Let's Get Nostalgic!

I was walking to my car last week with my keys in my hand, preparing to push the button to unlock the doors as I approached, when I started thinking about what life was like before car keys had buttons on them! Remember when you had to actually put the key in the door to unlock it????  *gasp*  That's crazy talk!

Then I got into the car and, because it was dark and foggy out, I could see that the headlights were on. The car had turned them on for me, and when I got out of the car, I knew it would turn them off! It hasn't been that many years since I've had a car with that technology, but I am now totally dependent upon it. When we get rental cars, I get confused when I remove the keys from the ignition and the car beeps at me. I'm supposed to turn a knob so the lights go off and the battery doesn't die? What???

So that got me thinking about other Remember when . . . items!


Remember when scrunchies were the coolest things ever? 

How would we have gotten through junior high without fabric and elastic to hold our super awesome hairstyles in place? (I'm being facetious, of course, because they didn't do all that great a job at holding your hair in place! It was slippery fabric, whoever thought that was going to be effective in the first place?) Normal ponytail holders would have done the job much more efficiently, but they weren't as much fun for the boys to steal and throw back and forth (in place of flirting, obviously). My friends and I (ahem, Becky) even made our own, because we were that super amazingly awesome ;)



Remember when cool computer/video games were orange and pixelated?

Pharaoh's Tomb

We used to spend HOURS playing these games that were so much fun, but looking back at them, wow. It's hard to believe we were that enthralled by such simple graphics. (Although J found this game in his archives for me, and when he tried to play he kept walking into the arrows and dying! Apparently, even though the graphics were simple, the gameplay must have taken some level of skill). You also have to remember that at this time, just having color on the screen was a big deal, so that might also have contributed to why we were so impressed ;)


Remember when Tivo/DVRs/Internet TV wasn't an option?

There really was a time when, if you wanted to watch a TV show, you arranged your schedule so that you'd be on the couch at the appointed time in order to watch it. OR, if you were technologically savvy, you programmed your VCR (remember those?) to tape it so you could watch it later. If you missed it, TOO BAD! You were screwed, no second chances! You couldn't go online to watch old episodes (the Internet? What was that?) And if you wanted to see two shows that were on at the same time, you switched back and forth during commercials and hoped you didn't miss anything else. And do you even remember commercials?? You couldn't fast-forward or skip them, you just had to sit there and watch them (or else you left the room to do the dishes or use the restroom, and then came running back when you heard the show come on). Watching TV was hard work!

Remember when you had to buy whole albums if you wanted to hear a song?

There was a day before iTunes, before Napster, and before mp3s, when if you wanted to hear a song, you had to buy the whole album! You would only know one song, but you paid for thirteen in order to get that one (so you really hoped that the other songs were at least halfway decent! One-hit wonders were the bane of our existence!) If buying the album wasn't an option, then you had to tape it off of the radio! I would leave a tape in my boombox, and when I heard a song that I liked come on, I'd race over and hit record. Consequently, I had a whole bunch of tapes with random songs that were usually missing the very beginning and included bits of dialogue or other songs at the tail end.



Remember when nobody had cell phones?

My first cell phone

This is probably the biggest one, because cell phones have entirely changed the way we now live our lives. I was alive for it, but I have trouble remembering a time when you couldn't call to say you were on your way somewhere, ask for directions when you missed a turn, or let someone know that you were going to be late. Particularly since I have to drive to clients' homes for a living, I rely heavily on my cell phone for all of those things. What on earth did therapists do before there were cell phones??? And what did people play games on while they waited for doctor or dentist appointments? How did people get through the day without being able to check their email? And how did people get in touch during business hours without being able to text? I swear, we used to live in the dark ages!



Remember Lite-Brites?

I don't remember them all that well either, though we did buy one at a garage sale when I was little. It was pretty fun until we poked holes in all the papers and then lost all the tiny pieces. So that didn't make a huge impact on my life, but when I asked J for suggestions, his first two were, "LITE-BRITES! They were AWESOME!" and "playing in the street". The former had better visual aids than the latter, so I went with that ;)




After Lite-Brites, the ideas J and I came up with got pretty lame (it's late, we're tired) so that's all we've got for now :) I'm sure I missed some good ones though, so help me out and let me know what you're feeling nostalgic for!

J Ate The Double Down!

