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.

The actual reason why I decided to jump on board with this little project is because the other day, I noticed that in Sarah’s post about her new hair routine that CinnKitty asked about whether there were other options and if she could take baby steps towards “alternative” hair care. And the resounding answer is “YES!!!”

See, Sarah got lucky and it seems that the first method she tried is going to work out really well for her, but there are plenty of other options out there. In an effort to find the perfect method for me and my hair (henceforth referred to as the holy grail… Christ I’m even going to use the crazy bus speak as well, aren’t I??) I’ve tried just about all of them and still haven’t found which one is the absolutely perfect one for me, my hair, my lifestyle, and my environment (ok well maybe I have, but I’m only a week in so things could still feasibly go down hill from here.) So today for those of you interested I’ll list some of the various options and throw in some hair education (all of which you will be tested on before you are assigned a seat on the batshitcrazy bus) as well. Ready?

Things you are trying avoid –

First, harsh detergents and chemicals in shampoo. Mainly? Sulfates. The 2 most common are SLS (sodium laurel sulfate) and SLES (sodium laureth sulfate), SLS had an original intended purpose as a grease solvent, but nowadays makes its living cleaning various parts of our bodies. Honestly our bodies aren’t that dirty, and if they are we are actually doing it to ourselves. Sulfates are harsh detergents. They will get out anything you manage to put in your hair – dirt, grime, styling products, and sweat. They will also strip your hair of all its natural oils leaving your hair feeling not so wonderful and not so manageable. So you condition, right? And you condition with a product packed with silicone.

Remember those Pantene commercials with the little gold bubbles that would swim around the hair strands and bind to hair and then magically repair the hair strand? Yeah. Silicone. And the hair isn’t repaired. It’s been magically caulked, and that caulking will build up, and will need to be removed, and the best way to remove a silicone is with a harsh sulfate detergent. So you begin to feed a fairly vicious cycle so the second item on the list of things to avoid? Silicone in conditioner and styling products.

You have learned to read the labels of what you eat now learn to read the labels on your beauty products

So now you know what to avoid…
Your most common options for alternative hair care are –

Pseudo Natural –
These are incredibly similar to the same drug store hair products you will find anywhere except they lack the items you are trying to avoid. Pseudo Natural allows you to break that cycle but still gives you that normal feeling of having your shampoo and conditioner. They still have some sort of cleaning agent in the shampoos but typically are considered to be much healthier for you hair and instead of silicone they use plant derived butters and oils in the conditioners.

As with all of these options there is an adjustment period, but this is by far the easiest transition.

While not the method I’m currently using, this method works great with my hair. I use the Giovanni hair line. They make excellent products and my hair really responds well to them. Best of all most major health food stores and organic grocers that offer “bulk bin” shopping will offer Pseudo Natural shampoo and conditioners on the bulk bin aisle to you can bring your own bottles from home and just refill them. Not only do you get the discount of not having to pay new for packaging but you save the earth the stress of having even more plastic out in circulation.

All Natural –
All Natural is where you start to really truly venture into “alternative” – these are the products that are 100% percent derived from natural resources. You can still have your traditional shampoo/conditioner method, but once you open the product you are going to notice a huge difference in what you are working with. Mainly the shampoo, being void of all detergent and cleaning agents, won’t lather – which means that you have to rely on the essential oils in the product and your own physical scrubbing of your scalp to clean your scalp. Also your conditioner won’t resemble normal conditioner in its texture – You won’t see your typical cream based conditioner inside the bottle. Instead the texture will be a bit milky or even possibly oil based.

The adjustment period here may even take longer because not only are you working with the differences in the products but also these products are where you have to start really paying attention to what your hair wants/needs and developing a technique. How long do you need to scrub your scalp? How long do you need to rinse? Does all you hair need washing/conditioning or just your scalp/length? Everybody’s hair is different so everyone’s technique is different.

If you live in a major city you should be able to find All Natural hair products, but it may take some searching almost all your popular Natural brands are mostly Pseudo Naturals and they may only offer one option for All Natural. Read your labels and the internet is your friend.

Water only –
Now this was a fun one to try. This is your “extreme measure” – water only. It actually does work and I know a woman in Ansteorra/Texas with the most beautiful hair that I have ever seen in my life. I covet her hair. Her secret? For the last 15 or so years, she washes her hair once a week with lukewarm water only, and I promise you, her hair is absolutely gorgeous.

