Random acts of kindness

(this post is dedicated to my Twitter friend @paulvharris to whom I committed to performing some random act of kindness today)

ever get the brilliant idea you’re going to randomly do something kind for someone — anyone really — and then you can’t find a single opportunity to do anything? it’s more than a little discouraging, kinda the whole “a watched pot never boils” thing. BUT, kindness doesn’t always have to be an obvious act of service; sometimes it’s as simple as a smile and a kind word. that I did do today: I had to go to Walmart (an errand I will generally do almost anything short of root canal to avoid), and as I walked in I noticed one of the greeters, an older gentleman, pulling carts out of the long trains in the bay and putting them out where shoppers could get to them easily. I truly appreciated this simple gesture that relieved me from the usual obligatory wrestling match w/the nearest cart train, so I did the obvious thing: I said “thank you!” w/a smile. he seemed surprised, stopped, then smiled back and said “you’re welcome!”

it’s never possible to know how one simple little act can affect someone.

several years ago I was at church one Sunday when I felt impressed to go over and give one of the other ladies there a hug — she wasn’t someone I knew especially well myself, altho’ she was a friend of our family. ignoring the nagging little voice in my head that was trying to convince me that she might think I’m weird, I walked over to C, smiled and said, “you look like you could use a hug,” gave her a big squeezy hug, then simply walked back over to where I’d been sitting. THREE YEARS LATER she still mentioned that hug in conversation w/my parents; I could never have guessed that following that inspiration that day would make such an impression on this woman.

next time you get the urge to perform a random act of kindness, if you find yourself lacking in any opportunities for service, try just doing something really basic: smile at someone, say “thank you” and mean it, hug someone, just be polite to people you talk to. you might be surprised at (or then again, you may never know) how big an impression such “little” things can make.

 

100 strokes

old-fashioned wisdom from before grandma’s time was that brushing your hair w/100 strokes every day is good for your hair. having incorporated this practice into my own daily routine, I can see a couple of distinct benefits.

for starters, I can go 4 days w/o washing my hair (I simply shower w/o shampooing) b/c the oils that would typically accumulate at my scalp (which is what attracts dirt and often makes unwashed hair look “greasy”) are distributed along the length of my hair by brushing — today is day #4 between shampoos, and my hair is just now starting to look the tiniest bit oily around the front sides, just above my ears. I should note that I’ve been using a nylon bristle brush w/very widely spaced bristles, not a natural bristle brush w/dense bristles, which might yield even better results b/c the denser brush would logically do a better job distributing oils along the hair shaft. also, I’m pretty sure it helps that my hair is past my shoulders; I doubt that women w/short hair would derive much benefit from the 100 strokes/day routine b/c there’s just less hair for the oils to be distributed along. I think it also helps that I colour my hair, which does open up the hair shaft and dry hair out, no matter how healthy or natural the colourants you use, so my hair “drinks in” the oil that’s distributed by brushing, helping to keep my hair lubricated and soft (who cares how fabulous your colour is if your hair itself looks like straw?).

other benefits I’ve noticed: shampooing my hair less often means my colour lasts longer; I use less colour-depositing shampoo and conditioner, making them last longer; and I use less water, which is good for both my utility bill and the environment.

I’ve also noticed that I’m not shedding all over creation, since the extensive brushing sessions seem to do a pretty good job removing hairs that are ready to come out anyway. this might end up being very good news for our vacuum, which DH has to routinely half-disassemble to give the beater bar a “haircut” b/c of all of the accumulated long hair that gets wrapped around it. (attractive, huh? LOL)

there’s a potential downside here, tho’, at least for me: my thick hair already grows so flippin’ fast that stimulating my scalp and hair follicles by brushing my hair 100 strokes every day could possibly make my hair grow a) faster, b) thicker, or — worst case scenario — c) both. guess we’ll just have to wait and see…

 

“No man is an island”

