Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge

I cut my pony tail off. I have finally had enough of it. I’ve been walking a lot for exercise and I can’t just twist it up quickly into a knot. I have had to wrap it 3-4 times. if I can’t manage to put it up while I’m parked at a red light, it’s too long. The other thing is having it stick out under my motorcycle helmet and dealing with that. I decided it could stand to be shorter so I cut it off on Sunday night. Trimming it wasn’t too bad. The egregious bits have been managed. But I can recall the voice of one friend from the last time I cut my own hair, “It’s a little, uh, blunt.” Yes, it’s not the prettiest haircut, but it’s alright. The left side is longer than the right, but I’ll have to go to a salon to get that fixed properly.

I look forward to using less shampoo for the next two months. I must remember not to keep globbing it on. In the end I had fistfuls of conditioner on my hair. Was it the money on hair care product that bugged me? Or was it the fact it was past my elbows? I’ll never know. Well, I won’t know for another year is more like it.

I cut off a decent foot of hair. It’s tied off and ready to ship. Now the problem is where to send it. After all the comments I got about the ethical dubiousness of Locks of Love, I am not sure if I want to bother sending to Pantene’s program, or Wigs 4 Kids. I mean, honestly, I could just throw it out and not think about it again.

Read this and this.

Let me just say now, I love Chapstick. My family is a loyal Chapstick family. It was the first thing my dad ever bought in the US. He got a black Chapstick in the Anchorage airport on a layover during their immigration flight to the US. Daddy uses nothing else on his lips. To this day, I can’t kiss a guy who wears it because he smells like my pop.

My personal favorite Chapstick is the blue one with SPF 15. I like to keep the UV from damaging my lips.

Keep reading the Consumerist and you’ll see their readers are devotees of Burt’s Bees. My mom loves Burt’s. She started using it this past year, mostly the hand lotion because it smells good. I’ve used the lip balm before, but I could only ever find it in the tin. I keep my nails kind of long so I hated gouging the surface of it.

Lately, I’ve got a pot of Aquaphor I bought for a burn on my leg (dismounting a Ducati, another story) and I’ve been using that up. I apply it to my lips after a shower, every time I wash my hands at home, etc. It’s a huge tub. (and that’s the newer small tub!) It’s basically Vaseline with some good stuff in it for fast skin healing. No tingles, just keeps the lips protected during the dry winter months. I’m not addicted since I don’t use it in the summertime.

When I go to the office, I am Frumperella. I have always been taught to dress professionally for work. When I was debating in high school and in college, my mom would make sure I got skirts that fell all the way to the knee.

My mom, being the conservative lady she is, never let me wear make up in high school. She flat out said, ‘You look like a whore.’ Gee, thanks Mom. Well, in the end, I do have to thank her since I save a lot of money by not wearing any on a daily basis. Now of course she tells me I ought to wear a little every day to the office, but she’s made her no make up bed and now she has to sleep in it.

I wear classic clothes to the office. I look like a preppy mom. Hey, that’s really funny. Why? Because the preppy moms at my high school shopped at Land’s End catalog. And that’s where I shop now! I love their Overstocks page. Be sure to visit on Saturdays when the new stuff comes out in the On The Counter section. Pay careful attention to when the discounts increase over the course of the week.

I am so frumpy that the guys from my old job flat out told me one night that though I am a cute girl, I dressed like THAT. That? What’s THAT? Then I looked down and saw my grey turtleneck, plaid shirt, khakis and hiking boots. I guess I saw their point. The next day, I dressed in a skirt, tall heels and slimming sweater. I looked great, got lots of compliments, and the day after that I went back to my frumpy clothes.

I have my vanities. I do. My hair is unreasonably long and I use a lot of shampoo because I can’t bear to wear my hair short anymore. But my role model was my Latin teacher. She is smart, witty, and kind of frumpy too. She wore Coke-bottle lenses in dark rims, Rockports and a narrow wardrobe of clothes. I admired her and learned that I don’t have to dress to impress anyone. I can impress them just by talking.