The Monotonous Life

Or naturalversary, but I hate combining words for a new one.

One year ago this week (I have no idea what day it was) I decided to become a natural. At the time the decision was a fairly easy one to make. My hair wasn’t in the best of heath and I wanted to improve that greatly. I knew I would have a year to play around with it and see what I could do. Plus I had been thinking about it for a while at that point. It just seemed obvious for me to go ahead and be a natural, even if it was for a few months, to see how I like it.

After a year I have to say the results are mixed. Don’t get me wrong, I like my hair. I like the fact that after a year it has grown basically back to the length it was (a little above my shoulders) if I was to perm it. I love that I’m really finding out how thick my hair is (and it’s daaaamn thick). I like seeing how curly the strands are. I love how soft it is (yes, natural black hair is soft). I love the new products I’ve discovered since being natural. I love not having to dish out $70-100 a month for a perm and style. I love not having to use a hotcomb or hair dryer or curling iron or anything with heat. And I love the feeling I get when I tell people my hair is natural. It’s that “wait-that’s natural?” look that makes me say “ha HA!” inside.

But I hate how much work I have to do. I’m a naturally lazy person and having to doing something with it every single time I wash it just isn’t that fun. I’m such a “brush/comb and go” girl that having to braid it up or do something else with every wash is just irritating. I hate that I can only really do things with it while it’s wet. I hate that I still haven’t found any really style or shape for my hair as what I like is to just let it hang (and it can’t really hang).  I hate how easily it can still break and how peezy (oh yes, I say peezy) it is on the ends.

But all that said, I like my hair. For the first time in my 22 years of existence I like my hair. Even through the bad days (and there have been a lot of bad days this first year) I’ve always had this thought in the back of my mind:

It’ll get better.

And it has. After only a year it has gotten better. When I washed it today I noticed how much longer it was compared to only a month ago. I noticed how much easier it was to braid my hair today and I’m pretty sure it’ll be easier to twist it when I get the time. I know that that the styling will get easier in time as well (and less tiring cause seriously, doing two strand twists is a lot of work). And I know it’ll continue to get longer and become healthier, I just have to be patient. I’m 85% sure I’m going to keep it this way.

But in the back of my mind I think about just forgetting it all and straigting it back out. And how after a year I would hate myself if I did that.

I have been listening (and dancing) to this the last three days. I can’t stop. Something is wrong with me.

I could be one of those zombies easily right now.

Yep.

Two nights ago I had what has to be my most perfect dream ever. I was in the Olympics (yes, I’ve watched damn near every minute of it) as a gymnast in the All Around competition. I had scored a perfect 10 on the balance beam* and was leading the competition going into the final rotation for me, the uneven bars. I was doing my routine perfectly, filled with the requisite release moves and hit handstands. I remember thinking in my dream that it was going great, that I had the All-Around gold nailed. I did a final swing and went into my dismount.

And then I woke up.

Dreams puzzle me. I like to know what most things mean and dreams go against that. Any little thing can cause you to have screwed up dreams. Any weird food you decided to eat that day or if work was stressful shows up in your dreams as you being a cat that can walk a tightrope.

Or something like that.

Anyway, my Olympic gymnast dream had me thinking about two specific dreams I’ve had in the past. The first one started happening during my last two middle school years (7th and 8th grade). I had a dream about practicing my clarinet with an oboe player in my class. We practiced some piece in what I dubbed “the music room”** as it had different music pieces from every different composer from every different part of the world. Mind you, I had this dream for two years. And that we before it became real life. Because during the last two months of 8th grade, while getting ready to enter high school and signing up for HS classes (because y’all know it was THE big thing in your life at that age) during band class that’s what happened. Me and a friend associate*** friend of a friend started practicing in the music room together when the band teacher split the entire class up into duos. The freaky thing was, the song we practiced in my dream was the exact same song we were practicing for our year end concert.

Now, that dream is easy to explain away. 1. The band teacher always broke us up into duos and worked out the music that way so of course I would incorporate that in the dream. 2. I had seen her send others in the room to practice so I (being the center of attention in my own dream) would go in there. 3. I heard that piece of music before. But here’s what I don’t understand-I had it two years prior before it happened. Two years. The day it happened I remember feeling deja vu. It was just too weird. 10 years later I’m still wondering about it.

The second dream I still have sometimes. I’m back living in the old apartment (cue Barenaked Ladies here) I grew up in and all of a sudden a fire starts. I look out an upstairs window and see the entire complex on fire. I make it outside, but nobody else is there. And for some reason I go back inside my burning apartment and take a nap. I wake back up to the apartment still burning and make my way outside again, only to (again) find no one else there. I then stand and watch the apartments burn.

Now what is this? This one is crazy cause I have no idea what it’s suppose to mean. Am I trying to burn my past, trying to let it go? Do I like fire that much? Why do I take a nap in the middle of a burning apartment? This dream has been happening for the past five years. Five years now. It’s been less frequent lately (does that mean anything?) but still there at times.

