La Lune Naturals Charcoal Facial Sponge

I had the opportunity to try the new charcoal facial sponge by La Lune Naturals this week and when I used it with my regular facial cleanser, I saw a huge difference in the softness of my skin without having to resort to using abrasive wash cloths or those painful brushes.  For someone with sensitive skin, this is great.

Get it Here!!! 

Look at the difference...

More Rambling About the Novel I am Reading

More than my usual amount of blogposts lately I know...

I am spending a great deal more time at the computer over the last few days as my comprehensive exams loom and I study more intensively, and thus... I am here more and when I take a break, my brain still has to do something.
I am not the sit and do nothing type and I do not nap so when I take a break...it is usually productive in some way.

My latest method of taking a break involves a nightly soak with bath salts (helps with the problematic joint disease) and reading something for fun.

This is my current poison

Flynn is also the author of last year's book inspired film Gone Girl. I liked the novel and the book so I thought I would try Flynn out again when I realized that this too has been adapted screen and will be released later this year. The protagonist is very unlikable and standoffish, but with good reason and I like it. The premise is good and the story is engaging, which is all I can ask for in a novel that I just read for ten to twenty minutes a day while I am soaking in the tub. 

I mentioned this previously, but I find one thing that Flynn does really appealing... her exploration into what it means to be scarred. The main character of Dark Places is the only survivor of a mass murder where most of her family was horrifically butchered and of course, that means she is not exactly all there... but similar to some of the characters in Flynn's other books, this one has physical scars to match her psychological ones (a missing half finger and two missing toes she lost to frostbite the night her family was murdered). It is an interesting way to outwardly project that the character is broken or damaged somehow, especially in a world that is so attached to the physical appearance and it happens more than once in Flynn's unconnected novels.
I just find that interesting, even for kind of throw away novels that I read without looking into them deeper than the story.

Now back to Darwin, bananas, and the Middle Ages 

A fun read so far 

Starting a Novel and Working on Comps

When reading is your passion, you want to read even when your brain is so full of words it hurts. Thus, to take a break from all of the academic texts I am currently reading or re-reading while attending my final two courses of grad school and studying for my comprehensive exams, I needed something to read for that ten minutes of rest time before bed...because books. Now, while I would love to say that all I read consists of deep and high minded literature, after reading academic texts about Honduran banana farms and Charles Darwin's early years...or the early Reformation in Germany and the emergence of the culture wars in the 2oth century... I kind of want something I do not have to think about when reading. If this were Summer and I had nothing else to do, I have different authors I read, but as for now... I just want to be entertained.

I liked Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl because it was dark and the characters were borderline unlikeable to just completely unlikeable and thus to me, a bit more realistic than some of the novels I've read where complication is a quirk, but almost surface in nature. No...Flynn's characters are deeply scarred usually mentally and physically... something I have noticed as I've read her books, when people are damaged, they are outwardly so as well. I picked up her Dark Places after coming upon a trailer for the film that is coming out at some point this year. Now I have downloaded it and will, for the next few days, use it as my 10 minutes of bliss material. We shall see how this goes.
I read about a chapter while soaking in the tub tonight (something else I do to destress) and it is sufficiently dark for my tastes.

Currently, I just finished up on a chapter in one book that covered Charles Darwin's education and his father's attempts to have him follow down the path of most Darwins...into medical practice, but Charles was not a fan after just not being able to stomach surgery theaters in the 19th century in Edinburgh. To be honest, can one hold that against him? 19th century surgery could not have been anything but horrifically gruesome. The text actually mentions using sawdust in buckets around the operating table to catch the steady flow of blood that comes from the process...so yea, I may be with Charlie on this one and say NOT FOR ME.
I also spent some time with the multiple reformation movements in the German territories leading up to and through the Thirty Years War. There is a huge debate about one or multiple reformations, I remember that from another course I took...but for this particular book, the author was all about multiple and he payed special attention to the participation of different social classes in the German lands during the period and how they catered to religious reform...I remember really liking the book in 2012 when I originally read it, so going over the notes again was fun.

Finally...back to Honduran banana farms... I have another chapter to read before I can go to bed and have my ten minutes of fun reading time. 

Have a great weekend...
Oh I am on Spring Break, but I have a paper due so oh well LOL. 

Long Week

I am pretty happy that this week is in the books, it has been long and not all parts enjoyable. Balancing two jobs, school, and family can be a bit of a weight when at least two of the three are proving overwhelmingly difficult. So this week tested my patience and my ability to stay cool under pressure (this week should = teenagers.... teenagers tested my patience)

I want to pretend that twenty or so years ago I was an average teenager and I could have related to the ones I substitute teach sometimes, but I was not an average teenager and thus I have a hard time with their behavior/hubris....

BUT... I survived, and the teenagers survived and another week of substitute teaching, finishing graduate school, working at a bookstore, and mothering a toddler has passed without me throwing anyone off a roof.

I did have a pretty engaged group of kids interested in Puritans so that was a win, hey... maybe they will remember that and make a good grade on a college test because of it one day and it will all be worth it.

(I am going to tell myself that)

Back to Peruvian mercury mining.... 

School Stuff of Course

Reading about the conditions in silver mines used by the Spanish in the 16th-18th centuries with forced indian labor in Peru is what one might describe as depressing...heartbreaking. To read about the sheer disregard for human life for the production of silver so Spain could push their religious agenda to spread Catholicism in an increasingly religiously diverse Europe is hard to swallow at times. Priests would write back to Spain in an effort to shed light on the horrific conditions, the abuse, and the massive death experienced by native peoples of Peru to either get dismissed or be a part of the problem by still stating the necessity of the work to continue Spain's goals....

mercury poisoning is a pretty horrible way to slowly die.