Everyone has heard of KFC's new Double Down, the bacon and cheese sandwich that replaces bread with fried chicken. Being huge fans of cheese, bacon, and chicken, it was only a matter of time until we had to go try it :)

Look, you can see the grease! That's how you know that it's good ;)

 

I had heard lots of statistics about how many calories were in the Double Down, and at less than 600 per sandwich, my guess was that the thing was going to be the size of a slider ;) Well, it wasn't THAT small, but it certainly wasn't big. 

Here it is with a potato wedge, a packet of hot sauce, and a container of ranch dressing to give you a sense of scale. See, not tiny, but also not very big.

I tried a bite, and it was kind of a let down after all the media hype. To be honest, it tasted like chicken (and they've been selling that for years!) The boys said you couldn't taste the bacon at all, and the "pepper-jack" cheese was lacking in peppers. So ultimately, it was fried chicken with a hint of cheese. That's not all that interesting. J and our friend thought it should be spicier, so they added the hot sauce to it. That gave it a mildly interesting taste, at least.

 See, look how un-interesting it is to see J eat it! What a bore.

In an effort to prove that the idea could be delicious, J pounded out two chicken breasts, coated them with a flour and seasoning mixture, and then melted spicy pepper-jack cheese on it for our dinner tonight. THAT was delicious. 

So while most of the world is shunning the Double Down because it has excessive quantities of ingredients that are perfectly fine on their own, I'm going to take a stand and say that the sandwich is lame because it LACKS the wonderful flavors of the ingredients! Even though our homemade version didn't have bacon on it, I'd recommend it over the KFC one any day! So if you feel like spending $6 on a chicken and cheese sandwich, come to our house and J can treat you right ;)

My Top 3 Underrated Movies!

I did a post on my top 3 underrated TV shows, so I thought it was about time that I followed up with my top 3 underrated movies! (And my definition of underrated are things I love that nobody knows what I'm talking about when I bring them up. So, as a friend pointed out, they might technically be more accurately termed "cult classics", but if I can't bring it up with people at work and think there's a chance they might know it, I call it underrated!)

The Count Of Monte Cristo

This movie is incredible, and everyone I know who has watched it has been blown away. I actually saw it in theaters with my friend (hi Kara!), so this isn't like the next movie I'm going to bring up that may have just skipped theaters altogether. It is really rare that I run across someone who has watched this movie, and I can't for the life of me figure out why that is. It's so incredibly good!

There are lots of movies that I like for specific reasons, but this movie really is the complete package. It has great actors, a really intense and compelling plot (I've never read the book but it's certainly a famous one, and based on the movie, I can see why! I need to buy that book), and there's no super fancy graphics but it is visually appealing . . . I think marketing just dropped the ball with this movie. 

So that's all I have to say, just go watch it. This one, I swear, you won't be disappointed. The next ones might be more subjective, but this one is just all-around wonderful.

Wet Hot American Summer 

 * Don't close your browser! Yes, I know it sounds like a porno title, but it's not, it's a comedy!

 

First of all, I don't like this new DVD cover because I feel like it's trying to capitalize on the fame of so many of the stars in it. Look, here is the original cover:

 

The movie is an ensemble cast, and frankly, I'm annoyed that they cut out half the characters, put the most famous ones on the front, and added that it's from the makers of "Role Models". LAME!

What has always made this movie so cool is that it doesn't try hard to be funny. It's got great comedic actors, a 70's camp movie spoof plot, and the most random one-liners ever. As far as I know (and I didn't bother checking any official movie database, so I could very well be wrong) this is the first movie that really showcased Paul Rudd's comedic chops (and David Hyde Pierce, for that matter! I never thought Frasier was all that funny). This movie is one of those great ones that feels like a bunch of random comedians hijacked a movie set, goofed around for a day, and then put it out on DVD. It's just all around fun to watch, which you don't find much of these days.

I'm guessing that this movie won't be everyone's cup of tea, but I've never had anyone watch it and not find it, at the very least, mildly entertaining. I could watch it a thousand times and never get bored, and with the splash that movies like "The Hangover" and "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" have made, I think this movie could make a resurgence (or it's first real surgence, at the very least! I swear this movie just skipped theaters entirely). So you should go watch it right now, and then when it ends up being a big deal you can say that you always knew how cool it was ;)

Shaun Of The Dead

Now, I think more people have heard of this film (particularly after "Hot Fuzz" came out and got such a buzz) but I still feel like people give me the blank, uncomprehending stare whenever I try to reference it. (And in case you're wondering, this movie is way, way funnier than "Hot Fuzz" was).

