Well it is time for that good ol’ monthly update I guess.

First off I’m not in Hell. Haven’t been for a few weeks. I’m on the other side of the world in place that is actually more pretentious than Hell. Yeah. Malibu.

I’m here to head up our emergency assessment units after the California wildfires. There are some perks to the assignment but none of them really even begin to balance out the horrors I’m seeing everyday. It’s a tough time and I still have a few more weeks to go.

To bring a bit of levity to our situation the group (there are 10 of us all sharing this huge house) we have all reverted back to our college days. There is the all night partying, with the drinking and the loud music and me coming out of my bedroom in the morning to stumble over guys passed out on the floor in the living room next to half empty pizza boxes. I feel like I’m living in a frat house… but I’m finding that after the week I’ve had it isn’t really all that bad. We find ways to cope.

My ways have varied slightly (although I have, admittedly, done a good bit of my own drinking). I’ve gone shopping. Lots of shopping. I managed to check off another of the “1001 things Sabine must do before she dies” when I purchased a pair shoes that cost me more than what I pay in rent. Before I leave I plan to take full advantage of my temporary home and venture down into the L.A. garment district. My fabric stash has fallen under 200 yards – this must be remedied.

Other important news would be that a few months ago as I was preparing to book my annual trip to Mexico for Thanksgiving; I got a call from Jeff. He informed me that instead of visiting him this year that he was coming to me. After some freaking out, I started to get excited. Then word came down that I would be in California for Thanksgiving. It took a bit of a group effort, but plans were rearranged and now I’m here and Jeff is with me. We even have plans to take us away from here for the holiday. My assistant was able to score us a reservation at a resort outside of Sonoma for Thanksgiving. Then we are going to head North to do some exploring before heading back here next week.

Then I should be heading back home sometime in the 2^nd week of December for some well deserved alone time.

Oh and before I left I finally, after a 6 month hiatus, got my ass into my car and went to an event. Of course that event was in Texas and I decided on Tuesday that I was going, and then proceeded to frantically run around my house looking for pieces of my kit, that I hadn’t seen since Gulf, until I left Thursday night. But it was totally worth it. I was able to surprise a lot of people that I love (because on that of short of notice I decided not to tell anyone that I was going) and have some good girl time with Sarah. I actually enjoyed myself at an event for the first time in probably close to 2 years. I was beginning to wonder if I was actually ever going to be able to enjoy myself at an event again. But I did, even more I’m actually looking forward to being able to do it again. So who knows you people may actually see me sometime before March… maybe.

After talking some things over with Sarah we have hit on this idea – as you have already seen Sarah is doing a new weekly segment on the things that she is doing to help green up her lifestyle and after some thought I’m jumping on board so that I can offer a different point of view and hopefully that way readers can see that there isn’t only one path to a greener life.

Sarah and I started making small changes to our lives at about the same time, but for very different reasons.  If I remember correctly, her first jump was recycling while mine was Hair and Beauty related.  Sarah is the good girl; she actually started making changes to her lifestyle that would directly impact her effect on the environment.  I?  Well, I was incredibly personally driven at the start.  I needed a new beauty routine that was simple, natural, and healthier for my body (and hair) and if in the process I helped the environment then I got a shiny gold star.  

Now I will admit that my focus has swung around a bit, I have since made changes solely based on trying to decrease my impact on our viable resources, but my personal focus honestly still remains fairly firmly in the realm of what is going to lead me towards a healthy lifestyle.  Whereas Sarah’s focus is a bit more balanced. She cares equally about herself and her impact which in my eyes makes her the much bigger person out of the 2 of us and gives me something to aspire too.

The other major difference between our chosen paths is our locale and the adaptations we have to make based on where we live.  Sarah lives in a rural area while I live in a major metropolitan area.  While Sarah has the space and ability to grow her own foods, I have to search out local markets that can provide locally grown organic options.  And while I have the ability to locate a wide spectrum of “green” products from butter or yogurt (organically made less than 10 miles from my house with no preservatives or fillers added andpackaged especially for me in my own “brought from home” container) to cleaning products, Sarah doesn’t have that type of retail structure around her and often finds that the easiest solution is to make the product herself.  Simply put – I buy pickles just like the ones Sarah makes.  (And trust me, in my home pickles are a necessary substance of life.) 

So in the coming weeks, as Sarah posts her transitions look for me to follow up about what I am also doing to reach the same goal, because chances are Sarah and I will be on 2 completely different paths to that goal and hopefully one or the other or something else in between will work for you.

Awhile back I conducted a poll regarding the typical cost of my readers’ shampoo and conditioner. I did this for a reason, of course. Mainly I’ve finally reached my wits end. Years ago now, when I was still living in Texas and my hair magically turned curly on me I panicked because I had no idea how to handle and maintain the new hair. I was an incredibly low maintenance chick when my hair was straight. Pantene shampoo and conditioner - every day – brush – air dry. That was it; that was my hair routine. I had never had any use with gel, mousse, hairspray… I didn’t own a curling iron, a hair dryer, or curlers, because no matter what I did to my hair it was going to look exactly the same. It was going to be long and straight.

