What are you doing New Years

This is exactly what I want for the end/start of a year!  Woop woop!!!  Oh wait... no thanks.

We had originally planned on heading to Stevens Point, WI to a cabin with friends Joel & Kelsey for a fun filled weekend of hot tubbing, good food, lots of funny moments and our fair share of alcoholic beverages.  But now we're not.

INSERT SAD FACE.

Because of our need for budgeting with home-buying on the horizon, we opted out of this magnificent event.  And we're totally missing out.  I hope they don't have any fun without us.

Instead, we are partaking in the repeat of one of my favorite NYE ever, the Adult Pajama Party at Kate & Tyge's.  I don't think the recreation will surpass the greatness of the first (NYE 2009) but I think it'll be pretty awesome.  The pajamas were totally my idea, btw.  Because I'm a lazy motherf*cker who loves a good pair of flannel pants.  Kate's planning a "Vices" theme with stations set up -- shots at one, sweets at another, cigars on the deck, hookers in the guest room..... could be a good time!

Possibly one of the greatest parts of this NYE is the fact that I TOOK SATURDAY OFF!!!!!  ***head explodes***

Who wants to give me a high five?  Aw, thanks Olive!

Say hello to my lil' frien.

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Oh hey! I wrote a blog post and it disappeared.

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So, what's new with you?

To the point.  I have a list on my right menu of blogs that I follow.  Most of them are people I know, one of them is ridiculously awesome, and it happens to be the one on the very bottom that last updated TWO YEARS AGO.  I am Lemish.... well, SHE is Lemish, and she is my favorite!

Lemish is a bff that I met a few years ago in a really dorky way.  Let's skip that.  She is one of my favorite people on Earth, and I demand you read her hilarious insanity and encourage her to return to the internetz.  I shouldn't even say that as if she's left because she's RIGHT THERE.  Every day.  Hi Lemish.  Wave to the nice people.  I know you're watching. 

Lemish posted this to me a few weeks back regarding my own blogging:

"So eventually there will be dinosaurs on your dinosaur tour, right? Replace the first dinosaur with blog posts, and the second dinosaur with blog. Oh, and get rid of tour. Also, dinosaurs."

Here's where you should start: this post about funny stuff.  Or this post about Jesus and dinosaurs and other stuff. 

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Lemish

Obligatory Christmas Post.

Christmas happened, and now it's over. And I'm kinda... sorta... glad. I've busted my arse for work, hosted inlaws, attended two separate Christmas gatherings and churched it up. I can't tell you how good it feels to hang out on the couch with my husband and not do a thing! (Well, we're watching LOTR, so that counts as something!) 

All dramatics aside, we had a great Christmas. Lots of family, lots of fun and a moving and beautiful church service (summary below). Here are some pictures, all from my iPhone (the old kind), and all but one at my Uncle Russ' farm in Lonsdale, MN.  Rest in peace, Russ.

Basilica of St Mary, Minneapolis - a gorgeous midnight Mass!!  It started with the choir singing our engagement song and wedding processional, Ave Maria (Franz Biebl), which made us both tear up.  The church started dark but all in attendance held a candle and shared the light with those surrounding.  But the combination of the choir, the organ and the brass was what truly lit the cavernous church. Father Bauer spoke saying something along the lines of "Whatever brings you here, whether it's tradition, personal need, curiousity or just to appease a family member WELCOME HOME." 

The Farm - Lonsdale, MN

This statue of Mary holding a rosary has been there for decades.  It's both adorable (she's in a little house!) and meaningful, and what a flashback it was to visit her.

 

 

We all abandoned the bonfire to enjoy the gorgeous sunset -- a 45 degree day in Minnesota on Christmas? Lovely.

It's a funny story....

:::sobs:::

So, I lost my wedding ring.

Yep.

I recently concluded that wearing my ring is a major pain in the ass whenever I try to put on gloves at work before applying or washing out a hair color, which is to say VERY OFTEN.  Every time I would pull one on my left hand, my ENORMOUS DIAMOND would slice a major hole in it, I'd be too busy to get a new one, I'd end up with a big brown color blotch on my hand. I looked like I had the bubonic plague (or perhaps had been wearing the Resurrection Stone a la Dumbledore. No? Sorry).

Then came Thursday.  In a whirlwind with my last client (she's family, love her, but her hair was a bit of a project that night), I'd removed my ring and put it either on my station (we have a tool tray that we use so we don't accidentally knock things over) OR in my pocket.  That day we were allowed to wear jeans for a special charity event.  I thought I'd put it in my jeans.... or had I?

