Ch-ch-ch-changes!

12 June 2010, 8:32 pm by Giggles
Categories: Life

About four years and five months ago I cut my hair to just below my shoulders. My hair loves being straight, but if it’s at my shoulders it can hold a bit of curl without being so heavy it all falls out (the curl falls out, not the hair). I wanted my hair to be able to hold curl because I was getting ready to make a second first impression soon and it needed to be a good one.

Since then I’ve just done the occasional (I think four, maybe five) trims. Which resulted in hair at or past my waist, depending on how recent one of those trims was.

This was my hair in November when we headed to the temple to get married. I knew it wasn’t going to stay that way because of the length and the humidity (yes, Utah, especially when it is precipitating, is too humid for my hair). You can watch it in various stages of going flat throughout the pictures that day.

I love my hair long like that, but it was time for a change. Hair that long is real heavy. The scalp and ends need to be treated so completely differently (I could’ve washed my scalp daily, but my ends really needed three or four days between washings). And it was just time. So yesterday morning I curled my hair (just a bit at the ends, nothing like the above photo) and Brett said it was a going away party. And off we went.

Here’s the before and after pictures:

Yea! She told me to run my fingers through it to make sure it felt even and it felt so weird for my hair to stop so soon! It’s going to take a bit to get used to having so little now. I know some people get emotional when they cut their hair, especially this much. For me it isn’t that big of a deal. I might keep it about this length for a while. It was between my shoulders and shoulder blades pretty much all through college and until I started really growing it out four years ago. And if I do decide I want it long again, it really only takes two years or so to get it back to being that long.

And yes, Brett likes it too. :turtle:

Now, because I take excellent care of my hair and don’t do anything with chemicals to it, I was able to donate what I cut off for wigs. I’m sending my hair to Pantene Beautiful Lengths because I want my hair to help people who suffer from cancer. (I have a tough spot in my heart for cancer.) So here’s me with the chunk freshly cut off and ready to go. It’s 14 inches long.

I didn’t cut my hair so I could donate it. I donated it because I cut my hair.

An interesting article about hair donations – NYT: Lather, Rinse, Donate – 6 Sept 2007
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I want to be an astronaut

11 June 2010, 7:02 pm by Giggles
Categories: Life, Science & Tech

I love space. That’s no secret. I love learning about the planets and stars and finding constellations and looking at them. I’ve loved space for a very long time. I attended Shuttle Camp in Alamogordo, NM, several times. I’ve shot off several model rockets. I have a book of stories my classmates wrote about me when I was in the 6th grade and was the student of the week where most of them describe me as teaching school in space (I’ve wanted to be a teacher for a very long time too). I even have a binder full of space trading cards. And I remember how excited I was to be able to see the shuttle once in El Paso when it had landed in California and was being flown back to Florida. I have always wanted to be out in space amongst the stars.

And now the shuttle program is coming to an end. They weren’t built to last forever, but it’s still sad to think that there are only a couple more shuttle flights left. So the odds of me going to space on a shuttle are pretty much zero. I had kind of hoped my odds of seeing a launch were a bit higher than that too. But they probably aren’t.

But if I’m not going to space, at least my face can (and I’m taking Brett with me). For the last two flights, NASA is collecting pictures and names to fly up to the International Space Station. They’re calling it Face in Space.

See you in space! :star:

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The Economy Game

8 June 2010, 8:03 am by Giggles
Categories: Politics

I took an economy class in high school (that’s a whole story). It was one semester. And then I took a one week super fast all day every day 1 credit economy class at BYU. But even with only that background, I can understand this “game show” of economic questions.

Why can’t economists with more experience figure out how this works?

Oy! :what:

How can broke economies lend money to other broke economies who haven’t got any money?

Thanks to Mr. Me for sharing this video with me.

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Comparing two laws

3 June 2010, 10:09 pm by Giggles
Categories: Politics

I try to stay out of politics here for the most part. But I found this very interesting. I’m not going to say that they are right or wrong. I just want to point out the similarities and differences.

Similarities – the text. It might also be noted the frequent references to federal law in both.

Differences – The first is passed and other states and cities don’t boycott state C. Conventions don’t leave state C. There aren’t nationwide protests about it. And the President of the United States doesn’t threaten to sue state C.

The second is passed and, oddly, cities in state C boycott state A. Conventions leave state A. There are nationwide protests about it. And the President of the United States threatens to sue state A.

I just find it interesting.

And if the comments turn into a debate they will be deleted and comments will be closed.

And here’s the text. Keep reading →

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I ran today

2 June 2010, 8:29 pm by Giggles
Categories: Exercise

Today is the 2nd National Running Day. So I went running. It wasn’t a big epic run. But it was a run. And I wore my Tucson marathon shirt for it.

After dinner Brett and I ran (dramatically jogged) down the street to check the mail. I hummed the “Chariots of Fire” theme while we ran.

Then we got there and realized that we had forgotten the mail key. So we walked back and got the key. And then we walked back and got the mail and finally walked back home.

I also ran errands today. We’re going to try growing herbs again. Oh they smell so good!

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Salt of the earth

2 June 2010, 8:29 am by Giggles
Categories: Health, News

There may be the salt of the earth, but the salt of my kitchen is a lot different.

When I’m putting together my food storage, I buy one thing of salt (26oz) and know it will last me for 10+ years. That’s one good thing about salt. As long as it stays dry, it stays good. And even then I’ll only eventually finish it because I use it as a mouth rinse if I get a sore in my mouth and I use it to clean some laundry stains. And that’s all I use it for.

And you should see my blood pressure! 😀

So I was interested to read this article from the New York Times: The Hard Sell on Salt: Pushed to Lower Salt Use, Food Industry Pushes Back. So interested in fact, that I had to write this post to give some of my comments on it.