This movie is kind of a zombie/horror film spoof, and it has a very British sense of humor. So it's pretty deadpan, which I don't always find funny, but it works well once you factor in the absurdity of the zombies and how they are portrayed. I don't like zombie or horror films but I adore this movie, so it's not a humor that is based on a love of gore. It's actually a movie that seems to make fun of that gore. There's really no good way to describe the movie or argue that you should see it. You just should, because it's funny! I don't know anyone who has seen it and not liked it. (That seems to be my usual argument, but it's all I have to hold up as proof that I'm not the only person who has seen and liked the movie!)

So those are my top 3, what are yours? If so many people in the world have missed out on my favorite movies, I'm sure there are lots of other movies that I'm currently missing out on as well, and I'd love to know what they are! 

 

 

** This post contains Amazon affiliate links. All that means is that if you use my link to access Amazon and buy something, Amazon gives me a kick-back. I don't even think it matters if you buy what I'd linked to in the first place, they're just happy that you ended up buying something from them at all! So if you need to purchase anything at all on Amazon, use my link to access the site, and help me afford a baby, by golly! :) Or not. It's your choice, and I'll love and respect you either way. But it would be cool if you did ;)

Happy Blog-aversary To Me!

My first post went up on 2/14 (yes, I started my blog on Valentines Day, we are just that romantic of a couple!) I know today is 4/16, but I don't mind celebrating events a few days late!

In any case, I've been up and running for 2 months now and I've had over 400 visits! That's not blog-celebrity status or anything, but I feel that it's a pretty impressive number for the fact that I'm just a regular girl rambling about nonsense! So to everybody who has ever dropped by to visit, thank you so much for taking a moment out of your day to read what I have to say, and for making me listened to :) Whoever you are, you're the best (and come back again, soon, because I can't wait to see where I'm at in another 2 months!)

Recipe Review: Homemade Laundry Detergent and Cheap Fabric Softener!

So in keeping with the theme of the blog (for once!) I've been going outside of the realm of the ordinary to try to save some money. And the first thing I started with was laundry!
Before I get too far into this, I should say that J and I have always been laundry product snobs - unless we really can't afford it, we've always bought higher end brands of detergent and fabric softener (Tide and Downy are our favorites, though with coupons or sales we might use All or Snuggle). So bear in mind when I get to our reviews of the products that we have some pretty strong opinions when it comes to washing our clothes.

Alright, end of the disclaimer, on to the actual recipes!


Cheap Fabric Softener

An eco-minded friend of mine recommended something to me that I'd read about before but never tried: replacing your usual fabric softener with white vinegar. It's cheap and apparently not only makes fabric soft, but helps brights hold their colors and whites stay white longer.

My initial concern was that then all our clothes would smell like vinegar, and that is a really far cry from the fresh Downy scent we are accustomed to! :) However, I want to make it known that the smell completely dissapates after you put it through the dryer, so don't let that scare you off!

The Verdict
To be honest, I'm still a little bit on the fence with this one. You just put the vinegar in the fabric softener dispenser in the washing machine, so you're using the same amount of liquid but paying a LOT less (I don't feel like doing the math, but my vinegar cost about $1.50 - I've never seen a good fabric softener cost that little!) And I like paying a less, so the vinegar has that going for it!

The first thing I noticed after using the vinegar for a little while was that the clothes ended up being a bit stiffer than I remember them being with Downy, but not in a course or scratchy or uncomfortable kind of way. I actually liked the sheets being a little bit stiffer because they felt really crisp when I got into bed (is that why people like to starch their shirts?) So that wasn't a deal breaker for me.

What does concern me though, after doing this for probably about a month now, is that I feel like the fabric is degrading - the collars on J's polo shirts have more of that "pilling" effect going on (I don't know how else to describe it) and my tee-shirts look like the fibers have all raised up a little bit and gotten fuzzy, which makes the color look dull. I only have a few tee-shirts and I wear them to work all the time, so it is kind of a big deal to me that suddenly all of them look really worn and old.

I don't know that J would have been able to pick the clothes that were washed with vinegar versus softener out of a visual line-up, but apparently he has a super nose (more on that later), so I know the lack of Downy fresh scent bothered him. (He didn't come out and object to my using the vinegar, though, so it can't have been THAT bad).

