Sponge Worthy?

Hehe, anyone who watched Seinfeld remembers Elaine’s quandary, when the Today contraceptive sponge company announced that they were discontinuing the product, and she asked herself of her date, “Is he sponge worthy?”

With only a limited amount of anything worth having available, how do you spend your precious time, calories, last years of youth?

Time

For someone who loves her naps, in the afternoon, in the morning, in the early evening, I know I’m not with the right person if they don’t understand that a nap at some point during the day is a necessity for me.

Since, I basically freelance, how I schedule my time is up to me, and I am fiercely protective on how I spend it.

Now, that the man-in-my-life is in the picture, I’ve jiggered my work schedule around so I can loll around Saturday doing nothing but enjoying his company, doing the together thing.

Calories

Today, we celebrate all of our mothers and many of us make a trek to a buffet table, saving up our calories by skipping breakfast and wearing something comfortable so we can take advantage of the table of plenty.

But my mom, like myself, at the end of the day, will mete out how calories are spent.  For example, my folks both went for the sushi and seafood table for the first round, while I got an omelette.  I’m not sure about my omelette chef, because I really think my egg concoction was more scrambled than smooth and beautifully folded in only that omelette way.

With each trip back to the tables, we asked each other how was the salmon, the scallop, the pork loin etc., with the measure being, “Is it worth the calories?” 

All three of us have a sweet-tooth, though I think my own has seriously backed off-I still have some peeps from easter in my pantry as well as some chocolate easter eggs.

When it came to the lilikoi cheesecake, which had a thin glaze of lilikoi syrup, regular cheesecake, and then lilikoi flavored cheesecake on the bottom, I declared it, “worth the calories”.  I didn’t eat the crust, that was deemed, unworthy.

Youth

So it comes down to the issue of spending the last year’s of my youth. How do I make that decision? After spending years in a relationship that I feel the only thing I gained was the wisdom to not stay in a dead end the next time, I ask myself, will he always be this nice to me? Will conversations always be full of laughter? Fun to be around? Will he be “there” for me?

I think I’m on the right track, but how do I know and when will I know?

k

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Chic in the Heat

Hah.

When you’re a young babe, you can pretty much wear anything and look great.

But as you get a bit older, you have to take into consideration a few lumps and bumps.

But, unless I am shooting a video, I can’t handle being compressed and smooshed into spanx.  Sorry Oprah-how can you breathe in those? Kind of like those LuLuLemon tops – I have a big ribcage so I can’t breathe in any size.

Anyway.

The event is outside, you’ve never been, you’ll be walking a little, you’ll be meeting people. The Man in Your Life is somebody.

What to wear?

My favorite color to wear is white. I think it looks way better than black when you are going to a daytime event. Just make sure you look before you sit anywhere.

I decided my sparkle look would be too much – I know people like it, but if I’m meeting people, it might get compliments,  but one day I walked in NM wearing a sparkle t-shirt, white jeans and heels and I don’t know it was weird I felt like the whole cosmetics department was checking me out. I had someone tell me they really liked my cat eye liner. Who knows what that was about.

I digress as usual.

T-shirt, tank-top, long-sleeve? Dress with pops of color?

I decided the best would be something not too clingy, not too low-cut, casual but neat. Beyond reproach or snarky comment.

I added a pop of color with a lime cami along with some earrings that picked up the green.

Okay – I couldn’t resist no sparkle-I wore my white slippers with the little flower sparkle bobs on the thong!

Hey-gotta stand out a little in a crowd!

Else, how are you going to shine?

k

My Affair

Is with my passion for learning ballet.

I often refer to it as ‘the way I make love to myself’.

Surely it is my true bliss which makes me happiest.

Whenever I am troubled I find protection in getting lost in the beauty of the movement and the music.  It softens the murmuring in my mind.

Whenever I am happy, then it’s like turning it up a notch times 10!  Nothing makes me happier than the feeling of a perfect en dehors pirouette, or the figuring out how to do something new.

Really, I’d rather take class.  In some ways, ballet is like the thing that I cherish most in my life (ok other than my parents and friends)-other people have their kids or spouses, but the thing that remains constant and dependable for me is class.  Class is always there.

It’s always new.  Even when we ratchet the difficulty down for beginners, our ballet mistress finds a way to make it just as challenging for us.  Try doing grande’ pile’ in 8 very slow counts down, and 8 very slow counts up.

Many of my friends as well as myself take jazz dance, which is fantastic and our  teacher is a gifted choreographer and she makes sure it is a challenge since many of the other students have been dancing over 20 years.

When people ask me about our classes, they can hardly believe that the youngest one of us is 46.  I truly believe that dancers stay young because of the joy that comes from the beauty of the movement.

Or maybe it’s because it is their bliss.

k

You Make Me Feel Brand New! Happy Juice!

That’s a song isn’t it?

Stylistics circa 1970-s.

Yesterday I had a pause in the action and had my hair done as well as my toes and fingers.

I’m not big on doing mani-pedi’s but once in awhile is ok.  My fingernails are pretty cool au naturelle-so I usually try to keep them filed down.  Mostly, when I’ve been slacking off they grow super long, so by the time I have to put my nose to the grindstone they tap tap tap on the keyboard. Sometimes I get a little frustrated so I just whack them off down to nubs so I can type with lightening speed.

But when it comes to my hair….

For like the last week I’ve been saying to myself I should have booked a week earlier because my glossed hair was getting very long, very fast, and on the last few days I could really see the growth.

