My Pet Loves

You are listening to "Pictures of You" by the Cure.

Finally, here it is. I know there are so many more I will think of after I post this, but that's just the way it goes!

1. Hearing the organic sounds as fingers change position on a guitar during a song (I’m sure there is an official name for this)
2. Guys wearing backwards baseball caps
3. Twilight
4. A deep, cleansing breath (especially while in a twist yoga pose)
5. Afternoon delights
6. Playing in the rain, not caring if you get wet
7. The smell of freshly-baked, warm chocolate chip cookies
8. The streets of Manhattan after 3am- still hopping!
9. A stolen glance across a room
10. Hugs that last a long time
11. The hour or so before a concert begins when the excitement in the air is palpable
12. When people take the time to fully understand something, instead of making snap judgments
13. Cats’ breath
14. When breathe knows what I am feeling even before I do
15. Hearing crickets chirp at night
16. Cute bunnies running across my lawn, staring at me while they eat
17. Music so loud I can feel the physical vibrations of it-especially dance music!
18. Swimming, alone, far enough out in the ocean that it’s scary, as the awe of nature overcomes you and you feel connected with the sea
19. Spooning
20. Driving in any car with a good stereo, with it turned way up (can you tell I like loud music?)
21. Looking into people’s windows at night while driving by (Just to clarify, I mean seeing families having dinner, seeing how their house is decorated, etc.)
22. Sweatshirt weather

Musical Horizons

"When there is more in your head than you find in your life, calls for a change"

This is one of my most favorite song lyrics. Its from the Sundays, "I Can't Wait" off their Static & Silence album. You're listening to this song right now. If you've never heard this album, take a listen! Its such complicated, well-composed, amazing music, IMHO. This sentiment has rung true for me at various points in my life. I listen to this song often, as this is one of my favorite CD's. Sometimes, when I hear these words, I don't think about them much. But when I find these words striking a chord within my soul, then I know its time for a change. Time for me to pursue something that will broaden my mind, my heart, my horizons. I am going through such a time right now.

I am going to take this opportunity, since I am talking about the Sundays, to post the complete lyrics for another song on this same album, "Folk Song". This song is just so beautiful I have to. Of course the lyrics alone are no way to enjoy or even come close to fully appreciating a song, and that is certainly the case with this song especially, but until breathe gets home and shows me how to post a song file legally, this will have to do. Update- thanks, breathe! You got it to work. Luv ya!

"Folk Song", by the Sundays

summer sky and a throat bone dry
and the fields are all gold
dusty lane with a song in my brain
and it stoned me to my soul

I climb higher move towards the fire.....blaze sun
silver trees and a whispering breeze
are my sight and my sound
the thought of heaven couldn't drag me from the path
when I'm wandering here alone
I climb higher move towards the fire.... so blaze sun
watch until it dies slow falling from the sky
pale fading sun

I have recently felt a pull towards writing music, getting things down on paper, or recorded, that are in my head. The time of day this happens most is early morning- I often have a lucid dream of some music or lyrics, and wake up with it in my mind. But then I head to the shower, and by the time my hair is dry, its gone. Rarely have I been able to hold onto it long enough to get to the computer to write the lyrics down (or type them up, however you want to say it!). And I haven't ever been able to sit down and play the music to accompany the lyrics. So this is what has lead me to my latest endeavor: learning how to play the piano. My brother, who is very musically inclined and has lots of experience with it, has told me that the piano is the absolute best instrument to learn to read and write music with. I have started Class Piano I at College of DuPage for this fall semester. I can tell already how challenging it is going to be. I played the violin in grade school, so I know a tiny bit about reading music, but the bass clef is new to me, and of course I am not used to using both hands equally, and it's going to take a lot of discipline and time. And I have to cut my nails! But the payoff will be worth it. I get chills thinking about actually being able to compose a song and play it. I am a long way off from that, but I'll get there. Maybe when we finally get our iMac with garage band on it, I will be much closer to being able to lay down some tracks!!

I now have the challenge of needing to purchase a counter-weighted digital piano with all 88 keys on it, with MIDI, under $500. Anyone know someone selling a decent used one? Its not urgent, as I can practice at my sisters' house or at COD, but eventually I will be needing one.

I'll conclude by posting a song I wrote myself. It's hard for me to post this, I'll admit. I wish I could post the music too, but I can't.

"Here We Are" (written 2-18-06)

(slow, piano solo, drawn out notes)

Here we are
So alone, with nowhere to go
Like a dreidel spinning out of control
When will we topple over?

Here we are
It over-takes me, the desolation
Looking out, it will never, ever end
Till our minds become one

We could go on
What would the point be, it's done and gone
Another universe, another crime
Will that get us to the Church on time?

We are one
Always have been, not the chosen ones
Every breath, every kernel in time
Woven together like wool

We will go on
like a big smoke screen, Oh what does it mean?

