grows out when I add any color to it.  I was actually looking forward to the gray and black look.  Oh well.  Off to make new strange plans.

Results, Updates and Oddly Tittilated

So if you live in the States and are like most folks you had Monday off.  There was no mail--ie no bills--and no banking and plenty of eating and sports if that's what you were going for your day.  Things started off relatively well.  I woke up, milled around, ate a little bit had an annoying argument with my mother and then spent about 20 minutes on the phone with AT&T to make sure we weren't in danger of running over minutes because Madame Talks A Lot keeps adding new numbers to her QVC/HSN, General Hospital and Y&R recap sessions to her day.  This wouldn't be a big deal unless you know my mother in that she will have the same hour long conversation with two or three different people EVERY weekday.  I was smart enough to add A list (no longer available which is why I'm never changing this cell plan unless we move to a carrier with a similar option) to the plan a few years ago because before that mom was not only using up our allotted minutes but several thousand nights and weekends, mobile to mobile and cutting hard into the rollover minutes.  After assuring myself that adding to the list would likely address the issue at hand I went back to sleep cause insomnia has revisited my life.

Radio Free Pecan Pie

Sorry for the radio silence everyone.  I have a very annoying skin condition that flares up randomly and can be incredibly painful.  Well I got a new one in a new location for me and it impacted my ability to finish my wash day and write back to you without wincing and dropping multiple f bombs.  I tried another tactic today and at least I'm able to right.  I had to rewash my hair and after taping up the offending area and applying some cortisone to the area I spent 90--yes that's right 90--minutes detangling my hair mostly dealing with annoying knots that came about from not having finished the wash day several days back.  All I did tonight was detangle, twist and put each section on a flexi-rod as I was able to move through them.  I will revisit them again tomorrow with another layer of conditioner and seal it up properly.  Between the lingering pain in my arm, the temperature in the house and the effort of moving through my hair I was literally sweating when I was done.  However, as I was moving through all of my hair I noticed that the multicolored was worse than I thought.  Especially if you lift up a section here or there and then you get this massive shock of gray.  Ahh freaking hair.  I think the poll expires sometime tomorrow (technically later today) and right now ombre is winning.  If you would like to get in on the voting here's your last opportunity.  Click HERE RIGHT HERE to look at the photos of the hair color options I've included in the poll.  Sorry no photos today, I was dumbfounded by the knots and hair loss.

When the Universe Screams At You...

The sound can be deafening when you are trying to sort something out and ask for guidance.  After another protracted conversation with my ex I was a little confused.  How did we get to the place where we were both so angry and frustrated with each other?  I tried to distract myself for a while and before I went to my old trusty source of information about all things relationships when I was younger.  Of course internet readings (those would be psychic readings) can be both silly and sometimes frighteningly accurate (the link may not work now so don't be mad at me if it's not lol).  The thing that stuck with me though is partially the answer to my question of how did we get to angry central.

The card in the center represents the present status or challenge of the relationship. Two of Tomes (De Vermis Mysteriis), when reversed: The erosion of power and influence. Failing to articulate goals or establish a vision for the future. Being caught off guard, due to an inability to come to grips with the impact of past decisions. Obstinate and irresponsible leadership. Loss of interest, clarity, or faith in a venture.

We both made decisions out of a belief that we were doing the right thing at that moment.  And while there are good things about dating someone like you the bad thing is sometimes your worst features get amplified like a sonic boom.  I have trouble apologizing or even sympathizing when I think what I did was for the best and that you were wrong.  I can't say that's how he feels but the conversation hit the same skip in record it always does.  Hurt feelings are hard to move beyond.  We were both waiting for the other to do something that yeah wasn't gonna happen.  The weird thing about me though is I'm super not a normal girly human.  When I shut emotions down I'm much more like my dad than my mom.  I get sullen and silent and withdraw.  I don't yell I don't scream I don't outwardly show anything that might even be mistaken as caring.  It's hard to date me as I result I know but I also don't make it a secret that that is how I will react to things.  I'm usually pretty direct about that too. This is partially why I always think I won't get married.  Dating a woman that thinks like a man is one thing.  Marrying one who isn't going to do the normal tantrum thing may drive someone slightly insane.