As you can imagine the transition can take up to a few months since not only are you weaning yourself off all products, but you actually have to train your scalp to produce less oil. And there is a lot of scrubbing involved. That is ultimately why this process doesn’t work for me. My hair is just too delicate to stand up the vigorous scrubbing needed to accomplish cleaning your hair with nothing but water.

If you can do this and make it work for you I envy you, and want your hair.

This is probably as good of a place as any to mention that half the fun of alternative hair care is the trial and error part. There will be hair disasters. Your friends will laugh at you. But one morning you will also realize the joys of making an all natural hair mask in your blender that makes your hair shine like it did back when you where in a kid, and it will all be worth it. Onwards…

Water with baking soda –
This is Sarah’s method. The only method on this list I haven’t tried. Again my hair is far too delicate for it. The one time I tried to clarify my hair with baking soda it took weeks before my hair forgave me, and I’m fairly certain that if brought it into the shower again all my hair would jump off my head and hide under the sink, but I know tons of people who swear by this method and you have Sarah as even more proof.

Shampoo Bars –
Yeah.Soap.In.Your.Hair. I love it. My hair loves it. I don’t know why I didn’t think of this sooner. As I said earlier there is still a chance that after some of the newness of the product wears off the results won’t be so fantabulous, but right now shampoo bars are the reason why the sun came up this morning. I love them so much I’m actually comfortable enough to actually say “LOOK at my HAIR!!”

That? Is my hair one week into nothing but soap (Herb Garden) and water - no styling products - no conditioner - nothing. And? That is 2nd day hair. Yeah, I’ve slept on that… twice.

100% all natural! – They last forever! – Minimal packaging! – Cheap! – Easy! - Travel Friendly!

Some people need a vinegar rinse like Sarah has been doing with the baking soda, some people need to use conditioner, but not me – I haven’t needed either. Really, I can’t say enough good things about them. They rock. I love them, and I hope I still love them when I come back from vacation.

If you are interested (that might even be a dare), this is where I buy mine from - http://chagrinvalleysoapandcraft.com/

Read the info on the site thoroughly because she provides a lot of great info regarding hair types and troubleshooting any problems you may have with them. But the samples are cheap and if they don’t work out for you; you still have some great soap!

….Second Round….

She really tested me right out of the gate, huh? But it actually proves the point fairly well. While her irrigation system rocks there is no feasible way that I can model anything like that to water my container garden on my balcony of my Condo here in Hell… but I wasn’t going to give up on my first challenge that easily. I sat here and I thought to myself that there has to be something I have done that mirrors her efforts…

So I thought.

And I thought.

Water.

Flowing.

Bill Saver.

Watering.

Water.

Oh.

Wait that’s easy.

(Read on …)

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.

So happier topics…

The weekend rocked.

Last week as we all know there was some rather shitty feelings going on. When faced with the thought of a weekend at home in bed, I blanched. I’m just not that girl, but I knew that if given half the chance I could become that girl. So I went to the museum, the only quirk being the exhibit I wanted to see was a Pompeii exhibit… in Mobile, AL. But I haven’t had any decent bonding time alone with my car since Gulf Wars so a 7 hour drive to a museum seemed like an excellent idea.

And it was. I got me out of the house early on Saturday, I got to have a great lunch with Mike at a vegetarian/raw bar place he found in his neck of the woods. I reached Spanish Fort, AL mid-afternoon and got some quality shopping time in at one of my favorite shopping centers. A decent dinner where I had given my self permission to cheat, but didn’t feel the “want to”. A decent hotel with really shitty soft water and a good nights sleep. Followed by a museum exhibit about one of the places I’m passionate about, where my only complaint is I wish the exhibit was bigger… but IMHO still worth my drive… not to mention a fairly nifty IMAX film about Greece (it wasn’t “300” on an IMAX screen but not all of us feel the need to one up the other *smirk*). Then I headed home and was safely home and in bed at a more than decent hour.

That makes for an entire weekend of me not being the lazy stressed slug that I could have easily turned into. There were many many highlights… for example –

The Drive? I will fully admit I’m an odd one. I love to drive. I’ll even take it one step further and say I need it. Driving resets my Feng Shui. A long drive alone in a car calms me. It gives me mandatory down time and I’m learning that it actually takes about 3 hours to really turn my brain off the “stuff” and enjoy myself. So about halfway thru a long drive I find myself finally starting to relax… I breathe deeper and I can ponder life’s more important aspects… like finding great shoes instead of dwelling on all the work crap or the life crap.

