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Mask Obsession

For years I have searched for the perfect mask, trying a whole slew of different kinds – mud masks (one that I really loved has been discontinued for ages), a cucumber/avocado one that smelled awful and took forever to dry…I’ve even tried peel off masks, but found that they were just too much work.  Then, a few months ago I had an idea.  I’ve been obsessed with The Body Shop for a long time – about ninety-nine percent of my makeup comes from there with the exception of mascara and a couple lipglosses.  So, if I feel that strongly about their makeup, why not try one of their masks.

I was really looking for a clay mask, but since they don’t have one, I decided to go for something completely different.  My first attempt was their Vitamin E Sink-In Moisture Mask.  As a mask, I was not completely thrilled with it, particularly due to the fact that it does not require any rinsing off, seeing as how it is a sink-in mask (of which I did not realize when I picked it up from the store).  The first time I used it, I felt like it would make my skin oily.  The second time, I put on a thinner layer before I went to bed, and when I woke up the next morning my skin was softer and the dry spots were noticeably less dry.  I liked the results, but it felt more like a night cream than a mask, so, back to The Body Shop I went, this time choosing their Seaweed Ionic Clay Mask (which I had been avoiding because I wasn’t sure about the seaweed aspect), even going insofar as purchasing a foundation brush with which to apply it.  Two days later, I tried it, and I instantly fell in love.  It didn’t smell awful, dried quickly (a lot quicker than I’m used to) and left my skin super soft.  I’ve used it once a week since, and every time I do I’m in awe over the level of softness and healthy glow.  It’s simply amazing, and just another reason for my obsession with The Body Shop to continue.

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“Looking back we should have taken photographs…of all the unhappiness…coz now my mind’s playing tricks on me…I forget we’re not meant to be.”

–Katy Perry, Vogue, July 2013

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A “Working” Summer

This past weekend, I found myself with quite a bit of work to do, which, unfortunately will be taking up the majority of my summer.  The two classes that I am taking to complete my certificate both require a ton of reading…more than I had anticipated.  I had tried to continue reading for pleasure, but after attempting a not-so-great book that I have basically given up on (I haven’t touched it in about a week), I realized that my time (mind) needs to be devoted to these classes.  So, last weekend, when my boyfriend had plans to do a few things with his dad in Long Island, I tagged along…and so did my work.

I woke up Saturday morning, exercised (a new routine I recently started that I’m obsessed with, but more on that later), had breakfast and made a quick trip to CVS (nail polish emergency).  Then I slathered on sunscreen, threw on a bikini, and headed outside to sit by the pool and do a massive amount of reading.  The thought in my head was, if I have to work, I might as well sit outside and get a little color while doing it. After all, I was a mere two and a half (now two) weeks away from my trip to Florida with Billy, and I needed a base so that I don’t burn.  I had a manuscript of two-hundred-plus pages that I needed to become familiar with – an editing project for one of my classes – and I was determined to get a chunk of it read.  I had brought a couple magazines with me to leaf through if I needed a break, but I quickly decided that they would be the reward for later, and they were banished along with my phone to a table far-far-away from me.  I had trouble settling down at first, but after a quick dip in the pool and a few sips of a lime-o-rita (sooo delicious), I got to work. 

The next day, I went to a morning yoga class – an hour and a half long – then grabbed a latte and walked home.  Once again, I spent much of the day on my assignments (a pretty blah weekend if you ask me), going back-and-forth between the manuscript and a take-home exam.  I was alone for most of the day, which was good because I was able to work with few distractions, and accomplished a lot.  After another day of countless hours at work (on the weekend), I treated myself to froyo, and then had some wine in the backyard with a few friends, until the bugs drove us away. 

Yesterday I came home to a box from Amazon with two books.  I was excited for a moment, but then remembered that they needed to be put aside until after I’m done with my classes (we’ll see how long that lasts).  They have been added to a pile along with the two books that I picked up from a late Barnes & Noble run last week.  Sadly, it seems as if it will not be a summer full of reading for enjoyment…although I fully plan on taking a book down with me when I go away in two weeks.

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Protect Your Skin

Normally, I’m ecstatic when it comes to the beginning of summer, and though I do find myself overjoyed at the prospect of not having to wear a jacket for the next few months, among other things, this year I also am finding myself a bit cautious.  Yes, the sun is good for you in some ways – it uplifts your mood and provides you with a natural dose of vitamin D – but it is bad for you as well – sun spots, wrinkles, skin cancer.  Skin cancer is more common than you think; I recently read an article that stated that it is the most common form of cancer in the United States.  So, other than hiding away from the sun, which seems a bit dramatic and saddening (although I have considered it this year), investing in a good sunscreen is important.