I hate those two dreams. One freaked me out and the other keeps harassing me. And does me having them for an extended period of time say anything particularly? I need to go find a psychic and see if he/she can tell me anything.

*Obviously this wasn’t during the current Olympic year as the perfect ten stop existing in 2004.

**The music room wasn’t some room where people went to make out or where the director sent students for punishment. It had a huge window on the door and was actually the nicest room in the huge band classroom.

***When I was younger saying someone was an “associate” was a big thing. They weren’t quite your friend but you hung with them at times. And by hung I mean ate lunch at the same table.

Five Reasons why you should sign up for Blog Action Day:

1. You’ll be doing something selfless.

2. It’s one day out of the year.

3. Like most major issues, the topic of this year (poverty) has probably impacted you or someone you know.

4. Blogs big and small and in all different languages are going to be participating. As of this post 1,907 sites had signed up.

5. You’ll help bring attention, no matter how small, on an issue that (still, sadly) impacts the world.

Great post over at Zen Habits with one of the founders of Blog Action Day. Do your part. Cause seriously, one post out of a year isn’t a lot of trouble. And you know it.

We’re at the home stretch people. As before, none of the photographs were taken by me nor are they owned by me. They belong to the photographers that took them and the agencies that bought them.

I’m in love with Romania’s outfit.

Love the skirt, love the jacket, love the shoes (how I love the shoes). I didn’t find any pictures of the Romanian men unfortunately, but the women more than make up for it. But I’m gonna guess it’s the same jacket, white button down shirt, and white pants.

From Russia with Multicolors.

I’m quite mad the picture of the women is very small, but I’ll live. The men shirts are dizzying and yet I like them. Love that they incorporated their country’s colors but in different ways. This is how you do alike but different. I think.

Ahh, Ana Ivanovic I love you! And that outfit, especially the shirt, Serbia got you in is weird yet cute.

Love the scarves which look lighter than every other nation have on their female athletes. The men look confused but I like the relaxed look of it their clothing.

More relaxed looks coming from South Africa.

They do look a bit baggy though. I wonder if that’s by design or the guys just picked those sizes.

Oh Spain.

I actually like what they did here, having the women wear one color (yellow) and the men wear the other (red). Kinda like Russia. And Rafa! But…

Why on Earth are y’all wearing red shoes?!?!?! WHY?!?!

And now we’re at the “What were they thinking” part of the post. Switzerland, explain yourself.

Shoes are fug. Shirt is fug. Skirt is fug. Shorts are fug. Jacket is fug. Someone please name one good thing about this? Roger deserves better. Poor thing.

And from ugly red shoes to ugly outfit to ugly tracksuits.

Oh Venezuela. What the hell were you thinking?

I was weary when I heard the United States stuff was being made by Polo by Ralph Lauren. But this doesn’t look bad. It looks pretty good actually.

More dark suits (at least the jacket) but I can live with that. They could do without the hat however. Seems a bit like overkill. While viewing the pictures it looked like the US wasn’t enjoying it as much as the other countries. What gives US athletes?

And to finish up, the host country China.

More dark jackets from the men. More color jackets/white pants or skirts combos.

But I likes again. That kid is too cute walking next to Yao (he was one of the survivors of the earthquakes that hit China earlier this year).

So that’s it. Good choices from some countries, bad choices for a few. I can’t wait to finally see the ceremony tonight. Four years from now I’ll be doing this from London. My goal is to be at that Olympic Games.

So yay! Olympics are finally here. Hope everyone enjoys them.

Okay, on to part two of Ceremony Fashions. As stated in the first post some of the pics (a lot of them) are small because I had intended to do this earlier with a different blog template, but it didn’t work out. All photographs belong to the photographers who took them and the agencies that bought the.

With that out the way, first up is Iceland.

Once again, small pic. Sorry about that. Anyhoo, seems pretty drab. Why so many dark/neutral colors? The pink scarf breaks it up a bit, but not much. Kinda boring.

I have no words for Indonesia.

This must be traditional garb that I’m just not feeling. I do like the skirt/wrap/shirt/dress thingy though.

I really like what the Iranian girls are wearing. Love that color green in the jackets and the white looks really good with it.

Iraq just looks like a copy of Iran. Not a good copy at that unfortunately. But that may be me. I just prefer the other green.

Not the Irish colors, but effective.

Damn, once again small. But Ireland is wearing dark beige suits and they look good.

I have no idea what is going on with Japan.

Are the women wearing shorts or skirts? I honestly can’t tell. The scarf is really fluffy, the men aren’t wearing anything around their necks (like a tie)…I just don’t know what is going on.

Brazil, I apologize. Lithuania has you beat. Wear something a bit more formal! You’re not at the local fair. Bad. Bad bad bad. Bad.