I ran errands and took along my trusty mood sensing Zune.  I'm sure you would love to have one of those, well maybe a mood sense Ipod but I'm a Zune gal.  And truthfully I have no idea how it taps into when I'm moody but it does.  Played all the right songs as I ran to the library, post office, a doctor's office and Burger King because at 3 in the morning all I desperately wanted was a Whopper.  But I refused to get dressed enough to go get it lol.  I love the Zune, I love the tracks that played and I'd love to have an empty house today but alas there's no hope of that.

Super Saturday Part 2

Today is usually pretty rough for me because I'm missing my dad a LOT.  Today is the 12th anniversary of his death and it was hitting me hard because I'm in transition right now and he was always such a great support when that was the case.  He'd be calling me by horribly embarrassing nickname that I will never ever repeat mostly because it was Asian and no one knows what it is but because that was our thing too.  I was admittedly moody as hell most of the day.  I woke up late, mom was annoying me even though it wasn't her fault, and I was really trying to figure out how to hide from the remaining hours in the day.  HOWEVER, running out to get the lottery tickets so she could prayerfully win the powerball, buy a house in Texas and mostly live there (oh if wishes were unicorns lol) actually jump started my day.  I came back mowed the front and back yard in between filling out her annual paperwork for another disability payment, showered cause I was a nasty sweaty damn near having an asthma attack mess when I came inside, watched youtube to figure out how to use our trimmer to do some edging tomorrow, ate dinner, watched the Knicks lose (YES!!!!) and now I'm chatting with you all.

I also got some paperwork I needed to make sure that I actually HAVE a job in the fall.  I hate doing background checks because I'm always suddenly worried that when I'm asleep I secretly morph into another human that has a criminal background and still uses my SSN.  Ok that's pretty far fetched I know but you would be surprised how many places I've lived when people have sworn I was someone else they really know and love and get offended when I forget who they are like I really have a split personality and I'm the only one that doesn't know.  Not kidding on that one.  April was apparently a clone when I was living in Indiana before.  Never met her but she was awesome and adorable if she looked like me lol.  See I'm laughing that's a good thing.  And I talked to my brother and his munchkins--who I mostly understand but seriously we need small human translator phones.  I'd totally upgrade for that feature.

I also relaunched the poll in the last post and I'm going to include the code here too in case you somehow missed it.  The votes are split the way they were before but I think with new people voting lol.  Have a good one and if you like your dad hug him for me.  Unless he's dead in which case do not hug him just think of him and smile.

Super Saturday Part One

Hey everyone.  First let me thank you for voting on the previous poll for those that did.  Second let me tell you that thanks to weird settings with Blogger and it's polls that like the help forums said your votes can and did disappear.  That was frustrating but as I was digging another site was recommended to me so I'm relaunching the Gray Girl poll and it's much cuter if I do say so myself.  I'm also going to repost the photos so you know what each option represents and I even added an extra option if you have something you'd like to suggest that wasn't included in the four original lineup.

Sassy Gray

Ombre Ladies

Gray? Who's Gray?

To go gray or to fight it kicking and screaming

I've lamented here before about the rapidly gray onslaught my hair is facing.  I've had gray hair at this point longer than I haven't had gray hair.  My first appeared shortly after the start of puberty (around 12) and was nice enough not to bring lots of friends along until I was in my mid 20s.  I aggressively dyed it until about two years ago.  I was chocolate, chocolate cherry and eventually blowout burgundy thanks to L'oreal Feria, who make a great hair color I must say.  My hair color was always rich and lush and the conditioner was freaking amazing.  However, about two years ago I was about three weeks post relaxer and looked up to see the little gray army marching across my scalp like now what broad?  I'm sure you're wondering why would you worry three weeks post, surely your color was older than that.  Yeah no it wasn't.  We'd relax and then hit it with the permanent color and condition the mess out of my hair to make sure it didn't fall out of my scalp.  It would result in gorgeous color after my scalp stop reenacting Sherman's march across Georgia (for the non American readers he burnt a lot of Georgia along the way just cause).  It is the only hair color I tried that with and I wouldn't recommend anyone else do the same thing but the semi permanent colors would be pointless on my hair.  Within a few washes I'd be back to just plain old salt and cayenne pepper (well it was red) hair.