At the end of the day, I really WANT vinegar to be our go-to fabric softener (it's so cheap!), but I think taking both of those factors into account, we're going to keep being snobs and buying the name brand.


Laundry Detergent

I love making random stuff, so I've been wanting to try this since a friend recommended a book with cool household stuff that you can make yourself years ago. (I love that book, I am fascinated by it!) My issue was that a lot of the recipes called for stuff I'd never heard of and didn't know where to get, so I didn't pursue the detergent issue for very long (I made a great window cleaner, though!)

Stumbling around on the internet a few weeks ago, though, I found the post that inspired me to hunt down the necessary ingredients and give it a go! This recipe is taken from My Frugal Lifestyle and you can read her original post here. This is my version of it!

Ingredients 
* The original recipe made a 5-gallon bucket worth of soap, but I only had a 2.5 gallon bucket so I modified the amounts. If you have a bigger bucket and REALLY struggle with math, you can certainly refer back to her post for the original amounts!

• 1/2 cup Washing Soda
• 1/2 cup Borax
• 1/2 bar Fels-Naptha
• A 2.5 gallon bucket

As I mentioned earlier, I'd never made laundry detergent because I could never find the ingredients! I ended up buying all of these items off of Amazon.com because, with the exception of Borax, I'd never even HEARD of them before. (Apparently they are all items that are sold as laundry detergent enhancements, so I guess it makes sense that if you put them all together, they'd just enhance one another!) After ordering the Borax on Amazon I did finally see it at a grocery store, but I already can't remember which one. Apparently, all of these ingredients can be found at some store called Winco (that I've never heard of, it might be an East Coast chain), and when I looked online a lot of people said that you can usually find the products at small, locally owned stores. I didn't have time to make a lot of phone calls, though, so since I couldn't find them at Target, Wal-Mart, Albertsons, Vons, or Lowes, Amazon seemed like the way to go!

What I Did
The original recipe said to grate the Fels-Naptha (which looks and feels like a big bar of Dial soap), but again, I didn't have time for that! (Or, come to think of it, a cheese grater either. I think we lost that in a move or something). J just helped me chop it up into small-ish chunks and I threw it in a pot with 6 cups of water and set it to simmer on the stove! I watched a movie, ate dinner, did some dishes, ate dessert, and every so often just wandered back to stir it again a little bit more.

• What I'd Do Differently: I recommend cutting the soap into much smaller pieces, unless you are extremely patient and have a lot of time to kill. It took a pretty long time for the soap to dissolve, and I ended up needing to go to bed so there were some teeny tiny chunks left when I decided to move to the next step. 

Next you stir in the washing soda and borax and mix it up. Nuff said for that step!

• FYI: Even if you think you dissolved all the soap, this is where you see how wrong you are! Adding in those two ingredients thickens up the solution, so suddenly little soap chunks that you didn't even know were there end up floating on the surface. I don't think it matters, (it's all going to the same place for the same purpose, it'll be fine!) but it looks kind of gnarly!

Put the solution into the bucket and fill it up with water. The original recipe said to go until about 3 inches below the rim of the bucket, so I did the same (though it did drive me nuts that I didn't know exactly how much that was).

Then you let it sit for a while and thicken up. As it cools down it does separate a little bit, so before you use it you need to stir it up again. I use a huge slotted spatula (because that's what I've got!) but she recommends a whisk, or better yet, saving up old laundry detergent bottles, filling them up with the new detergent, and then just shaking them really well before measuring out the detergent so it all gets mixed up. (I'm in the process of saving some bottles, but in the meantime, my bucket and spatula just sit in the closet on top of the dryer!)

The original recipe says to use 1/2-1 cup of the detergent (so I compromise and use 3/4 cup at a time) and that it is safe for HE machines (not an issue on my end, but I'm passing along what I've heard - don't hold me to it!) Her 5 gallon buckets makes about 75 loads, so I'm going to round slightly and say that mine makes 38.

The Cost Breakdown (All Prices Taken From Amazon.com)
* Just for the record, I'm no mathematician - let me know if you see an obvious error in my calculations, but if I rounded up when you would have rounded down, or if my unit conversions aren't entirely precise, cut me some slack. I'm just going for an estimate, here.