(could be ending bridge, building drums)

'Till out comes the sun
And that warming burst of fire,
It fills us with burning desire
All we have is that desire

My Pet Peeves

I am not difficult. I don't have many. But the ones I do have, well, they bother me a lot. And I guess some of them might not even be too rational....but hey, they are MY pp's, and they're not going away anytime soon. Please don't judge me.

1) When people chew highly odiferous gum in a movie theatre (or other enclosed space). Those of you who know me well know I am not a big gum fan. It's quite a handicap, as the rest of the world seems to enjoy it just fine. I think its gross, I hate the way it smells, and I hate the way Britney Spears seems to think its perfectly acceptable to chew on it madly and constantly, especially during a television interview. I have been known to chew some Juicy Fruit or other mild flavors from time to time (although rarely). The gum that bothers me most is the Extra-type, the ones that you could detect from a couple of states away. To add insult to injury, when I am sitting in a movie for a good two hours I think its just rude to cram my nasal passages with that smelly mint. I mean, I can't even taste my popcorn, for God's sake! Seriously, something that odorous and strong has no business happening within a 1/2 mile of anyone eating anything. I don't mean to offend anyone, as I know many people do this. I just really do feel this strongly about it! It's kind of like smoking; I feel it should be relegated to the outdoors. (Even then it would bother me, but I'm trying to offer an olive branch here).

2)Dry Hands I don't know why, but when the skin on my hands gets even a little dry, I feel icky inside. I can't explain it, I just have to get some hand cream pronto.

3)Conventional Toothpaste Yup, this one correlates with #1 above. I cannot tolerate the smell of conventional toothpaste brands such as Crest or Colgate. They are just so spicy and strong. I don't know what created this aversion for me, I should probably pay a Psychologist a pretty penny to figure it out. I remember coming home from Australia on our honeymoon, breathe and I were lucky enough to get bumped to business class because we told the Quantas airline agent that we just got married. It was wonderful having a comfortable recliner seat and our own personal video screens, but the experience was ruined for me because we were seated in the row directly behind the bathrooms. All night, (this is a 15-hour flight, mind you), I was bombarded by the constant smell of people brushing their teeth. In case you're wondering, I use Therabreath brand toothpaste, which has a soft,mild, natural peppermint flavor. I also like Tom's of Maine. I have often joked to breathe that his cooperation in this matter has saved us from divorce court (he uses Therabreath as well, at my request).

4) Super-bright spotlights on my yard. We just moved into our new house, and I love our new backyard. However, sometimes, when we are out on our deck late at night enjoying the sounds of the crickets, our back-door neighbor likes to turn on her bright, obnoxious super-duper spotlight that blinds me. When this light is on, it cancels out anything else in your field of vision. Okay, it has only happened a couple of times, but it is a pet peeve of mine, and I am in venting mode.

5) People flicking cigarette butts out of their car window. This needs no explanation. It is completely asinine, on many levels. First of all, if you're driving behind this person, you can get startled by this flash of light on your windshield, and possibly crash your car. This may sound extreme, but if the wind blows it towards your car a certain way, it can happen. Secondly, if my window is open, guess what? That hot ashy thing can fly right onto my arm or into my eye, or onto my car seats. Thirdly, the world is not your garbage can, people. I realize that using your car ashtray creates a horrible stench. But that is one of the consequences of being a smoker, so deal with it. At least try not to do it when you're moving at 40 mph!

These are just pet peeves, which means they are minor things that irk me. I do have many deeper concerns, such as child abuse, world hunger and war-mongering. But I'm not getting into those things....yet. I promise this blog will not turn into a negativity-fest. Stay tuned for my Pet Loves, coming soon.

Essentials for Skin, Part I: The Basics

I love skin care products. You could say I am a skincare ( & make-up!) junkie. I am a sucker for good packaging and marketing, I love to try new things, but I get most excited over finding something that actually works. I'm like a kid in a candy store whenever I set foot in my absolutely favorite store, Sephora. I can't set foot in there too often, though, or breathe and I would be living out a cardboard box!

I am often asked what the best products are out there- and there sure are a lot of them- "What works?" they ask. People want to know what they should be using on their skin, and I guess they ask me because 1) I am a licensed esthetician and 2) they know I live for this stuff!

Before I get into what I consider to be the best products out there, I want to first stress a very important point. And that is, that the question you should be asking is not "What works?", but rather, "What will work for me?" What works for someone else's skin is not necessarily what's going to work for you. Everyone's skin is different, and has unique needs. This is what makes life interesting! I know, its not as fun to chat with your friends about skincare when you have this bit of wisdom floating in your head. It's tempting, as you admire a friend's glowing, even-toned complexion, to ask "What have you been using?". Now, if you're a guy reading this, you might be thinking, "I'd rather die than ask another guy what he uses on his skin". That's understandable, and if that's you, you might want to just skip over this paragraph. But if you're a girl, this scenario plays out quite often. Your friend leans over and confesses her latest magic potion in a lowered voice. (Or, maddeningly, she may just answer, "Oh! I've just been drinking a lot more water".) At this point you're poised to go right out the next day to hunt down that very same product so that hopefully, your skin can be glowy and even-toned too. So you buy it, try it, and more often than not discover that this magic potion just doesn't do the trick on your skin. And that's okay, because remember, we're all different.