Happy Mother's Day

Spent the day with my mother and no one came up missing a limb or bleeding. It was actually a good day. Had chorizo quesadillas for breakfast. Watched tennis, fussed about Sloane Stephens, watched more tennis and Say Yes To the Dress: Atlanta--she loves Monty. Decided to make knock off Shiner Bock burgers which warranted a store run and while the recipe is relatively simple ingredient wise it was a little more time consuming than I thought. Anyhoo she loved it and we ate that, fries and watched La Voz Kids on Telemundo (yes it's in Spanish but she loves it). She just left me to go watch Revenge though, feeling abandoned ROFLMAO. Not really. Happy Mother's Day everyone.  Oh and if anyone wants the recipe here it goes.  Either enjoy Shiner Bock or find someone who is willing to drink what you don't use--you only need half a bottle of beer so keep that in mind.

 

Shiner Bock BBQ Sauce courtesy of Smokin Ronnie's BBQ website

Ingredients

* canned chipotle peppers in adobo
* 1/4 cup mushroom soy sauce
* 1 cup tomato paste
* 1/4 cup canned chicken broth
* 1/3 cup ketchup
* 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
* 1/2 Shiner Bock beer, bottled
* 3/4 cup malt syrup
* 1 1/2 cup water
* 1/3 cup minced garlic
* 1 tablespoon chili powder
* 1/8 cup onion powder
* 1 tablespoon black pepper
* 3 1/2 cup light brown sugar
* 1/2 tablespoon Kosher salt

1. Puree the chipotle in adobo mixture in a blender or food processor until smooth and place 1/4 cup of the can in a medium sauce pot.

2. Add all liquid ingredients to sauce pot and whisk to mix thoroughly.

3. Bring sauce to a very slow simmer.

4. Stir occasionally. Add minced garlic and all of the dry ingredients, whisk to mix thoroughly.

5. Simmer over low heat for 20 minutes, stirring every four to five minutes to ensure the sauce doesn't stick or burn to the bottom of the pot. 

Wash Day & Updates

So I didn't take any photos cause I was being lazy but let's start with the run down and I will share more if you ask.  I have been lazy prepooing since I don't have to be anywhere most days and that means I've been doing it MUCH longer than normal.  Remember before when I said my hair hates overnight prepoos?  Yeah apparently I forgot and while my hair soaked up the moisture like a sponge the back of my hair tangled like no body's business.  I know some of the hair loss was just natural shed hair since I wasn't manipulating my hair very much over the course of the week but there more knots than I like to see in my hair.  In what can only be counter intuitive for my hair I am going to have to keep my hair straighter and pin it up the further along in my stretch.  Either that or do what I saw on another blog recently and start investing in good wigs while my hair stays braided and protected underneath.  I've been thinking about that more with the impending move but I really have no idea how to pick a good wig so I'm going to have to ask for help and suggestions with that one the next time I see my stylist.  Anyhoo, after I detangled--made sure I sat down so I wouldn't just get impatient and tug until my hair fell out, I put some more conditioner on my ends and then just rolled it up on flexirods after I tied down my edges.  I think I can do a small or low bun for the next week or two but that means some youtube tutorials are in my future cause really I am totally not good at the styling part of taking care of my hair.  I can do simple things, and yes I know a bun is simple, but you're talking to someone whose hair hasn't been this long since like elementary school before the tragedy--don't ask, it wasn't that bad but my mother thinks it was.

This will probably be the shortest Mother's Day blurb EVER but have a great day to all the moms that stop by the blog, or moms in training or moms of the future.  Whenever I think of joining your ranks my own mother makes me go why on EARTH would you want to do that.  Today was no exception let's just be glad I bought all the gifts for her and my SIL earlier.

Thanks to the Blue Grumpster I'm going to make sure I update the pages that are along the top of the page.  Some things have happened that require updates to at least one of the pages--two or more I think but I can't be sure lol.  I'll also update the hair and weight loss sections too cause I've been slipping on those as well.  Have a good one everyone.  If you have any suggestions for tutorials or questions you want to ask, or wig stores I should check out just let me know.  Back to basketball and Shooter.

