things i kinda want for vegas

Spanx. But they're so expensive! But they would also basically free me from my new obsession with emergency dieting and exercising before Vegas. But I could spend the money on so many other things! Like this stuff:

New bra. Okay, this isn't just a matter of want. I really actually need a new bra. But I just have to convince myself that it will ultimately be better to have one that fits, no matter how ugly, than to waste money on a cute ill-fitting one, like so many I already own.

Sun dress/cocktail dress. I'd love to have something new to wear in the warm weather. Like this little polka dot dress or this sundress.

Shoes. Of course. I never wear any fun or fancy shoes until I go somewhere special and then I can't walk in them. But I really really want some yellow or turquoise platform pumps. So I can fall down in style.

Liquid eyeliner. I'll probably get this no matter what.

pen pal city

So I've been really into pen pals for the past month or so. I've been using a website called penpalsnow.com to find people to write to and, as of today, I've accumulated about 17 or 18 potential postal friends. Which seems like a whole heck of a lot of people to write to.

Yesterday I sent out about 15 letters to people whose addresses I already had and it turned out to be kind of a big hassle and a big expense (since my printer was out of ink and I'm broke). I'm really, really, incredibly excited, though, to get some responses in my mailbox.

I've already gotten one package from a wonderful young man in Northern Ireland. It contained, in addition to 6-page letter, an assortment of Cadbury candy bars which can only be found in the UK. And if you've never had Cadbury chocolate from the UK, you are missing out, my friend.

As with pretty much everything new I do, I am getting pretty obsessed with it and probably going overboard. I'm just really hoping that I don't get burnt out on it like I do so many other things.

Here is the most recent picture I have of myself and, even though I'm obviously wearing makeup, it's not so heaped on that you wouldn't be able to see breakouts under it. And I see only one or two breakouts, and that's if I look really, really hard. So that's how my skin is looking with the Retin-A, benzoyl peroxide, and Neutrogena cleanser. Much better.

P.S. Yes, I am totally best friends with Sage Francis. Obvi.

music monday (tuesday)

I put this video up on facebook yesterday and people really seemed to enjoy it so I thought I'd share it here. This is the same band that does "Best Song Everrr," which I think has an even cooler video than this but it's way less PG.

update on skin care

To follow up on the face cleansing routine I was doing: I gave it up.

I washed with sesame seed oil for about a week but my skin was becoming too dry so I switched over to only using honey (as a mask and as a cleanser) for the second week. As I expected, I experienced more breakouts during these first two weeks, which initially consisted pretty severe cyst-like acne and then eventually cleared up a bit with only occasional white-heads remaining. The great thing about the honey is that during the second and third week I used it, it cleared up my breakouts really quickly. The bad thing was that I was still breaking out more that I had when I was using soaps and medications, even during the third week of my new routine.

Toward the end of the third week of my all-natural cleansing trial, I started using the Retin-A gel again and a few days later I re-incorporated my benzoyl peroxide gel. About a week later, I gave up the honey entirely (the mask was a little too time consuming to do every day and simply using it as a cleanser didn't seem to be doing much) and switched back to my Neutrogena face wash. The three products I'm using now are actually working really well and my face is about as clear as it's been in years. This is exactly what I was doing before I tried the oil and honey routine so I'm not sure why it's working so much better now than it was then. Maybe my diet has improved or I'm wearing makeup more infrequently. Whatever it is, it's working.

How To Tuesday: Wear Your Hair When You Haven't Combed It

Okay. I haven't brushed my hair in four days. I stayed in for three days straight and since my hair is not easy to comb, I just let it go. Today I was running late and knew it would take forever to get all the tangles out so again, I just let it go. But since I was going to be in public, I couldn't just leave it looking like a cavewoman mane. So I put it up in a yarn messy bun, which I first learned about at A Beautiful Mess. Except this turned out to be a really messy bun.

I was running late, but not so late that I couldn't
take these pictures before getting out of the car.

The back of the bun. Reallly messy.

I just wrapped the piece of yarn around my head behind my bangs, attempted to weave it into my rat's nest of hair, and pinned it up.

Later, I took the yarn and pins out and put it into a side ponytail for some casual socializing.

It's still obviously uncombed, but both hairstyles look better than my previous totally out of control anti-hairstyle. I should also mention that after I washed it this morning, I put some olive oil in the bottom half and then partially rinsed it out in an attempt to prevent too much frizz. I think it worked as well as it could have.

So when am I planning on combing my hair?

I don't know. I'm kind of liking the gnarly side pony.

New Skin Care Routine: Day 2

I have to admit, it's a little embarrassing for me to put up pictures of myself without makeup and with the camera pointed specifically to capture my acne. But I want to show the realities of this new skin care regimen. Here I am with my second honey mask of the day (I decided to do one in the morning and one in the afternoon since I was home all day).

The acne still looks bad, but after washing the honey off, my face feels amazing. I guess I'm really getting into this natural cleansing stuff because I also took a shower and washed only with olive oil (I still used shampoo on my hair). Again, it physically felt good, but I don't have that clean and fresh sensation I normally do when I come out of the shower.