Then it went curly and all hell broke lose. Pantene started destroying my hair, and I had to learn to maneuver between the approximately 785 various products specifically designed to make my curls looked marvelous. And you know what? Nothing worked. I end up moving to a “salon” shampoo and conditioner (Biolage) and I discovered the trick to taming my curls. A spray bottle… filled with water. Tap water… from my sink. And all the sudden I was back to a low maintenance routine. Shampoo – condition – brush – scrunch – and just as my hair finished air drying a light mist of water to tame out the frizzies.

But honestly? I didn’t know what frizzies really were… until I moved here. To place that keeps 100% humidity year round. To a place where you need to learn how to drink your air.

Then the real problems began and I wound up back in that hair care aisle. Oddly enough I’ve looked thru all the comments left regarding the poll, and you know what? I’ve tried each and every one of the products noted. It was horrible. Something would work fine for a few weeks then I would start waking up with this afro halo thing working. Almost a year ago, I found a guy that I really enjoyed how he worked with my hair he sympathized with all my problems and really went above and beyond the call to help me find a solution that didn’t involve me enlisting in Moose’s outlook on hair care. We had just found my perfect solution when the new meds kicked in and the synthetic hormones started to course and all of the sudden we were back at square one.

And all this time he had been after me to try Bumble and Bumble products… but at 30-something dollars per 8 oz. bottle, I just couldn’t justify it until all other options had been exhausted.

I reached that point about a month ago.

And caved and purchased B&B Curls line for fine hair (shampoo, conditioner, curl crème at $24 per bottle on sale.) I knew it was stupid money to spend on hair products but I helped in justifying that I had a bit saved in the bank because unlike all my other female friends I have never dyed my hair. And since my Mother spends $60 a month getting her hair dyed … this kinda just evens the karma out.

Life was great… for a week. Then my hair started falling out. Not like a little shedding (cause I always shed) no I’m talking handfuls. Then? Anywhere the conditioner touched my body? I broke out. Bad.

Now I was incredibly lucky in high school. I remember when I got my first pimple. I was a freshman in college… the day before homecoming. By the night of the dance? Gone. To say I was blessed with great skin (sans the stupid freckles) would be an understatement. So yeah I freaked the holy hell out. I called everyone I knew that I thought could answer my questions. Then I posted every question I could think of to every forum and list I’m active in that I felt was applicable.

The support I got was overwhelming. But it filtered into 2 distinct categories of thought -

1 – Throw away all hair products immediately and move to a natural and organic line sans harsh chemicals.

2 – Get thee to Cynthia immediately.

Natural hair products were easy. A trip to my organic market offered me a wealth of goodies, and now 2 weeks in my hair is showing drastic improvement. The best discovery was working with a holistic esthetician on learning the right essentials oils to apply to my hair and scalp. She helped me create a customized oil for nightly scalp massages that will help reduce my shedding and encourage my new growth to come in thicker and stronger than before. Then showed me the proper oil for my hair type so I could do a hot oil treatment a few times a week to the full length to help condition and thicken. 2 weeks in and the results are nothing short of amazing. Everyone stops and asks what in the hell I did to my hair, for the first time in a very long time I’m happy with my hair. It takes a lot more work than I would like, but you find a routine that is producing results and you make it work.

Now getting in to see Cynthia? Was a little more difficult. You see Cynthia is considered to be one of the top 10 stylists in the country for curly hair. Women fly in from all over for her to work her magic. Her reviews online are flawless and have been so for years (seriously I scanned all the back to 2004 and didn’t find anyone that thought she was not worth the time/effort/money). And as luck would have it her shop is 90 minutes from my house. So I caved. I called for an appointment and only slightly winced when informed of the cost. Taking the first available appointment she had available – I ended up with a Thursday at 3:00 p.m. appt… 3 weeks out. Which now means that today, I get to go see Cynthia the supposed miracle worker. And for the first time in my life I’m ready to sit down in a chair and let a stylist do whatever the hell she wants to do with my hair.

And I hope that isn’t a mistake.

So if you have any spare karma saved up in the bank that you would like to donate to a good cause send it out around 3, please? And if not? Maybe a wig will do.

So as I mentioned my health has been sucking ass lately… It is a large combination of occurrences at work and the fact that I’ve gone off meds, started new meds, had other meds fucked with, and am generally feeling like a lab rat these past few weeks. I have no energy. I’m sleeping way too much to be practical. I have no appetite. The primary aspect of my diet is currently applesauce. Yeah I’ve reverted to being a kindergartner.

Every summer, I seem to go thru this. Work starts to kick my ass as everyone and their dog decide that this is the perfect time to uproot their life and move into a new house they can’t really afford. And we all know what happens when I get stressed – the first thing to go is sleep very quickly followed by eating… unless of course you include when Sarah realizes I haven’t had anything to eat in days awhile and insists that I drop what I’m doing and eat something… and due to time constraints I usually end up getting that something from a drive thru. Which makes me feel bad and normally also succeeds in pissing me off.

