stumble & bramble

As you may recall, I purchased for myself a lovely ring for Valentine's Day.  Also for V day I decided to splurge on some hair care.  I bought for myself some bumble and bumble shampoo, conditioner and styling creme.  

And I hate it.  

It makes my hair feel sticky and gross.  It looks pretty good, but it feels awful.  I much prefer my $3 bottle of anythingotherthanthis.  

My reason for posting, however, is to see if anyone wants to buy this stuff off of me.  I know, I know, I just spent three sentences describing how much I hate it.  But let me say this-bumble and bumble is a great product.  Just not for me.  Why am I trying to sell it instead of giving it away?  This stuff is expensive.  For me, anyway. $20 a bottle.  SO....

shampoo $10

conditioner $10

styling creme $10

Or make me a better offer.  The bottles are like 7/8 full and there is probably a year's worth of styling creme left in that tiny bottle.  If you want more information on these particular products, you can visit bumbleandbumble.com

 How tacky is this?  Very.  Somebody buy this stuff before I'm forced to shave my legs with it.  

barf

Ok, I couldn't let this slip past.  I want anyone who reads my blog to read this article. Just like that ad I mentioned earlier today, this sort of thing really pisses me off.  Not the article, the article is well done, but the subject of the article.  Contests?  To see who can be the skinniest?  Who can eat the least?   

Grrr.  

The very first girl mentioned is 15.  FIFTEEN.  Dammit, these girls keep getting younger and younger.  You know, I had to work for several years to not hate myself because I wasn't tall and skinny and it was so hard.  It took a lot of work.  But all I can think about is my little sister.  I don't want her to feel that this is acceptable, I don't want her to ever think that she needs to torture her body to be beautiful.  It breaks my heart to think that someone I love might feel this way, and it scares me to read articles like this because it could totally happen.  Please, if you suspect that someone you know is suffering from this, talk to them.  And please don't continue or support a dialogue that reinforces this behavior.  

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/02/fashion/sundaystyles/02BREAK.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=anorexia&st=cse

PS I just noticed that this article was written in 2006.  I'd like to see some statistics for 2009.  

wtf prevage?

I was flipping through the March issue of In Style yesterday when I came upon an ad for Prevage "total transforming anti-aging moisturizer".  I've seen ads for this brand of product before, but nothing like this.  I'm sorry, I looked for a picture of the ad but couldn't find one to put on here, so I will describe it to you.  

IT IS A PICTURE OF A MANNEQUIN.  

At first, I thought it was a nude woman.  BUT NO, it is a mannequin.  

Ok, I almost went on a tirade at work yesterday, but wanted to keep my composure in front of customers.  But let me just say that THIS PISSES ME OFF.  

First, ads had pictures of ideal women trying to sell a product.  Then, ads had ideal women with lots of makeup on to try and sell a product.  THEN, ads had ideal women with lots of makeup and hair and computer enhancements made  trying to sell a product.  The point of all of this?  "Buy this product and you can look like me! (i.e. ideal)".  What is the problem with this method of advertising?

THESE ARE NOT ACTUAL WOMEN.  

Ok, maybe they used to be, but today, the images we see are a construct of feminine looking body parts pasted together to look convincingly like one, complete PACKAGE.  This is a problem because women and girls see these images, purported as ideal, and want to look like them.  However, they cannot look like them because it is not an image of a real woman, it is a fabrication.  And that really, really makes me angry.  

So imagine my anger when I open to an ad WITH A FAKE WOMAN.  Prevage has bypassed the airbrushing and photoshopping in favor of a mannequin.  Why is this a problem?  Because this is not a real woman.  You cannot look like her.  Your skin will never be as smooth as that of a mannequin.  But prevage will get you pretty damn close.    

Aside from giving women yet another reason to hate their real bodies, this is just poor advertising.  Yes, the skin of a mannequin is SMOOTH, but it is also HARD.  I guess they were going for the firming aspect, but no one wants hard, plastic skin.  Does anyone want to actually look like a mannequin?  Well, I can think of one person:

But I digress.  

I don't feel as though I have fully articulated my anger and disgust.  Just know that I am hella mad about this ad and ones like it.  And please do not buy this product.  You don't want to look like posh spice, do you?  

 

is this your lunch?

I was sick like all last week.  Gross.  I didn't go grocery shopping last week since my eating was kind of sporadic.  Thursday rolled around and I really didn't have any food to eat for lunch.  I had some pop tarts.  I only really like s'mores pop tarts, but I won't eat them unless I have a diet coke too.  

They taste better that way.  

But I didn't have any diet coke in my apartment.  I decided that I would run to the gas station near my house to get a can of coke for lunch.  While walking to my car, I saw an empty doritos bag.  Cooler ranch, my favorite.  I then decided that my perfect lunch would include s'mores pop tarts, cooler ranch doritos and a diet coke.  I then headed to my destination.  

