free therapy

Crafts make me happy. By that, I mean... I can avoid costly in-patient mental evaluations if I only continue to self medicate with the proper amount of designer paper and cleverly creative project ideas. Today's awesome therapy session will actually relax me later, too.

I made coconut & tea tree oil sea salt scrub. If you want to make some, too - here's how:

All you really need is 1:2 (any) oil & (any) salt/sugar. Salt is scrubbier, sugar is gentler. Optionally, you can add essential body oils - 5 drops per 1/2 cup of oil.

I made mine following this formula:

1/8 c. Virgin Coconut Oil

1/8 c. Virgin Olive Oil

1/4 c. Grapeseed Oil

1 c. Sea Salt (no iodide )

1/4 c Epsom Salts

5 drops Bergamot (100% Pure Essential Oil)

5 drops Tea Tree Oil

Simply stir together (I heated the coconut oil first for 5 seconds just to soften, mixed the oils first, added the salts, stirred, and then added the drops.) I found most of the ingredients in the regular grocery store/drug store. The essential oil was in a local drug store, but I had to check a few before I found one that carried them. The Tea tree oil and coconut oil were found at a local health food store. I plan to use the left over oils to cook with because they are the "good fat" type oils.

I already made some bath salts a while back by mixing just the epsom salts with the bergamot and they were awesome and gone really fast.

Last week, I experimented trying to make something for my hair resembling with the goal being like Schwarzkopf Mess Up. I melted in the microwave a few spoonfuls of Murphy's Superior Hair Dressing Pomade which is basically just bees wax and too heavy for my hair. When it was liquid, I used my blender to whisk in some L'Oreal Studio Heat Seeker Hot Straight until fluffy and the desired weight of the product I wanted - a soft tacky cream. The end results is the perfect product for my hair. I'm a bit bummed that it is a disgusting yellow color and separates a little bit. It isn't as pretty as the Mess Up, but it works just as well and I could make a gallon of it for under $10 - the real thing is usually $18 for 4 ounces. Next time, I will use a different wax to make it clear.

What's next, you ask? Why all the emphasis on relaxing? Why, because study season is back in full force, is a horse, of course. Which is a matter of remorse, I source, unless of course it's the famous "wish I'm dead."

i can't say it better than he can

"I don’t particularly like it when people put words in my mouth, either, by the way, unless I say it"

"One year ago today, the time for excuse-making has come to an end"

"I promise you I will listen to what has been said here, even though I wasn’t here"

"I’ve coined new words, like "misunderstanding"

"My job is a decision-making job, and as a result, I make a lot of decisions"

"I think we agree, the past is over"

(Don't get me wrong. I don't expect Obama to do it better, just more eloquently.)

not bitter

I'm done grieving over my overwhelming failure on my exam. I got my score and I was one point away from passing. That makes me feel better. Sorry, internet, if I hurt your feelings with my last post. It was written in ironic humor, laughing while writing. The Man said it came out sounding mean. This is exactly what Evan is talking about when he says that The Man is the most persevering human on the planet (to deal with me for so many years.)

So, the reason for this post is last night's dinner.... I may not have mentioned that my new crusade is to make homemade, healthy dinner - 4 nights out of 5.

I had all this cheesy chicken and broccoli casserole leftover from Monday that I didn't think I could keep eating every meal. So, did this:

Chopped up the casserole.
Added 1/2 cup cottage cheese.
Wrapped it into Wonton Wrappers
Fried the little packages in olive oil & sesame oil
Separately fried up a package of fresh, spicy ramen
Added some veggies, water chestnuts.
and served the two in complement.

It was awesome, but way more calories that I thought. A good treat on day-off-the-diet Day (which yesterday wasn't.)

for all those people who said, "just think positive"

May you all experience your own devastating failure and have someone say, "you'll get it next time."

re:solution

i do not feel like i need to tell you how awesome christmas was. i don't think christmas cannot never be not-awesome, if you know what i mean. they should call it awesomemas. new years is another matter. sometimes new years sucks. i'm just sayin cuz it's happened. it's not 100% guaranteed to rock the chimney the way awesomemas is. so, it's worth mentioning that new years this year KICKED BUTT! Not in the fireworks and champagne days of yore way. But in a 'hanging w/ my man and chilling in the snow' sort of way.

First, we spent all night hanging out. He showed me where he worked, and I finally got to see how completely understated it is when he says that he sees deer. (They sit 20 feet from his office and let you walk within 5-10 feet of them.)

Then, AFTER I had been up for over 24 hours, we realized that we both had the same day off. This has only one meaning at our house: road trip! We went to the mountains early (delightfully beating the rush.)

I showed Mark how to make a snowball and sat still while he threw them at me. (I only have one bruise from before I showed him that you make them out of the soft snow, not the ice you kick loose from the curb. ha ha.)

