So February has been hectic

I didn't take my standard post retwist photo array because as soon as I got off the highway it started sleeting.  And the next day I loaded up mom and headed to Texas to see my family because my adorable niece was turning 10 that weekend.  And I saw her and it was great but I'm still dragging at the end of the week because we got home Sunday at 1 in the morning, so technically Monday, and I still needed to eat and try to get some sleep.  Thankfully I did my homework before I traveled and gave myself some space to get work done this week.  I'm only including one photo of my brother, mother and I right before we caught our flight home.  Since the nieces are younger and not mine I won't share them unless they want me too.  Anyway the hair on two of the three of us is gray and one just won't cop to letting it go gray yet lol.

Hope everyone is doing well.

And just like that, it's nearly 2019

Woo it's been quite a busy few days.  I went to Texas to see the family for Christmas and got all the hugs I could want from my cutie pie nieces.  It was my first long trip away from home with my locs and it taught me something.  I really need to plan better.  I brought oil and spray with me but I was exhausted every night and waking up early every day to let in my contractor so I was running on fumes by the time I got home on Saturday.  I did fill up my tank for 1.90 a gallon so let's just say small wins.  Regardless, had I oiled up before I left my hair would have been fine that week and then I COULD have taken the spray but likely wouldn't have paid much attention to it honestly.

I still have a favorite loc even though it changes now instead of being one of the top central ones.  And I'm more aware of my hair health if that makes sense now.  I did my oil and spray routine today and my scalp was like ma'am bless you.  Good looking out to you and yours.  My hair is back under my wrap now because seriously I'm about ready for a nap.  I'm not sure about the seeing the ball drop faster than I see my head drop onto the pillow but I'm also very well aware that I lost the ability to do the all nighters a long time ago and the late nighters not as long ago but long enough lol.

I'm almost six months loc'd and I am still enjoying it.  My hair is growing still and now that I'm using a loc soc I'm not getting curly locs unplanned.  I'm getting used to them being hanging on or near my neck.  I'm still obsessively watching loc videos on YouTube and then remembering that my journey is my own, much like my loose natural hair journey was, so that I can take things with a grain of salt.  For example I'm not super worried about lint because I've always slept with a bonnet on even when my hair was relaxed and I don't like a lot of furry clothes.  I don't typically wear scarves and I got a warm slap from Grace Eleyae which is lined with satin so nothing catching on my locs when I do have to cover them up.  Plus, and this is true whenever I do anything slightly new or different, I'm noticing how many other people are loc'd and appreciating their hair as I watch them move around.  Plus much like when my hair was out and silvery in all it's glory or in silver twists people are fascinated by it so I get lots of questions and complements.

Next year I think I'll be just enjoying life, my hair and keeping you updated.  Next week will be the six month retwist.  I'll take photos like normal and update after that.  Have a good New Year's Eve.  And if you know where I live, stop by and I'll let you have some fried turkey lol.  Happy New Year!

Pre Birthday Updates

So I am now on countdown to my 39th birthday.  I'm not sure what I thought I'd be doing at 39 but I can almost assure you my current life isn't it.  That's a good thing though as I am genuinely enjoying my life right now.  Are there things that need to be improved on?  Well most assuredly but I also have the passion and drive to continue to improve.  The best part about being nearly 39 though is that next year, God willing, I'll be 40.  If things keep going the way they are going it will be the best birthday ever but then again I'm making plans to make sure every birthday gets that distinction.  Just because this is more of an introspective post about lots of things not just my hair I'm going to insert a page break here.  If you don't want to go any further not a huge deal as I tend to be wordy sometimes.  Just know that I'm in a good place and enjoying life.  If you are nosy and got time to kill continue after the break.