Using a bottle of standard Tide detergent (as listed on Amazon, because I am not going to the grocery store right now to research prices!) you will pay approximately $0.28 per load.

Using my recipe, the breakdown is as follows:
Fels-Naptha: $4.11 for a bar, 1/2 bar per bucket made = $2.05
Borax: $6.49 for a 76 ounce box, 4 ounces (1/2 cup) per bucket made = $0.34
Washing Soda: $9.15 for a 55 ounce box, 4 ounces (1/2 cup) per bucket made = $0.67
Grand Total For 2.5 Gallons of Detergent = $3.06
Approximately $0.06 per load! That's a great deal! If you tried I'm sure you could find the ingredients cheaper, too.

The Important Part: How It Turned Out!
I liked it quite a bit, actually! I had a blast making it, the bucket of detergent itself smells really nice, and I like to swirl the spatula around the goop just for kicks every now and again. I know, great way to judge a detergent, right?

Here's the thing: J and I don't get all that dirty. We don't have kids, play outdoor sports, or even sit in the grass (we're pretty much just indoor people). So the clothes we're washing have about the normal amount of sweat and grime that a person accumulates as they sit (or in my case, run and dance) around the house all day. I've never tried it, but I'm willing to bet that you could put our clothes through a wash with no detergent at all, and J and I wouldn't realize the difference. So the cleansing factor is good enough that I haven't noticed anything being unclean, and while I have no way to prove this, I feel like the clothes feel nicer when I wear them, like they fit better. I can't explain that (I don't think I lost any weight!) but I'll take it!

The major debate right now has to do with scent. I know, also a great way to judge a detergent ;)

The detergent itself smells like soap - it has a strong, clean, soap-y smell to it. By the time the clothes come out of the dryer, though, the fresh scent is gone. So when I asked J for his review of the soap, he said, "Well, it makes the clothes smell bad". Upon further questioning, it turns out that he was unhappy with the fact that all of the previously scented products we had used on the clothes (I'd done that load with the vinegar) had been removed, and we ended up having to agree to disagree with my statement that, "A lack of scent does not mean that something smells bad".

At the end of the day, J's clothes are being affected by this process, so I want to make sure he is pleased with the end result. So far I have tried:

• 3/4 cup of detergent and vinegar softener (that was the original load that didn't pass inspection)
• double the amount of detergent with vinegar softener (that didn't help anything)
• the original amount of detergent with Downy fabric softener (that's currently in the dryer, so I don't know yet how it will turn out!)

I read that you can also scent the detergent with essential oils, but I don't know how well that smell would last through the dryer either (and essential oils are expensive, which defeats the whole point of this recipe!)

The Verdict
For our household, the decision to continue making detergent or return to store-bought detergent will ultimately be made based on how this load smells when it is done in the dryer (ahhhh, the pressure is on for it to smell good! I want this to work, I have fun feeling like a chemist!) If you don't have issues with clothes that smell like nothing at all, and you like to feel like a mad scientist with your bubbling pots and buckets of goo, I totally recommend this!


If anyone has any alternate recipes, suggestions for mine, or just other random stuff that they make at home, I would love love LOVE to hear about it! Otherwise, have fun and let me know how it turns out if you decide to try it yourself! :)





** This post contains Amazon affiliate links. All that means is that if you use my link to access Amazon and buy something, Amazon gives me a kick-back. I don't even think it matters if you buy what I'd linked to in the first place, they're just happy that you ended up buying something from them at all! So if you need to purchase anything at all on Amazon, use my link to access the site, and help me afford a baby, by golly! :) Or not. It's your choice, and I'll love and respect you either way. But it would be cool if you did ;)

Why Didn't This Go Viral?

For everyone who enjoyed the previous video of a child achieving greatness, here is another! I found it about a year ago, but I still find myself singing the song (out loud) and doing the little dance (in my head!) when I do something I'm proud of :)

Oh, and I think my kids will achieve this level of cuteness as well - J and I had better get cracking on our geography and musical skills so that we can adequately prepare our kids for greatness! :)

New Layout, Yay or Nay?

So Blogger put forth some new template design options, and I've started messing around with things again. I like some of the new options a lot, but I haven't entirely committed to the new format yet. What do you think, should I continue to pursue this new (more streamlined) option, or go back to the more colorful template? I'm open to suggestions ;)

Why Hasn't This Gone Viral?

