Daytona Beach

OK, so we made it back without incident. We were in Daytona when Hurricane Sandy first began her ravish on the East Coast. Well for the folks in Daytona it wasn't so bad. There were heavy rain down pours and high winds. But we were still in shorts and flip flops as it was still Hot outside. I have never experienced Humidity before. This was the first time. And even then I know I didn't experience the worst of it. By Sunday the sky was beautiful and the air was nice and cool. This is our group photo after service on Sunday. My baby and I had a wonderful time on the opposite side of the country. It was funny how people kept asking where we were from. I asked my cousin if I had a accent, and she said we talk very proper. LOL! That tickled me, as I've never considered myself as a person who speaks properly. But listening to the accents out there, I see how Madonna now speaks with an English accent. I tend to mimic the voices of the people around me, and before I know it, I've adopted their manner of speaking as my own. I could see myself adopting a southern accent easily. But I would love to have a New York accent... Well I say that for now. Any who, that's it for now. I'll report more shortly.

Daytona!!!

So the time has arrived for me to say "Peace Out" to the Bay Area. This time tomorrow I will be taxi'ing down the run way to Orlando. BIG SMILE! We are so excited for our trip away from home. We're just gonna get away for a few days and enjoy our first trip to Florida. I checked the weather forecast and it said low 80's high 70's but rain..... So I asked my cousin what this meant as a girl from California rain means cold weather. She said pack shorts, tank tops, and flip flops. She said the weather may briefly change for a moment and then return right after to its usual niceness. OH MY! So that's it for now. I'll try and drop you a line when I return.

How many times do you start over?

So the other day I decided to take this picture to actually have a record of my hair, etc from the bottom up. I started to miss my straight hair after how many years of living the natural life.... To make that long story short, heat damage killed my hair, and I never achieved the look I was looking for. Partly because I was too cheap to go to the shop to get it done professionally. So a year ago, I said no more heat, and I chopped some, and focused on oils and henna for my hair. August made one year. And now that I have my hair muse, I find myself impatient with the growth of my hair. Sometimes people are never satisfied.

Knowing where I was and where I am today just irks my nerves. If only I had gone on YouTube or FaceBook sooner to find all the info I have today... Well its partly because I wasn't ready. My hair had gotten too thin to even do a proper twist out. That's when I knew it was rock bottom. But even then it still took me a while to lay off the heat. All my fault I tell you. But, I am tired of wearing my hair all pulled back into a ponytail. Which is how I wore it before. I've been digging wash n goes for the past two months. as pictured above. But I figure I'm gonna have to find a more protective style shortly. The cold winter is coming and I know better than to walk outside with loose wet hair daily. I may attempt another twist out, as its been two years since the last time I've really tried.

I don't know why those pics are sideways, but oh well.

As you can see, I am truly starting over. My goal is to have LONG LONG LONG hair this time two years from now. Since I'm already a year in, I figure this is as good a place as any to start. My hair stretches pretty long, but I want curly long hair. Big smile. My aunt is another inspiration as she was the first to teach me about co-washing. The clean scalp freak that I am, initially I was afraid to embrace this method. But after my own research and I found that conditioner has a cleaning agent in it as well. I decided to give it a try. I haven't looked back since. My scalp is still clean, and my hair has said "Please & Thank you".

Now to master trimming my own hair. Since there's been no heat my ends aren't bad, but I find a lot of Single Strand Knots. So I will seek and destroy these SSK's and move forward. I haven't Henna's my hair in a couple of months. If it wasn't one thing then it was another. First I couldn't find my conditioning caps, now its really lack of time. I normally put it on at night and wash it out in the morning. But I have to have enough time in the morning to wash it out. And that's what I've been lacking. But I will make time...

Also I gotta get back in the habit of taking these wonderful vitamins that my cuzzo hipped me to. Women's Ultra Mega Energy and metabolism vitamins. Now I cant speak for the metabolism part, but because of the wonderful energy that these vitamins provide, I try to take these no later than noon. (Just popped them now...)

Now what I'm not gonna do is set myself up for failure here. So I'm not gonna talk about my weight which as you can see from the face shots is all back. But I'm simply going to make healthier choices and however they affect my life, they affect me. I wanna be healthier and cleaner, and if that leads to weight loss then so be it. But I'm embracing myself as I am today and all that comes with that. Whatever happens, happens. I cannot live counting calories for the rest of my life. I know that will get old fast. But if I just make better choices then hey I can live that way. The hard part for me will be fitting in exercise. But hey, I will get it in when I can.

What's on the menu tonight???? A monster GREEN smoothie!!!! YUM!!!!! Not as part of a diet, but just that the recipe I made up Sunday has been absolutely delicious to me. I can wait to have it tonight.

Recipe

Trader Joe's OJ (about half a cup, just enough to thin it out)

Fresh Spinach leaves (about a pound)

Fresh Kale (about three hand fulls including stems)

Frozen Greek Yogurt (about a fourth of a cup)

Frozen Pineapple (about a fourth of a cup)

Frozen Strawberries (about a fourth of a cup)

Now I don't measure any of this. I eyeball it and toss it all in the blender. I put them in the blender in the order they're listed. And with the exception of the fruit below I blend after each addition (I blend the pineapple and strawberries together). Let me tell you, its been better to me than ICE CREAM!!! Can you believe it. It has only been days since my last ice cream encounter. If I can hang in there, that minor change will make a HUGE difference in my life. I will eat ice cream again. But just not like I have been. Ice cream has been my main comforter in these times that try my soul.

Well I think I've taken enough of your time with my rambles. As always thank you for reading.