I have no catchy title

I'm not sure how long this will be as it's a pseduo update and rambling post.  We are back home and settled now.  We got back last week actually but in all of the confusion and emotional upheaval it didn't really seem like a good time to post.  My buddy, Baxter the pug, ran away the morning we left.  He was safely returned the night after we left but everyone was very upset in the interim.  Let me not say everyone.  The grownups were all kinds of upset.  The six and three year old were more upset that their aunt was leaving.  I really appreciated that more than they will ever know because it made me smile a lot to be with them.  However, it also made me think of some other things too.  Another birthday has passed for me.  I'm not sure if I mentioned that or not because we were busy packing, shopping, shipping and all that good stuff for my nieces.  So as of 2 weeks and 6 hours or so ago I am now another year older.  And for most of the last few years I've resigned myself to the babies were probably not on my agenda between the whole being single, taking care of mom, trying to get myself sorted out as an adult stuff I had going on.  But as I was woken up almost every morning by small faces who were just excited to see me I started second guessing that.  And as I was leaving with cranky grown ups and sad little people something hit me.  At some point they won't be little people excited to see me anymore.  I have other nieces and nephews and the I'm bored and all grown ups are stupid phase is on the horizon.  Not to mention that well before that phase their parents just may have other plans for their holidays.  So all the hugs and face crawling and giggling and playing that I get in abundance now will likely disappear sooner as opposed to later.  But I really don't want it to.  I love munchkins.  I am actually the friend that volunteers to babysit or stay home while the adults go out drinking or just seeing a movie that isn't PG4 lol.  Plus I have been well stocked in kiddie movies and books for quite some time.  After we get through the early year projects I think I am going to at least attempt to go through the training in order to either be a foster parent or adoptive parent.  There are three or four major projects ahead of that but it's mostly house stuff that would actually help that out more than not.

Ok moving on.  I need to squeeze in one more workout this month and I will have done 52 for the year.  That averages out to one a week even though I know the vast majority of them happened from mid September to now.  Regardless the Lone Star Pinup experience got me back to working out for me because I need to and the health benefits and bit of weight loss have been great.  I have been fleshing out my bucket list again.  I don't know if I readded pinup photos but I should.  I did add visiting family more and will adhere to that but I do need to work on developing my tiny branch of family because well it may just be me on some holidays and I need to not be a loser sad and mopey when or if that occurs.  So partially to escape from too much alone time with mom I ran out to take care of a few thing. I started at Midas to get the check engine light cleared up cause it was freaking me out.  Minor fix needed.  I went to the library to get a cd on hold after I went by the local Y to sign up for swimming lessons.  I haven't gone swimming since I was a child but, and you'll laugh, I've taught other people to swim since then.  I swam like a fish before my parents got divorced but something about being under the water when I knew what water could really do just messed with my head.  Well I found a class for the grown folks and will be there in a few weeks to try to get through the six week class.  I figure if nothing else I have for sure exercise for an hour once a week.  Now that isn't replacing a gym day as far as I'm concerned it will be an add to the work out weeks.  I will tell you how freaked out I get of course.  However, this is also a bucket list item and I want to be able to really enjoy any of those foreign countries I may get to with lovely sandy beaches.  Now to find a suit that doesn't make me look like Danny Devito from Batman Returns.

As for my hair, yeah I said if I didn't make it to the gym today I'd wash it but I did and now I want to get one more in and then I'll wash it and do not a whole lot else besides wash clothes and sleep until I cook on New Year's Day.  We'll be having duck and not sure yet.  I made a bunch of new salads and I grabbed a bunch of random things we can have as sides.  I will b the last day to eat any old thing and then it's back to healthier options at all times.  Not the healthiest cause seriously I don't love veggies enough to do that but I have added quite a few to my well that's tasty list over the last two years so I will keep experimenting.

I haven't made any resolutions yet and may not.  I'm in the middle of a mental overhaul about my life and what I want and that seems to be guiding me well.  Who knows?  I need to finish my good thoughts jar for the year and get ready for the next year.  I have to redo a few of them because my jar apparently got lost in the move even though I pretty much know what was on them.  Oh and because one photo is done from the shoot I will share it.