The Spanish Fort shopping center? I always find the best shoes there. Always. I get excited when I leave Florida and enter Alabama not because I’m finally leaving ThePitOfHell (well maybe that too) but because I know I’m 40 miles away from my next really great pair of shoes. This trip was no different – they are black with the cutest little ankle strap… and Sarah has already said “Oh Look! FuckMe Heels!”

The Sleep? I actually got a really decent night’s sleep. The hotel wasn’t the best and I quite possibly STILL have conditioner in my hair that won’t rinse out. But I slept! Like 7 hours! And woke up rested! With really strange dreams! Yeah, I dreamed what can only be loosely titled as “Winter Wonders: The Musical.” All I will admit is –

- That I play a wicked harmonica.
- That Sarah has some real soul in her to be able to pull off the Christina Aguilera song she did.
- The Bannerman Barbershop Quartet? Nuff said.
- 3 of our favorite Gleann Abhann Knights covering not one but two Papa Roach songs…
- and Big John? Does a spot on perfect Jay-Z impersonation. (which for the record is the second dream I have had in which Big John was playing Jay-Z.)

Maybe I should think twice about letting my Sansa play while I’m asleep.

Speaking of music? I’m going to go ahead and vote that 4 hours into a 7 hour drive on a dark lonely stretch of Florida interstate is not the exactly the best place to discover the newest “sex” song… but it did make the thought processes of the last 3 hours of the journey incredibly interesting… frustrating, but interesting. And for your listening pleasure? I provide you with that song, and tell you that if you haven’t already given the band Finger Eleven a chance… then you, my dear friend, are a slacker.

Finger Eleven – Paralyzer

And the diagnosis is –

(Read on …)

_{(it helps if you read this out loud to yourself using the strongest Texas twang you can muster… it really does lend the proper character and mood of the words)}

Well another Gulf Wars come and gone. And if you are just now showing up to catch Sabine’s Highlight Reel, then you have missed out and I’m not even certain that I could catch you up.

It wasn’t a great War. It wasn’t a shitty War, although I’ve been informed that I have more than enough right to refer to it as such. Luckily entirely too many people love me entirely too much. And I’m not sure why cause I sure as hell don’t deserve it.

But I think I’m going to end up chalking this War up as an odd one. Maybe in few weeks when things settle and my laundry is finally all washed; maybe then I can move it to the “good” column… but for now? We shall stick with odd.

Every year, I’ve offered a recap. This year it is just too much to take in. There were a lot of highs and a lot of lows… a lot of angry and mean but also a lot of happy and fun. Some disappointments but some surprises. Honestly looking back everything balanced itself out fairly damn well and really turned out for the best all the way around. (Don’t you hate it when it does that?)

But Hell, it took Liam 30 minutes with a flowchart and 5 PowerPoint slides just to comprehend 9 hours of my life at War. So starting with Friday morning and the text message that went something like “Just now getting on the road (2 hours late)… had to clean the blood off the floor… and pick the glass shards out of my foot… and cry… I cried a lot.” would just be kinda ludicrous.

So I’m taking the wussy way out this year. All of you know the drill, you pick the people, you give a comment, it’s all anonymous, and designed to make everyone paranoid. But? Just to let some of you off the hook there are only 25 people on this list and when you take into account the 3600+ people onsite you can extrapolate that I had to leave one or 2 of you out. Hell, I can think of more than handful right off the top of my head that should be on here but aren’t.

So we shall now commence with the giving of Sabine’s War Recap (You are still using that Texas accent, right?) –

(Read on …)

So I’m at Chili’s, eating a salad and trying desperately to type up the answers to the questions already asked (I’m answering them in order and Sarah’s question has so many different factions it is becoming hard to stay on topic, but I’m getting there… kinda.) In an effort to not be lazy, I’m not letting myself go home until I get this accomplished cause I know that I have about 14 hours on my TiVo of unwatched drivel to rot my brain and if given half a chance I’ll sit there all night and not get anything accomplished. But I had to share this moment –

Right down the aisle from me is a group of 12 elderly women celebrating a birthday. And after the birthday lady opened all of her wonderfully wrapped presents they gathered together in the center of the table all of the very carefully removed wrapping paper and divvied it out so it could be used “next time”. Which quite possibly was the most entertaining part of their lunch for them… or at least it appears that way from 2 tables away.

I love old ladies… from 2 tables away.