My favorite thing about summer has always been the sun (I loathe the humidity), the warmth of it against my skin, the golden glow it leaves on me.  I lived for those beautiful sunny days that boasted the perfect temperature for a beach adventure – carefully following the weather forecast so I would not miss a day.  I would take off during the week on one of those “perfect days,” travel to the beach and spend hours laying in the sun.  The beach was my meditation.  I would be sure to pack water and something to eat along with my towel and magazines (to read on the train-ride there and back), and of course sunscreen.  Years ago, I was at the beach on a cloudy day and ended up severely burned (my ears blistered).  I hadn’t put on any sunscreen because I thought I would be safe…but I had been wrong.  Aside from the bright red shade that I was, and the obvious damage that I had done to my skin, I remember how painful it was, how I couldn’t sleep because literally my whole body was burned, and how I could barely move.  Since then, I’ve been careful, always bringing spf (I used mostly 8 or 15) with me to the beach.  I thought that I was doing good, but as it turns out, it wasn’t that much better than not wearing sunscreen at all.

Last year, the FDA regulations on sunscreen changed, and one of the things was the addition of the words “broad spectrum” on some bottles.  Sunscreens protect against UVB rays – the ones that give you a sunburn – but most don’t protect against UVA rays – the ones that cause skin cancer.  Sunscreens with the label “broad spectrum” protect against both UVA and UVB rays, and therefore should be the only one that you are using.  Also, sunscreens over a spf of 30 do not do much more to protect you than 30 – so little so that it really does not make a difference. 

This year, before the summer started, I threw out all of my sunscreens and replaced them with ones labeled “broad spectrum” with a spf of 30, and so should you.

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Restlessly Awaiting

About two weeks ago I started a new book.  Given my track record recently for devouring whatever I read, I was upset to see that, after this morning’s commute, I had barely gotten over page sixty and, I’ve only read a total of four chapters.  Aside from the ever increasing reading from the two summer classes that I’m taking, which, if I was really into the book would not deter me from continuing it, I have not been able to pinpoint exactly what about the book I don’t like.  The book is kind of slow, but that necessarily wouldn’t turn away my interest, and the story sounded like it was going to be interesting.  To be truthful, it’s a bit boring. But I know it’s only begun, so if I can bare it, I will forge ahead a bit more before I decide if I’m going to put it down permanently. 

A reason of why it feels boring could be the fact that, last week, I ordered a few books from Amazon.  One had just been published, and the other two were pre-orders, but none of them have gotten into my hands yet.  Sometimes, when I’m dying to start reading a book that isn’t in my possession, whatever I pick up to read while I wait doesn’t seem interesting to me.  If that makes sense.  Unless the placeholder is an extraordinarily amazing book, there’s a good chance that it will not distract me away from the book that I actually want to be reading.  This has happened to me in the past, and for a period of months last year, but oppositely.  After finishing The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro, I had the hardest time getting into anything else.  I would pick up a book only to discard it, unfinished, and it wasn’t until my two favorite authors came out with new books mid-year, that I got out of my slump…if only they came out with new books every year, I would never have this problem again.

The other reason could be that, and I hate to say it, the book might just be boring.  It’s my first time reading this particular author, and actually one of my new books that is coming from Amazon is also by this author – whose stories do sound interesting – so, I’m really hoping that either this book is just really slow to get into and speeds up, or that this book is boring but the other one that’s coming in the mail is more interesting.  I can deal with it if it just this book, but if the next one feels like this too, I’m going to cry. 

On a happy note, I received an email last night from Amazon, saying that two of my three books will be shipping sooner than anticipated, and will be coming to be next week.  I’m super excited!  The summer really is the best time (I feel) not only to catch up on your reading, but to purchase new books.  A lot of good books come out during the summer (it is also the time where new authors are tested), and aside from the ones that I have just purchased, I cannot wait to see what else comes out.

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Amy Hatvany’s Heart Like Mine

Have you ever stumbled onto a situation that wasn’t part of your plan, and had to make the choice of whether to venture off course risking everything, or stick with your original path and always wonder what could have been?  This is the case in Amy Hatvany’s Heart Like Mine, where the reader is introduced to Grace, Ava and Kelli in a trio of alternating narrations, and taken on a journey which will forever change all of their lives.  At times, heartbreaking, Heart Like Mine is the kind of book that touches your heart in ways that you wouldn’t think possible.  It makes you think about your own choices in life and whether they were the right ones for you.

