Searching for Mrs. Welby

I knew it....fire sale in my ovaries

Warning....TMI about to commence....

My suspicions have been confirmed. I KNEW it was too good to be true. 28 day cycles are not normal for me. But I have been enjoying them for the last 18 months or so.

What I have not been enjoying, is the WICKED PMS I've had.

And it seems all the jokes I've made about early menopause are a kind of subconscious thing.

http://www.womens-health-questions.com/early-signs-of-menopause.html

"Sale on eggs!"

"The economy has reached hormonal levels."

"Going out of business!"

"Everything MUST go!"

Notebooks for the Nerd in You

I love notebooks. Specifically, I love spiral bounds for notes, classes, and diaries. But I can't resist setting up a brand new 3-ring binder for a special purpose. (Oh, the 3-rings have to be white with a clear part you can slip in a spine label and a front cover.)

I just pulled out an old one to use for a new project. It's the perfect portable one: 150 sheets, 9.5 x 6 in, 3 sections, purple cover. Inside the front cover is my name and the date '8Mar1993'. No idea why I went so Euro with the date. A section of the notebook was once used for GRE prep--vocabulary words such as opprobrium (girls night anyone?), several pages of algebra and trig. In another section I have notes on why I wanted/want to pursue a PhD and notes from a lecture I attended by Peter Buerhaus, genius of nursing systems thinking. The last section contains notes on starting this blog and my secret plan for helping all spouses of residents.

Notebooks could be the reason I loved my job in clinical trials. Every study had at least one notebook as a reference manual. And then each patient enrolled had their own notebook. My office was shelves and shelves of binders, all with slip-in spine and cover pockets.

In school, every class had to have it's own spiral bound, preferably in a color that matched the textbook. Or, a color that made you happier than the class did--a nice bright green for statistics for instance.

Is my notebook obsession a reflection of my need for containment and control? The last fragment of Type A remaining since motherhood so swiftly kicked my ass? A grasp at youth? 

Just know that if you visit me in the old age home, bring me a cute notebook. Oh, and a mechanical pencil, medium point lead...but that's a whole different essay...

Beauty Update

Just in case you were worried about my grooming affairs...I have found a satisfactory substitute for my Shine N Lite: Fredrick Fekkai's Glossing Cream with Olive Oil.

Also, I have a recommendation for a great face product: Neutrogena Acne Scrub. I had a facial (thank you MIL!) before I left Nashville and the woman recommended it for making my skin smoother and brighter. I swear I think the shit works. She said it would be almost as good as a silk peel at a spa. She is a genius.

Shine on sistahs!

"Regrettably"....you have no idea

Below is my response from Kiehls to my plea for more product.

Thank you for contacting Kiehl's Customer Service.  We are always happy to hear from our customers and will gladly assist you.

Regrettably we do not have any currect plans to bring back the Shine N Lite Groom however we will be sure to forward your comments to thhe appriopriate people within our company. 

We apologize for any inconvenience this may ahve caused.  If we can be of any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact us at customerservice1@kiehls.com or you may call us directly at 1-800-KIEHLS-2 (1-800-543-4572) and a Kiehl Representative will gladly assist you.

In the meantime we send greetings and best wishes from all of us at Kiehl's Since 1851.

So, looking at all the misspellings in the above text, do I hold out hope that this is a fake response? Or do I call, bring all the misspellings to their attention first, then blast them for describing my personal hair torture as an "inconvenience"?

Ode to BeauTAY

Makeup wish list

Dawn Fallik
Knight Ridder Newspapers
Mar. 28, 2006

12:00 AM

PHILADELPHIA

- It was just a slightly gloppy white goo, but to Nikki Virbitsky, the styling product known as Kiehl's Shine 'N Lite Groom was nothing short of a hair savior.

She used it for years, a small drop in the palm of her hand, giving her "really fine and overprocessed" locks a Rapunzelesque heft.

And then, it was gone. The company discontinued it in December, like the Grinch of Good Hair Days.

The

South Philadelphia

artist went to the Kiehl's store on

Rittenhouse Square

and pleaded her case until she walked away with the store's last 14 samples, each about half the size of a credit card. She's been eking them out in tiny dabs until a new miracle comes along.

Still, she mourns. "That was my lifeblood and they took it away from me," Virbitsky said. "It gave my hair fullness and body that I've never seen before."