Now back to extolling virtues and trying desperately hard not to bitch and rant about Trimaris…

Something else I can talk about is my new apparent need to become a rabbit. You wouldn’t believe my current eating habits. I haven’t had any sort of meat in well over 2 weeks, hell I even ordered a pizza this weekend and it was vegetarian. And this week, I took it even one step further, all my food? Raw. I’m not trying to be a rabbit. It just kinda happened. I made a pact with myself a few weeks ago to cut out all drive-thru meals, cause I spend too much time in my car and drive-thru becomes too easy. It just isn’t healthy. Apparently my stomach interpreted that as ALL FOOD MUST COME FROM THE FARMER’S MARKET, but that isn’t really what I had in mind either. So I don’t think I’m doing it to be healthy and if I am, I’m so blaming Sarah and her health kick.

…oh… maybe that is it. Maybe this was all part of the mojo trade off. If so, it looks like I didnt give everything back as promised.

Sarah? You aren’t by chance having dinner at Sonic tonight, are you?

Update: My stomach just remembered that sushi is in fact raw and it’s okay with that. So I’m going to take advantage of that and go have a real meal before it changes it’s mind.

Ok we all know I can be a fabric whore (we do all know that, right?) I buy fabric like others buy socks. The only person I know that rivals my fabric purchasing is Sarah.

On my last trip to Texas, I think I bought something like 150 yards of fabric and in it was a 10 yard piece of linen/rayon blend that was this great quirky black and white crossweave. I was cool with it being a blend cause I dug the crossweave, and I was really looking for something that would look sharp with my tippets. I have them and oddly enough have no cotes to go with them. So I thought this fabric would be perfect… until I washed it.

In prepping a fabric sendoff to Amalia I wash everything I can right before I box it up. Amalia has severe allergies and the fragrances I use in my house she is highly allergic to so I try to do what I can to not kill her. So pulling the fabric out of the washing machine, I noticed that things weren’t looking as good as they were when the fabric was sitting on my shelf begging to be cut up. Reaching my hand into the dryer was a nightmare. My linen/rayon? Is more of a rayon/_linen and I could tell by touching it that it wasn’t going to fly. I took it outside on the balcony to see it in the light. And while yes, it still looks great, it won’t wrinkle, and it drapes marvelously… I still didn’t want to use it. And I couldn’t really figure out why but I was chalking it up to the rayon content. Going back to the fabric closet I pulled out other options and this is where I really started to confuse myself… one of my perfectly acceptable options was a solid purple with very nearly the same rayon content.

I sat on my balcony for 20 minutes with these 2 hunks of fabric trying to figure out the differences. It has finally hit me. The purple? Nothing special about it. From 5 feet away it’s passable and no one would even give the cote or the fabric content a second thought. It would just be Sabine in yet ANOTHER purple cote.

The black and white? From 5 feet away it’s passable as well, but? People will notice the crossweave… and they will want to look at it… and touch it. And then they will know I’m a fake. And that? Just isn’t acceptable.

So the black and white went back on the shelf… and cause I was so pissed at myself so did the purple. And Amalia? She’s getting forest green silk from me on Wednesday.

P.S. Can you tell I’m gearing up for eventing? Cause I am or Sarah will kick my ass… and with her current mood she could probably do it without ever leaving her couch.

So quickly -
Where have I been? Playing host to my Mother all week. If that wasn’t enough, work has been semi crazy especially since with the raise I actually feel the need to work harder than I have been (or something equally insane as that). Desk arrived so there has been much setting up of the office (finally). Mother worked her magic and totally rearranged my home so I have had to search for my toothbrush and coffee cup every morning.

How’s life, Sabine? Doing good… even close to settling on great, and if I can say that on the tail end of a week long visit from my Mother then life must be fucking fantastic.

Did you learn something new this week? Yep. I learned that you can’t be boy crazy on your own schedule apparently it sets it’s schedule to someone else’s appointment book… and it doesn’t always happen at the most convenient time for you.

Any new and exciting plans for the weekend? Yes. For a bit now I have been wanting to head over to Orlando, grab a hotel room, and spend a few days shopping. Cause the shopping is much better over there. So I decided that after spending the weekend with my Mother I deserved it. And then there is the matter of that bonus check burning a hole in my bank account. So I’m going. And I am taking a friend… a friend that used to be something more than a friend, but as always I’m the idiot who believes that exes can be friends after the fact. We are renting a Tahoe… He plans on golfing… I plan on spending money (cause I have a Tahoe to fill)… then we plan on drinking ourselves stupid, because after this week we both need that. We do not plan on eloping despite how happy that would make Sarah. If I’m not terribly hung over and hating life on Sunday, I’ll let everyone know how the whole “trying to be friends” thing worked out.

Or we can just all start making assumptions now…

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.)}