Not so Mystic Tan.

As you may have noticed by now...i'm white.  Not just a little bit of white, but Mary Kay Albino 101 makeup white.  I don't spend much time in the sun as i'm locked to a chair in a building from Monday to Friday - my job.  I am trying to spend more time in the sun for  health purposes and so that I can have a smidge of colour on my pathetic body.  I watch others who look golden tan how nice they look and I dream of looking that way too.  So I did - for only $24.10.  In my quest to look golden I went to a tanning salon to do the Mystic Tan.  It is a chemical that gets sprayed on your body and after 5-6 hours it brings out your natural pigment.  My husband said to me, "What if you don't have any pigment?"  Smart aleck....he's just as white as I am too!  Anyhow I thought i'd give it a try to see what it was like.

This golden girl brought me into this tiny room and told me to put on a hair net, and then this barrier cream in between my fingers and toes and on my nail beds on both hands and feet and the palms of my hand.  She told me to gob it on. Sounds easy enough?  Well it wasn't!  I had barrier cream everywhere!  Everytime I thought I was ready to go into the booth i noticed there was cream on my hand or fingers which I dont' want because it will block the tanning stuff.  After gobs of this stuff and being extremely frustrated wondering if this was really worth it, I finally was ready to go in to the booth.  I went in and tried to rmember all the instructions she gave me. This was just too stressful.  So I pressed the button, turned my back to it, put my hands in the right position and spoosh out came the tanning stuff moving up and down my body.  Golden girl told me that I only had to hold my breath when it came to my head and face so I breathed as normal and now i'm pretty sure my throat and vocal chords are a lovely tanned colour!

Ok so now the machine stops temporarily and I have to turn facing it with my hands in the right position and spoosh here it goes spraying all over me and darn it I forgot again to hold my breath.  Oh well maybe i'll sing better now ;)  The machine stops spraying but is making a humming noise and i'm afraid to move or get out in fear that it will spray me again so I stand there hands up like i'm being arrested or something.  Should I yell for help?  No don't yell for help or you will become the laughing stock of the place.  So I wait until the machine stops humming, I open the door and ask golden girl if that is it, she says ya.  She is probably wondering why it is taking me 30 mins to do a quick 2 mins procedure.  She obviously doesn't know me ;).  So I get out of the booth, pat myself down with  a towel, and now proceed to take the little wet wipes they provide to get the barrier cream off of me, BUT i have to make sure not to wipe where I was just sprayed.  AAAAHHHHH this is too complicated!!  Finally I get out of the place, reminded that I cannot use any form of creams, makeup, deodorant, sprays, even water - showering or bathing for 5-6 hrs.  Lovely, we are going out to the movies with friends.  At least it will be dark!

So in 5-6 hrs I should be like golden girl right?  We  head off to the movie, Robin hood, and I realize that I may walk in to the movie white and come out tanned.  How cool is that?  Maybe my friends will be like, "where did Michelle go" and then realize it is I but I have now joined the golden clan!!! :)

All through the movie I catch myself trying to look at my arms to see if i'm tanned.  I keep asking Martin if it looks tan, only to have him continually roll his eyes and say, "I can't tell , it's dark in here!!"  We leave the movie, everyone still recognizes me so it hasn't come in to effect yet.  I am starting to wonder if Martin was right - maybe I have no pigment.    Later on in the evening I see it starting to work and i'm not dark but light golden.  The next morning it's at it's peak.  Not dark but medium golden.  The problem though is the areas around my fingers and toes where I battled with the barrier cream are a bit streaky becuase I got the cream on parts of my toes and fingers.  Oh well I still look fairly nice though.  All that for only $24.10 - such a deal!!!!  I'm being sarcastic, because even though the tan looks nice, what I had to go through to get it wasn't!

Will I do it again?  Probably.  Read the blog just before this one and you'll understand why! ;)

Toodles

It's all about ME!

Many people are afraid of what others think of themselves, and i've come to realize no one really has much thought about you because they are caught up thinking about what others think about them too!  We are a species walking around thinking about ourselves and what others think.  The revelation hit me about how self-centred it is of me to think that the world and everyone in it is thinking about me......talk about self absorbed.

I think about this whole self absorbed thing often and catch myself thinking only about me and my little life and forgetting that there is life outside of me.  Is there any wonder we are so caught up with ourselves though?  I mean look at television, the advertising is all about you and how you can look better, smell better, be better, just by using this product......Media tell us whether verbally or subtely what we should look like,what we should wear, the size of house we should own, and the car we should drive, and the type of girlfriend/boyfriend we should be with.  We are bombarded with media that is constantly 'talking' to us, telling us we are not good enough and we wonder why we are so caught up with ourselves?

Ask yourself this - do you know your neighbour's last names?   Do you know your neighbor's first names?  Do you know your neighbours?  Do you even know if you have neighbours? :)  Some of us may be able to answer yes to this but many of us won't.  We can live next to someone for years and know nothing about them.  Heck, we can live in the same house with someone for years and know nothing about them!  Why?