We did not make that snowman. We just found him and played with him.

the front usually doesn't fall off, for one.

Youtube is a rare expirience for me - Mark showed this to me on new years. It's really special.

never too old

When Mark saw the witch, he suggested that I should add detail to her face. The eyelashes are actually parts of a star-shaped sequin. The eyes combine a black seed bead center with white glitter and purple/black paint - covered in liquid crackle. The nose is just the stem from her apple head, and the lips are red marker w/ liquid glass over it. I took a ton of pictures before I got one in focus - and what I notice is that her eyes are totally the kind that follow you about the room. Creepy.

She is the size of my hand.

wicked tree ornament

As I mentioned last year, we are going to have a "memory" tree where all the ornaments either have some significance to the year they were purchased, or have something to do with our lives. This year, I wanted to make a mini-book honoring Mark's first novel and also have an ornament for 'Wicked: The Musical' because it not only has a message that is very important to my life in it, but I was also able to go see it 3 times, with old friends, new friends, and family. Plus, it is representative of how we are getting off the couch and taking advantage of this city more. I was going to go buy the ornament they sell at the theatre, but then I saw these cute hand made ones and decided to do this.



Her head is a wooden apple, her hat, body and boots are felt w/ sequins, her skirt is a inked poisetta flower and some old lace from my craft stash that I inked grey, her hair is yarn, and her broom head is necklace hemp. Her shirt lapel is part of the poinsetta flower base. Her legs are just some stripey scrap fabric I had from an old shirt. I happened to have those cute little bells for some reason. This took me last night and this afternoon to put together. Most of it is hand-sewn. The heavier items are hot-glued.

oh, the horror

I am finally able to talk about what happened on Tuesday. It was so PTSD that I actually started to cry every time I thought about it. But, I think it's safe to post by now and I KNOW someday it will be a funny story.

So, my dentist cancelled two appointments in a row for a medical emergency. I don't know what the emergency was, but I suspect that he had a stroke that caused him to lose all motor control in his hands. I had two wisdom teeth cavities that needed filling, so I unknowingly rescheduled for, you guessed it, Tuesday.

He was shaking uncontrollably with a power tool in my mouth, yelling, in a hurry, and making his assistant nervous, which in turn affected how well she suctioned the blood after he cut the crap out of my cheek, or "meat" as he called it. The worst was after the slashing when he had to do the second tooth. I'm gagging on my own blood and FREAKING out in my head. He pulls out the really sharp needle pointed drill and starts shaking it into my mouth, and I'm seriously considering just walking out with unfilled holes in my teeth and calling myself lucky to have survived.

Seriously, this was the most stressful thing I have ever encountered.

my own personal nerdfest

This is what northern california looks like. ^

This is what I did while I was there...^

And this is who I saw.^

When I got home, Monish went to Home Depot with me to help me get a tree. I give Monish full credit for the perfect Noble Fir he found for me. And I got my Martha Stewart on.

new metric

you can measure awkward by how many actuaries are in the room.

guess what?

Fair Enough

Hello, internet. I know you have probably been missing me deeply over the past 10 days. That's why I have dug into my old photos to find something to show you so that you will think I care about you. (I do, really.)

But first, a little husband/wife humor from a conversation yesterday-

The Man: I tell people that when my wife sees my paycheck she goes, "Ahhhh, honey. That's reeeal cute."

I add: "Let me put this riiiiight here on the fridge."

I would tell you about the sketch we wrote for the E! special that they are going to do on Mark someday when he is an American Icon, but I think he would kill me. Scratch that, I know he would kill me. Then it would be a sketch of Americas Most Wanted. And it wouldn't be as funny.


You've earned it. Here is the L.A. County Fair some time back.

cool, huh?

I am getting closer to recovering both at home & at work to having the exam season come to a peak. I just had a chance to see the pictures from the AIDS Walk (which was really amazing by the way...)

These cheerleaders were encouraging people to be. agressive. be. be. agressive. in raising money for AIDS.

This is my co-worker, sometimes car-pool buddy, and AIDS Team Member, Monish.

I was too busy to post about the event, but it is really something to see 30,000 people on one street.
This is me at the finish line. Proof that I made all 10 miles. Mark thought this looked like a chemo surviving guy, so I had to clear that mystery up.

Evan came to town for a day and we had a really good time catching up. We really don't get to see enough of each other considering our great relationship and how much fun we have together. We can just talk for hours and we get each other's humor- which is really worth a lot.

