Breaking Habits

I have a lot of compulsive habits that I shouldn't let rule me.

I window shop online a lot: hours a day almost everyday. I don't purchase things often. I don't trust sizing. I don't trust return policies for online merchandise. I'm too lazy to take my returns to the post office. I don't understand why I am on there flash websites or what I think I'm looking for. I do not want for anything. Anything I do need I can buy full price. These websites are stealing away my time.

I'm taking an internet hiatus.

I can check my email once a day.

I can watch shows on Hulu, but I cannot multitask.

That is all.

I also need to work on not picking.
I should also avoid dairy and soda.
What has gotten into me this week?

Condition My Condition Is In

I have been thinking a lot lately about the god-awful condition my skin is in.

Recently, I read about how Cetaphil (Dermatologist recommended) contains potentially cancer-causing parabens. Immediately after reading this, I tossed my half-used jar of moisturizer under the sink into the land of forgotten beauty products. As a replacement, I picked up an previously tossed aside, unopened bottle of jojoba oil.

But considering the condition my condition was in... I took it a step further and ordered a sulfur mask from Sephora and a cleanser+toner from Bliss.

To add to this last attempt at skin normality, I started up taking zinc again. Luckily, past me - whose immune system took a nose dive after taking too large of a dose over the course of three weeks - broke all the pills in half for future me.

Now, I'm pondering a ridiculously hard diet change. I just read an article on dairy and sugar causing acne. The dairy bit doesn't make sense to me personally, because I didn't really drink milk/eat cheese until college. I do, however, take in a lot of sugar.

Here is a list of everything I have eaten today:

Leftovers from V-day dinner, Sauerbraten (marinated beef and spaetzle)
Salami
Pickles
Chinese food, Beef and broccoli with chicken fried rice and egg drop soup
Cheez-its
Instant pudding
Sweet Tea

Here is a list of the items I have eaten today that do not contain sugar or dairy:

Pickles
Egg drop soup

My impending diet of egg drop soup and pickles reminds me of a joke.

Patient: Doctor, do you think that I shall live until I am ninety?
Doctor: How old are you now?
Patient: 40
Doctor: Do you drink, gamble, smoke or do you have any other vice?
Patient: No. I don't drink. I don't gamble. I don't smoke. I have no vice.
Doctor: Then why do you want to live for another fifty years?

I don't think it would be miserable to not eat my favorite foods... I just don't think it's a step I'm willing to take... today. I don't know what tomorrow will bring. My aunt once subsisted on peanut butter and banana sandwiches. A hearty diet of nothing but plants, water, rice and personally cooked meats wouldn't mean the end of days.

For now, I'll keep up with doing the sulfur mask once a week, washing twice a day with the Bliss cleanser... taking zinc at night and rubbing jojoba oil frantically on my combination skin while sacrificing a goat to Lucifer and promising to be a better, more generous person to God. If all this nonsense doesn't work out, I could move to an even colder climate and wear a ski mask all hours of the day OR move to a tropical climate and be constantly sun-burnt as a way to distract from acne. The lobster look is trending.

If only.

Finances Update, Pinterest, Makeup Post

Finance Update + House Update

Week 1 of my 26 week financial fast is complete! I made a small slip and bought a replacement waist belt. I broke the one I would use often and I needed it for the majority of my dresses to fit right. Darn thick arms, broad shoulders and a normal sized waist!

I did my weekly total and should be able to put away enough for a down-payment on a house in September and for my San Francisco trip in May (or possibly June, I'm still working out the details).

As for real estate ... we saw a few houses two weeks ago that weren't up to snuff. This week another house dropped in price, but is further north than I want to live. Seeing that the last apartment we saw on the only day we looked at apartments was perfect, the house in Platteville sold just in time for us to move into said apartment, I learned of my volunteer gig just before it started, my contracting job started soon after my volunteer gig ended, my contracting job ended and my real job started... and we met Gizmo and adopted him in the same day... and everything that has happened seems to just happen in a timely manner - I'm going to bank on just the right house appearing on the market just in time. What can I say? I'm lucky.

Pinterest

I joined Pinterest this week. It took me a little while to figure out what was going on and the best use for the website. Now, it's kind of addicting. It's a great way to keep tracking of street wear blogs I like, and to keep track of home decorating ideas on Apartment Therapy.

I would suggest it.

Makeup Blog posts

I am considering making a weekly post about makeup I own and have tried often enough to form an opinion. I'd like to get an idea of my audience before embarking on this. Mostly, I wonder if I have an audience and whether you, my audience, would want to read something like that. Comment on Facebook, message me, comment here - whatever works for you.

Fabulous February of Frugality?

Last weekend, Jared and I went and saw three houses in our price range. Nothing quite hit a home run, but it got me thinking.

I need to start saving up my half of the downpayment.

Viva the February Financial Fast. The rules are simple: no purchasing non-consumable goods; we can only eat out once a week; every cent out of my bank account must be tracked on paper.

Length of time: six months. End date: 8/2/2012. (My birthday, and hopefully the day we find a house we can't pass up.)

Goal: $5,000.

When I was 15...

When I was 15, I lived with my mother and step-father in a two bedroom house (at times classified as a mobile home) in Destin, Fl. I didn't go to the beach. I spent the majority of my free-time in front of a computer using Gaia Online as a social network under the user name "Trugoy."  At the time, I was well known in the Gaia Online art forum for having a lot of gold.

I had no interest in driving a car. I had never been to a party that didn't involve a cake with candles. I had no idea that we'd be moving to Wisconsin in one year.

I had long, slightly wavy hair with a pale face full of acne and freckles. I thought I was fat and ugly, but hilarious and smart. I had a penchant for matching my shirt with large, beaded accessories my Gram made. I wore red, suede Vans and Tilt jeans almost everyday.

I loved Metric, Maroon 5, Pink, Trick Pony and The Postal Service. My favorite movie was Encino Man or Airheads... or Monkey Bone. Really, I was madly in love with Brendan Fraser.

I worked for my parents off and on compiling a database of rental homes in the Florida panhandle.

That year, almost immediately following my 15th birthday, I started at Okaloosa-Walton Community College Collegiate High School. Depending on who you ask, I wanted to be a psychologist, an artist or a politician. In reality, I wanted to be retired.

I didn't really have a best friend. I had many friends who I very much liked, but (excuses excuses) I had a hard time opening myself up to people (as I do now). That said, I bounced between Amanda, Lizzy, Liz, Michelle and Michael as being my good friends. I started dating Michael that September. It was nice to be around his family who are devoted to each other.

In 2012, I'm living with my boyfriend (and best friend) Jared in our own apartment in Minneapolis. I'm out of school, and I work for a Fortune 500 company at their headquarters. I want to be the best me possible. I still have no interest in driving. I look basically the same. My favorite bands are Metric, Death Cab for Cutie, Kanye West and The Hold Steady. I sometimes am on Gaia Online... like twice a year to check my mail. I still love Brendan Fraser, but my favorite movie is Amelie.