The one thing I know I battle with is self-centredness.  I see it in myself yet feel so powerless to change it.  I try, with some success for a short time.  I really believe that I have too many comforts that feed into my self-centredness.  Some countries that have less than a third of what we have, have extremely rich close families and relationships.  What a revelation!!  Do you remember what it was like growing up when the power went out.  You actually had to talk to your family, and for the most part - in my case anyhow it was an enjoyable experience.  But now, we have all of our gidgets and gadgets that we use to replace face to face experiences.  Ironically I say this as I am typing on a blog on a computer, which replaces a soapbox. :)

Anyhow, something to think about - I encourage you to take a look at your own life and see if you're self absorbed too.  Hey maybe a group could be started - S.A.A. - Self Absorbed Anonymous.

Hi my name is Michelle and it's been 2 seconds since I last thought of myself.

Toodles. :)

Liking Biking!

I love to bike. Bicicyling that is - not motorcyling - although I'm sure i'd like that too.  On Saturday I was asked if I find it scary biking with traffic.  I responded that I don't find it scary,in fact I find it thrilling - it's sort of like my form of bungee jumping.  Knowing that one wrong move by either me or the vehicle could end me up splatted on the road.  Twisted I know!!!  Other things I find frightening - talking to strangers, sharks, spiders big and small, but not biking next to cars.  In fact if the road is empty I find it very boring.  Mind you I'm biking approximately 25-40km/h depending on the wind.  Which brings me to the next point.

Last nite I felt inspired to go for a bike ride at 8pm. So I did.  I put on all my gear (love the camelback for water!) and starting biking east.  I had no idea where I was going but that was the exciting part.  So I started biking down Riverside Drive.  The tail wind was great and I was up to 54.5km/h at one point!  (Almost as fast as slow drivers!).  12kms down Riverside I hit a bump and all of a sudden my seat starts moving backwards!  I tried to readjust it but it got worse and worse.  Good thing I had my cell phone, called hubby he came and fixed it.  I decided I better head back only to find that I am now against the wind.  Aiyai yai yai ya.   My legs hurt from peddling so fast and now the wind!  This happens all the time while biking...hitting a point where it is no longer a physical game, but a mental game.  I had to bear down and convince myself that I could do this.  I had to purpose my thoughts on positive ones, not allowing the negative thoughts (that I can't do this) to affect me.  Sure enough I made it home in one piece.

I felt that I had accomplished big things even though it wasn't that long of a ride (1hr).  I had overcome me (my worst enemy)!  I think that it why I really like biking....the mental stimulation.  It causes me to grow.

Anyhoo there are so many life lessons in this......if we were to just push out negative thoughts and only allow positive ones in, what could we accomplish?  What things do negative thoughts keep us from doing?

Toodles :)

Da Sownd uv Mewsic

DOE, a deer, a female deer, RAY a drop of golden sun......ME a name, I call myself, FA, a long long way to runnnnn.....SEW, a needle pulling threaddddd, LA, a note to follow sew, TEA a drink with jam and breadddd, that will bring me back to Doe, doe, doe doe..........doe a deer, a female deer......

Don't say I didn't warn you.............

Toodles
Mich

I'm back!!!

So it' s been quite a while since I last blogged.  Honestly....I got bored.  Which if you knew me, wouldn't surprise you. It happens often - I start something new it's great for a while, then as soon as i've "mastered" it or found something else new, I move on.  It' s a wonder i've managed to stay married for over 7 years!  Maybe that's why the hubby has let me buy alot of shoes during the course of our marriage.  Offerings!

When i'm upset, he gives me "sacrifices", for instance - he'll buy me chocolate bars, or let me eat some of the food off his plate, or some new clothes.  It's just how it works in a marriage to keep the balance and for everyone to stay alive and keep all body parts.

Seriously speaking, we don't fight alot, and if we do it's a very mature fight - more like a disagreement.  My husband just doesn't yell.  One day we were disagreeing about something and he said to me, "I have to apologize".  I said, "About what???" He said, "That I yelled." I' was confused - , "You yelled?  When?".
He is so soft and gentle like a roll of Charmin - or like cotton candy.  He thinks if he raises his voice a bit he is yelling - it's cute.  I don't yell either but I tend to get very heated and passionate about proving my point. Deep down I think I believe that I can change anyone's mind about anything.  Wrong!

The worst part of our relationship is that we are completely opposite.  The beauty of our relationship is that we are completely opposite.    Yes - I said that on purpose.  It is on one hand a downfall because not only are we man and woman who speak different languages, we are also motivated and inspired by different things, move and speak at different paces, and think differently because of our different personalities.  I'm not soft and sweet.  I'd like to be, but then I'd melt too quickly in the rain and be of no use to anyone!  He's the soft and sweet one. I'm more like rock candy.  It takes alot longer to melt if you put me in water!  We both have our roles, our purposes and our place in our marriage.  Neither is better than the other - just different.  We are still working on fully appreciating our differences.

I wasn't planning on blogging about our marriage.  I guess it's what came out of my fingers today.  Just to warn you, my blogs will be random for the most part.

Also, if you happen to bump into Martin, ummm I hope he's ok I wrote about this stuff I kinda never mentioned it to him first (the whole random thing) so...mums the word.

Toodles
Mich