Pampering Day- The Results.
Hey guys,
Coming at you with an incredibly late post on what I did on my pampering day.
Between going to school and working full time, I get run down fairly quickly. This is not good as it will affect my work and school performance. Not to mention our household. Both my husband and I burn the candle at both ends, so our house ends up looking crazy, which is a cause for depression. No one wants the place they call their sanctuary to look like a hoarders nest.
 |
||
| Never this bad, but you get the point. |
Think of it as the hierarchy of needs. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is as follows:
 |
| From Wikipedia |
What Maslow is saying is that your base needs have to be met in order for you to have any awareness of self. I am going to take it a step further and say you have to take care of yourself before you are able to take care of anyone else. So this is what I was going to do.
Hubs had to be out of town for work one weekend. I was going to take some time and do me and just be happy. That is what I did.
I started off creating a hot oil treatment for my hair.
 |
|
| Cast of Characters: coconut oil, honey, Moroccan oil. I wanted olive oil, but I thought I was out. After I got finished, I discovered that the olive oil was on the kitchen stove. In front of my face. Bah. |
I put my tea pot on to boil and doubled up two sandwich bags. I placed the oils and honey in the sandwich bags. I put the sandwich bags in a plastic container and poured the hot water in the container.
 |
| I'm meelllting!!!! |
I waited until the mixture was pretty much melted. I squished the bag between my fingers to combine all the ingredients. I then applied it to my hair and slapped a processing cap on.
A little hint if you are going to do this, no matter how much preparation you have, it is going to get messy. Have your areas covered, and have a towel around your neck. More on this later.
I then began to draw my bath (doesn't that sound elegant!?).
 |
|
| Sorry it is so blurry, its my camera phone. Cast of characters: Melon bubble bath, rose shaped soaps, giant lemon fizz ball, and essential oils that smell like Cool Water for Women. |
I ran the bath and dumped in bubble bath. I chopped off a piece of the fizzy ball and dropped it in there. I dumped in the rest of the oil and then I got to the soaps... Oh the soaps. Let me post the instructions about the soaps to you:
- Fetch some pieces
- Dissolve in some water
- Scribble in the skin
I stared at them blankly, especially the scribble word. I am assuming that is a British thing, as I have never heard the word used in that context before. But oh well.
 |
| The resulting bath.. ahhhhh |
One more thing. My book.
 |
||
| The Playboy Prince by Nora Roberts.. ahh trashy literature! |
I soaked for about an hour when a problem was becoming more and more apparent. The oil on my hair was getting EVERYWHERE. In my eyes, behind my ears, just all over the place. I eventually gave up, cleaned myself, and rinsed myself off. I twisted my hair and just relaxed the rest of the day. It was so nice. When I untwisted my hair the next day it was soft and manageable. One less stressor in my life!
What do you do to unwind? What is the most relaxing scenario you can think of?
Oh Whitney…
I wasn’t going to write about this. But after watching countless videos on Youtube today, and that hard sad ache I felt when I watched her mother be carried down the isle after her funeral, I feel like I must.
I was 10 years old when The Bodyguard came out. I had listened to Whitney Houston’s music before this. I have a memory of being twirled by my mother to ‘I wanna dance with somebody’. I remember trying so hard to belt out the notes just like her. The Bodyguard however, was one of the first tapes I owned that I listened to and enjoyed every single song. I had all the songs memorized, and made my own dance steps up to the songs (in the privacy of my room of course!).
Listening to her music and singing the songs, I believed one day that I could be just like Whitney. Growing up in a small town, and living on the side of town that was predominately white, she gave me an ideal to want to be. She was as dark as I was, with many of my features. You didn’t see that very often.
I missed watching the funeral today. I did see parts in recaps however. I smiled at the memories shared by Kevin Costner and tears ran unbidden down my cheeks for her mother and her family. I winced at Alicia Keys screaming at me.
Whitney Houston gave a fat awkward black girl hope. She showed me you didn’t have to be high yellow or have Caucasian features to make it in this world. You have your talent and your heart. That is all you really need. Some people will argue with me that it didn’t hurt the powerful family and friends she had behind her. No, it didn’t hurt. But you can’t tell me that she was carried by them. She let her voice do the talking.
Now, I don’t sing. Not in public anyway. I have a crippling anxiety when even thinking about singing in public. But thinking of Whitney in high school led me to try out for the choir. And I made it. She is one of many people who showed me a way to be the best person I could be. For that I will be forever grateful.
Good bye Whitney Houston. I hope you found the peace you never seemed to find here on this mortal coil. I hope you look down on this earth and know how much you were loved and treasured.
A change is gonna come.