Grace is a woman who works with a foundation that helps battered women make new lives for themselves; it was a career that she stumbled upon while doing volunteer work and she loves it.  But like many of us, Grace had a plan for her life, which didn’t include kids, which is why when she began dating Victor – a divorcé with two kids – she hesitated, but not for long.  For the most part, Victor’s kids lived with their mother, Kelli, spending every other weekend with him, something that Grace felt that she could deal with.  She and Victor move in together, get engaged, and for a brief moment everything is perfect.  Less than a week after their engagement, the unthinkable happens: Kelli dies.  Her death leaves Victor and the kids distraught as they try to cope with what happened, and Grace ultimately needs to choose.  Does she love Victor enough to stay with him and his kids and be able to help them in their time of need, or does she need to let go?

Ava is Victor and Kelli’s thirteen year old daughter who, ever since her dad had left a few years back, has been taking care of her unstable mom and helping with household chores that a girl of her age shouldn’t have to do.  She tolerates Grace, but at the same time wishes that her parents would get back together.  When she finds out that Kelli is dead, Ava’s world is crushed.  She has to permanently move out of the only home she’s ever known, and she resents Grace because she is alive whereas her mother is not.  But, the hardest thing of all is that everything that Kelli had told Ava about her past starts unraveling, and slowly Ava learns the truth: Kelli was not who she thought she was.  Ultimately, Ava needs to decide if she can let go of the mom she thought she had and accept Kelli for who she actually was.  She also needs to figure out if she can let go enough of Kelli to let Grace in, or be the catalyst to drive her away.

Kelli, is the mother to Ava and Max, and ex-wife to Victor.  Despite problems that she and Victor had, and despite the fact that they haven’t been together for the past few years, she still held onto hope that he would come back to her…until Victor told her of his engagement to Grace.  Kelli was devastated by the news, yes, but was it enough to put her over the edge?  Since Kelli dies not to long after, most of her character is narrated from her adolescence up until the time of her death.  As we travel with Kelli along her short journey, things from her past emerge and shed light on her as an adult and why she behaved the way that she did – the most shocking of which Kelli didn’t even see coming.  She always knew that she had been abandoned by the people who were supposed to love her the most, but she finds out that there is a possibility that they may have betrayed her as well.

If you were put into a similar situation, how would you react?  Would you try to do the right thing even if it was not in your plan?  Take Grace, she had just started getting used to the idea that she was going to be a part-time step mom, only to be thrown completely into parenting…and not only that, parenting kids – Ava specifically – who made it especially difficult for her to do so.  Ava is horrible to Grace, stealing from her, screaming at her, lying to Victor, and at least once or twice telling Grace that she hated her.  It’s not that Grace was replacing Kelli, because that is not what Grace wanted at all, but at the same time you can kind of understand where Ava is coming from as well.  Her plan was not to tragically lose her mom and be raised by someone else, and because she is only thirteen her behavior is partially excused.  Although she does not come across as the most sympathetic character at times, losing a parent isn’t easy, and that in turn makes you feel for her.  All Kelli ever wanted out of life was to be loved by someone.  She was estranged from her parents, divorced from her husband, and only had one real friend – and the one thing that she loved the most, the thing that she didn’t know existed although always longed for, could have kept her from going over the edge of despair and possibly have been her hold in the realm of happiness.

Heart Like Mine shows the different types of love that we can experience in our lives, the ones that have always been with us, the ones that we’ve always wanted, and the ones that we didn’t know existed but that ultimately were found to be essential us.  It shows us that life is more precious than we realize, and at any second someone that we deeply care about can be taken away from us, but it also hopefully helps people who find themselves in similar situations (Grace) know that they are not alone, and that things will get better over time.  You can feel the loss of someone deeply, but in order for anyone to keep on living, you have to move on to a point.  Perhaps if Kelli had been able to do that she would have lived a longer and happier life.  This was my first time reading Hatvany’s writing.  I think that she did a wonderful job and I would not hesitate to pick up another one.