Food Lust

This will either discuss my latest food obsession or a recipe I discovered that I want to share.  I can confess now that if I was wealthier I'd have to set strict limits on my Williams Sonoma spending because I love them like way too much.  I'm not a clothes freak or shoe whore lol but kitchen gadgets and a deluxe kitchen with a double oven and lots of counter space would be a tiny taste of heaven for me for real.  The only other things I lust after as much are music and books, like the real ones you can touch not the digital ones, don't love them yet.  I'll make a separate tab about those maybe.  I'll update this as soon as I love something new.

05/11/2013--Peanut Butter Ice Cream.  It's by no means Gingersnap Ice Cream however it's very tasty especially if you like peanut butter.  The recipe I'm going to share has peanut butter cups in it and that's how I made it the first time but for some reason that didn't work well for me.  They were too cold or too hard or something.  The next time I made it I made it with heath bits instead.  It was the perfect mix of chocolate, toffee and peanut butter.  So that's what I use now instead.  Oh and my blasted waffle iron broke when I was trying to be nice to mom and make her some Belgian waffles so I have to find a new one.  Any ideas?

11/15/2012-- Gingersnap Crumble Cupcakes (What's Cooking Chicago trifecta).  So good, loved them and mom liked them too which is always a sticking point.  Will probably make some more of them next week for the holiday along with the duck, turkey breast, and pecan pie.

10/18/2012--Creole Fried Chicken (What's Cooking Chicago strikes again) and Williams-Sonoma have captured my heart.  I've made the fried chicken twice now and it just makes me happy.  I only use chicken thighs for it but ohhhhh so yummy.  And when I was waiting to grab food I went into WS and found the electric ice cream machine with two bowls that was cheaper than grabbing an extra bowl and the machine at Bed Bath and Beyond.  I'm also on the hunt for Lemon Oreos so if someone sees them please let me know.

7/21/2012--Gingersnap Ice Cream--check the blog posts or the What's Cooking Chicago blog--so good

7/6/2012---Since I had to lay off the cookies, I've been back on my homemade mix of the Planter's nutrition boxes I was briefly in love with till I calculated how much my healthy snack was costing me.  Instead I order from Nuts.com or a similar site now and four or five pounds of nuts will last me 4-6 weeks if I snack daily.  If I don't then it can last a few months easy.  The alternative was 6 bags that would only last a few days (or less if mom saw them and started snatching them like she does the Fruitables).  Either way better than the oreos for me but ohh double stuff golden oreos are so delicious lol.  Signing off for now.

Working on Me

Working on Me*

This will discuss my music stuff, book stuff and my hopeful weight loss journey.  It may include links to blog entries as they are appropriate as well.  Okay I think I have all the tabs I need right now.

Currently playing:  Lots of stuff but heavy play on Just a Fool from Christina Aguilera's new cd--duet with Blake Shelton--LOVE it

Continue to read: Blogs and cookbooks mostly

May 2013: Have completely fell off on the working out but I do have a new job I'm looking forward to starting.  I read all the Hunger Games books, tried to read A Casual Vacancy, finally watched more things on my Blockbuster queue and am enjoying freegal from the library.  It lets you download a set number of songs a week that the library has access to through the service.  They have a good mix of music even though you won't find everything you are looking for.  However, you can't beat free for that one song that you really don't want to buy from itunes (especially if you're like me and hate all things Apple).  And I'm trying to remember to be thankful and worry less.  I'm better off than a lot of people on earth and things tend to work out even if it takes longer than I want it to initially.  I need to add to my good thoughts jar tonight and quit putting that off.

January 2013: Just finished reading: Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office by Lois P. Frankel.  Was very insightful about how just being somewhat traditional women can inhibit growth in office settings.  Wasn't really geared for counseling work but I did take some things from it.  And I tried to use some of it on my most recent interview but the whole let's share everything about ourselves with each other still trips me up.