It's a much smarter approach to first know your own skin prior to purchasing anything. You can find that out by a quick quiz, a home-administered test, or by simple observation It also helps to know a bit about what basic products you should be looking for.

That being said, its easy to conclude that we all want the same thing: clear, soft, dewy, even-toned, firm skin. It'd be nice if it were also relatively wrinkle-free. In short, it'd be great if we could stop time, as in that freaky Twilight Zone episode when the guy discovers the stopwatch that can actually freeze time while he can move about. Wait, did he continue aging normally while everyone else was frozen? Okay, maybe that's a bad analogy.

So what is actually needed to achieve this? Well, lets keep it simple and start with the basics. There are four things you should be doing to your skin everyday: you need to cleanse your skin, moisturize it, treat it, and protect it. There is also one more thing that should be done on a regular basis, although not necessarily every day: exfoliate. So there it is; the nitty gritty. [hey Ranny, that rhymes with titty!- (don't ask.)] That's 5 separate actions that your skin care arsenal needs to accomplish effectively. Don't panic: I'll break it down for you. And it may not even involve that many different products (unless you're product-compulsive like me). But I'm tired now, this blog-thing is a lot of hard work. I'm off to bed, and will publish Part Deux in the near future. Nite-nite!

The Perfect Breakfast

It's true, breakfast really is the most important meal of the day. I can really tell if I haven't had a proper breakfast: I'm usually starving by noon, and may not make the best lunch choices because of it. I also tend to get crankier and more sluggish by evening. So, I combat this by starting each day the healthy way (or at least, I try to!).
I have come across the perfect solution to breakfast, and I'd like to share it. It's called the Protein Pancake. We all know and love the pancake, especially when it comes from a fabulous pancake house such as Butterfield's. But the traditional pancake, although delicious, is seriously lacking in nutrition. The Protein Pancake, however is not! And it is completely scrumptious, just like a pancake should be. Even my skeptical husband, breathe, has given his stamp of approval on this recipe. It fills you up for the duration of the morning, provides lots of lean protein and whole grains, and afterwards, you might not even be hungry for lunch. I must give credit where credit is due, and I got this recipe from Skwigg, whose blog I read pretty faithfully.

Protein Pancake (serves 1)

1/2 cup McCann's Quick Cooking Irish Oatmeal (I'm sure other oatmeal brands will work just fine, but this is my favorite)
1/2 cup egg whites (about 4 egg whites)
1/2 cup lowfat small curd cottage cheese
1/2 capful of vanilla extract (although I tend to add a bit more)

Directions:
Place the oatmeal in a blender (the Magic Bullet works best), and blend about 45 seconds. Add the remaining ingredients and blend for another 45 seconds. Pour batter into heated 9 inch non-stick skillet (spray first with PAM). (Its best to just make one big pancake, as the batter tends to be runny. ) Cook on medium heat for about 3-4 minutes per side (takes longer than a regular pancake to cook). Flipping a pancake this large can be challenging, but I bought this huge spatula and it works great. Remember to spray the spatula with PAM prior to flipping.
Make sure to top your pancake with plenty of something delicious, which to me is Earth Balance spread. This butter-alternative gives the pancake a nice, buttery taste, but better. Trust me, try it. Or you can top it with blueberries, pancake syrup (careful or the nutrition factor will go down), strawberries, apples, etc. Use your imagination! Or you can bake blueberries right into the batter. I have tried this, and it works wonderfully.

There you have it: A low-fat, high-protein morning meal alternative. The Perfect Breakfast.

here I am, at last....

I can't believe I am actually doing this, joining the wide, wide world of blogging. I never thought I'd want to. But then I realized that I don't have to do it traditional-style, posting my day-to-day activities. I can just use this as a forum to realize the many magazine articles I've written in my head, endorse my favorite products, or share lyrics or poems I've created. Or just to therapeutically empty my head once in a while. We all need to do that, don't we?
My blog title originated from my desire to wax poetic on everything under the sun, as well as from the name of a well-known (at least in my circles!) home hair removal method, the "Poetic Waxing Kit". Some of you may be aware that I am a licensed esthetician, which means I gleefully enjoy poking and prodding people's faces. It also means I know how to give facials, wax off unwanted hair, and qualifies me to give lots of skin care advice, which I plan to do in future posts. Enjoy!