Beginnings and endings

Beginnings and endings

Reminiscing today caused me to have one of those epiphanies where when you think about it afterwards you feel foolish for not jumping to ithe same conclusion earlier…

Growing up my favorite holidays were always Halloween and New Year's eve – – I always assumed that it was because for one you just dress up and be whoever you wanted and for the other it was all about new opportunities.

It wasn't until today through a kind of random conversation that I realized that the reason those are my favorite holidays is because of my childhood. See growing up with my parents' divorce, they fought about everything involving me and my brother. Every holiday was split down the middle – – Christmas breakfast with mom Christmas dinner with dad,  thanksgiving with Nana and later Thanksgiving with my french grandparents. Don't eat too much… Don't talk about your other presents… How dare you like one thing more than the other?

 Add to this my stepfather's extended family definitely made no effort to make us feel like we belong and my dad's family treated us like we adopted stepchildren we were… gifts for everyone but us sometimes, not making enough food to include us, always missing out on the family photos…So unintentionally or not they did things that made us feel bad

But no one ever fought over Halloween and New Year's… Neither cared about trick-or-treating or dressing us up and neither really wanted to watch us when they want to be up late and to seeing the new year 

It was the one holiday where there was no fighting, no awkward family moments, and was just simple. We got a large pizza and a bottle of soda and nonalcoholic side--we were left to watch movies like Grease 2 or Gremlins or total request live as late as we wanted on NYE

it was the happiest holidays we had and I'm not sure why I blocked that out except that explains a whole lot. 

Inspiration Blonderexic

Inspiration Blonderexic

So I've gone and colored (not dyed--never dyed) my hair platinum blond... Bright, shiny, over-the-top blond. I haven't done a color this extreme in a long time and I haven't done platinum since my senior year of college. I forgot how liberating it is.

Fortunately for me, the actually upkeep of my hair is easier since I am a natural dirty blond already. This means that I just have to keep up with the face shaving for my hair to seem somewhat natural and on-point. But I always forget what a change  of lifestyle being this blond is; how it is almost addictive.

1) I look different to a lot of people... There is something about wispy blond hair that makes people think you look younger, sometimes you look more ditzy, other times you look more approachable. I am never carded more often than with this color--and I get more smiles from strangers in general

2) Once you get the hair care process locked in--your hair will never feel unhealthy if you do it right. I mean--going this blond requires upkeep between purple shampoos and conditioners, leave-in hair masks and dry shampoo for the other 5 days a week you don't wash your hair...  What all this does is keep you from stripping too many of your hair's natural oils (from shampooing), helps you keep the extra junk out of your hair with the better hair products designed to deal with hard water and environmental damage and it encourages a lot of deep conditioning and leave-in serums which are IMPORTANT for a great head of hair. 

3) finally, drastically changing colors-which going to a platinum blonde from a dirty blonde is just as much is going from blonde to a brunette-really helps to shake your personality out of a routine… you're forced to dress different, do your grooming different, and it really is just a shift in mental gears.

I can take someone to serious and turn them into someone lighthearted and flirt orsomeone from two cheerful and kiss you too turkey mysterious… And it's always great to shake it up and not only for the ones who love you but also just push yourself outside the box

Seriously though this platinum blonde thing is pretty addictive

Monday inspiration

Monday inspiration 

Okay i am obsessed with this

Like how do you get platinum facial hair? How hard is it to upkeep? How sexy is this... Am i a blonde-rexic now?

Friday Jams

Friday Jams--WTF by Missy Elliott

I am OBSESSED with this video... It's been three year since Missy gave us something new to work with and it was worth the wait. Now I all I need is for her to do some concert dates and I could die a happy man.



Just the dancing on the hover boards alone is a reason to live

In the Pursuit of Interest

In the Pursuit of Interest

The other day I was having a conversation with a friend about kids--most of my friends are at the age where they are starting their families so this is kind of been a recurring topic. And the conversation was about how you talk to kids, how you shouldn't just tell a girl they look pretty or to boys that they're  just brave-- that you should really think about how you address them and how they can read into those words.

I explained how I am always telling kids how clever they are because I think that that's a more powerful idea for them--based on intelligence more than gender roles . But we were also talking about what type of questions should you ask when they're a little older. More than "what toy is that" or "how old are you". Something more imaginative. 

I thought we should ask about what's interesting to them--encourage thought beyond the simple factual into the more creative. To see what they are starting to value as they come to understand that the world around the is more than food, toys, parents and Sesame Street, And as we dived deeper into the topic, my friend and I both realized that interesting was an odd word choice mostly because we don't talk to each other as adults that way.

And it's kind of true – – with most people the conversation is how's your job, your spouse, how's your kid, how's your dog? But outside of that--most people don't allow for more open ended conversation--I'm not much better though.. 

I don't know if it's just life after a certain age; you have a job, go home and make dinner, you play with your spouse/dog/kid, pay some bills, watch some TV, workout... And you do that about 4 to 5 days week so there's not much room for new things to connect with people on. Or is there?

So I've decided to experiment by not only doing more things outside of my schedule… But also opening more conversations with these interesting things and seeing people can meet me halfway. It's kind of like using my work skill set – – no yes no questions, no expected conversation points, and just trying to see what happens if I put the opportunity out there... Do people want to talk books, museums, yoga, documentaries?

So I benefit both by becoming more interesting myself but also opening more doors to interesting conversation with others. Maybe it will even inspire doing interesting things with different people which is always a good way to live.