Three Things I Did This Week

1. Watched my friends make strangers dance.

2. Had breakfast with Ryan and Tish.

3. Came up with a recipe for honey lattes.

How To Keep Yourself From Cutting Your Hair

If you're anything like me and every single girl that I know, you're trying to grow your hair out. Aren't you? If you're not trying to grow your hair long, then you're clearly not a very active Pinterest participator.
I'm not a very patient person and I really am starting to wonder if my hair will ever grow any longer than it is right now, but the only way to know is to keep waiting. And the only way to keep waiting is to change it in ways that do not involve scissors. So the other day I had a whim. I'd ombre my hair again. Sure, I can do it myself, why not? I've seen a Youtube tutorial. I got this. So I went to Wallgreens, picked up a box of bleach and got to work.

I finished my project in two phases but could have gone for three if I'd had the time/ wanted to risk it. If anyone decides to do this, invite me over and I'll use a little of your leftover bleach to lighten my very ends some more.

Basically we're going dark on top to light on the bottom in a very messy and imperfect way--which is great because that's truly the only way that I get anything accomplished.

1. In preparation, I parted my hair in the way that I ordinarily do and then I separated it into three sections just to keep myself fairly organized. A more professional lady would have used those long clip things but I am no fancy lady with proper tools. So I come out of this phase with pig-tails. One on each side and then I left the back undone.

2. I mixed up the bleach according to the directions and started applying it in the back, first, and then moved towards the front. Don't forget that you're only doing the ends. For my hair, I didn't go any higher than the tops of my ears. It's important to remember that this is a decidedly imperfect project and if you keep your lines too straight and even, you might come out looking... not weird but it's certainly not the look you're going for. So don't be afraid to just get in there and give your hair a good smooshing. Really coat it in the stuff. 3. Once your hair is saturated, pull it back in a bun and forget about it until you smell something burning get bored and check to see if it's lightened at all. My box gave me explicit directions to not go over 60 minutes. I guess I probably left it on for 40 before I rinsed it out. I let my hair air dry because I had all day and also because I didn't want to do anymore damage than was absolutely necessary.

4. Once your hair is dry, phase two (and phase three if you so choose) is an absolute replica of phase one only instead of using the tops of my ears as a guide, I used the bottoms of my ears as a guide. And also I pulled a little through my bangs and other spots where I thought the line of difference was a little too straight. 5. Instead of pulling my hair back into a bun and getting bleach all over everything, I just made sure it was really, really soaked and then just made little twisty dreads to hold it in place and then watched two episodes of New Girl so, yeah, about 40 minutes again. And voila!

You can do it! It takes about three hours, $13, and that deep conditioning masque that you bought and never ever use (or you could make this one that I've been meaning to try but have just never quite gotten around to). Break it out and be kind to your hair for a while--it's been through a lot.

My Spirit Animal is a 7th Grader in 1996 Named Traci Who Dots Her "i" With a Heart.

You! Guys! I got tagged in a blogging game-thing! My friend Staci from the aptly named My Friend Staci tagged me and asked a bunch of questions that I'm more than thrilled to answer because I love to talk about myself. Just ask anyone, really.
I was going to write another post, today, but perhaps I'll just work a little harder on that one as something like this is a welcome relief from the editing, reworking and confidence battering that sometimes comes from doing a project post. And so we'll begin with The Rules:


The Rules:

1. You must post the rules.
2. Post eleven fun facts about yourself on the blog post.
3. Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post, and then create eleven new questions to ask the people you’ve tagged.
4. Tag eleven people and link them on your post.
5. Let them know you’ve tagged them!

Eleven Fun Facts (do not forget that "fun" is a relative word):

1. I have finally become the type of person who loves to wake up at 6:30.
2. I recently discovered that raw zucchini is just plain delicious. Raw yellow squash--not so much.
3. If PMS didn't exist, I could be a vegetarian so easily. But sometimes bacon cheeseburgers.
4. Visiting the Fjords of Norway: still on my very short bucket list.
5. I have no desire to visit anywhere that is even vaguely tropical. 
6. For years, I have been practicing saying exactly what I mean as long as I know what that is. It is still an every day challenge. 
7. I misspell the following words at every single attempt: vacuum, ridiculous, definitely, refrigerator, and knowledgeable.
8. I. Hate. Poop. Jokes.
9. Cherries are my favorite anything. Maraschino. Black. Bing. Jolly Ranchers? You name it.
10. Your septum piercing makes me think of industrial boogers.
11. My favorite go-to meal when I don't want to think too hard is pasta, jarred artichokes, chopped tomatoes, garlic salt, red pepper flakes and olive oil. Sometimes I'll add chicken if I have enough foresight/ leftovers. 

Questions that Staci asked me:

1. Do you have a signature (or simply favorite) perfume? What kind is it? I've been looking for that scent for a while, now. I don't want to be a walking Scentsy advertisement or anything but ever since I tried their solid perfume in Enchanted Mist, I've been a in love. It stays on all day and sometimes even longer. I wear it behind my ears and inside my elbows (if I wear it on my wrists, it will get washed off in no time). That's also the smell that I have in my car, too.
2. If you had to pick one song to be your ringtone–FOREVER–what would it be? My ringtone has been Elliot Smith's Waltz #2 for several months, now. I like it a lot. My phone rings so rarely that I never get sick of it and it's far from embarrassing if people hear it in public. I know, I know. Pretentious people will ask, "how could you use Elliot Smith as a ringtone?" Well, just calm down already.
3. Favorite kind of shoe? Hands down, my favorite shoe is the slipper that looks so much like an everyday moccasin that I can wear slippers to work and no one can tell that my feet are warm and cozy.
4. What was your favorite subject? (any grade, k-12) I loved art class. We didn't have art past the fourth grade because of budget cuts and maybe our art teacher hooked up with a student? Or something? I don't know. Anyway--I didn't get to draw anymore after 4th grade.
5. Do you enjoy exercising? Do you actually exercise? I enjoy certain parts of exercising. I like walking because it gets me out of my house. I hate running because I don't like pounding my feet on the ground. Which leads me to the elliptical which I would do all day long if my legs didn't eventually turn into jello. Do I actually exercise? No, I do not because I went through a can't-afford-my-Y-membership phase and let that lapse and it's been too cold to take comfortable walks at night. I would love to get myself an elliptical machine, though.
6. Favorite season? Autumn. If I could live somewhere that it was autumn all of the times, where would that be?
7. How often do you go out to eat? Where? On average, I'd say that I go out to eat not that often. Every couple of weeks? But this week my kitchen has been a wreck and I haven't had all that much time to take care of it so I just end up grabbing something when I'm out. Which I actually hate to do because I love to cook. When Ryan and I want to eat out, we'll usually grab Chinese takeout and get a movie (helloooo Valentine's night) or get hot dogs from Sonic and then take them to the park to eat them. When I want to impress people with our small-town fare, I take them to Amics.
   
8. If you had to donate all your money to one charity, which would you choose? Oh! I want to split it up! But if I had to give it all to one, I'd give it to the Liz Logelin foundation which helps out families who have just lost a parent. There are families who find themselves in times of financial crises after the death of a spouse or parent every single day. Having been in a similar situation, I know that's a terrible burden to bear at a time when how to pay the rent should be the last thing on your mind. The Liz Logan foundation swoops in to help out needy families at a most critical time.
9. Name a detail that you always notice that most people overlook (nice paper, clean cars–something like that). Texture. In clothes or decorating or paper--I don't really care too much about color combinations or patterns but I love mixing textures. My rough, holey jeans and a silk shirt or a bouquet of feathers in a glass vase.
10. Most-used tool in your makeup bag? Aside from my own fingers, which I do not keep in a bag, I suppose it would have to be my eyelash curler.
11. One cherished memory.  I'm thinking about the first time that I ever hung out with Ryan one-on-one after moving here. I was very new to town but it was his 29th birthday and he wanted to go take pictures of the meteor shower and asked if I'd want to tag along. So, I was terribly shy and didn't say much to him at all. At all. But we drove out to the cemetery very late at night and laid out a blanket and he took lots of pictures and I laid there, quiet and thinking, "I would be a lucky girl to fall in love with this boy some day." Cut to two years later and he's the one sitting with me on my couch every night.

Questions for Kellory, Deanna, Jamie, Sarah (who doesn't blog often but will do it for me), and Hilah (even though my boyfriend told me that Hilah's too famous and cool for this--dream big, Libby):

1. What age do you most look forward to?
2. Have you ever wanted to go by a different name? What would you have chosen?
3. What is your favorite go-to meal for an easy week night at home?
4. What is the most recent book that you loved?
5. When was the first time that you were certain that you were in love?
6. What is your favorite thing about your home?
7. Last impulse decision that turned out to be a great idea?
8. What's your usual at a bar? At a coffee shop?
9. What do you do in order to get the creativity flowing?
10. How often do you vacuum/ sweep the floor?
11. What are your thoughts on nail art? Zooey Deschanel loves it but does that mean that I have to?

Alright. That's everything, I do believe.
I love this kind of stuff because my spirit animal is a 7th grader in 1996 named Traci who dots her "i" with a heart.

Stick around, my next post is a How-To and it includes this picture:

All of my love,
Libs

Quantity vs Quality IRL

Yesterday as I was driving to work, I was listening to a discussion on NPR about how the rate of living alone has gone up significantly in recent years (it should be noted that the gentleman in question was talking big-picture so "recent years" means, since the 1950's). It used to be that when a marriage ended, due to divorce or death, a person would move in with family. These days, people are choosing to go it alone.

A caller expressed a concern that people are becoming more and more isolated--especially with the advent of so many fancy-schmancy digital devices that keep people connected so much. She feared that while human beings are social creatures, we're doing our best to unintentionally isolate ourselves more and more. That things like Facebook and other social media are pulling us out of even the real life settings in which we find ourselves.

The gentleman said that is a very common observation and that there have been some studies done on this very subject (I'm sorry that I can't give you more source material than "NPR" and "The Gentleman" but it's a very short drive to work). Obviously, the information is very new and constantly evolving but according to research, a person who is active in forms of social media--someone who is constantly connected to their iPhone and their Facebook account is actually more likely to approach a stranger in a social setting than most people were 10 years ago.

And I found that fascinating. Because, on the surface, yeah--it does look like that. Like, we're surrounded by a room full of people and everyone's looking at a tiny screen instead of one another. I was at a Super Bowl party the other night and almost everyone was looking into their iPhone--commenting on one another's Facebook statuses, pictures and comments even though we were all in the room. We could have all had that conversation in real life. But it was a fun, under the table discussion--two conversations at once.

So I guess my question is... are we becoming less social or more social? It's hard to tell.
Ten years ago, we'd have to stay home and wait by the phone to talk to a friend. Right now, we can go do whatever we want. Be with whomever we choose whenever we like--and still not miss that appointment with the other friend. We can stay connected. We can mix business and pleasure.

Are we getting quantity and the cost of quality? I honestly don't know. I just haven't stopped thinking about it since yesterday and so I thought I'd see what you guys think about it.