Category: Beauty

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Awesome Beauty Beginnings Being a girl Endings Fashion Food Friends Love Memoir Self improvement Sentiment Work

Megan’s Bachelorette!

Megan wanted to go into New York City for her bachelorette party. So 2 days before the wedding, 9 girls piled into a limo and prepared to take the Big Apple.

2 Ms of Honor, 5 bridesmaids, 1 friend, and 1 bride!

It was about a two hour drive into the city, with one stop for orange juice (to mix with the champagne we’d brought) and another bathroom/snack stop (the first of many of the day).

The limo dropped us at Astor Place, where everyone grabbed some pizza to get us through until dinnertime. Then we walked down to our East Village nail salon, called Blush – a place I would highly recommend (I really need to write them a Yelp review).

I love this picture!

I originally wanted a French manicure, but ended up just getting a regular one with a super pearly pale white color. I really liked it – and the whole thing was worth it for the cuticle cleaning up and the hangnail clipping. Man, I love that.

A success!

After our salon time, we walked back to Astor Place to catch an N train to Times Square. A couple of the girls had never seen New York City, so we checked out Times Square, including the M&M store and the Hershey store.

Then we walked over a block to Megan’s favorite New York restaurant, La Masseria.

After that we wandered through Times Square, and down to 42nd Street. We went into Dave & Busters to find a bathroom, then we heard from the limo driver that he was trying to get back into the city but was stuck in traffic. So we decided to walk back up to Toys ‘R’ Us to ride on the ferris wheel. But we all got separated, so 6 of them went on the ferris wheel and 3 of us ended up watching.

Then, Megan realized she was missing her phone, so her cousin Emily called it about 20 times until someone answered. Turned out it was back at Dave & Busters. Then the limo driver called and was going to meet us at 42nd and Broadway. So I grabbed Megan and said, Let’s run back to Dave & Busters, the two of us can go really quickly. So we dashed back and got her phone, then back to the limo.

He drove us downtown past the Freedom Tower (I’m still not totally sure why) and then back to Connecticut. We got back to Mindi’s house and drank and talked and ate Cheez-its and played with her kitten. Then around 1:30 we divvied up the sleeping places (I got the couch!) and passed out.

The next morning it was back to the hotel via Dunkin Donuts breakfast, and then lots more to do before the rehearsal dinner Friday night!

A muy successful bachelorette party: a great salon, a great dinner, NYC fun, and Megan even got her lost phone back!

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Beauty Beginnings Dreams Memoir Nature Religion Sentiment

“No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace as I have seen in one autumnal face” – John Donne

I woke up this morning with my socked foot sticking out from under the covers. I felt very warm under the covers, and outside (while still the inside of my apartment) felt very brisk. This is the point at which I gave up and welcomed in fall.

It’s been feeling more and more autumny for days now – I can’t put my finger on what it is exactly. A smell? A certain snap to the air? Maybe the trees are changing colors and I just haven’t really been paying attention? Suddenly all I want to do is shop for new boots and sweaters. Not to mention school supplies…oh, the school supplies…

I can’t stop reminiscing, as of late. Mostly I’ve been thinking about being in high school. Which isn’t to say that I want to go back to high school. I mean, even the memories I’m getting trapped in are of being in bed when the alarm goes off, and it’s so early and dark out. It’s not particularly welcoming.

I will try to steer my thoughts toward fall in college – with its classes that start later. (Remember when we were all in high school and we would get up at like 6:00 to go to zero period? And it’s just what you did? That ish is crazy.) College is good fall memories. I’ll have to buy some strawberry conditioner (works every time) and a pumpkin pie spice candle.

Or I can think about being in New York – working at the haunted house in October (October is even the coolest word!), and everything gets windy, but not cold yet, and leaves are everywhere, and you’re just so freaking happy that it’s not summer anymore. The landlord turns your heat on for the first time in 6 months… Everything is burgundy and burnt orange and brown. I mean the clothes, of course.

I’m really looking forward to the fact that this show and the next show we’re doing are in Mountain View. Downtown Mountain View in the fall is pretty darn perfect. Again with the leaves and the wind. And soon it’ll be Halloween. I don’t like dressing up for Halloween, but I love every other single thing about it.

I will bemoan one more time the fact that, living where we do, we don’t really get seasons. This just means I’ll have to be sure to go to Lake County this fall to enjoy it. And take advantage of every second I’m down at work.

I love spring and I love summer and I even love winter, but above all else, man I love the fall.

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Awesome Beauty cars Sentiment

Golden Gate Bridge pictures

On our way home from Labor Day dinner with my family in Santa Rosa…we stopped to check out the Golden Gate Bridge from high up.

Everyone else had had the same idea, so we had to pass the first two vista points and stop at the third, which is a little further away and so the point is slightly less vista. But that’s okay!

Then we got back into the long line of cars to drive slooooowly over the bridge.

Long live San Francisco!

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Beauty

You can choose the denomination – I chose 500!