Holidays Update

Hey everyone

I have been busy as all get out for the last few days so I apologize for disappearing a little.  Our travel day turned out to be a little longer than it needed to after getting to the airport in what I considered a reasonable amount of time considering it takes usually ten minutes at most to check in.  Oh not on Thursday morning with Southwest.  While every other carrier was virtually empty at check in, Southwest had a line around the corner for all of their departures.  We missed our flight and ended up going standby the rest of the morning.  After slipping on to the first flight by the skin of our teeth the second flight has us booked before we deplaned and we arrived about an hour later than scheduled.  We got here in time to go see small humans at gymnastics and then came home and crashed eventually.  The next morning I was woken up by small humans checking on me which was followed by a grocery store run and finally a shower before an almost 3 hour drive to the best two hours ever.  Well the best two hours without a really pretty man, good food and a sturdy...well let's just move on from that thought.

I was able to check off another item from my bucket list, actually two since visiting family was on there too, and had my first set of pinup photos taken.  I have to say it was a blast and I have never felt less self conscious in my life doing something girly and out of my norm.  Loved it and I highly recommend doing it yourself if you are so inclined.  Lone Star Pinup was the best.  Whenever I get them back I'll share my favorite one or two with you but seriously it was oodles of fun.  And I will definitely be repeating the experience sometime next year after I spend the next full year getting my sweat on lol.

And now I am just recovering from kid time.  They are super funny and smart and full of energy and I am not at all sure I could do the parent thing but they make me think about it more.  Doing it "alone" creeps me out but who knows what's in store for me now.  I put alone in quotes because mom is around for sure but there's not another parent to chip in and do the things I suck at or pick up the slack when I am tied up.  Going to do some more thinking on that and then last minute Christmas shopping later this afternoon.

Here are a couple of quick snapshots I took of myself after another 3 hours in the car home and a few hours of family time.  I had taken off the fake lashes at that stage--big congrats to those who wear them all the time that was an experience for sure--to show my nieces but otherwise everything was basically as it was when I was made up and styled.  I tried to do close ups on the eye makeup but they looked disturbed in every shot I took and then I noticed you could see them in the side shots of my hair lol.  Anyhoo, here goes.

Super Saturday Part 2

Today is usually pretty rough for me because I'm missing my dad a LOT.  Today is the 12th anniversary of his death and it was hitting me hard because I'm in transition right now and he was always such a great support when that was the case.  He'd be calling me by horribly embarrassing nickname that I will never ever repeat mostly because it was Asian and no one knows what it is but because that was our thing too.  I was admittedly moody as hell most of the day.  I woke up late, mom was annoying me even though it wasn't her fault, and I was really trying to figure out how to hide from the remaining hours in the day.  HOWEVER, running out to get the lottery tickets so she could prayerfully win the powerball, buy a house in Texas and mostly live there (oh if wishes were unicorns lol) actually jump started my day.  I came back mowed the front and back yard in between filling out her annual paperwork for another disability payment, showered cause I was a nasty sweaty damn near having an asthma attack mess when I came inside, watched youtube to figure out how to use our trimmer to do some edging tomorrow, ate dinner, watched the Knicks lose (YES!!!!) and now I'm chatting with you all.

I also got some paperwork I needed to make sure that I actually HAVE a job in the fall.  I hate doing background checks because I'm always suddenly worried that when I'm asleep I secretly morph into another human that has a criminal background and still uses my SSN.  Ok that's pretty far fetched I know but you would be surprised how many places I've lived when people have sworn I was someone else they really know and love and get offended when I forget who they are like I really have a split personality and I'm the only one that doesn't know.  Not kidding on that one.  April was apparently a clone when I was living in Indiana before.  Never met her but she was awesome and adorable if she looked like me lol.  See I'm laughing that's a good thing.  And I talked to my brother and his munchkins--who I mostly understand but seriously we need small human translator phones.  I'd totally upgrade for that feature.

I also relaunched the poll in the last post and I'm going to include the code here too in case you somehow missed it.  The votes are split the way they were before but I think with new people voting lol.  Have a good one and if you like your dad hug him for me.  Unless he's dead in which case do not hug him just think of him and smile.