I spent 3 hours — yes, HOURS — trying to get home from downtown SLC yesterday (left my appointment around 4:30pm, finally got home shortly after 7:30pm). traffic was moving slowly but not so slowly that I could use my iPhone to check local news for info on why traffic was so jammed up, even on side roads; from what I could tell from snippets of local radio traffic reports, there had been an accident on I-15 around 80th South that was backing up traffic all the way to the Spaghetti Bowl (up around 21st South, several miles north of the crash) and secondary roads as well. it wasn’t until later that I got more info about what had happened: Fatal Rollover Accident Halts Traffic on I-15 Near 8000 South (KSTU-Fox13) (sorry, I can’t embed video on my blog unless I shell out ~$60/yr for a video upgrade, and I’m just too cheap to do that LOL) — turns out it was actually multiple accidents at several points along I-15 South, all caused by one man who was killed in the last accident.

this is one of those extreme examples that illustrates how everything we do can oftentimes reach much further than we can even imagine. I have no idea why this man died, but even as he lost his life those accidents affected the lives of literally tens of thousands of other people who never knew him and whom he never knew. it’s not just people we know and who know us who feel the ripples of our life.

 

Thank a vet!

today’s post is short, sweet, and to the point:

If you love your 16-theatre movie megaplexes, sprawling shopping malls, and all-night fast food places, thank a vet. If you love disagreeing w/people who have political views that oppose your own (particularly if they happen to hold a government office), thank a vet. If you love waking up in the morning knowing — not hoping, but KNOWING without any doubt — that none of your loved ones “mysteriously” disappeared in the middle of the night, thank a vet.

To all of our men and women in uniform, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.

 

Games people play

I’m one of those wacky people who plays “The Price Is Right” w/myself while I’m standing in line at the grocery store. I’ve done it for as long as I can remember, and honestly it’s a fond recollection of time spent as a child w/my maternal grandmother, watching people go completely bonkers b/c they guessed the right price of a bottle of wiper fluid. {G} over the years I’ve gotten quite good at guesstimating the value of the contents of my shopping cart (and no, I don’t add up purchase prices in my head, either) and usually guess within ~$5 of the actual total w/o going over (and any true TPIR fan knows how important that is). am I the only nutter who does this? lol

 

Purple passion

I’ve been looking for a new purse for a few months now after I wore out my old Nine West mini-shopper (loved it, used it every day, but it wasn’t in BAD condition so I donated it to DI, Utah’s version of Goodwill). I don’t usually care for hobo-style bags, but 2 things about this Kathy Van Zeeland Heartbeat Hobo sucked me in: 1) the price — I got it for more than 50% of retail on Amazon; and 2) the colour — for some reason I’ve been craving a rich purple w/a fun effect like patent or metallic, and this totally fit the bill. I also love the chunky hardware and the stud accents. I haven’t actually had to go anywhere yet today so I’ve yet to use it to comment on its functionality, but judging from the interior pockets and the lack of things to interfere w/access (like the chunky lock that flops over the top of my Chloe knock-off satchel — LOVE the bag, horribly inconvenient for everyday use), it looks like it’ll get a lot of use.

 

Dishwasher woes

our dishwasher is broken: dishwashers don’t like being left in disuse for very long, usually a couple of weeks MAX; I’ve no idea how long this one sat unused before we moved in, but it was long enough for an expensive part (why in heaven’s name isn’t it ever a cheap part??) to seize up and stop working. so I’ve been living w/o a dishwasher for 2+ wks now, and I have to admit this brief period of deprivation has made me a lot more appreciative of how very spoiled I am, not having to wash dishes by hand every night. the dishwasher repair guy is supposed to be here between 2-4pm today (he’s got 20 mins before he’s late, bah), and I solemnly promise that I will take good care of my dishwasher once she’s fixed, making sure she doesn’t feel neglected by giving her plenty to do every day (okay, every OTHER day — you have any idea how hard it is to dirty up an entire dishwasher-load of dishes w/just 3 people eating meals at home most of the time?). I’ll also buy a dishpan and a back-up pair of gloves. but don’t tell her I said that.

 

Halloween etiquette?

when I was growing up, trick or treating was limited to houses w/porch lights on: porch light = welcome, no porch light = don’t bother us. it was simple, straightforward, and easy to explain to even the littlest goblins. apparently in Utah that rule doesn’t apply, as I had trick or treaters ringing my doorbell starting at 6:10pm, when I was still finishing dinner preparations. I wasn’t going to answer the door — I was BUSY — but of course my kids couldn’t leave it alone, GRRR.

also, I was rather surprised that my doorbell rang at 10pm — more trick or treaters (older kids). aren’t there rules about 6-9pm kind of being the “normal” times for trick or treating? if you’re old enough to be out trick or treating at 10pm, you’re old enough to be out somewhere at a Halloween party, so go away and leave me and my doorbell alone.

am I the only person (at least in Utah) who thinks porch lights are visual cues for trick or treaters? do y’all have generally accepted time for trick or treating? are there any “common” rules where you live?

