Sunday Snapshot

Not A Product Girl

I am not a product girl.

I did recently invest in some fancy-pants product for Little Dude’s hair.  Holy big-bill, Adoptive Mama’s.  Apparently the first question on any adoption application should be, “Are you prepared to spend the equivalent of your child’s education fund on his/her hair product?”

It is really, really, really, really hard for me to invest $25 into a bottle of co-wash only to decide it doesn’t work that great.  On the other hand, I do like product experimentation.  I am a fan of “trial-size.”  Even better than trial-size is freebies-at-friends’-houses.  If I come to your house, I will NOT bring my own shampoo or any other hair stuff.  I will want to try yours… (free trial-size in your bathroom just waiting for me).

Here is an idea… maybe I should start knocking on the doors of our African-American neighbors and asking them if we can use their bathrooms.  Then I will quickly wash/style Little Dude’s hair while they wonder what the hell we could possible be doing in there….  Pretty sure this plan will not help us fulfill our other goals of developing more friendships with African-Americans.  Which is more important, friendships with people who look similar to my son, or how my son’s hair looks???  (Another important question for an Adoption Application perhaps?)

As I said, if I do stay at your house, I will show up empty handed when it comes to my hair, but I will be toting a big jar of “Angels on Bare Skin” by Lush. It is the only product that I am loyal to in my own beauty regime.  Please do not judge the product by the way my face looks in pictures.  I assure you, my wonderful combination of wrinkles and pimples is due to the fact that I often forget to wash my face post work-out.  What my face WOULD look like without this product… well, I don’t even want to think about it.

For those of you unfamiliar with Lush, they are a U.K. company and all of their products are made with fresh ingredients.  Unfortunately, their marketing is too hip for someone like me to understand.  And they refuse to use race or really, really specific descriptions to describe what their products are best for.  So, I recently bought an $8, teeny-tiny bottle of shampoo from them that will not do anything for Little Dude’s curls.  I have since discovered if you want to actually know if their products would be good for African curls, you need to go to the Customer Review part of their website (exhausting) or get a copy of their newspaper style catalog.  (Too much work for this Mama.  However, I can assure you, I did muster up the energy to send them a complaint email with some helpful suggestions for ways they could improve their marketing materials.  You are welcome, Lush executives, er, um, team-members.)

Despite being worn-out by Lush’s hip marketing, last week I decided to do my quarterly clean out of my shower.  Yup, four times a year, no matter how tired I feel, I muster the energy to throw away the dull razors, empty shampoo bottles and slivers of nasty soap that have accumulated in my bathroom.  When I am done, I feel like a super-organized, domestic goddess.

When I was clearing off my shelf, I was going to toss my empty “jar” (actually a cardboard canister because Lush loves the rain-forest) of Angels on Bare Skin.

You know the empty container that I was using to hold up the new, full container?  And then I realized, I just couldn’t do it.  I would miss Anthony too much.

Who is Anthony?  Well, another part of Lush’s pretentious enlightened corporate culture is that any product you purchase is adorned by a sticker featuring a portrait of the employee (who I am sure they refer to as a team-member) who made/packaged it.

For about six months I have been showering with a photo of Anthony.  And, what can I say?  Anthony really knows how to make a great skin cleanser.  Anthony inspires me.

My newest jar of product was made/packaged by Leanna.  No disrespect to Leanna… she seems to be equally skilled in making product.  But somehow, she just doesn’t inspire me the way Anthony does.

Disclosure:  This post was not sponsored by Lush or by Anthony’s mother, although I am sure she is very proud of him.

Wordless Wednesday

Three Weeks To A New Habit

They say it takes three weeks to form a new habit.  According to WordPress, it has been three weeks since I posted on my blog (and that was just a Wordless Wednesday).  So, have I officially formed a new habit of not-blogging?

How much have I not-blogged?  So much that thinking about my blog is making me feel guilty.  So much that when I want to visit other people’s blogs, I do not come to my blog first so that I can jump to them through my blog roll.  I have been avoiding my blog, like a friendship I am trying to end.  Like an ex-boyfriend who is standing in the corner at a party… I don’t even want to look its way.

Another friend has also been avoiding her blog.  Apparently many of her readers care.  Apparently many of her readers sent her emails, asked if she was okay, asked if she was coming back.  I guess my blog is the proverbial tree in the forest… it fell and no one heard a sound.  Did it make a sound?

Furthermore, I don’t even know if I want to come back here.  I made some mistakes with my blog and people I know in real life.  Recently I gave the address to a few people I probably shouldn’t have.  People who have met my kids.  People I don’t know well.  Also, I wanted to write about some things here that I couldn’t because of other people that I know who read this blog (If you think I am talking about you, you are probably wrong… in the words of Carly Simon “Your So Vain.”)

So, what’s a girl to do?

I have a friend who has a “successful” blog.  She blogs fairly infrequently but she is always getting swag, not to mention amazing trips because of her online presence.  Last summer, she got to go to Colorado on a yoga and wine drinking retreat.  She doesn’t really like/do yoga.  Although she does like/do wine.  I am jealous.  Maybe I need to get one of those kinds of blogs.   But I think I would want to start over.  I think I would be more concerned about privacy.

Do you read blogs that don’t include photos?  I usually don’t.  I like photography.  But I think if I wanted to have a blog big enough to warrant swag I would be more concerned about privacy.

I joined a FB group for bloggers in my state.  Most of the bloggers on there are making money or at least getting lots of freebies because of their blogs.  I checked out some of their writing.  It sucked.  Really.  Not only were their blogs boring, they were poorly written.  Poorly written and NOT funny, a combination that I find unacceptable.

Also, even though I rarely edit anything I write, blogging still takes time.  Time that might be better spend reading or exercising or hanging out with my family.

So, this is an entire post about blogging.  I think one of the first posts I ever wrote was similar…. 02025 (hey, look, my dog just added to my blog.  I can’t delete that.  I think he is trying to send someone a message.)

And, I am pretty sure if I read this post back it will seem like I have been drinking… but I haven’t.  And either has my dog.

Again, I am left with the question… what’s a girl to do?

Do I have anything worth saying?  How much will I miss this community that I imagine exists here?  Where can I publish my bad Haiku?

If I do decide to shut this down, I have an idea for what I think could be a commercially successful blog.  It came to me yesterday at the gym… Sweat Stain Rorschach Test.  I can think of a million businesses who might want to sponsor that bad boy.  So, if you don’t see me around here for awhile, you’ll know where to find me.  You can probably google it.   On the other hand, you might not want to.  I thought about googling it just to see if it already exists.  But I was afraid.  Anyone brave enough to google that, go for it, and get back to me.