now that's why i turned back to coing!! i even discovered not doing anything to the length at all is even greater. whenever your hair feels great, just co the scalp, rinse, i wet my lengths cuze i don't find it easy to get rid of all conditioner if i tie up my hair. it's great, who needs conditioner!??  8)

Had lunch with DE (Dear Editor) Well he's not my editor anymore, so we're fair game to each other

I just canNOT get over how sweet he is.

Anyway, he's a middle child, possibly lacto-ovo vegetarian, drinks his coffee straight and black (unsure, need to verify) and he ordered me coffee. ... awwwwwww.. On the geeky-sweet scale of 10, he is a 12. Or maybe I just happened to notice because Bear doesn't do these weird little geeky sweet things. but DE is definitely a geek and definitely sweet. We went to a very small diner with a cotton-candy pink-elephant poodle-skirt pink exterior, and flowers on the windows. It's so feminine it's cute.

Never before have I had a conversation with anyone about Japanese gore movies like Shogun, Cookie Monster, the Unbearable Lightness of Being, assigning appropriate onomatopoeia to hairstyles, writing styles! DE and I talked about the specifics of our writing styles...

more later

I'm SO impressed!

ETA May 13
I haven't figured out whether Dear Editor is a vegetarian. A lot of signs point to it. He's a very kind-hearted human-rights-activist courtesy and compassion kind of guy. (Or at least that's what he'd have me think) That, and he ordered a vegetarian omelette. However, he has mentioned (in a 2002 issue of his mag) that he would rather be "eating a Reuben". which happens to be a non-vegetarian hot sandwich with corned beef, swiss cheese, sauerkraut, and rye bread. You know you're obsessed when you start scrutinizing your editor's eating habits.

Still reeling from my shea butter experience today. My skin is still very visibly moisturized. Even my elbows and knees aren't dry. and the whole while, I was wondering why I hadn't thought of using shea butter before. The biggest explanation being this:
the original form was too sticky (both unrefined and refined, and ESPECIALLY the unrefined. It was gooey and smelled like crap) But because I literally whipped both to a creamy texture and added a bit of kokum, it's truly amazing.

I'm on a semi-vegetarian kick. Maybe it's the Dear Editor thing. I am going to do one vegetarian meal per day from now on, or at least until this kick ends. Vegetarianism just feels good. It also ends in "ism" which makes it closely related to religion and philosophy. Makes me somehow feel more connected to the earth if I eat more vegetables, mindlessly masticating them into very small pieces and using unexplained throat muscle to ingest it into my system and forget about it.

Maybe I just need to plaster a picture of a mad cow on the wall.

i've got a wide-toothed horn comb, and it was deffo more than $15!

May 16 2005

Last night I used both a seamless comb (Rachael Stephens) and the horn comb, to compare their exfoliation abilities. It has the same tines-per-inch that the horn comb does (about 8.5 tines per inch) RS worked just as nicely for removing gunk. I think the seamless would work just as nicely as long as a person doesn't need to distribute the gunk down the length. If it's just gunk removal e.g. before washing the gunk OUT, then a coarse seamless does just as well. This means being able to exfoliate in the shower also.

Good luck with your project.  We'll be here when you get back!

I thought my book commission was almost done, but it blossomed in the past two weeks. It wouldn't be very fun to quit the boards for another month so I return with my work unfinished. I don't even care about the money anymore, I just want more motivation to actually get it done.

Stuff that happened in the past couple weeks:

I thought it was Mr. Snowblower doing lines outside my door. Turns out Mr. Snowblower isn't doing regular blowing this season. I've been putting lines for whoever to snuff up. It disappeared within an hour or two, as if there was a cocaine addict on the loose doing lines by stealth. I think there are 5-6 "head honchos", or at least they've been coming in aggressive troops of up to five. Once there were six. For the most part, I think they're all male. Maybe some are a bit younger. Some peck and feed the others by mouth. Some of them look obviously male, but some of them are rather androgenous. They all look the same. I need to buy more birdseed.

Loaded Medusa v2.0 Spring Edition. It's blue and earthy, much better than the purpley thing I had before. More classic. Tracked all my visitors and logged their IP numbers and locations just to see some demographic info. It was really flattering to see so much diversity in my visitors.

Why not everyone loves to shop. I don't like to shop because because I'm too happy. There's nothing to want, nothing to covet, nothing to shop for. There's no point in going shopping for actual stuff. I go to the store to walk around and admire things. The other day I went to the local mall and walked two laps. Walked to the local grocer's on May 26th to admire things. They must have followed me on camera because I walked down a bunch of random aisles without actually picking anything up to purchase. Looked through clothes, hardware, batteries, purses, hair accessories, art supplies, book and magazines, greeting cards, containers, home furnishing, pots and pans, candles and air fresheners, laundry detergent, frozen food, organic stuff, candy, DVDs, conditioner, travel toiletries, and floss.

Hair update Half of hairwash-extending is biology. The other half is all in your head. I tell myself that I need to wash, that I need to touch my scalp, and that my hair is dirty. And of course, there's the placebo effect. Whether or not horn combs really exfoliate, they do a hell of a job convincing me that I don't need to hairwash.
I wetcombed that night, tied off a Bubba tail, so the next morning it was still straight (stick straight, flat iron straight) but after dry bunning for awhile, the straightness simply wouldn't stay put. Maybe that's a good thing. I'll be watching my waves grow, just like the curly haired people who are effectively "watching their braids grow". I used to tell myself that hair looks longer when it's straight, but it actually isn't that much longer. More like it looks longer when I have it against my back, as opposed to "sticking out" in the coarsehair style after braiding especially. Reminds me of my hair idol Arwen Evenstar.

Planted roots for strawberries on May 26th. Hopefully they'll grow well. The empty Aloe juice container went missing, and it was the most industrious wonderful compact way to transport a gallon of water. I put it in the planter box that used to be for gotu kola or "pennywort", so who knows, we might get both in the same planter when things start growing in. Gotu Kola has been randomly growing back for us. Bear had to come by last June and water our gotu kola, but the following week I steamed them to death by accident in a recycling bag. So much for my brilliant "greenhouse idea".

Took gypsy trips. I go into Janis Joplin mode when I travel. The long road ahead, good music, and beautiful sunsets. Plane trips really take the fun out of it. The drive was long but filled with elves and hobbits along the way. I got my little Hobbit to watch the ROTK. We got through to the siege of Gondor, then he fell asleep.

Dreamt about Meghan. It was Spring and we were preparing an all-natural vegetarian lunch. It was a small but brightly (naturally) lit home, hers I believe it was. The sun shone sideways past the back door, through a wooden "overhang" that covered the back area. There were fresh vegetables planted out back, under a similar overhang. It was a gorgeous Spring afternoon, and there were only one or two other people besides Meg and me. We were dressed like faeries, with flowing skirts and leather sandals. I watched her go out to pick veggies. Then we were walking down the hall, she looked over and whispered something. I don't remember what she said. Her eyes sparkled emerald green. We walked on down the hall. The dream ended there.