Ok, let me say here that last Thursday was like super windy.  My hair was blowing all over the place.  AND I was recovering from my weird cold thing; so I probably didn't look my BEST, but I didn't think I looked bad.  Ok, back to the story.

I went in to the gas station, got my diet coke and chips, and went to the cashier.  

Hello, how are you, fine thanks, blah blah

He then says to me, "Are you sick?"

Wtf, dude?  Did he not realize that by saying those words to me, he said to me "YOU LOOK AWFUL!"  

I just kind of laughed and said something stupid like "Yeah, I've been sick for about a week now..."

"Oh yeah, everyone is sick now...cough...fever..."

"Yep."

pause...and I think I am done with awkward conversation....

"Is this your lunch?"

DAMMIT!  How did he know??  Was it the sweat pants?  Or the mussed hair?  I felt more defeated than anything-was my purpose so clear to him?  I could sense the judgement in his voice...so I quickly had to come up with a response...

"Oh, no, just a quick snack between classes."

"Oh, of course.  I hope you feel better before the weekend."

(I think it is cute that he hoped I felt better before the weekend-anyone wearing sweat pants in the middle of the day that is suspected of having doritos and coke for lunch probably does not have a big weekend planned.  Jerk.)

what white teeth you have

Sorry this is late, guys.  I had a crazy busy day yesterday.  

After I graduated high school, I kind of became obsessed with having white teeth.  Ok maybe not obsessed as I did not stem my cola consumption nor did I increase the number of times I brushed my teeth, but I did only buy whitening toothpaste, and soon moved on to white strips.  I have only used the kind that you put on your teeth for 30 minutes for like 2 weeks, I've used the Crest kind and the Target brand version of the same product.  Both were easy to use and had good results.  Since then, I've done a pretty good job of keeping up with keeping my teeth white. 

I have also found a toothpaste that I LOVE.  I read a review of it in Bust magazine and had to try it and I love love love it.  

Elgydium, French toothpaste.  The only problem is I cannot find it anywhere in a store, so I had to order it from drugstore.com.  Totally worth it.  Smile!

I believe I can fly

I was trying to figure out a format for my blog and I had narrowed it down to this: 

Mondays-food related

Fridays-products I liked

But what to do about Wednesday?  I consulted my friend Leah after she mentioned my blog, and she really likes it when I talk about things I don't like.  Another blog I like is feministing.com and they have what they call "Friday Feminist F$@* You", so I could have "WTF Wednesday".  As I couldn't really think of something I really hated today (except being sick-ish still) and I didn't think Leah would approve of my use of the phrase "WTF", I decided to blog about something else.

I grew up in a very small town with very small people.  Many of them had been in Danielsville most of their life and they were content with what they had.  The thought of this terrified me.  It wasn't until late highschool/college that I realized that I do not have to live that way.  Thank goodness.  I plan on exploring the world around me and all that it has to offer, and developing many talents.  Today, world, I share with you my life goals that I have come up with thus far.  

#1 Speak the following languages fluently: 

-Italian

-French

-Spanish

#2 Visit all seven continents (yes, including Antarctica)

#3 Own a great piece of art

#4 Create something beautiful

#5 Learn to play the piano

#6 Learn to play the violin

#7 Learn to sail

#8 Own horses and know how to ride

#9 Take a drawing class

#10 Take a painting class

#11 Go skydiving 

That is really all I have come up with so far.  Some of them will be much easier to achieve.  I'm on my way to speaking Italian, which will make learning Spanish easy, and I have a (vague) background in French.  I've been to one continent, so that's a good start.  All of the "learn to"s may have to wait until I have a real job with real money so I can take real classes.  I can take a drawing class while I'm still in school.  Someday I can do all of these things, and much more.  It will be fun.  

get down with the sickness

Every person around me is sick.  Someone's throat hurts, someone's nose is runny.  Everyone is ailing.  Including me.  It began last Thursday with an innocent lil cough, which quickly turned into a big cough.  I felt better Saturday, and then felt fever-ish Saturday night (maybe because it was Valentine's Day...) and lay in bed sick all day Sunday.  While I was laying in bed sick all day Sunday, I was constantly drinking something.  Water, orange juice, water, tea, water.  All day.  Which did have a positive effect, it liquified all of the snot in my body.  All of it.  Which is now pouring out of my body at a fairly constant rate.  Enough even to warrant the use of a handkerchief today, which made me feel first kind of distinguished because I was using a handkerchief and then made me feel disgusting because I was basically wallowing in my snot all day.  

I had thought that every Monday I would blog what I ate that day, as that got a lot of response the last time I did it.  So here is what I ingested today:

water

tea

water

tea

juice

water

water

water

water 

crackers

tea

water

Ok, that is kind of exaggerating.  I did have tuna for lunch.  But I am pretty sure I had more liquid today than solid.  I am so tired of constantly blowing my nose, I wish this would stop.  

Is this gross, y'all?  Sorry if it is.  Love you, mean it.