I found some free online photo editing program tonight, but I don’t even remember what the name of it was. Honestly, I googled “free photo editing” and it’s whatever showed up.

I wasn’t really going for quality – just kind of fooling around while half watching Mrs. Doubtfire on Oxygen.

"Photo collage"
"Kaleidoscope"
"Obamaized" (you can choose the inspirational message!)
Sepia-toned, money effect, with a fire effect over it

“It’s Saturday night, Saturday night, Saturday night in the cit-AY!”

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Beauty Being a girl Fashion Self improvement Sentiment

Pincurls: good for getting hair to fit under a wig; not good for much else.

I am the perfect target audience for marketers. The kind of person who sees a pizza commercial and thinks, Let’s have that tonight. One strong memory I have from New York is of watching Kung-Fu Panda on DVD with Drew one night, and during one scene where they’re all eating noodles, we paused the movie and went to Duane Reade to get Cup Noodles because they just sounded so good.

I know, right?

(Side note: Is it just called “Cup Noodles”? I feel like when I say it out loud, it’s like “Cup-a-noodles” but this was what they had on the official Nissin website, so…)

So what’s a girl to do with 8 hours of free time, no chaperone, and a book called Kabul Beauty School? She gets an idea to have her own little beauty school. And with still-damp hair from the shower, and a two-thirds-full card of bobby pins, nothing sounds better than putting her hair in pincurls.

I finished Kabul Beauty School, Drew said he was swinging by the apartment to pick something up, and suddenly I felt kind of stupid. So I unwrapped all the curls and was left with a head full of very crimpy, still slightly damp, hair. After I brushed it out it became very crimpy and now fluffy, too.

This is my friend Kirsten’s dog. He’s a schnoodle named Attila. We now look somewhat alike.

In fact, I remember having this same revelation years ago in college, when Kirsten spent like two hours braiding my hair into tiny braids, while I chatted on AIM with some guy. The reveal at the end of that escapade – which, I’m sorry to say, lasted a couple days as I left the braids in for maximum style – was much the same at this, and our third roommate, Hailey, dubbed me “Weird Feet Poodle Head.”

(The “weird feet” part came from a whole separate story, involving the interesting patterns in which I wore out my flip-flops.)

I guess what I’m trying to say is, it’s true that if you don’t learn from your mistakes you’re doomed to repeat them. And yes, I fully believe that in a few years I’ll be watching some movie or reading some book, and have some free time, and go, Hey, pincurls are easy and might be interesting!

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Beauty Nature

The View

Today’s been a beautiful day, even if it couldn’t figure out what it wanted to be, and rained a couple of times.

When I drove to the gym (down by the ocean) the water was super dark blue with whitecaps. I really wanted to go for a walk there today but the schedule didn’t allow it.

But I can still stand outside on the balcony and admire the view.

I love when they mow the grass, around the patches of ice plants. I wonder if you could mow ice plants. It would probably just make a mess.

It’s hard to update every single day. Hopefully this week I’ll get some good stories and controversial things to write about.

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Awesome Beauty Drew Exercise Nature

Waterfall Loop, San Pedro Point

I had a busy, cool weekend.
 
First, I went and cut off a bunch of my hair. Yeah, I’ve had those “It’s REALLY short” second thoughts, but overall, I think I’m happy with it.
carnage

Last night I made stuffed bell peppers for dinner. Yum.

Today Drew and I went hiking at San Pedro Point. He assured me it wasn’t “hard,” “terrible,” or anything like that. Then halfway through he apparently recanted. The words “I think I might be dying” may or may not have been uttered.

But it was a beautiful day and a great hike. Totally worth it. Maybe next time, if it’s that warm, I won’t wear jeans and a long-sleeved shirt.

At the top of the trail is a bench where you can sit and look at Pacifica and the ocean. There were three young, fit kids sitting on that bench. They noted our arrival, and then ignored us and kept passing around a pair of binoculars, while we panted behind them. Teenagers…psshh.

Then, without even having had a rest, we set off back down the other side of the mountain.

Going downhill is MUCH easier, and I talked most of the time down, about anything and everything that crossed my mind. Sometimes I think that’s why Drew takes me on these hikes – on the way up, I conserve my breath for getting oxygen to my muscles, so I can’t talk. But when the going gets easier…I don’t shut up.

Apparently this is a 2.2 mile loop, with an elevation of 200-840 feet. I think it took us a little less than an hour and a half. A totally fun and joyful way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

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Awesome Beauty Being a girl Drew Work

How I’ve missed you, weekends.

Collapse production photo

On Friday Drew and I went to Berkeley to see Collapse at the Aurora Theatre.  This was closing weekend and they were totally sold out, but we were #1 on the walk-in list because I called three weeks ago and did industry walk-in because I was too cheap to pay for tickets.