Happy Day

Years ago we would have gone out, spent a ton of money and ate some big dinner at a local restaurant that was crowded and overpriced.

Today was awesome.

We took our son and got his first haircut, he ruled by the way....
We bought him a fantastic Star Wars toy for being such a good boy.
We had this sloppy overly greasy lunch.
Visited the family and spent time with my sister and parents...
Now tonight, we had a fresh and awesome salad, a bottle of wine, and some red velvet cake.
All in my pajamas....woo!


So many people spend half of this day every year in a foul mood or mad because they do not have what they think they should... but it really should not be about that.
So today is this created day to put focus on your significant other...
but one of the coolest part of my day was watching my little boy play with his Thor pop that his grandparents sent him.
I love all my friends and family every day and I think today especially they should know that regardless of their "status"  they have tons of things that should make them feel awesome today....
That could be the wine talking. 

I do not do death well. That being said, I am almost sure that no one does...it is an alien thing that while we all will experience...we move away from, recoil from... probably more than anything.

I respond awkwardly and without the proper show of emotion, especially in the South, where there is a ritual and tradition to it all.

It makes me very uncomfortable. 

I do not cry at the right time, I do not know what to say... it is problematic for me.

A few weeks back, I discovered that someone I was pretty close to in high school had died years ago...and I did not know.

I missed it somehow and part of me felt so guilty because I did not know... we were pretty close.....

On the other hand I suddenly felt so sad because this person was so bright and amazing, even as a teenager... to think that did not continue... 

A friend on facebook posted a photo of him tonight and I choked up.

We had no spoken or seen each other for twenty years, but man did it hurt to see him there...in a photo, knowing that even though we had not spoken in all those years, that we never would.

Just sucks and I honestly do not know what to say/think beyond... it sucks. 

I Hate When School Gets Out

I have come to dread the time of the day during the week between 2:45 and around 4:30 PM. During this period I usually deal with extreme amounts of loud noise, loitering, dogs barking, car accidents, horns blaring, brakes screeching.... you name it... it has happened during this time period thanks to the problematic small intersection where I live and the fact that many of the high school students use it to avoid having to sit at a traffic light while scores of others walk home from school or a bus stop that is right in front of my house for my entire neighborhood. 

Over the last two years there have been:
fights
near misses between cars and pedestrians 
threats
theft
vandalism
littering
car accidents that result in my property being damaged or cars in the middle of my yards
lots of near accidents
and just a bunch of random screams, yells, car horns and people racing down the street as fast as they can to slam on breaks and make marks in the road.

I wonder what on earth is going on?
I cannot even take my toddler out in our front yard in the afternoon to play on a nice day out of fear that we will be harassed, bothered, or hurt (the whole car in the middle of my front yard last week really upset me).  
I make my dogs stay in the house during this time period because I had someone threaten their lives once and a few weeks ago when I asked the kids ripping their clothes off in the yard I had a girl threaten me and call me a bitch.

I am not a mean person, but I do believe in boundaries and respect and I loathe that I live where I do during this time of the day.  It is nice out, I would love to take Aiden out to play in the front yard and smell the sage plant and enjoy himself.
But I cant and I am at a loss as to how to fix that beyond move... which is what I want to do.

I feel like when I have reached out to those in charge of our safety and community protection, there is a brief response, but not sustained... and that could be lack of manpower, too busy, I do not know... but it is very frustrating to see the things I see.... and then walk in my yard that is littered with trash after school because these kids throw their empty snack bags and bottles with no care at all...

It is awful and it is dangerous.  I wonder when it is going to be something that is on the radar?  The accident last week IN MY FRONT YARD was pretty bad...it was lucky no one was hurt or walking in the intersection at the time.... 

So frustrated. 

Help the American Heart Association

My amazing niece is raising money for the American Heart Association and has a goal of 50$, please help out and donate if you can.

Thanks!

Shonda

http://jumphoops2015gsa.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=1116301&supid=418220935

Have a great day!

The Instant Internet Expert

As a graduate student who attends classes full time and works part-time as a substitute teacher and at night in a bookstore, having time to myself to work on schoolwork is difficult to schedule, if I want to be alone. I do not mind my toddler, he is a great kid and usually diligently plays and entertains himself while I read during the day, but in an effort to get a few hours of quiet time once a week I am trying a day out learning program at a local church to give me three hours every Monday and let the awesome toddler socialize with others his age.

You know what I never thought I would worry about though... is if the kids he is around have their shots...
I do not want my child catching some ancient disease that is making a comeback because someone deems themselves more of an expert of medicine than a doctor, that is...ignorant and dangerous and it terrifies me.
If you have worries, questions, ask your doctor... do not endanger the children of others because you believe some horribly researched and disproven crap you found on the internet, it is just... inconsiderate and irresponsible.

And on that note...
You know I loathe the way the internet has turned people in to "Experts" on something because they read a website or something worked for them.
I almost had a facebook blowup moment because a very well meaning but very misinformed person attempted to argue that positive thinking is the simple way to get rid of depression and anyone who is not utilizing this method is just not doing it right or trying hard enough.
mental illness is nothing to scoff at and unless you are a trained expert in the field, your pushy and half-witted advice could get someone hurt.  What if a person suffering from real depression reads your mess and then decides... I feel OK I do not need my meds and goes off them and hurts themselves or others???
Just because you felt better after you started living a positive life does not mean you have the age old secret to stopping depression, and to even imply that someone... because they do need medical help be it with therapy or medication is somehow not doing it right...is completely irresponsible and dangerous.

I was friendly, but pretty annoyed... instant experts man...they are so the opposite of awesome.