Hair: Another super soft hair day. Same routine as yesterday: CWC, leave-in crème, EVOO. I brought a hairtie to work today, so I can braid my hair during my break.
   With any luck, I might do a heavy EVOO treatment tonight before Friday's WTC. But that's only if I don't crash when I come home...which I just might.

Music: I...think there's a practice tonight.  

Work: Been doing quite a bit of data entry lately, which was my specialty before I became an operator.
   Mother also tells me that my position will dissolve by the end of this year and she will take over full time. I'm not sure how much legitimate weight that carries, but just in case, I'll be keeping an eye out for other work.

Other Stuff: Still haven't called R. I suck.
If things work out on Wednesday, I'll be going to lunch with my best guy bud, T. Haven't seen him in almost a year.

Weight seems to be stuck around 118, which is certainly a step in the wrong direction.    Part of the problem is that the sun doesn't set until after 8:30 pm. If I could get out earlier, I would power walk more often. Stupid freaking SoCal summers.

Brilliantly, I've somehow managed to forget my lunch today. So my stomach should be a twisted, bubbling wreck by quitting time. Joys.

Been trying to think about K and drummer boy less. God, why does my brain do this to itself? Neither of them are even worth thinking about.

My, I've gotten a lot done already today!

Hair got the moisture treatment this morning with a CWC + leave-in crème + EVOO. I've stopped using my microfiber towel as an experiment. Using 2 different towels for 2 different purposes was becoming a bit irksome and I'd wondered what would happen if I went back to using just one. If a little water is left in my hair, it absorbs leave-in's better as it dries.

I also gave myself a facial today with a nice apricot scrub and hydroxy mineral masque, finishing with rubbing alcohol as a toner. This after trimming my brows up yesterday.
   The swelling in my left eye has gone down quite a bit and almost looks symmetrical with the right. The infection may be gone by tomorrow.    I've been using homeopathic eyedrops for conjunctivitis and even though that isn't what I have, they seem to be working.

In addition to all of that, I've also done a few loads of laundry and washed my sheets. When the sun goes starts to set later this evening, I'll start cleaning my car.    It's in embarrassing shape.

On a suckier note, I sliced my thumb with scissors while attempting to remove the safety seal from one of my new eyeshadows. I knew that it would have been wiser to use a cuticle stick, but did I listen to myself?    So, the left thumb will be bandaged all day. Oy.

Anyway, at the moment, I have some car towels in the wash and white rice cooking on the stove, so I need to go and see how both are doing. A bientôt!

JL: Hey, girl.  What I do with the EVOO for daily use is place the palm of my hand over the bottle while tipping it upside down, then right side up again, so just a tiny amount of EVOO gets on my hand. Then, I rub my palms together to coat them both with a very light layer of EVOO. Then, I run my hands down the length of my hair - mostly at the ends and on the underside strands. And I do this all while my hair is still wet, after applying my usual leave-in conditioner to the length. Applying oil to wet/damp hair helps it absorb better.

As for the heavy EVOO treatments, I oil the length of my hair heavily with EVOO (not the scalp, just the length). Then, wrap it up (loosely) and cover it with a satin sleep cap for overnight. I wash this out in the morning and one shampoo takes care of it.

A little word of warning though, EVOO is one of the heaviest oils that you can use on your hair. I'll be switching to ELOO (extra light olive oil) once my EVOO bottle is empty. You might want to try that first...or grapeseed or vegetable oils.

Hair: Just the usual CWC + leave-in crème today. Now, it's dry, braided and ready for work. Not work work - home reno. Lord only knows what will get into it today. 

Other: Didn't get to clean my car yesterday, but wound up doing a bunch of other things instead. I'm pretty sure that T wouldn't disown me if my car was still gross on Wednesday, but I'd still like to prevent the embarrassment. 

As far as the reno goes, the one wall in the hallway is finished, except for the baseboards, which we plan to do today.
    The bathroom walls will be textured, primed and painted and we may even move the new cabinetry in tonight! It's pretty exciting in a way. Like an extension of the renewal process that I've been doing on myself. New me, new hallway, new bathroom. I like that.

LD: Oh, this is way beyond redecorating. It's renovation. Lots of work!

Hair: Clarified today. Enough said.
Hair is rolled up in a bun and secured with my LongLocks hairstix. And to be quite honest, I'm finding myself rather disappointed with them.    Not with the craftmanship or anything. They're beautiful, hair safe and all that. But they're also too heavy for my hair and the only way to keep them from falling out is to make a tight bun and really work them in, but that puts tension on my hair.    I wish that I could have seen them in person before I ordered them.  

Been thinking about getting another pair of hairsticks from Claire's and seeing how they work just for comparison. They have a few seams that would need to be filed on the ends, but I might give it a go. Maybe.

This morning, I also did a scalp massage before washing. I'm not doing them every day as per my New Year's resolution, but it's not a major concern because I typically get ½" of growth for July anyway. So I'll mostly worry about it during the months that I typically grow ¼."

Speaking of which, now that we're halfway through July, now might be the time to do a mid-year check up to see how my hair goals for the year are coming along.

Hair Resolutions For 2008:

• Use only Pantene Restoratives
  Check. Although I do miss my Ice Shine.
• Go brush-free. Seamless combs only
  Check.

Hair Goals For 2008:

• Reach and pass BSL
  Check.
• Take Hair, Skin & Nails vitamins every day for 6 months
  Check...well, close enough anyway.
• Determine whether they have any effect on my growth rate
  They don't.
• Do scalp massages every night for 6 months
  Working on it.
• Determine whether they have any effect on my growth rate
  We'll see.

Keeping up with all of it pretty well so far. Even if the results aren't as glorious as I'd hoped for. Trials and errors are what this long hair journey is all about.

Other: The walls and ceiling in my bathroom have been re-textured and primed. But there are quite a few areas that need going over and I'm starting to have that "ugh, this is never going to get done!" feeling.    Not that I want to rush good work. In the end, it will be worth it just to have a different bathroom than the one used by past lovers...both mine and my sister's.    Yes, that's a big part of it for me...sad as that may sound. But I like new starts. And hopefully these recent changes will help to represent a new and better chapter in our adult lives.

Still haven't called R yet. I feel like an old heel, but I'm going to fall back on the "I've been so busy" excuse.    And while that may be the truth, it doesn't justify neglecting friendships.

And speaking of friendships, only 2 more days until I patronize/terrorize one of the local casinos with T. That boy needs to get out more.