August 2012: A Simple Act of Gratitude by John Kralik.  It's a touching book that challenges everyone to find the things we are grateful for and reach out to the people that give them to us.  I reached out to a friend already and hopefully before bed I can jot down a note for my brother and his family so I can mail it tomorrow along with a gift for the girls.  If you feel stuck, burdened down, in a bad place, whatever phrase you want to use--it could be the best thing you read.  I loved it.

Soon to be reading: Who knows, I keep moving the books around and not reading them

Life reboot: New year has made for new perspective even though this week has thrown it off a bit

Weight loss reboot: Under progress


updated May 11, 2013
updated January 11, 2013
updated August 19, 2012

Weird Stuff

So yeah been having a busy few days. Well emotionally busy anyway.  I think I need to disconnect from some more networks longer than I did.  I was off of one of them most of the day yesterday and it felt better to just be in my head.  And I took a mommy break too which was helpful.  She seemed to get that I needed some space too which helped.  Everyone is right in that I need a more formal break but yeah it's hard to get one that won't put her in a bit of debt which I am trying to avoid in case she really does have to be on her own at some point in the future.  I don't really see that happening in most scenarios but I plan for the what ifs along with reality at the same time.   

I was offered a chance to teach one more class before I leave but I don't know if I'll take it or not.  It would force me to be here until the second week of July which wasn't my plan.  I don't want to be rushing towards unpacking right before my new job starts BUT I could use the check right before I leave.  It's very ill timed actually.  I don't want to be grading papers right before I either drive out or fly out either.  Even though the money from class could pay for tickets.  I'll think it over for the weekend and then let them know on Monday.  

Ego is Bruised and Battered and there are no cute bartenders in my house

I'm tired ladies (and gents--if you visit I'm not sure you do).  I did a quick run to the grocery store so I could start on my hair and haven't touched it since I got home.  Been hanging out on the net and watching tv and arguing about things I'm passionate about which led to a snippy comment from someone I really don't know well but given everything else that has happened today it was just enough to go ahead and shut me down.

You all know, I think you do anyway, that my mother lives with me and has for almost a decade.  When I was on internship I got a frantic call from one of my aunts who said my mother was dying.  I was 28 years old and was confronted with the possibility that before I turned 29 both of my parents would be dead.  We lost my father in May of 2001 so in November of 2004 I was prepared to swear off all holidays and become a hermit.  I managed to make it home and find out that no she wasn't dying but she did have a pretty nasty brain tumor that had to be removed.  Surgery was fine, only one seizure--which is how we found out that she had the tumor in the first place--post surgery and possibility of full recovery.  Well physically she's mostly okay at this point.  She gets tired when she needs to walk too far and using the shopping cart to support her instead of a walker cause that would mean she was old.  Mentally and emotionally though totally different story.  She's my mother so while she drives me crazy I won't put her out but it has taken everything in me some days to not seriously consider her dropping her off at adult day care for a day or twelve.  She does inconsiderate things, flat out rude things and inconceivable things routinely and it has impacted our relationship of course but more than that it has strained her relationship with my brother and sister in law.  Mom doesn't work because of the memory issues she has had post surgery so they want her to visit the grandkids and mom is quite positive my sister in law is just this shy of satan so she refuses to go without me.  Granted I haven't been working lately but yeah kinda have to conserve funds for the move.  I'm sure you're wondering what this has to do with what happened today.  I was just trying to give you appropriate back story.

We Are Sparta or at least Sparkly

The title would be totally right sans sparkly if this was 100 posts from now (movie nerd moment there in case you haven't seen 300 go watch it.  Kinda kick ass movie if you like epic battles people have no chance of winning and hot sticky buffed men doing said fighting.  Go ahead and look for a photo, I'll wait.  Told you he was pretty.  You good? Ok let's move on).  However, this is post 200 so not quite right.  Still wanted it to be special though so YEAH post 200.

There is not a lot going on to tell you so here will be some snippets of things that I've garnered over the last 199 posts.

