Friday, October 31, 2008

Happy Halloween!!


Just want to wish everyone a Happy Halloween!!!! It is definitely one of my most favorite holidays since I just love to decorate, dress up, and of course you can't forget all of the Halloween treats. I still don't have a Halloween tree but next year..... I promise. Just a 4 footer and no I am not crazy. I am thinking about this one.... it would do the trick (Get it? Trick? ) quite nicely. All my little Halloween ornaments will just have to stay packed away for one more year....oh well!
Happy haunting everyone!!!!! Oh...... check out these little cake balls... are they not just the cutest things ever???

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

I'm just here for the cake.

I keep getting invited to home parties. Jewelry, Southern Living, sex toys, lingerie, home decorating crap, children's clothes... you name it. Since I am one of those people who usually can't say no when a friend asks me a favor, I end up going and hating every minute of it. I always tell people that invite me to these things that even though I will agree to go, they should not expect me to buy anything (hey, might as well be up front about it.....they are just looking for a warm body to sit in a chair so that they can get credit for having "x" amount of people there anyway.) I usually tell them that I am on a strict budget and that I am saving up for a big purchase, trip, etc... and that I don't really have any spare money just sitting around at the moment. Just being honest... if I bought something at every one of these parties..... I would have one foot in the poorhouse. I am probably getting a reputation as the "cheap friend" but come on.... the items they are pushing are way overpriced. I can find the same stuff at the local mall any day of the week at a fraction of the price.



This weekend it was another Southern Living party. Now don't get me wrong, I love Southern Living, and their products were decent (though way overpriced)... but I really did not need any of it. These women were acting like it was the best stuff ever and they could not pull out their credit cards fast enough to pay for it. I just don't get it... do they really like the stuff or are they just trying to impress their friends? How about the sex toy and lingerie parties? If I was in the market for any of this stuff, I would not want any of my friends to know. "Gee, Courtney... did you get the Long Dong Schlong or the Rabbit deluxe?" I have the hardest time keeping a straight face at these things. You have a room full of "Stepford wife" type women oohing and ahhing over the latest pleasure toys and slutty lingerie. You can't not laugh at one of these things as the sales rep is waving around a giant rubber dildo. Ah... good times.

Friday, October 24, 2008

Long, L-O-N-G day.

I am so sleepy. I had to trek way across town through the horrible Houston I-10 construction to a training class. I get there, find the training room, and wait..... and wait, and wait. Finally the class gets started (we need this certification class to have access to the new computer system in a couple of weeks) and then half way through the certificate exam....... the computers crash...... so typical. The instructor tells us we can wait around and see if they can get the program up and running again or we can leave and re-schedule another class time. Hell no am I coming back.

I stick around and the instructor finally gets the program running again but while she was fiddling with my computer, she advanced the questions and answered a question incorrectly. Crap! I just flew through the rest of the test because I was afraid the thing was going to crash again before I finished. I can honestly say that I did not learn a thing and that the class had nothing to do with my department. I passed with a 98 (I would have had a 99 if she had not have messed me up) so thank God I don't have to go back there.

I made it back across town in record time and stopped at the convention center (I live in a small town so the convention center is actually an old bank) and voted. Yea!! Now I don't have to worry about that. Every time I vote they have a different type of voting machine. This one was kind of strange with a computer screen and a big dial that you kept on turning until it landed on the name that you wanted to choose. Kind of like "Spin the wheel, make a deal." Totally odd! At least I voted which is a big weight off my shoulders. Whatever happens in this election is up to fate. I believe it will all work out in the end..... no matter who wins. Karma is a bitch.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Could it even be possible.....

for just a few more of my friends and co-workers to announce that they are engaged? And what is up with all the babies? Three people I know have had children in the last month and a half. Me? Bitter...? Ummmmmmm.... just a tad....... AHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Friday, October 17, 2008

I love Lucy!!

Voted one of the top toys for this holiday season (according to Esquire magazine.) The monster factory has some really adorable gifts for both kids and kids at heart. I love them and I am usually not a fan of stuffed animals. Cute! Cute! Cute!

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Check....Check 1...2... Check....