As I sit here with fried looking hair, looking rode hard and put away wet, I have decided I need a change.
I googled ‘Fried Dyed and Laid to the Side’ This is what I got *Snort*
I work 40 hours a week. I come home and I work more. School work and housework never ends. It isn’t just me though. If I am working 40 hours, my husband is currently putting in 60 to 70 hours a week. A couple of days ago He didn’t get home from work until 9pm.
It is not just that though. Ever since I lost weight, I haven’t shopped for clothes I enjoy. I have work outfits that I have purchased for the sole purpose of work. They are okay looking, but they make me feel staid and just, ugh.
I am stuck in a rut. I don’t take care of myself like I should. I don’t do anything for me and my husband. We work, we come home, we pick up dinner, and we stare blankly at the TV for an hour or two before we get started on our bedroom rituals.
I’m frustrated and tired guys. I’m stuck in a rut. I was doing laundry this evening and realized I was stuck in a clothing rut as well. Let me give you the primary example I have. For about 10 years now I have bought one type of jean. I purchase the Lane Bryant Right Fit Jeans. You know the ones I am talking about. The ones that are folded up in the store. (Size 6 blue circle!). The quality has gone downhill over the years. I am not entirely sure they are real denim anymore. Plus they smell funny, no matter how many times you wash them.
Tomorrow I am making time for myself. Jeff is out of town for the weekend for work (boo), but I am going to make the most of it. I plan on doing a hot oil treatment on my hair, painting my nails, and just beautifying myself. I also plan on buying a pair of nice new jeans. I need to step out of the jean comfort zone. I still have homework and I still have housework, but I need to focus on myself for just a little bit.
My questions to you: Have you pampered yourself recently? If not, why? Is it something you struggle with?
Social 46
So I told you in my last entry, that I had a bit of exciting news for you. I have been chosen as one of 46 people to represent Indianapolis and social media during the Super Bowl. It is a program called Social46. You can find most of us on twitter under #social46.
At first I was genuinely excited and nervous. As I get older I get shyer. By the time I am 40, more than likely I’ll be in a corner shaking. I was nervous because, even though I have talked to some of the people in the program on twitter, I’ve never actually met any of them. I get there and take my seat. I get kind of uneasy because I’ve just noticed something. Let me get the picture of the group so you can see:
Yeah.. Not really diverse is it?
Let me back up a little bit. Here are some quotes that can better tell you what the Social 46 is and what it is trying to accomplish:
The Social 46 is a group of 46 top influencers in Social Media selected by the Super Bowl Host Committee to promote Indianapolis and the Super Bowl through Social Media. Our group includes local celebrities social media leaders, bloggers members of the media, and other community leaders.
Our goal is to galvanize the Indy community and drive them toward social media as a way of keeping everyone involved with the Super Bowl connected. Those of us in Social 46 are serving as ambassadors to welcome people to Indianapolis and to share what Indy has to offer. We tweet with the hashtag #social46. Our hope is to make this the most talked about Super Bowl experience in history.
During our meeting, it was brought up that this is the most urban Super Bowl ever. I took a quick unofficial poll on my personal Facebook page because no one really responded on the Tale of Going Natural. The comments and thoughts I got about it varied greatly:
My friends are nutcases, in case you couldn’t figure that out on your own accord.
Anyway, their thoughts on my page got me to thinking about myself, what I believe, what I think urban is.
Urban to me is a large diverse group of people located in an area.
I could get into details about the area they are located in, and the types of things that are around, but this is my bare bones definition of urban. There is hardly anything in this group that to me represents diversity, nor shows all of the neat ethnic backgrounds that we have here in Indianapolis.
I am initially from a small town here in Indiana. When I was a little girl, there were a total of three other black kids in my entire school. It was stressed over and over to me by my mother, my grandparents, and pretty much everyone else in my family, that I needed to doubly mind my p’s and q’s, because I am setting an example for everyone. I used to get angry. Why does it always have to be me? Why am I the one who always has to set an example for everyone else? As got older I realized the answer. Because you are the only one Leslie. You are the only reference on culture and race in that particular school. People generalize. That is just how a lot (not all) of people operate. Being the only person means that people are going to take your actions and generalize them for a whole group of people.
Now, from the picture, it looks as if I am the only minority. I’m not. I counted 3 other people, which still adds up to 8.6% (my math may be wrong though I do not think so) of the 46 people.
With a percentage that small, some things may get overlooked about the Super Bowl and Indianapolis. Things that, maybe if you weren’t a minority, you wouldn’t know where to go (weave, ethnic groceries, ethnic hair care). So that will be my contribution to the social46. My goal is to bring as much diversity as one person can. I’ll be using my blog to accomplish this goal. I will also be reporting on the different events around the city. Stay tuned for what is probably going to be an interesting ride.
