Labels Hurt

Took a little over nighter to the Big Salt Lake City.  It was my darling's birthday.  (I saw a motel called The OverNiter and that really got me going.)  We stayed at my favorite hotel.  Staying at a hotel makes me feel ultra-important in general.  Like I have a story. It's deep and complicated. And traveling is all a part of the aura.
It's kinda like when I was in high school and my choir group would go to to the air port and sing during Christmas time.  (Are you getting the picture of the kind of teen I was.) After we sang for 45 minutes or so we had the rest of the day to spend... at the airport.  Nothing like a day pretending to be on stand by.  My other choir members would eat at the airport restaurants or grab a Cinnabon or buy Cosmo and give each other the twenty quizzes that are in those things. But my favorite thing to do was to get on the moving walkways and pretend I was about to miss my flight.  I'd pass others and gently touch their arm with an urgent "Excuse me" or pass them and pretend to stumble, catch myself, and turn around and wave a "Merry Christmas!"  I'd stare at my (empty) wrist and then pick up my pace.  Ha!  I felt so important.  Staying at a hotel makes me feel that same way.  No one knows my back story.  I'm just a twenty-something, independent traveler.  With mysterious eyes.
 I love going into the bathroom and seeing all the toiletries lined up and the origami towels. There were at least 15 stacked up and then two nice big thick ones on each rack.  They had the washrags shaped as fans and even the toilet paper was folded creatively.  Oh the rapture of staying in a hotel!  I picked up the dainty body of body wash and it read "Cleanse."  I breathed deeper.... yes.... cleanse.  I picked up the lotion "Moisturize."  Another exhale...Mmmmmm....Moisturize!  I picked up the mouthwash "Refresh."  All these brilliantly labeled little bottles were transporting me to another realm of tranquility.  I picked up the bar of soap.  It read:

Clean Your Face.

Zzzzzwwwwzzzzpppp!

Back to reality.  Clean Your Face?  That doesn't sound nice.   It doesn't quite roll off the tongue like cleanse and refresh and moisturize.  When I read it... my mind added to it.  As if the mini bar of soap was talking to me.  "Clean Your Face You Filthy Bum!  Try to look presentable- You're in Public!"  I looked in the mirror.  I wasn't a international traveler with oodles of rupees and mysterious eyes.  (Certainly dancing eyes but in no way mysterious.)  I had Kole on my hip.  He smelled pretty... stale.  And he had drooled a considerable amount on my shoulder.  My hair was frizzy from the rain and half up half down.  My shirt was all stretched out.  My makeup had been rubbed almost totally off.

And I did indeed needed to clean my face. 

I just don't know why I had to be told so bluntly.


Trying something a little new here:
Want to win ad space on The Bloggess? Link up your best post at lovelinks on free fringes like I did!

Because Mini Goals Make Me Feel Better

I had to add 22 more things to my list.  Got some inspirations SLASH copied some ideas from The Thumber.  Her bucket list is incredible.  I am normally anti-bucket list because so many are so generic.  Go skydiving, climb a mountain, smell a rose blah blah, blah blah, blah blah.  But The Thumber's Bucket List?  Very detailed and thought out and is going to involve some mighty hefty airfares.  Love that.
I still refuse to make my own bucket list.
I have a little under 80 days for my 26 Before 27.  79 to be exact.  I think this is the jolt my life battery needed.  I may have overshot here a bit.  But failures are fun to post about too.  So, please bring the envelope....

Thank you.

And the list is:

1. Dye my own hair
2. Knit a scarf
3. Decorate a cake
4. Go swing dancing with Ken
5. Golf 18 holes
6. Retry the foods I don’t like (tomatoes are done...yuck.  Mushrooms are done..pretty good!)
7. Hike the Menan Butte
8. Introduce myself to one new person a week
9. Watch “Casablanca," “Citizen Kane,” and "An Affair to Remember"
10. Get 27 blog followers
11. Start a Gratitude Journal
12. Complete a DIY project
13. Go to the Hogle Zoo
14. Do one act of service per week
15. Cook all weekend meals for Ken (this oughtta be funny)
16. Finish “Gone Away Lake” (This is the only book I have started and not finished.  I started it in 3rd grade.  It's still haunting me!  Gotta track it down)
17. Plant a tree
18. Write a letter to the president (heck.  I'll even mail it.)
19. Play piano solo
20. Read 5 (more) books
21. Begin aggressive treatment for the Graves and The Tumor
22. Run the Firecracker 5k (...eeeks.  I already wish I didn't put this one down.)
23. Switch to homemade bread
24. Start my own savings account
25. Gift a magazine subscription  (I love getting a magazine every month.  I want someone else to feel that happy.....  but whom?)
26. Get my idea patented (And no I am not telling you what my great idea is. You'll just steal it.)

Another Check Mark Please!

So DIY is really in vogue right now.  I think my generation is creative and resourceful and proud of who they are. I haven't jumped on the DIY wagon (or the coupon wagon or the hair bow wagon or the bead wagon).  It's a pretty fancy and full wagon.  There's not a lot of room for under qualified beginners.  I've secretly tried my hand at a couple of my own little projects and they have turned to disasters.  So I am a BIY person.  Buy It Yourself.  My sister, Julia, on the other hand.  Whoa.  She's got it down.  She can do like 8 projects a week for close to no cash and have a house that looks like a amazing. Sigh. Jealous. It looks like she's a BIY but she's a DIY.  Sigh.  Again.  Jealous.  Again.

Now,  I'm no pro.  I'm just getting started.  But I did my own little project over the weekend.

It's a FUZZY VELVET POSTER!  I love these.  You can never go out of the lines.

These yellow and green fish were my favorite.  I really took some time and tested some palettes before I colored them.  I think the time and thought put into them is evident.

I think this can go on my check list for 26 Before 27.  A DIY project.  Voila!  Done.