Yep...... this thing is apparently still on. I actually got an email from someone asking me where I have been. Well, I have been around....just have not had much to say lately and I have been a little busy at work I guess. I have just been in some kind of funk which is so not me. I don't know if it is just that time of the year, all the gloom and doom in the media or what. Laura has just not been a very fun girl lately. Bleh!
Hopefully things will pick up soon and I will be back to my old, fun, self. I think maybe I need to take a trip somewhere or do something crazy and fun. Any ideas????? Looks like tonight I am staying in and I have a date will the finale of Project Runway. How sad is it that I even plan on watching it live and not on Tivo? Arghhhhhhh!

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Hair disaster 2008.... Yikes!!!!!!

Last Thursday I finally got around to trimming the ends of my hair. After I was done, I somehow got the bright idea to deep condition my hair hair as well. I had nothing else better to do so I grabbed what I thought was the container of hair masque off of the shelf and started slathering it all over my head. I quickly realized that I had grabbed the wrong tub and had applied (half a tub!!!) of a heavy duty olive oil treatment ( Warning!!! Do not apply to wet hair...oops!, use sparingly on the tips of hair only... double oops!) to my hair instead. At this point I figured that the damage was already done so I applied a little more just to finish the job (more is always better right?), put on a plastic shower cap, and wrapped my whole head in a towel. I then crashed on my bed and decided to watch a little TV while I waited for it to soak in figuring I would rinse it out in about 20-30 minutes.

I woke up about three hours later in one of those "where am I?" type of semi-conscious states and I quickly realized that the towel was sliding off my head and that something greasy was dripping down my neck. I jumped in the shower (after staggering around the room for a minute...still half asleep) and applied shampoo to my head hoping to get the stuff off quickly when I realized that something was VERY wrong. My hair was so greasy that the shampoo would not even lather. Crap!!!!!! I ended up washing my hair 7 times and the oil was not budging off my head. My hair felt like it weighed a ton and it was just kinda hanging there like limp seaweed. After the initial moment of panic that I might have really fucked up my hair, I calmed down and tried to think of what I could use to cut the grease since the shampoo was not doing the trick. I finally decided to try some dish soap....... hey, if it works on greasy pots, why not the oil slick on my head?

Lets just say that the dish soap did not help my grease problem but it did strip all the natural oils out of my hair and I was left with what felt like greasy straw for hair. Great! Now my hair is totally screwed!!!! I jumped back in the shower and tried some more shampoo and even some conditioner because the steel wool texture of my hair was really beginning to scare me. I finally admitted defeat and decided that hopefully a couple more washings in the morning shower before work would help. Since I never go to bed with wet hair, having been threatened by my grandmother many years ago over the horrible things (Pneumonia, sore throat, death) that could strike me down if I did..... I decided that I had better dry my hair before getting into bed. Second lesson learned of the evening..... you can't "dry" oily hair. I finally gave up and went to bed with semi-moist, clumpy, oily, dreadlocks.

The next morning I tried washing my hair again..... about 7 more times. The oiliness had subsided just a little bit.... at least I was able to get some lather going.... but the texture was still strange and it still kind of hung there in clumps. My hair looked like total crap but hey, at least it was clean! I did manage to get it mostly dry, but I looked so bad that I was actually considering calling into work. No way was I going anywhere looking like that! I finally realized that I could not miss work for something so stupid so I managed to get it into a weird version of an updo that still looked horrendous but better than it had.

After slinking around work all day, trying to avoid human contact, I did some research online and decided that apple cider vinegar should be my next course of action. As soon as I got home, I jumped in the shower and tried rinsing my hair with a diluted vinegar mixture. God the stuff stunk!!! At one point I got it in my eyes and holy hell did that stuff burn! Great... now I was going to have hideous hair and be blind! The vinegar was working somewhat so I just decided to dump the remainder of the pure vinegar on my hair and hope for the best.
After drying my hair for what seemed like an eternity, my hair was almost 75% oil free. The top and sides were not too bad but the back was still dreadfully greasy. The worst part was the smell. I smelled like an Easter egg! Gross!!! By Monday, most of the oil was gone and my hair had returned to a semi-normal state...except for the smell. The best way that I could describe it was a soured mop. Not what you want your hair to smell like but at least it looked OK.

It has now been exactly a week since the incident and the smell is gone. Here is the crazy part....... my hair looks super terrific!!!! It is bouncy, shiny, soft, frizz-free, and looks totally healthy. I guess the olive oil stuff worked after all...... but hell no am I going through all that crap again! Ever!!!!!!