Attempting A Two-Strand Twist

I don’t know why I bothered trying. I mean, really. It is hard enough for me to manage a french braid, let alone anything else. But, since I’ve been trying new things on my hair, I thought… why not? (I can give you reasons, but it is too late now.)

Seven dollars later, I’m armed with a sectioning comb (something I could have done with a regular comb) and some hair ties. I skipped on purchasing a specific hair product to style my hair, though. I figured I was already deeper in than I should be. I re-wet my hair a bit, got out the tub of IC Hair Gel and went to town.

I’ma tell you straight up, my hair isn’t a big fan of gel. So I was scared. But I needed something with a little hold. In my quest to simplify, I haven’t been purchasing much in the ways of styling products, and have been using up what I have on the boys. So, the IC Gel was it.

The minute I sectioned off my hair, I knew the girl in the video was a pro and I… well, I wasn’t. I immediately felt the frustration of a novice as my hands fumbled with the strands and my twists looked like child’s play. But I couldn’t just stop.

I made four horrific twists(mangles) in my hair, secured them all, held a mirror up to see the front and back, and then angrily ripped each one out. Mentally spanking myself, I detangled my gel-laden hair, holding back a whimper of defeat. I had lost. I knew it. I was at terms with it.

Defeated but not broken, I knew I could either wash my hair again (not a good idea since it was close to bedtime) or “set it” to dry. I decided on two twisted buns (basically two low pigtails, twisted until they are buns behind my ears, secured). One was up a bit higher than the other, but I was at a point where caring wasn’t priority. I went on about my business, hoping that I wouldn’t look too horrid the next day since I had to work.. I slept with my bonnet on, per the norm.

The next day I released the pigtails and did little else, but a little head tossing. Here was the morning look:

 

I did flat-iron the bangs. Excuse the blinding glare reflected by my forehead.

I wasn’t entirely unhappy. It was different from the usual (either flat-ironed or air-dried), and I welcomed the change. It wasn’t 100% dry, though. My hair takes forever to dry. I contemplated hitting it with the blowdryer, but thought that might be a bad idea. Throughout the day I fluffed it up a little bit. I couldn’t get a decent picture of it, though.

This was later in the day, completely dry, after fluffing.

 

I’ve let my hair dry like this before. It’s nice to revisit again as an option. It looks OK and I like it for something different. Since I just had my hair relaxed last week, my top was pretty flat. I’m not ditching the two-strand twists just yet, but I need a bit more time to review some tutorials.

Feed The Pig

Today I was listening to the radio in the car. A commercial comes on, starts talking about saving money. Sounded interesting. Feed The Pig, the website was called. I thought of texting it to myself, but figured I should be able to remember a site name like that. I did. I checked it out.

I honestly don’t care how good the site might be. Thirty seconds of that pig with the slotted head, talking in his pink leisure suit gives me the heebie jeebies. I’ll pass.

Book List 2011

I haven’t been very good about keeping track of the books I’ve read so far this year. As much as I’d like to make a separate entry for one and do a little write-up, a little late night sit-down with a glass of wine will have to do.

I’m doing these based on the 3-star scale (see sidebar).


The Art of Racing in the Rain
1/2
I liked this. I know nothing about racing or race cars, I enjoy dogs, but am not obsessed with them. I liked this book. Still think about Enzo sometimes, especially when I look at my little doggie, sucking in air through his nose, taking in the world.


The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

Held my interest, but didn’t grab me. Seemed like there were peices of the puzzle that were left hanging. With so much detail in the book, it was frustrating that some parts were so vague (like the uncle/brother development).


Prayers for Sale
1/2
Cute, likeable enough, looked forward to reading it. Enjoyed a “happy ending” for once (sorry if that gives anything away —  I didn’t say why it’s “happy”). But… it wasn’t a book that floored me. This is terrible, but (confession) sometimes I got sick of storytime. I realize that it is probably intended to excite the reader as it did Nit, but I had to keep my eyes from rolling.