Friday morning, I went to get ready for work and noticed I didn't have it... looked in the usual places and concluded that I'd just set it at work and would find it there smiling, sparkling, happy to see me.  It wasn't.  So then I told myself that it was at home, happy, content, waiting for my return.  It wasn't.  I told my husband my dilemma and he, like me, was teetering between "I'm sure it'll turn up!" and "HOLY SHIT."  He looked in my usual places and once again, we decided it must be at work.

I showed up for work Saturday with a knot in my stomach and a confused left hand.  I checked my station, knowing I wouldn't find it, and it truly then hit me: my ring was L O S T.  I had to reach out - I went into our breakroom and wrote on our white board "Urgent: Has anyone seen my wedding ring?! -Traycina" and left it at that.  My coworkers freaked out, asking me about it all day.  "Is this a joke?" "Did you find it?" "I bet it's in the laundry!" "OMG! What are you going to DO?!" (gotta love the ones who ask questions like that in a stressful situation.)  I even had a coworker kind of awkwardly try to hide it from my husband when he stopped in later, not knowing that I'd told him.  She's the one I'll ask to help hide a dead body someday ;-)

We came home after my super long day and my spirits were pretty low.  I'd forget about it for a few minutes and then remember and get REALLY sad.  We decided to check the laundry again, but this time go through it SUPER thoroughly.  We pulled out every item one by one, shook it, checked pockets, and shook it again.

FUNNY SIDE STORY:  2 years ago, B lost his ring in our last apartment.  It was gone.  We searched, same deal, didn't find it, ordered a replacement after about 2 weeks.  Mere days after ordering it, he finds the ring in the pocket of a clean pair of dress pants, which had been washed, dried, and hanging upside down in the closet for that entire time..... so we were meticulous about the laundry, as you can imagine.

We didn't find my ring, though.  I kept trying to find that glimmer of "I'm sure it'll turn up!" but it was dim.  I said a prayer to Saint Anthony, because my Catholic guilt made me.  My rings, after all, had been blessed by a priest in a Catholic church! Shouldn't there be some sort of tracking device?

B tried to cheer me up today, which was nice -- making jokes, being goofy.  We turned on Love Actually and wrapped presents, getting a little Christmas spirit going.  B, standing behind me, starts to whine about his hands hurting.  He has horribly dry hands from being a big hand-washer, and was complaining about how cracked they were.  I started to lecture him, looked down at his leprous knuckles, and saw a sparkly diamond ring...

:::sobs:::

He found it clanking around in the dryer (my husband does laundry, and no you can't have him).  Once again, he saves me from myself.  I cried, he cried, it was like a second proposal (except without the choir and the rainbows (yep, I had those at my proposal because I'm AWESOME)).

I said yes :-)

This.

One of my favorite bloggers going through something I know all too well:

Hyperbole and a Half presents "Adventures in Depression"

(Don't worry, there are cartoons to make it less sad)

And if you like her, you simply must read this HILARIOUS and totally identifiable post about being an adult and this about the joy of cake.

The science of belief.

"Our virtues and our failings are inseparable, like force and matter.  When they separate, man is no more."    - Nikola Tesla

I love this quote.  While geeking out with my husband and watching some super cool History Channel shows, we heard this. It spoke to me.... crazy Tesla spoke to me (a fellow-crazy). I love the idea that we are not able to be one without the other.  We, as imperfect human creatures, are expected both to be our "sparkly best" (for some reason that description stuck in my head and I could NOT come up with anything else), and also to fail at it.  And that's great because we fail quite frequently!

Brian and I do really love to geek out.  Some of our favorite topics of conversation include science, physics, Metaphysics and religion/spirituality.  It's one of the things about my husband that immediately attracted me to him.  He understood and shared my scientific and logical mind, and the very sure opinion that science and discovery bring us closer to God and not further away.  He operates more in the philosophical side of this, and I in the psychological, but it sparks some great conversations!

So tonight, when scrolling through the tv listings and seeing History's "Proving God", we both looked at each other with a little glimmer in our eyes :-)  Brian, in fact, immediately shut his laptop (we were co-computing as good married couples do), situated on the couch and focused ALL attention on the show.  I was floored!  Even Badger games are viewed with the laptop open....