And so continues the vicious circle.

In talking with my doctor over dinner last week, (Am I the only person who has a good enough relationship with their doctor that they can go to dinner together? Please tell me I’m not that awkward.) I decided (with his full support) to take my normally really healthy diet a few steps past normal. Typically come summer I pull out my juicer and blender and do a basic diet consisting of:

20 oz. of fresh Juice with a granola bar for breakfast.
Yogurt, Fruit, and Granola for lunch.
Salad with protein (normally shrimp, fish, tofu) for dinner.

There are variations of course but you get the gist. It is simple foods, but healthy. But most importantly it makes me feel better. I have more energy. My sleep schedule returns to normal. My allergies lessen to a more manageable point. And for some reason it really helps me in adjusting to our summer climate. That is until I get stressed again and it all goes down the tubes.

Now? As in starting today? I’m going totally raw foods… for the next 3 weeks. In a part system cleanse/part energy boost. The weird thing is that I don’t actually think it is going to be that hard. It is only 3 weeks and I figure the novelty of all the new stuff I’m adding to my diet won’t wear off until well into the 2nd week… then I’m over halfway thru the 3 weeks and I can do anything for 10 days or so… I have that much willpower. Besides I’ve already decided that sashimi counts in my raw food diet and so when I feel the need for something more than fruit and veggies at least I have that… in other words I’m using it as my cheat and probably my Saturday night treat.

After the 3 weeks I’m going to revaluate, but I think that this summer is going to be a vegetarian summer. I’ve given serious thought to it over the weekend. And my life wouldn’t actually change that much… all my favorite restaurants are vegetarian friendly… and some of my favorite dishes are already vegetarian. Not to mention the whole slew vegetarian restaurants around I haven’t tried. And since I won’t be doing it for ethical reasons or because I need to be doing without meat; then I won’t feel at all off when I allow myself to cheat.

When it comes down to it I’m really just curious to see if it offers me any long term benefits. I’ve seen the short term benefits for years now, but I’m curious to see if those benefits taper off after a period time. That and for the first time in more months than I (or Sarah) can remember I’m actually excited about food… actually looking forward to my next meal instead of having to have someone else remind me to eat.

Here? Is where I move on to the more personal items of the entry.
Here? Is where I provide fair and blatant warning to all guys that they probably should stop reading here. This provides James with all the warning he needs to run and hide.
(Read on …)

I’ll be dead.

This weekend I encountered 2 very different types of boys. The first, after a very unexpected phone call, had me sleeping like a baby for a good portion of the night. But the second? The second had me up all night pawing thru closets and pacing the floors.

If I’m lucky I might get 2 or 3 hours of sleep on an average night and woe to the boy who takes That away from me. It makes me grumpy almost as grumpy as the fact that all of my brilliant moments come at 3 a.m. This boy in question?

James.

Yesterday in a volley of phone calls this evil plan of James’ was born. An evil plan, which I love. An evil plan, which involves me dressing up. An evil plan, which enables me to play with accessories. An evil plan, that after trying on just about everything I own it was decided that I’m going to have to start from scratch.

Now talking to Sarah, we worked out a plan where I was at least starting with a base garment that I already owned. It wasn’t perfect but it would work and I wouldn’t have to stress over having to start from the beginning…

Until 3 a.m. this morning.

When I realized that I had been an idiot. When I realized that the entire night the perfect fabric for this was already in a box prepped and ready to go to Amalia and with a bit of tweaking would be perfect. Now I just have to track down my seamstress and beg for that dress to be done a month earlier.

And then find accessories.

And probably end up having to make accessories.

This hurts, James. It’s a good pain but it hurts. That is until I wind up burning my fingers on a glue gun, then? Well then I only have 2 words of advice for you, James.

Shin Guards.

Cause it will be all your fault.

(Read on …)

To defunk I rely a lot (possibly more than healthy) on music. So today I set out with intent on creating the most goddamn happy playlist I could. It kinda rocked… you should listen to the whole thing.

But I chose one band out of the fray to pass on to you tonight. They happen to be one of my current favorite bands with the mostest.

Panic! At the Disco is just rocking my world lately. More than Faktion (and damn I love me my Faktion), more than Hinder (I just want them for the sex.), and yes even more than She Wants Revenge (although I hear if I hear them live, I’ll want them for the sex as well.)

But for happy? For happy, we have Panic! (you know you want to dance… hell even I want to dance)

“I Constantly Thank God For Esteban”

Wasn’t that fun?

And now for our next trick … the snazzy song guaranteed to have you yelling out the one inappropriately perfect line in the middle of Super Target’s frozen food aisle. Oh yes, you will. And when you do? I’ll know. And I’ll laugh!

“I Write Sins Not Tragedies”

_{(and note to self - if you are going to scream out about closing a goddamn damn door… probably not best to do it in your office… with the door open… with your assistant, who is already petrified of you, sitting just outside. Just fair warning - you’ll send that girl into tears.)}