I don't remember how I found this video, but I think it's WAY funnier than a lot of the videos that end up being passed around (and it's a kid being AWESOME, not a kid crying or doing something embarrassing that he's going to look back on later and be depressed that so many people made fun of him for!)

So I just wanted to share it because I giggle and am amazed and fall in love with this kid every time I watch the video (and by golly, my future kids are gonna be this cute, also!) Enjoy :)

Other People Ridicule Color Blindness, Too!

A friend sent me a link to a video today that confirmed what I had already suspected - I'm not the only one that thinks colorblindness is hysterical! (You can read my previous post on the subject for more details on why colorblind people make me laugh).

I love love love this video because, first of all, they reference PuzzleQuest right off the bat and I've played that, so it made me feel special :) However, J has helped me play that game before without too many problems, so they probably haven't tried to play it with a colorblind person before. (Hexic is the one game that is truly impossible for him, which of course I never remember until I ask him again to help me with it. They should have used that game as an example, instead!)

The best part of it though is that I have heard some of the exact phrases and explanations that the guy in the video uses come out of J's mouth before (almost verbatim, to the point that I kept looking at J while listening to the video to see if he was in on it or something. Maybe he wrote it! Or maybe colorblind people hang out together and rehearse the answers they should give to the stupid questions they will eventually be asked. That would be funny, too!)

So enjoy the video and have a good laugh :) Happy Friday!

Why It Was Vitally Important That I Cut All My Hair Off

Sometimes in life you can change the direction you're going in without too much of a fight, and sometimes you have to hit rock bottom before you can muster some upward mobility again.

I think I'm mostly a "hit rock bottom first, and then really turn things around!" kind of girl. That phrase always brings to mind drug addiction and suicide, but I don't mean it that way at all. Before you start worrying about me, let me give you an example that I think everyone can relate to - weight loss and body image.

I'd say that the way I feel about my body tends to ebb and flow from one day to the next; some days I'm convinced I look great, and others I'm convinced it would be an insult to the world to go outside in anything less than a muumuu. However, most valleys are followed relatively quickly by a peak, so I end up just going along with my life like always (i.e., I don't change anything). But every so often, the valley just keeps on going, and it usually has such a gradual slope that it takes me a while to realize how unhappy with myself I am getting.

And then suddenly, BANG, ROCK BOTTOM! One minute I'm moping about the cellulite on my thighs that no swimsuit cover-up will actually be able to cover, and the next moment something clicks in my head and I go, "Wait, why am I spending this time hating myself? Why not do something about it?" And then I have this moment of absolute clarity when I am suddenly passionately and enthusiastically driven to make a change! I have no idea why it suddenly goes from, "I hate the way I look, I will never go out in public again without people laughing at how big my butt is", to, "I'm going to join a gym and make a spreadsheet and then sign up again for Weight Watchers and there will be graphs and I can't wait, I'm going to go start right now!"


I really have no idea why, for the life of me, I can't just decide to whole-halfheartedly commit myself to a difficult task (and let's be honest, change is always difficult!). I can make a decision to do something, but I usually end up with a split personality - half of me is saying, "You want to change your body, so get thee to the gym!" and the other half is saying, "I love me and Jason loves me and I'd really rather stay here with him and watch a movie tonight". In the end, no matter if I go to the gym or not, half of me ends up cranky with the other half, which means I'm just cranky at me, and that just makes me cranky and annoying. So unless I have that big bang moment to really get me excited about the process, it just never works out. And that spark only shows up when I'm in the dark at the very bottom (where all the rocks are, which is why, of course, it's called rock bottom).

And just for the record, before you start thinking I'm a crazy yo-yo dieter, I need to brag for a moment - every time I've made that change, I've followed through. (Okay, I'm technically off the wagon from the gym right now, but I've kept off 10 of the 14 pounds I've lost in the last year! That's not a binge or crash diet, that's a lifestyle change, and I'm quite proud of myself for that one). So while my moods may plummet and rebound at ridiculous speeds, my commitment to the lifestyle changes made during that moment when the dark changed to light doesn't ricochet up and down like a bullet - it remains steady.

So, with that said, I'll get back to "Why It Was Vitally Important That I Cut All My Hair Off".

