A Life Less Ordinary

On Mother’s Day, my boyfriend gave me 3 potted blooming Bromeliads. Then, he asked my youngest daughter to make a card for me that only had one word…Forever.

One simple word but I know he means it and that it comes from the heart. Now, I’ve got these Bromeliads to remind me that I have found my soul mate…I am loved.

*****

As a mother’s day treat to myself, I went to a nail salon the day before Mother’s Day to get a foot reflexology massage and pedicure. (Ooh, my feet are so relaxed and soft and pretty now!) It was my alone time away from the house, the kids and the computer. My quiet time devoted to pampering myself and getting immersed in my Sudoku puzzle.

I emerged from that salon like a new woman! I know, it’s just my feet. But our feet are our most neglected part of our body and yet they get the most stress and they carry our whole weight.

Happy Mother’s Day to my mom, my sister and to all the mothers who enjoy motherhood as much as I do!

Single-ness has its rewards, but sometimes…I really wish I had a man in the house.

When I woke up this morning, my shoulders and arms were so sore. I did yoga yesterday, but it was getting to their soreness state well before that. Why? I was screwing curtain rods into the wall all morning. I was spent!.

As I was screwing, applying full force while standing on a step ladder (I had several scares of actually landing on my face), I kept thinking I should have a man in the house to do these things. I was getting so tired and blisters were developing on my palm. And as I thought about it, I realized that if I (still) had a man in the house, I would still end up doing the screwing. Because, frankly, the last man in my house can’t do anything. He can’t even drive.

Nevertheless, here are things I think a man in anyone’s house is good for:

1. hanging up curtains (of course comes with drilling and screwing)
2. killing roaches
3. catching rats (and getting rid of them)
4. changing light bulbs
5. throwing out the trash
6. driving
7. doing a little bit of carpentry work, as needed
8. fixing the toilet and other water pipe-related problems
9. lifting and moving things around the house
10. and that other thing men are useful for

But hey, didn’t I do a good job hanging up my curtains?

I thought the campaign against skin was exclusive to Asia and any other “third world”. But I was mistaken. The US is not spared of this demand for lighter or whiter skin. Whatever happened to our pride for our own heritage?

Search YouTube for ads and clips with the keywords skin_whitening, white_skin, glutathione (the newest phenom for whiter skin) and you get a multitude of products, theories, promotional gigs from lotions to pills. But they all have one thing in common. The desire to be something else one is not.

Looking through several YouTube clips, I came across an ad for a skin whitening salon selling the magic of glutathione. I was shocked to see several African-American celebrities claimed to be reaping from the benefits of glutathione. Janet Jackson, Beyonce, Tyra Banks, just to name the really famous ones. What was especially shocking to me was Tyra Banks being part of it. I am not aware if she endorses the product or the pills or that she even knows this ad exists with her face on it, but I was shocked.

On her show, Tyra Banks claims that she ventured into the talk show business and book writing (yes, book writing) because she wanted to be a positive influence on young Americans, who seem to be suffering from low self-esteem. That the show came about when, at one of her book-signing events, a fan with a black eye approached her and asked for advice on how to hide bruises and black eyes. She was struck by this and she vowed to raise young girls’ self-appreciation, self-esteem, and self-love.

I emailed the Tyra Banks Show to bring this ad to their/her attention. All I got in return was an email thanking me for my letter and a promise of an autographed picture of Tyra Banks to be sent to me in 4-6 weeks.

If this glutathione ad is any indication of her true self, I wouldn’t buy whatever Tyra Banks sells on her show about self-esteem.

Let me digress for a while from my what do i do? posts. There’s plenty of that coming, but I wanted to share with you this article I came across with on WebMD about germs. It must have been coincidence that I was also able to take a peek into my male friend’s wallet.

(WebMD) Women tend to have germier offices than men, according to a new study on office germs.

The study comes from University of Arizona researchers Sheri Maxwell, B.S., and Charles Gerba, Ph.D. It was funded by the Clorox Company.

The researchers swabbed the offices of 59 women and 54 men in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oregon, and Washington, D.C. They sampled eight sites in each office: the phone, desktop, computer mouse, computer keyboard, exclamation key on the computer keyboard, pen, bottom of desk drawer, and handle of desk drawer. Those samples showed twice as much bacteria in women’s offices as in men’s.

The researchers also swabbed workers’ personal items at the office, including personal digital assistants (PDAs), women’s purses and makeup cases, and men’s wallets. Men’s wallets had more germs than any other item studied — personal or office.

Here are the top three bacteria hot spots in women’s offices, in order of germs:

• Makeup case
• Phone
• Purse

The top three bacteria spots in men’s offices were as follows. They are listed in order from most bacteria to least:

• Wallet
• Personal digital assistant
• Phone

I think I know where most of the bacteria comes from for this friend of mine. From all the receipts—mostly from restaurants, bars and gasoline stations—he stuffs into his wallet!

I will have more on germs and how we can deal with it in my next posts.