Luckily we got in, and we even got two seats together.  The show was great, funny, and only 80 minutes, which we both loved since it had been kind of a long week, and we had to catch BART back.  Sitting in the lobby beforehand, waiting to be let in to the empty seats, I flipped through the program and read everyone’s bios, and I started to feel that itchy feeling that I recognize all too well: I like being backstage, I like being part of a production team, I like meeting a whole rush of new people every couple months.  Oh no, am I going to miss PA-ing?  One week back on the real-job wagon and I’m already looking for a new fix?

Then, while watching the show, the crew is moving furniture around in a low-ish level transition light, and I’m sitting there, wearing green, out on a date on a Friday night, all weekend stretching ahead of me, and I thought, “Hells no, I made the right choice.”

On Saturday Drew and I went up to Milagra Ridge and climbed around.  The views are gorgeous and it was great to get some fresh air.  Lucky we went when we did, since it clouded up pretty good later than afternoon.

By that time, we were grocery shopping with a little windfall of cash we had come across.  We were also buying girl scout cookies, and I was buying used paperbacks from a thrift store next to Safeway – four Stephen King books (that I need for my complete Stephen King collection) for a dollar each.  (I would have paid up to $4 per book, but don’t tell them that.)  (Today I swung by that thrift store and found Brian Jacques’ Redwall.)

This, by the way, is the picture I took and sent to Erin, to try to convince her to move back to California.

Pacifica, from Milagra Ridge

And what better way to start a lazy Sunday…than by calling the cops on a domestic dispute happening right outside your window?  We were awakened by a man yelling, “Gimme my phone!” and a woman yelling, “Gimme my baby!” and screeching tires.  Still not sure what was going on, but, because of the repeated screaming at each other, the manhandling of said baby, and the fact that I saw the cops outside the couple’s building just a few weeks ago, possibly talking to the same guy…Drew called and requested an officer to come out and make sure everything was okay.  So that was our Sunday excitement.

Both yesterday and today we made dinner and watched Dexter (we finished Season 2 tonight), and just hung out.  Incredible.  I could get used to this.  I could get way addicted to making dinners and packing lunches and going to bed at 11:00 to get up at 7:00 and go to the gym and go to work and watching TV at night and being around on Tuesday nights for friends dinner…you get the idea.  This is living.

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Beauty

Move over, Nina

Over the weekend, I had a total Black Swan moment where I accidentally and absent-mindedly scratched my hand on a piece of pointy wire.  But it was backstage, so it was dark, and it didn’t sting, so I didn’t realize until a few seconds later that there some some smeary blood on my palm.  I excused myself to the first aid kit and patched myself up, but I still have 4 very thin, very shallow cuts in my hand that I don’t really remember making.

So now whenever I look at it, I sing myself the Black Swan theme.

This is me:

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Awesome Beauty Being a girl

This is feminism at its best, baby

So I guess Drew and I could be watching any one of the movies we’ve got waiting for us (Winter’s Bone, Rabbit Hole, The Fighter, or even Going the Distance) but instead we find ourselves making a big pot of coffee and channel surfing, and landing on the Miss America pageant.

Miss America should not be confused with Miss USA.  Miss USA is the Donald Trump organization which came under fire last year for using photos of the competitors wearing nothing but paint.  Miss America is the scholarship program, which includes a talent portion.  (Thanks, Google.)

The talent portion tonight included such gems as a ballet dance to Michael Jackson’s “The Way You Make Me Feel” which appeared to be cribbed from the movie Centerstage, Irish dancing to the Riverdance finale, and a bunch of girls singing medium-well.  But the best talent, hands down, belonged to Miss Arkansas, who did a ventriloquism act with two dummies, singing “I Want To Be A Cowboy Sweetheart.”  Gold.  She yodeled while throwing her voice!  Or threw her voice while yodeling.  You know what I mean!  It was actually pretty impressive.

Later they moved on to showing and naming all the previous Miss Americas they could find, from the 1940s on.  All the women stood on the stage and one cameraman ran around filming all of them in order.  The women kind of all looked like substitute teachers, at least until we got into the ’90s.

Here are some interesting facts about Miss America:

– The first Miss America pageant was on Sept 7, 1921, at Atlantic City.  At this point it was just a 2-day beauty competition.

– In 1935, Talent was added to the competition. At the time, non-white women were barred from competing, a restriction that was codified in the pageant’s “Rule number seven,” which stated that “contestants must be of good health and of the white race.”

– No African American women participated until 1970, and until at least 1940, contestants were required to complete a biological questionnaire tracing their ancestry.  Vanessa Williams was the first African-American Miss America (1984).

– For some reason, contestants in Miss America pick really fugly evening gowns.  I can’t figure out why.

Other highlights of the evening’s program: seeing Miss New York hike her evening gown up around her hips and sprint across the stage to change for Talent; watching the chick who was hosting chase down contestants and shove her microphone into their faces, only to have them answer, “Sorry, I didn’t hear the question!” and bolt into the trailer to change; getting a sly wink from the 1952 Miss America.

A good solid two hours of entertainment, although I think Miss USA is a better production, and I wish that Miss New York had at least made it into the Talent portion, because I’m 80% sure her talent was going to be stripping, based on the costume she was wearing.