During my formative years (haha, look how old I am now, apparently! I have formative years!) I always spent a lot of time on my hair (a lot). And my makeup. And my clothes. And my shoes. And my earrings. (You get the point). But over the last few years, I stopped doing all those things (some of them slowly, and some of them very abruptly). I didn't have time, emotional energy, or money. I traded in putting on mascara for an extra 5 minutes of sleep, and putting my hair in a pony-tail for another 30. I got used to buying the cheapest clothing items I could find and owning just enough of them so that I could make it through a work week without too many funny looks.

Before I realized it, what had started off as a time and money saver had become an enforced way of life. Even if I'd WANTED to wake up earlier and do my hair, I didn't own any hair products anymore. My makeup was old, and I was out of practice using it. And so this last fall, I had one of those rock bottom moments.

I realized that I avoided looking in the mirror because I didn't like what I saw there anymore (and this is after the weight loss, so it was something new and different this time). I didn't think I was hideous, but I recognized that all I did everyday was roll out of bed and put in the minimum amount of effort in order to get by - smooth down the frizzies, powder away the shine, and make sure my clothing covered the necessary body parts. I didn't put any effort into myself. I'd lost all of the items and skills that I used to use to make myself sparkle. Now, instead of looking like Carolyn, I just looked like a lump of blah. I used to stand out from the crowd in photos (or I thought I did, anyhow!) and now I either blended into the background or stood out because of my obvious lack of effort.

Now, I do think that I used to place too much emphasis on my appearance, so not all of the changes I had made were negative. I continue to be proud that I can now shower, get dressed, do my hair and makeup, and be out the door in less than an hour (at my peak, it took me 2-3 hours before I'd leave, even just to go to the grocery store!)

So when I had this moment of clarity, it was harder than usual to figure out what action I should take. If you feel fat, you should eat better and work out more. If you feel like blah, you should . . . ??? Well, there are a LOT of things I could have chosen to do, but I focused in on my trademark - my ponytail (I worked in Phoenix for almost 2 years, and I think there was only one person there who ever saw my hair down). When I woke up in the morning, I would put my hair in a ponytail, fix the frizzies, and that's how it would stay for the rest of the day. At the end of the day I'd shower, put it in a ponytail again, and go to sleep. For very special occasions I would sometimes put in the effort to curl it and wear it down, but by that point I was out of practice and it just felt WEIRD having my hair in the way all the time! After an hour or two I just ended up annoyed and anxious to get it out of my face and into a ponytail again.

So at this point I did the only reasonable thing I could do - I made an appointment with a hairdresser, sat in the chair, and said, "I'm having a mid-mid-life crisis and need a big change" :) So we chopped it all off. And it was terrifying, because now people were going to be LOOKING at me when I went to work (you can't hide that kind of change!) Therefore, even if I didn't want to, I had to put in a little extra effort in the mornings because all eyes would be on me. Before I knew it, I was doing a little bit more each day. I was putting on a little bit of eyeliner before leaving the house. Then I was putting on little earrings (if I was going to be seeing clients that day who wouldn't try to yank them out, anyhow!) Then I was putting on a little bit of eyeshadow, and then I realized that I looked funny wearing makeup and doing my hair and wearing my work clothes, so I splurged on a few tee-shirts and some shorts that fit nicely. Suddenly, I was a new woman!

It's been 4 months now, and I'm not going to lie - I'm still trying to figure out what the heck I'm doing with my hair (I've always been good with makeup and clothes, but hair and I have never been able to understand each other). I had to buy all new styling tools and hair products and teach myself how to use everything again. In an attempt to combine effort AND ease, I am now determined to find the magic combination of hair products that will let my hair embrace it's natural waviness without descending into chaos and messiness (it's still a work in progress, we'll leave it at that!) I have certainly not achieved hair nirvana, but that was never the goal I was working towards (though if anyone knows how to get there, please fill me in!). I was looking to break out of the rut I'd gotten myself into, and by making my hair short enough that I couldn't put it in a ponytail even if I wanted to, I made sure I couldn't revert to my old habits.

I still don't spend that much time on my clothing or makeup in the morning, and I don't always leave the house liking the way my hair has turned out, but I tell you what - I always leave the house having at least tried, in one way or another, to put forth some effort and take pride in my appearance.

And I feel good about myself for that.