The Catcher in the Rye
3/4
Gosh, I don’t just want to give a 3-star rating away, but this was pretty darn close. It has what makes a classic. Wasn’t my favorite story, the ending wasn’t perfect, but the writing was fantastic.


The Help
1/2
Liked it. Fun enough book to read. It was one of my bookclub books (just like the ‘Prayers one), and I was thrilled because there a story behind it. (If you’re Nit from Prayers for Sale, get excited.) This is a popular book. Library was out of it. Paperbackswap has a long wait list. On a whim I tried Half-price Books, they had one copy. I didn’t really want to spend the money on it, but my searching at St. Vinnie’s and Goodwill hadn’t panned out. As I flipped through the book, I noticed water damage. The clerk said I could have some money off. I continued to contemplate, and then noticed what looked like mustard stains. “Hotdog while reading?” The clerk lowered the price even more, though she said it was such a popular book they could probably still get twice to three times the price she was offering me – maybe more. I hemmed, I yawned, I got the book for 3 bucks. Works.


Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire

This was a good read. At times I had to kind of “choke” it down (very explicit), but I found it much like The Catcher in the Rye with the first-person narrative that sucks you in to the point of feeling like you’re walking alongside the character. I still have not seen the movie, Push, based on the book. I don’t know if I want to, honestly.

A Reliable Wife

There is a reason why I had to have a glass of wine in my hand every time I picked up this book. Or at least an oppressive cloud of boredom hanging over my head. This read like a Harlequin novel “dressed up” as historical fiction. Violent, sexually-repressed man places order for a “reliable wife” – shady lady with a plan answers ad. The plot thickens (or gets incredibly soap opera-ish from there). If it weren’t for my obsessive-compulsive need to finish books when I start them, (and the ability to trade paperbacks online) I would have used it for kindling in the firepit. It seemed to have decent reviews, so maybe it’s just me. I really don’t know. Don’t care.  Done. Next!

The Lords of Discipline


This was a book club pick. It was decent.

Jane Eyre

1/2
I liked this book. I hung around with me for quite some time after reading it.

 

Housecleaning aka Blogcleaning

For the longest time I’ve wanted to change my blog template, update it to use some of the more recent functionality that WordPress has to offer. I searched high and low for a (free) 3-column template. The only ones I found that I really liked were not free. That was a struggle. I didn’t bend, though, and after a year or so of patience, I settled on a different template.

It feels good. The internet has been somewhat of an oppression for me. I have work that I do online (freelance), work that I do online for my job, and fun time. The lines were blurred too much, and what was fun became work. I’d like for it to be fun again. No oppressing.

My life has gone out of control. I have more than I can manage and I need to re-prioritize. Some of the tasks that I’ve taken on I don’t do to my satisfaction because I have too much on my plate. And I’m starting to get a bit selfish. I don’t know if that is good, bad, normal at this stage in my life– I really don’t know. I just want to do a decent job at a few things, and not a patchy job at many. I feel I’m at the latter end, and it doesn’t settle well with me. It is OK; I’m glad I’m able to recognize it. I see some natural shifting of my responsibilities, and that will change my workload. I still need to take a look at where I am spending my time.

I also need to clean my house. Once in a while (a cycle? I don’t know) I will get ornery and mean. Bite a head off if it comes near my teeth, chomp on an arm if it brushes by. Part of that is dissatisfaction, flat out discomfort with my home. If the house feels icky, the world feels icky. To me. If I could take a month off of everything and deep clean my house, I surely would. I’d love to. But it would take that long, really. Not to fix everything. There’s not enough time and money to do that. But to clean it up, toss what I don’t use or need and better organize what is useful, scour, scrub, and patch what I can? Goodness.

I would feel more comfortable in my home then, though. So, really, it is priority to do something about it. Tackle more here and there. Replace time and energy that is being spent on a task less meaningful and channel it to where it would improve my day-to-day.