The Trouble with Tights.
Can we step away from natural hair from for a moment?
I want to talk to you about tights.
I love tights. I do. They have come out with such cute styles and colors lately.
These are from Avenue. I DIE!
However, I have a severe problem with tights. The sizing.
You see, I am short and round. My weight is such that I guess clothing companies feel as if I should be a specific height. I am not that height. I will never be that height.
As a result one of two things happens when I wear tights.
1. The tights are so long that I have to tuck them under my bra and hope for the best.
OR
2. I attempt to go down a size and can’t get them over the tree trunks I call thighs.
I can’t win.
I work in IT and I crawl around sometimes, but a lot of time is spent at my desk. I would love to wear skirts and dresses in the cold weather, but I just can’t find tights that suit and fit me. *sigh*
What are your favorite tights? Where did you get them?
PS: Stick with me! Next week I have some exciting news!
Naturally Me? Sometimes I don’t want to be…
I tend to avoid things that aren’t naturally me. I do this for a couple of reasons. The first one being that things that aren’t natural to you, take work. For example; math does not come natural to me. It is something I continuously struggle with on a daily. I have like 3 math courses in my curriculum. It’s rough. I am to the point now that I am proficient in algebra. Then they threw geometry at me. I knew in high school that geometry wasn’t for me. Proofs are a joke. Why am I proving that a circle is round? You have eyes! You see that circle is round!
*ahem*
Like I said, these things take time and effort to work with. Time that I don’t really have and effort that I don’t want to give. I have a full time job, I go to school part time. I am sleepy. It just seems like there aren’t enough hours in the day. I don’t have time to do things that are completely out of the ordinary.
Except…
I kind of want a weave.
Now, this is not a good thing for me. I was weaved up for my wedding. It was beautiful. However, after a week, it was a big matted ball in the back of my head. I can’t take care of it. I don’t know how to.
Weave makes me nervous. I have never been good with keeping them. They irritate my husband as well. He loves my “fluffy hairs” and whenever I get something that disguises them, or mixes in with them, he throws a tiny fit.
I guess my question(s) to you are:
Do you wear weaves? How do you wash them? How do yours not end up in a big matted ball in the back of your head at the end of the week? How often do you go back to your stylist and get a touch up?
I can’t say that even if I am satisfied with the answers to my questions, I will go out and get one. They are expensive, hard for me to maintain, and just.. ugh. But I miss straight hair sometimes, and I like the idea of playing with it.
Best choices for us.
I am exhausted. If anyone ever told me that the holidays were an actual vacation, I think I would punch them.
Roughly a month ago I got a haircut. It was actually more of a trim. My hair grows quicker in the back than anywhere else, giving me a mullet type look. Not good.
It got me to thinking. When I was younger if you came at my hair with a pair of scissors, be it a trim or an actual cut, to correct broken off hair, I would be in tears. My hair took forever to grow, and all I ever wanted was long hair. When it was relaxed, it seemed as if I could never achieve that dream. The longest my hair ever really got was to my earlobe.
With my natural hair, no matter how bad I treat it, it grows. When I say I treat it bad, I mean I don’t tie it up every night like I am supposed to, I go longer than I should without a serious detangle, and I have hand-in-hair syndrome.
Ultimately I believe that natural hair was the best choice for myself. What about you?
Can you tell I am sick? I feel like crap. On my way to work.
What is the best choice you have made for yourself?
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Wishing you and yours a happy and healthy Christmas!
Oh, that turkey did a number on me.
Greetings and Salutations!
I hope your Thanksgiving was full of happiness and drama free.
 |
||||
| While I did not exercise after my meal. I did not stuff myself. |
I think the turkey did something to me, because last night I had the craziest of dreams. Most of it isn't relevant, but I had a dream my old beautician Margie was chasing me down the street with a cup full of relaxer. She told me "I wanted it." and "Think of how long my hair would be." I ended up doing it in my dream, but I was impressed with the results. I was also sad, thinking of how I was going to have to cut all my hair off and start over. What does it all mean!?
The Thanksgiving holiday is my husband's holiday, which means that we spend it at his parent's house. It went smoothly this year. The next holiday that I spend with my family is Christmas Day. Where I will get one or more of the following comments:
- What are you going to do with your hair?
- You just going to leave your hair like that?
- What about dread-locs? You should get them!
- Get a perm!
Meh. Just.. Meh.
What Not to do with your hair!!!
LOL I saw this and had to laugh.. Don't listen to her!!!
Espionage Cosmetics