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Shopping in Brooklyn

Since late last year, I have been spending a lot of time in Brooklyn, mostly hanging out with my boyfriend and friends, eating, drinking and just having fun.  On Memorial Day, we picnicked under a tree at a park by the Brooklyn Bridge; it was a beautiful, relaxing day.  I’ve attended yoga classes, walked for fro-yo…but one thing that I hadn’t done much of was shop.  When Billy first moved to Brooklyn back in November, I had walked into a boutique or two, but didn’t really find anything that I liked…I was also in a shopping-exile because of an upcoming trip that didn’t end up happening, but believe me, if I had found something I loved, I would have purchased it without a second thought.

The weekend before Mother’s Day, I ventured out to a couple of markets in search of food to cook for dinner.  On my way to one of the markets, I was passing a boutique and something caught my eye.  In the window, there was a sleeveless asymmetrical print green dress.  I stared at it for a few seconds, pondering over whether to enter the boutique or not.  In the end, I decided to walk in and briefly comb the racks.  I didn’t see the dress, and wasn’t in the mood to try anything on, so I left, finished up my grocery shopping and went home.  But…I kept thinking about that dress.

The following week, I went with Billy to a florist to pick out an orchid for his mom for Mother’s Day.  The florist was a little bit of a walk, but their flowers were amazing, so it was worth it.  As we were looking at the different orchids, deciding which one to get, I turned to my left and saw the most beautiful vases on a shelf.  They were brown, the tone varying slightly here-and-there, and there were very thing stems with small leaves painted on them.  There were only two of them, both different shapes, and I could not stop staring.  I pointed them out to Billy, and we picked them up and looked at them.  In vain, I looked for a price tag, but when I saw there wasn’t one, we asked the woman who was helping us.  They were not that expensive, and the woman said that they were handmaid by someone who lived locally.  I was already in love with them, but the fact that they were unique and not mass-produced made me love them even more.  When we were getting ready to leave – the orchid had already been picked out and paid for – I still could not decide which to purchase.  In the end, I walked out with both.  I purchased one of them, and Billy being the great boyfriend that he is, purchased the other for me, saying that he saw how much I loved them and that he wanted me to have both. 

The weekend after that (yes, there were a few shopping ventures in a row) we stepped out on a misty Saturday to do a little shopping and some errands.  I was determined to see if the boutique still had the dress that I coveted, so I took Billy there with me.  The dress was no longer in the window, so we went inside to see if it was in the shop.  I asked one of the women, and she pulled out two dresses that had been displayed – neither of which was it.  To be fair, I had described the dress as floral, not asymmetrical patterned.  The woman then pulled out a third dress, and it was it.  Billy and I both glanced at the price tag, and I cringed, but tried it on anyway.  Of course it fit perfectly.  After adjusting the straps and staring at it in the mirror, I took it off and went to consult with Billy about it.  He thought that I should get it regardless of the price, and I did.

Bottom line – Brooklyn isn’t nearly as bad as I always have made it out to be – the shopping is great, but I have to force myself not to step into any boutique too often or I will purchase way too many items.

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Scaling in

After not being able to work out for three months due to various reasons, last month I made my come-back, well sort of.  I started running again, and despite a few ailments, it felt good to be back at the gym.  Normal.  I started off slow, going for time on the clock as opposed to mileage, then I changed it up.  Last week I was able to make two miles, which I know isn’t much, but for me it is, and this week I have run two miles three times, with an attempt to hit said mark on Monday, but settling for one and a half instead (at least I was able to hit it the rest of the week!).  I haven’t used weights yet, but am thinking about trying them out in another month or two, and I attended my first yoga class (first in a while) last week.  I may do yoga at home this weekend since my boyfriend will be occupied with Bachelor party festivities and the plans that I had had fell through.

My goal?  To lose around ten pounds.  There are a couple of reasons for this, one being that I just want to lose a little weight, and the other being that I am attending a wedding at the end of next month, and I want to better fit into a dress that has been sitting in my closet since I bought it nearly two years ago.  It is a Roberto Cavalli silk halter gown, done in the patchwork that he is famous for and…it is simply beautiful.  So, why would I buy a dress that doesn’t fit me?  It’s not that it doesn’t fit, it’s that it could fit better.  Yes, I do have other dresses that I could where, but I really want to wear this one.

With the wedding only a month and a half away, I don’t have that much time if I’m going to be able to wear that dress.  It’s crunch time.  I know that if I work hard enough, I can do it.  Plus, I have just scheduled a mini vacation with Billy a few weeks before the wedding, which gives me extra motivation.  I know it’ll all be worth it when I put that dress on and it fits me perfectly :).