Making deep cuts in salt can require more expensive ingredients that can hurt sales. Companies that make low-salt pasta sauces improve the taste with vine-ripened tomatoes and fresh herbs that cost more than dried spices and lower grade tomatoes.

Imagine using ingredients that taste good actually lets you cut salt! I think I’d rather have the sauce made with real food than sauce made with cheap stuff and salt.

In speaking of Campbell’s chicken noodle soup the article says:

Chicken noodle soup has been especially vexing, he said. With only 150 calories, a single can of the condensed soup has more than a whole day’s recommended sodium for most Americans.

“It’s a very unique recipe,” Dr. Dowdie said. “Consumers of chicken noodle, they love it and they know it and they have a strong bond with it. And any slight change they will recognize.”

It is a unique recipe. It’s insanely salty! When I make my own chicken soup – chicken breasts, potatoes, carrots, celery, onion, garlic, chives, the only salt that goes in the whole big pot is the 2-3 boullioun cubes I put in (and those are plenty salty). There might be a bit in the chicken as well from the processing. But I’m certainly not puckering my lips for the last bit of soup when I make it from all the salt.

Kellogg said that lower salt guidelines were “incompatible with a palatable diet.”

I guess my diet isn’t palatable then. But it does seem like all this processed food is killing taste buds. It took me over a year after returning from Brasil where I ate home prepared meals every day, before I found American processed food “palatable” again. There’s just really something about making it at home without all the processing and added salt that really makes it taste good. Lower salt guidelines aren’t incompatible with a palatable diet, they’re incompatible with a lazy diet.

And as for this statement:

reducing salt in bread was difficult

I’ve found it quite easy actually. There is no salt in my baked goods, no increased sugar either, and I’ve only ever gotten compliments on my baking.

We don’t even have a salt shaker in our home. (Brett thinks he wants one though.) There’s more than enough salt in the food we buy that there’s no need to add any more.

So, salt of the earth, salt of my kitchen. My favorite salt is the Dead Sea bath salts Brett got me for our wedding. Now that’s some good salt. Relaxing rather than causing hypertension. 😉

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I’m not who you think I am

1 June 2010, 7:28 am by Giggles
Categories: Life, Musings

I’ve written previously about how I try to orchestrate a lot of the assumptions people might make about me. I even did a flowchart about how I explain what it is I’m studying. That card is one of the first I play whenever I’m introducing myself to people. Because I know if they have that as a foundation, later cards will lead to different assumptions than if I played them earlier.

One card that I really hold back playing is that I’m a newlywed. If I can help it, it’s the last thing someone learns about me. The fact that I’m married is an earlier card. The fact that I’m recently married is a whole different thing.

Because what comes to mind when you think of newlyweds? I’ll give you a minute to think.

{pause for quiet thinking time}

Is the picture you came up with anything like a blubbering 20-year-old who has no grasp on reality? Someone who the Seriously, so blessed! blog is parodying? (Warning: Only read that blog if you are prepared to poke your eye out with a fork) That’s the stereotype. It’s a strong stereotype. And it’s the reason I don’t tell people I’m a newlywed.

The stereotype says newlyweds are too optimistic, annoyingly so even. They, by the fact that they’re just married, have not experienced any trials in life that would help them understand the real world. I recently heard a woman say that unless you’ve been up and sleep deprived with a baby then you cannot know what life is about. After giving her the stink eye and thinking through all the trials I’ve had in my life that have taught me so much and didn’t involve a baby, trials that she will never have by the simple fact that her life and mine are different (and yet I might have those up late with the baby trials eventually too, so I’ll have more trials than her!), I realized that was pride. So I kept my mouth shut.

But that’s the point. We all have different lives. We all have different trials. Experiencing one set of trials at one point in your life doesn’t make you any better than someone who has a different set at a different time.

My life has been rich and full, and not just with trials. As I move from one stage of my life to the next my perspective does change. But it cannot change to match the perspective of another because my life is not theirs. I can have empathy, but I cannot be the exact same as someone else because my life has influenced my perspective just as their life has influenced theirs. And I am not them.

Along with perspective issues are projecting issues. When trying to understand human behavior it is easiest to simply project our ideas, trials, life, and even perspective, onto others who we don’t understand or even know. “They must be thinking this way about that subject because that’s how I think about it.” Yet very little good can come out of this. I used to project my expectations and problems on to people around me and then I would get upset at them when they couldn’t live up to my personal expectations. It made me a very difficult person to live with. Deciding not to do that any more was not easy. But because I do not project as much any more I also don’t hold myself to such ridiculous expectations either. That cycle of perfectionism was broken. And not projecting expectations on people any more means they have a longer time to make their own impression on me and I can get to know them rather than getting to know me in another body.

One example of this projecting problem is the phrase, “Just you wait.” Just you wait till you’ve been married longer. Just you wait till you have kids. Just you wait … . Just I wait till what? Till I’m you? Till I’m married to your husband? Till I’m raising your kid? I can wait till the cows come home (and I don’t have any cows) and I still won’t have your problems, your perspective, your life. So I’m not going to wait.

I am not the stereotype. And I do everything I can to make sure people realize that. Your perspective is not my perspective. Projecting your life on me will not make me you. You cannot know a person simply by looking at a single card in their hand.

Simply admitting you have a perspective problem or a projecting problem does not do any good at all. It might make you feel better to say, “I have this problem.” You might think it makes you look good for others, and perhaps it does. But until you actually do something to change the problem, you’ll always have it. Until you decide to be different, you’ll always be the same. Stop expecting others to have the same perspective as you. Stop projecting yourself onto others, especially me.

I’m not who you think I am. Because I’m not you.

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