So, happily I saw Hillary J, the awesome stylist I found who introduced me to the virtues of using a gloss instead of color for roots (harsh). When I thought about it the other day, I recalled how much product I used to get put in my hair post shampoo and style.

I digress.

I asked Hillary, when was the last time I came? I was trying to think back and I know I had my hair glossed and cut since after I started seeing the blue-eyed man.

Hmmm. It’s been 5 weeks, and I got my hair cut after the first date.

My hair grew nearly an inch in a month!!!

Hillary said she sees this phenomena often when people are in new relationships and really happy.

Makes sense to me.

I’m in a new relationship.

I’m really (super) happy!

Thank goodness the hair is only growing on my head!

k

Papaya Appeal!

Lucky I live Hawaii where papayas are plentiful pretty much all-year round.

I had lunch in our Chinatown the other day, and as usual instead of heading east to Nuuanu, I headed west further in.  Like Chinatowns in many cities-Honolulu’s has a bunch of farmer’s markets with fresh fruits and vegetables.

There are a lot of facial scrubs and peels on the market that use papaya-the seeds or the enzymatic properties of the fruit.

I don’t recommend the scrubs of course since I never recommend scrubbing your face with anything harsh.Period.

But using the leftover peel as a natural face mask is pretty awesome.  I actually learned of doing this from my mom, who at nearly 75, has great skin with few wrinkles if any.

So she was telling me that her friend would take the rind of watermelons, papayas or whatever she had eaten and rub the rind on her face.

So, my mom starting using the leftover papayas from breakfast on her face – I have to say when I do it my face feels very clean, not tight, and definitely I feel like there has been softening.

Easy, as a pa-pie-ya.

k

OOOOH! Pause to Refresh-Face Masks!

Happy Halloween in May!  I would scare you if I had posted a photo of me wearing the Korean face mask I just tried.  Here it is–looks like Jason from Friday the 13th, right?

The Face Shoppe has  great selection of these face masks that are very soft cloths that have been presoaked with different treatments for moisturizing, collagen building, soothing etc.  They also have gel masks which are similar but instead of cloth, the mask is infused into a jelly sort of material.

These are great for mornings after you had a bit of a late night, or before a big night out.

I highly recommend doing this in PRIVATE!  At the H-club, I have seen people walking around the locker room wearing these masks, and believe me they are scary when you come walking around the corner and you see one of these!!!

Yeah, this might be too scary for your significant person unless you are able to convince him or her to also join in.  I bet it would be a barrel of laughs in that context.

Hehe.

Other masks I love.

Orlane makes a beautiful moisturizing renewal mask–I use this one on mornings I need a little help and my skin feels like a desert.  A few years ago I went through a phase when it didn’t matter what I put on my skin, it would be dry.

Orlane Super Hydrating Masque

Orlane’s Bio-Mimic Hydrating Masque is not nearly as scary as the cloth masks, but is highly effective in super-hydrating you in 10-15 minutes.  This one kind of soaks in, so this is something you could wear around the new guy or gal and they’d never know you were secretly rejuvenating yourself!

Course, take advantage when Nieman’s or Nordstroms offers those free facials using their premium products!  Despira is the resident facialist at both stores in Honolulu – she is from Greece and has a cool accent that is strangely as soothing as her facials.

I’m not usually a big facial person, cuz I don’t like people doing something to my face what I wouldn’t do!

A veer off the path.

I went to a woman who had advertised an oxygen facial on Hawaii Hot Deals-she worked out of her home which is ok, a lot of small businesses do in Hawaii.  Went over, and she had a facial table set up near the window – me, sunscreen queen is wondering, oh great, UV exposure.

So I lay down and she holds up a mirror to my face, and says, this is your face lying down. I’m like, really, scare me?!

Anyway.

I close my eyes and relax.  The first part in most facials after cleansing whatever you have on, is steaming to open the pores.

I heard bubbling, not unusual, but I swear she was moving a little pot of water with one of those coffee water warmers!! I was too scared to open my eyes, because I know my reaction would be to jerk away!!!!!!!

I swear the oxygen machine she used was pretty low power–I had gotten a demo on my hand from a friend and there was light years difference in the ‘push’ power of the oxygen. I figured I would just deal with it instead of jumping off the table.

Finally get done with no sunscreen, because the antioxidant oils  A,C,E were applied though I am skeptical. I applied sunscreen in the bathroom.

When I come out, she gives me a cup of water which she says is ‘energized’.  WIth what? I ask. She pulls open her kitchen drawer and pulls out another ‘As Seen On Tv’ type gadgets and throws it back in the drawer.

I’m like, ewgh. Thanks, not thanks, GAG!

Ok, back to masks.

Another awesome mask for exfoliation is Dermologica’s Gentle Cream Exfoliant.  I do not believe in scrubbing my face with microbeads, apricot kernels, anything abrasive-! Dermologica’s product appeals to me because it exfoliates with hydroxy-acid – I know the acid part sounds scary, but it’s not.  Great results.  I had a possibility of a zit a couple of days ago and I applied this product, and it disappeared!

Another awesome product is Clarin’s Flash Balm.  Truly a game changing facesaver after a dehydrating night.  I read recently that some make up artists use it as primer-have to try that sometime.

I think those blue masks we used to use in 7th grade probably have a bunch of chemicals in them, and besides when you pull them off your face they are pulling your skin. Clarins has a product that you put on, and then kind of roll off in eraser like crumbs.  Your face feels amazing after, but again, why yank on your face like that?

Preserve, preserve,preserve.

k