Bad.

Mexico is looking nice.

I want one of those skirts! The scarf is used effectively here. The men are looking formal but not overly. And may I repeat-I want one of those skirts. Loving the ruffles for some reason.

The Netherlands are looking sharp.

I feel like they’re about to go into a business meeting or something. The orange (or should I say oranje?) really pops against the gray suits and I think that’s what they were going for.

Small pic and again I’m sorry about that. This is Norway. Two different outfits for the men and women, which seem to be the theme this year. More dark suits which seem to be another theme. But I likes.

I’m not going to say a word about Poland. It’s small but you can see that the women are dressed to go to a ball. Damn, that was 16 words.

I’m glad at least one nation brought out the country name scarves things.

Yay Portugal! Kudos on the Chinese letters being on one side. And I love the cropped jacket.

Okay, that’s part two y’all. Part three to come soon.

The Olympics opening ceremony was this morning (8 AM for those of us on the East Coast) and while we don’t get to see a bit of it until tonight (stupid NBC), pictures from the event are coming out already. I’m only going to concentrate on some of the outfits the countries wore out to the ceremony. If you want pictures of the presentation they’re out there.

On the outfits-some are good, some are bad, and some make no sense to me whatsoever. I don’t have every country but I do have quite a bit. Please note: Some of the pics are small as I had intended to do this earlier and it didn’t work out (see two posts below). None of the pictures are mine and full credit goes to the photographers that took them. This is going to be broken into three parts so let’s start part one with our first country, Argentina.

I like it. It’s cute and not totally heavy, especially since it’s suppose to be hot like hell in China right now. And I’m actually feeling the white. Close up of the men.

Good job Argentina.

Up next: Australia.

Track suits? And then the women’s track suit pants look like capris. Sigh Australia. Sigh.

I have a love-hate thing going on with the outfits on the Bahamas.

I love the colors. Don’t really know about the scarves on the women, but put together it’s kinda alright. You just don’t see jackets that color often.

We need to have a talk Brazil.

Tell me, are all of you going to the local Beijing mall after the ceremony?

Casual jacket, slacks, very short skirts, and t-shirts? WTF? Look, I like the casual looks of Argentina but it seemed that this could have been put together better.

I have no idea what to think about Canada.

They already had some suspicious village wear to begin with. Although I applaud the designer for going out on the limb. In other news, I looove the dress the girl who is holding up the sign is wearing. I want it. Now.

Once again, Dominican Republic with the track suits.

Wow, that’s really small. It’s track suits, believe me. Can we just agree that no country should be coming out in track suits? Thanks.

My biggest problem with what France came out with had to do with their women’s outfits.

Just no. I don’t like the belt, I don’t like the beret, and I don’t like the shirt. I expected more out of France.

I’m puzzled by Germany.

Where does peach come from? Guess the color just took me by surprise. Other than that though I like it. Like the gray jacket the men are wearing, like the skirts the women are rocking, and I like the shirts both genders have to wear (in the middle of the picture you can see a woman without her jacket on and see the type of shirt the women are wearing). Good job from ze Germans.

And another win, this time from Great Britian. The men and women seem to be wearing the same outfit except the women are wearing skirts. I really like that belt they got and I love the flats the girls are wearing. This makes me want to get a white jacket. And at the end of the day isn’t that what it’s about, wanting the viewer to buy the outfit?

I didn’t even know Hong Kong had it’s own delegation. I had just assumed it was a part of the People’s Republic. Anyway, like GBR it appears that both the women and men are wearing the same thing, only with a skirt for the females. Although to me it’s not as effective. Don’t know why though.

And with that we conclude part of Opening Ceremony Fashions. Part two will be along shortly.

Yeah, that’s just too good a shot. Kudos Jamie Squire of Getty Images. Kudos.

My latest hiatus isn’t me. Honest. I’ve actually had two new post ideas the past two days but both had to be dropped when I realize this theme and pictures do not mix. At all. So…yeah. Maybe I’ll change the theme back to the one with the read header (which I really liked) so I can use pictures the way I want or maybe I’ll just forget on the pictures. Who knows right now. This is what I do know-this theme was kicking ass until the last two days.

Stupid stupid three column theme.

Update: I’m not talking about any new theme I may put up here this weekend. I’m talking about a previous theme that you can see here.

So the next few days I’m going to be busy with a variety of stuff. Which means no posting here until at least Wednesday, most likely Thursday (because I post every day now). Which sucks because I actually do have a few post ideas running through my head. So until then I have done a bit more updating to the site. Yet another new theme (I’m on a theme kick) and a few more sidebar widgets have been added including links to social sites (that’s what they’re called right?) including Twitter (follow me!), Last.fm (friend me!), Tumblr (follow me!), and Facebook (friend me!).

That’s it for now. See y’all on Wednesday. Hopefully.