A low flying alien magnet went over our house and killed all of our electronics on Sunday. We had set aside time to order pizza and watch a movie on Monday... and then our DVD player died - and our computer monitor... so there was no surface of moving images to stare at... we did what any recovering Mormon would do. Played board games. I know, I know. Family Night. Old Skool. We played "Worst Case Scenario" where you guess what the proper survival technique is for different situations. We got three situations in a row where the correct answer required you first to take off your pants. We were laughing so hard that Mark actually fell off the couch.

Ahhh, yeah.

Even if I failed, I don't have to study for a few weeks! Reason. To. Celebrate.

Let me just take a moment to prematurely do a victory dance. No backup dancers or bag-pipes playing. Just me and my tap shoes going ape on the downstairs neighbors hopes for sleep tonight.

...

Okay. That was very nice.

Oh wait, I'm still doing it. I can't seem to stop. I had a very good exam session. Either my sample was very easy and will be graded more stiffly and I should not be getting excited, or else I am a genius and just killed. I think that the jury, when they come back with my score, will find me to be a genius. However, the rules stay the same as before... I will post my exact score when it arrives in approx. 8 weeks. (Check back for that when the New Years' hangover wears off.)

In the meantime, I am spoiling myself silly with scrapbooking and otherwise over indulging in wasting time doing NOTHING practical. I do owe Mark dishes until after Thanksgiving. I could not have done it without him and Baja Fresh.

I took some portraiture of Madhuri & Arun - she is very close to delivering the baby. Going through them so far, this one is my favorite.

happy halloween

We made a quick drive out to AZ to trick-0-treat with Stephanie. In an outright revolt on the socially agreed upon age limit have, for several years, dressed up and trick-o-treated with her. It is always so much more fun walking around the neighborhood reclaiming the Right to Candy For People of All Costumed Ages. Not to mention the laugh we have at every house. If someone sneers, I simply implore them to join me - panhandling for candy... or offer them a piece as I am doing this for All Adults Everywhere who are not as shameless as myself (but they can't have my peanut m&m's) or I respond that I don't have an I.D. so they can't prove anything and slouch down a foot.

My favorite reaction was the old lady who asked me where was my tattoo and I showed her the eyeliner drawing on my arm of a skull & cross bones and the words "thug life" and she said... "Oh Yes You DO" and we laughed for a half-block. One house made us do tricks and when Stephanie and her friend Jaycee didn't have a trick, they made us start over... closed the door so we could ring the bell, they could answer & we could just say "treat" instead of "trick or treat." It was pretty funny.

It was a really quick one-day trip and the drive is hard that way. But it was worth it.

before and after the hurricane

McKay is a cop in the City of Pasadena which is slightly more inland directly behind Galveston, which is where Hurricane Ike hit. Here are some very good "before and after" pictures of Galveston that I found interesting.

welcome, child

I helped Madhuri prepare for her baby shower a little bit and was honored to attend.

They had a couple of Hindi rituals to bless and welcome the baby.

And had a full course meal followed by some games.

tired of having so much extra money?

I am supporting the effort to raise money for AIDS by walking in this annual fundraising event 10K. Please consider an online donation here.

Our team is named the "Techno Chickens - Hatch Support for AIDS" I am sending anyone who donates more than $100 a dozen freshly baked home-made cinnamon rolls. Email me at mona dot mccowen at gmail dot com with your address and proof of your donation for our team to receive your cinnamon rolls. (They are really good - see a prior post for pictures.)

it's a free country

I tend to avoid political discussion. To be honest, it is usually because I feel that everyone would prefer to:

a) watch tv for entertainment and avoid having an opinion
b) watch tv in order to find out their opinion
c) regurgitate something they heard on tv because it sounds good (with or without merit)

Personally, I don't watch tv. So when I eavesdrop conversations and I can't for the life of me figure out how everyone justs buys in for the slogan catch phrase and passes off these cliché ideas like they thought of them on their own.

That said, I read the state election propositions today. Man the blues and reds are really going at it like they have it all figured out for everyone. I don't know how they come up with the names on those things. If it is called the "People For Scrapbooking Bill," you can be sure that it makes cutting paper illegal and will somehow save the kids from predators. It really doesn't matter what the issue is, or who is for it... they are always doing it for the kids.

As I am deeply addicted to the blog-o-sphere, I am just
saddened when I see people commenting whenever someone says anything even
remotely political - like "shut up, nobody asked you." Well, why are they
reading this persons blog if they don't want to know what they think? And to
quote the aforementioned election materials I was reading today:

There are more ways to participate in the electoral process.
You can: [skip to the last bullet point]

* Help educate other voters about the candidates and issues by organizing
discussion groups or participatin gin debates with friends, family, and
community
leaders.

I just want to make the point that this is an important part of making an informed decision and participating in the free and fair democracy that gives us what liberty we enjoy.

I'm not saying we're not a country full of thinking, socially responsible people. I'm sure everyone is responsible for thinking that they think. And me not excluded.