• I'm amazed how much I have learned about my hair and that I still am actually interested in doing anything with it.
• I am also dumbfounded how much I enjoy not using heat on my hair and what I can do with it until like week 10 post and it goes all willy nilly on me.
• There are a lot of people with a similar passion or disturbance as you choose to think about it and they are a great support system to have.
• That I really like food but only some foods but those I can jazz up in a billion and one ways and will continue to do so.
• That I tend to bake in spurts and when I'm really stressed out for some reason.  I then either eat too much or completely ignore it.
• That the weight loss kick comes and goes and I really need a semi lazy trainer to live in one of the spare bedrooms and kick me in the butt.
• Being a grown up with my mother is both painful and hilarious.  It's great when what I suggest works but it's totally a pain when she acts like a four year old that I can't spank.
• There are a lot of funny people that don't talk about hair at all and that's great.
• I suck at flirting.  I've only texted cute guy once and now I think it's too late.
• I may have finally gotten my insomnia under control but my body is seriously only sleeping like six hours unless I force it to go back to sleep.
• I got a new schedule for new job and now it's even more better than it was (at least in my brain) so I am even more in love than I was before.
• We really should be required to have a yearly purge of crap that we no longer need and/or want and/or use because this purge has been fantastic in locating lost things and freeing up a ton of other stuff I really don't need anymore.
• I still have very mixed emotions about my ex.  I can't quite hate him but Lord thinking about him sometimes makes me QUITE PISSED.
• I love sports way more than some women but not enough to start a whole new blog to compete with another blog.
• I love THE VOICE, Adam is so adorable.  Ahhhh Adam Levine.  I'd so convert.
• There was no mouse in the house.  Which is good but I have all these mouse repelling sensors in the house now.  I guess they will move with me.
• So happy the Heat lost tonight, all is right in my universe.
• I'm way more sentimental than I thought I would be.
• I have a ton of pictures I need to sort through Lord.
• I'm getting old lol
• I still have goals to reach in my hair and personal life and those will come to pass too
• Oh yeah Jinxx Monsoon won Drag Race--eat that bitches 
• EDITS cause you know I was gonna think of more stuff after I slept
• I will watch tennis more than most humans I know.  I really really really hate Roger Federer.  He's a great player but he's boring and annoys me.
• I used to, and periodically still do, want to be a sports commentator just so I can say athlete names that are weird.  Tennis is full of them but so is baseball and football.  Really who wouldn't want to say Nomar Garciaparra on a regular basis when you stretch it out all weird.  Or learn how to properly pronounce tennis players names?
• I'm kind of creeped out by all the new cast members on Y&R that used to be on the Nick drama Hollywood Heights.  Especially since two of them were dating on HH and are now siblings on Y&R.
• I really want a huge sloppy burger but have no desire to make it or pay for it right now.  I really wish Chili's delivered lol.
• I have a ton of crafty things I've bought from Hobby Lobby over the years and really need to work on completing any of them.  Well some I can't cause they will always be added to.
• I used to think my family conspired against me with their birthdays (start in March) and random holidays (that don't end until June with a straggler in August). It goes in order, Mom's birthday, Mother's Day, brother's birthday, Father's Day, his wedding anniversary and my SIL's birthday.  My nieces have birthdays in February and October but they are cute and had no control over that (yes I realize the others didn't either) so they don't get included in the conspiracy.
• I really hope Andy Murray loses this match cause I hate him too but for totally different reasons.
• K enough again for now.

I may edit some more but right now I think that's enough.  

So in our daily dose of random..

I have been doing these longer drying times with my hair the last two weeks.  I let the hair totally dry without doing a thing to it and then hit it with my leave ins and detangle and style.  Surprisingly it seems as though I've lost less hair doing it this way which is a win for me and my hair seems to take less time drying the second time after it's set.  The other thing I've noticed is my hair is BUSHY at the roots with nothing on it.  It's not a good example of where my hair would be if I chopped it all off but woo it's thick.  And don't worry I'm not in a rush to do more than snip the ends.  It's taken almost two years to get it from my ears/neck and thinned out to my shoulders and much thicker.  I'm debating what to do with it before I leave as I try to find a hairdresser where I'm moving to.  And if it keeps holding up I think the upcoming relaxer planned for the end of this month will be pushed to June.  Maybe first week of June just in case we decide to braid it up for that transition time.  Who knows, I'll talk to my hairdresser about that.  I am so gonna miss her, she's a good friend and great stylist.  Ahh growing pains.