See, short hair! Now, it was humid as heck and we'd gone on an adventure in the rainforest that day, so my hair is pretty much doing it's own thing in this photo. And while I sweated it all off and you can't see it, I had put on a little bit of makeup before we left the house in the morning. And I was wearing one of my new pairs of shorts, too. So even for hiking, I put in at least a little bit of effort. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself . . . 

Attack Of The Killer Iguanas!

This is an iguana. Notice the spines on his back, the threatening posture, and the deadly claws. AAAAHHH, are you scared?

 

J was, obviously ;) 

Well you don't need to be too afraid, because these ones were pretty tame (not entirely tame, but I'll get to that later!) They had daily iguana feedings on the activity schedule at the kids club, so the iguanas hung around wherever there was sun.

(You have to look closely, but there are iguanas in the bottom left and right corners of the sidewalk).

The thing you have to watch out for, is that (apparently) they like the pool area the most. The first time I went to a chair to set something on it, a huge iguana crawled out from underneath it. (I learned to look underneath them before sitting, after that). Once I was seated on a free (iguana-less) chair, I was enjoying the sun when I looked over to see an iguana climb up on to the chair next to me. CREEPY! That's nothing, though, compared to the woman who was eating her lunch when an iguana leaped up onto her chair to share her food. YIKES!

(This guy is on his way over to claim a lounge chair).

I had wanted to get some pictures of these tame creatures before we left the resort, so we headed down to the pool with my camera before checking out. I saw one little iguana start to head for a lounge chair, and I took her picture.

(See how tiny her head and spines are? Aw, how cute! I think she is a girl).

What happened next took place too quickly for me to capture on (digital) film. That lounge chair must have been the best spot by the pool, because out of nowhere a MUCH larger iguana came charging at her! And so she came running at me! So I went scuttling backwards into J! Who did not go scuttling backwards very far, which is good because we were right at the edge of the pool. Once the (presumably) dominant male had chased the smaller iguana away, she wandered off and they both left us alone. I sure wish we had gotten the whole thing on video, though. That would have been worthy of submitting to a stupid video contest, and I'm down for looking stupid if I get paid for it!

(Look at those cold, cruel eyes! See how proudly he surveys his domain! He was pretty pleased with himself for securing his rightful place by the towels, apparently. Shame on anyone who tries to sit by towels without permission!)

And that is how I risked life and limb to take photos to share, and just barely avoided certain death by falling into the pool (for my camera, that is. Don't be ridiculous! I can swim, so I would have been fine. Sure, I'd look ridiculous, but since that happens quite often, it wouldn't be that big of a deal. I'd just be mad I wouldn't be able to take pictures of us in the pool in our clothes with everyone laughing!)

So the next time you see an iguana, don't be scared! If I can survive it, anyone can ;)

(Okay, and try to avoid chasing the iguanas and scaring them, too. J, that was just mean of you!)

I Admit It, I Am One Of THOSE People

I've always been a picky eater, just ask anyone who has ever had a meal with me ;) In my own defense, the older I get, the more willing I am to try the occasional new food item. I even eat burgers and sandwiches now, that is a big deal!

With that being said, it shouldn't be a surprise that I am very particular about what goes ON my burgers and sandwiches. No onions, no sauces of any kind (ranch is the only acceptable condiment for anything besides french fries), no pickles, no peppers, and did I mention no onions? :)

That means that more often than not, when I go out to eat, I have trouble finding things that appeal to me off the menu. We went to Ruby's for dinner tonight, and here is what I wanted:

• The guacamole burger
• Exchange the swiss cheese for the pepper jack cheese from the caliente burger
• Add the bacon from the bacon cheeseburger
• And put it all on the whole wheat bun from the veggie burger

So guess what I ordered?

Yup, THAT! (And if I'd realized that it came with some secret sauce on it, you can bet I would have asked to have that taken off! Instead, I had to scrape it all off and try to pretend I hadn't seen in there in the first place, blech). Even with the sauce remnants, it was AMAZINGLY DELICIOUS! (I don't know why that burger isn't on the menu).

So I admit it, I am THAT friend that makes the horribly complicated order. I was very nice about the whole thing, and really, how much more difficult is it to make that burger than any of the original burgers that the pieces originated from?

I've never worked in food preparation or serving, so please, enlighten me - am I only slightly annoying, or was it blasphemous of me just to write out that order? I can't say that knowing will make me change my meal orders, but I would love to know just how much spit I'm probably ingesting in place of all those sauces and sides ;)