The show went through various aspects of this concept, but one area of this subject that I've always found fascinating is the neurophysiological study of how our mind believes.  A book that I read years ago (when Brian and I first started dating, actually!) called Why God Won't Go Away: Brain Science and the Biology of Belief outlined many of these same concepts, showing the effects that spirituality had on our biological functions. 

I think it's very enlightening to sit down and really ponder these mysteries.  If you're someone that prays or meditates (even if just in yoga class), how does it make you feel?  How does it affect your body?  And if you think of that physiological change, what sort of affect does it's enemy, STRESS have on the body?  We've all heard (and felt) that stress is bad for your health and exacerbates many conditions, but how many times have they told you that the best way to counter stress is through spirituality? 

I think we've all lost concept of the word PEACE and what that means.  Inner peace, outer peace, rest in peace, "peace be with you".... it's become nothing but words words blah blah words.  My God! Isn't the season of Christmas the time when we send out cards wishing each other peace, but feel it the very LEAST?!  As someone who suffers from some MAJOR anxiety (more on that in a blog post that I've written many times (adhd) but never posted), I have my own tug-of-war going with Peace.  It's as if I actually have an angel and a devil on my shoulders, but one is my "shiny happy people mode" and the other is "motherfucking crazy person mode."  So I guess I'm not in any position to truly advise others on how to find Peace (try soft rock).  We need to be aware of it's affect on us, and how we can bring it into our own lives and help to bring it to others.  Lord knows we could all use a little more peacefulness.

More on the other science-y stuff another day.  This turned into a hippy dippy peace and love fest, which wasn't at all where I was going with it :-) 

And now for the thrilling conclusion: Brian just came over to me to say goodnight and said that he'd like to leave me with a joke! About meditating! Oh good, what a great end to my story!  Except that it's SO totally dorky and I didn't get the punch line :-)  All great jokes have to be explained, right??......

"A Buddhist monk goes into the dentist, and finds out he needs a root canal.  'As long as you don't give me anesthetic, Doctor' the monk says.  The dentist argues, 'My God man, you'll be in terrible pain! Are you sure?!' The monk quietly and surely says 'Most certainly. I'll just transcend dental medication.'" [See: Transcendental Meditation]

Hahaha! (eyeroll)

Let's get real, shall we?

This makeup video is amazing.  If you've ever suffered from acne or a generally poor complexion, or if you've ever had an insecurity, this is both educational and inspiring.  How brave, to put yourself and your biggest insecurity out for the internet to judge.

As someone who has acne-prone skin, there's a point of acceptance in life that you will only leave the house with full foundation on.  And it fucking SUCKS.  You don't get to do the natural, effortless, "I only need mascara and lip gloss" routine.  Instead, you get the "oh my GOD, there's too much natural lighting here" or "I wonder if they'll judge me for wearing makeup at the cabin" or "gee, I hope my disguise doesn't melt off my face by the end of the workday/date/party."

It's not like other body insecurities that you can cover with clothing -- unless a burqa is your thing -- because it's really hard to hide your face and people are so judgmental about it!  Do you judge if you see a girl in a long sleeve shirt?  Perhaps she's got a major complex about giggly arms. (Or jiggly... yeah that's it.) Believe me, I wish I could get away with a bikini's amount of makeup, but the burqa-coverage is how it's gotta be.

So add that to my list -- what are your insecurities?

Thanks, Life!

So I was just bitching the other day about how hard I'm working at my job to try to get to my next step..... Well, guess what kids? I made it!! They gave me the good gnus Monday and I'm totes excited.

It's not a price increase yet (they don't do that until you hit the fourth level) but rather a commission percentage increase to the third level. This means I get an extra 5% of what the client is charged. Example:

1. Client pays $110 for cut color (not an actual price quote btw).
2. Salon takes out product charge for cost of color, styling products, electricity, other overhead of $10.
3. Salon & stylist each take their percentage of the remaining $100. I'm now at 50% which would mean I make $50 out of the $110.

Are you perchance surprised to know that a stylist doesn't take home the amount you pay? I get looks of shock every time I tell someone that I get $9.90 (before taxes) from my $27 women's haircuts. Well... now I'll get a whopping $11! Yay!!! (Important note: we get every dime of our tips, so no need to worry that The Man is taking part of those.)

So anyway, thanks to those of you that come to see me, whether yearly or monthly, and for sending in family and friends my way! I'm so grateful for the support and hope y'all have enjoyed your cuts / colors :-)

xoxo
Traycina

P.S. First time posting a photo through my iPhone blogger app.... Hope it looks ok!