While I was mid drying time I had to run out and grab some things for mom and get a present for my nieces weighed at the post office so I could mail it to them along with mom's presents for them.  I should go there more often when I'm looking a hot mess (to me anyway).  In what has to be randomness squared whenever I head to the post office and I'm not looking my best and am feeling kinda frazzled I get hit on.  Unlike normal however, this guy was cute and younger.  If he hadn't been smoking and I had shaved my legs this millenia I may have hopped on in his car and hung out for the rest of the day.  Instead I took his number and may call him today or tomorrow.  He was adorable and our names would provide a total sing songy thing.  Yes I normally hate that on other people but he got a cute pass lol.

Okay off to finish doing nothing and downsizing things for the move when I get motivated to do so.  Have a great day everyone.


And just because I forgot to add it during the first post here's the list of blogs participating in the Creative Girl blogging challenge.

Life's a Blur and then you collapse

I have been all kind of sluggish and busy the last few weeks so I should update you on what has been going on.  Short of washing my hair I had nothing major on my proverbial agenda.  Just watching the money to make sure the old lady and I don't get kicked out prematurely.  Don't worry we won't but I'm the one that worries about these things because my mother does not.  After a talk with my brother yesterday I realized that we both do and again I think it's because my mother didn't.  Neither one of us shop for sport.  We try to save where we can, we rarely indulge and we're pretty practical. Not bad things to get from a parent I get but we got them because of her not from her which seems different.  And another common refrain from our childhood resurfaced in that while my mother provided the financial support the person who raised my brother was me.  He's right unfortunately.  I helped with the homework, got him to school, signed off on assignments because mom wouldn't or didn't, and when I was leaving for college understanding he was a bit of a dumbass with dumbass friends made sure he went to live with my father who was thrilled to have him and there was much less opportunity for dumbassery.  It all worked out for the best for everyone but mom who 20 years post is still a bit bitter about that whole thing.  As they say though your reality is largely based on your memory and hers is sketchy about these things.

Okay that went totally off tangent, I didn't have much to do.  I'm still hunting for a house for the move but I did secure movers at a decent rate and we're moving full steam ahead towards a garage sale/purging of old baggage.  It's odd tossing things away, what to keep, what isn't important, what did you bother to get that for in the first place.  I have clothes to donate, books and cookbooks to sale and magazines to recycle or toss.  I'm not done with one closet so more will be leaving my sphere but it feels good to unburden some of these things from my life.  In that vein I was reading a book one of my sorority sisters recommended called 7 an experimental mutiny against excess by Jen Hatmaker.  Especially at this moment it seem apropos to read but turns out I don't really do excess as it is.  I keep clothes until they kinda come unraveled, I have maybe 15 pairs of shoes but I routinely only wear a few pair, and books are my real only major indulgence.  Nonetheless I'm still clearing out even if the book didn't inspire me to do so.  Mom can take a few pieces, the rest will go to shelters or donation centers.  Heck I'm even getting rid of old movies I know we don't watch or need.  It feels good to really downsize for some reason.  In the next two months I'll work on shedding as much as I can.  Maybe I can move into new digs even more in a sense of who I am and what I want.

Blogging Challenge

I've been in a bit of a writing funk lately.  Not sure how much you care about my impending (getting more stressful) move or the no longer hunt for a job.  And my hair is well my hair.  It's growing--good thing--and feels thick as all creation--also good but yeah it's messing with my timeline for the next relaxer.  Anyhoo after reading with much glee all the posts last month on Kellie's blog (click here for giggles) I figured I'd look for one to enter for the month of May.  Yeah I got lazy but thankfully the Blogger like Me group on FB turned me on to this one and even MORE better as I signed up I was entry 75 which is the year I was born so yeah me lol.  It's being sponsored by Creative Girl Media.  The photo has information about the requirements if you want to join as well.  Click the photo to get the page.  I'm in the middle of doing my hair so I'll be back tonight or tomorrow with more of an actual update on life.