 

Soup weather!

t’would appear Fall has officially arrived in Utah, w/cool daytime temps and downright chilly nights (even frost in the mornings!), and for me that signals the opening of Soup Season. two of our family faves — Pumpkin & Broccoli Chowder, and Chicken Tortilla Soup — have been added to “My Favourite Recipes,” not only b/c they belong there, but b/c I’ve had requests for those recipes and figured this w/b the easiest way to share (pls remember that newest recipes are at the bottom of the page). if you do try these recipes, pls post a comment and LMK what you think — enjoy!

 

Life as a butterfly

so after my metamorphosis from “girl-next-door blonde w/eyes that practically disappeared into my face w/o makeup” to “edgy redhead w/lush lashes,” there’s definitely been a learning curve re: all of the maintenance that goes into this level of artifice (the many years I had artificial nails were a doddle compared to this, HA! I wonder how long it takes butterflies to get used to their wings… but I digress):

for starters, I used to rub my eyes a LOT, esp when not wearing makeup; had to break that habit PDQ so I didn’t start ripping out my lash extensions. also had to learn how to press water out of my eyelashes when I shower. to make things even more interesting, I’m a very light sleeper and the least little bit of light is very disruptive for me, so I have to sleep w/an eye mask: no problems there w/my lash extensions (thank goodness! me + sleep deprivation = SCARYBAD). oh, and taking eye makeup off is now a major production, almost as much as putting it on the first place, since I have to use q-tips to remove eye and under-eye makeup to avoid getting clumps of cotton tangled in my lashes from cotton balls; fortunately taking my makeup off is seldom as time-sensitive as putting it on. I still use my HG Victoria’s Secret makeup remover (sold only in their retail beauty stores) since it’s an oil-free makeup remover that won’t dissolve the lash adhesive — it’s a similar formulation to Clinique or Neutrogena, just w/different silicones. I’ve also discovered that, since my natural lashes are so light, I won’t be able to go more than ~2-1/2 weeks between fills b/c my lashes start looking really sparse. I was very grateful that my eyes seemed to recover very quickly this time from the irritation of having the lash extensions applied (I’m not sure if it’s the adhesive on the tape that’s used to keep my lower lashes out of the way or if it’s the lash adhesive itself).

as for the red hair, I know it’s a high-maintenance colour, and I knew I’d be in for a lot of work; there’s surprisingly less work involved than I thought there would be. I only wash my hair every 3 days now instead of every other day (washing it more frequently would dull the colour more quickly, not to mention strip my hair of its natural oils and make it look like straw, like so many other women I see w/processed hair — no thx!) I do use Aveda’s Madder Root Conditioner (I wash my hair FIRST now and then leave the conditioner in for the rest of my shower), but I haven’t shelled out yet for their Madder Root Shampoo b/c it’s only sold in 1L sizes anymore and that just seemed like an awful LOT of shampoo if I ended up not being crazy about the colour. as it is, I loved the almost burgundy colour I started out with, but my acting coach informed me that I risk pigeon-holing myself in certain types of roles if I go with an “artistic” colour vs a natural-looking colour — I guess in Hollywood nobody cares if your hair colour isn’t natural as long as it LOOKS natural (oh, the irony!)… anyway, since I’m having my colour touched up this weekend I’ll be going for more of a flaming Irish red, kind of Isla Fisher meets Maureen O’Hara. I also let my hair air dry whenever possible (used to do that before colouring my hair), but if I have to blow it dry I still spritz it pretty generously w/Aveda’s Brilliant Damage Control to help protect my hair and the colour from heat styling (esp since my WetLine Pro straightener heats up to ~400F). so the only things that have changed for my hair care routine are my conditioner (and probably my shampoo) and having to get the colour retouched every ~8-10 weeks. not so hard to manage, even for a total hair colour neophyte.