Starved Rock

I spent last weekend tramping around in the woods with D. For those of you who live in more interesting/hiking-friendly areas (i.e. not the Midwest), Starved Rock may not be too exciting, but for those of us who live in either the urban jungle (Chicago) or on flat farmland (the rest of Illinois), it is quite an awesome place to visit (and a serious cardio workout!). I would love to go back during the winter to see the frozen waterfalls (click on each trail to see photos), but I have to admit that I'm a bit of a wuss when it comes to sliding around on the ice. :-)



















Full photoset here

Another blogger meet-up!

I started reading Seeking Solace's blog a year or so  after I started blogging. Like many of the bloggers we both know, we eventually expanded our blogging relationship (blogship?) to facebook and twitter. After almost six years, we finally had the opportunity to meet in person.

As with every other blogger meet-up I've had, we picked up in medias res (yay! An opportunity to sneak in my favorite Latin phrase!). There was no need for basic introductions or backgrounds - we just continued the conversation that has been happening online for the last six years.

She was just as fun as I thought she would be and we had a fantastic time eating our way through Cafe Iberico's menu, catching up on all the bloggy gossip, and filling in the blanks (as much as it may not seem like it sometimes, there is so much that goes left unsaid on this blog/facebook). We had a fabulous time and I'm so glad the academic conference winds finally sent her up this way!

I'm totally ready for another meet-up... who's coming to Chicago next? Unlike jo(e), I won't make you pose naked, but I will force you to delay your food/alcohol consumption until I get a blog-worthy photo. :-)

RBOC

Well, it's actually a mixture of paragraphs and bullets, but RPABOC just doesn't work for me. Whatevs.
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I’ve developed a bit of an obsession with my face. It all started back in March when I had the first completely unexpected and totally nasty breakout (mouth/chin area). Now, I usually get a zit or two during that special lady time of the month, but this breakout came nowhere near that time and it was far worse than the usual hormone induced monthly excitement. I approached the breakout with my usual methods (tea tree wash & oil) and while it cleared up, the reprieve didn’t last for long. I broke out again in April and in May (despite attacking my face with all of the skin clearing techniques I know). At that point, not only was I completely fed up, I was also a bit desperate… standing in front of multiple classes each day all while trying not to think about your fifteen-year-old-esqe face can really get to you. I did a little research and found a very highly-rated esthetician. She gave me the best facial of my life and recommended that I think about switching to Dermalogica products (but she wasn’t pushy about it at all, which is partially why I loved her so much). I did buy a mask that she recommended, but I decided to stay with my blend of Murad and Body Shop products for the time being. She also said that my breakout was due to a combination of hormones and stress and that I should try to stop stressing so much… of course, just thinking about not stressing makes me stress even more because I can’t stop stressing (sigh).

After the facial, my skin looked great for a few weeks and then it all went bad again. I was right back to where I had started… and in full freak-out mode once again. This time, I decided that instead of using the same products (that had seemed to stop working – not only was I broken out, my face was incredibly dry), I would try out the Dermalogica line. Holy crap, it was expensive! I thought Murad was bad. However, when one is having a skin crisis, price isn’t so much of a factor, right? Well, guess what? After almost three weeks of using Dermalogica, my skin is clear, moisturized, and seemingly happy. I still have a few nasty dried out spots (former painful under the skin zits), but I just have to wait for the cells to regenerate in order for them to fade.

Dermalogical is awesome. Dermalogica is also hella expensive. I have a love/hate relationship with expensive beauty products. On one hand, I want it work wonders (it should be magical!), but if it does work, then I must commit to it (which equates to more $$). On the other hand, if it doesn’t work, I feel like a sucker for spending so much money on BS. Ugh. Why I am dealing with this crap in my thirties? What happened to the lovely skin of my twenties? Am I regressing back to the teen years? Ahhhhhh!
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• I've officially hit the festivals/birthdays/trips stretch of the summer. Woo-hoo! As exhausting as it can be (I know, wah wah, I have too many social activities), it's also crazy fun. Upcoming events include a hiking trip to Starved Rock with D (I am sooo excited - I haven't hiked since last fall!), a trip to Indianapolis to visit another awesome friend, and a blogger meet-up tomorrow (I'll leave you in suspense on this one for now, but if you follow either of us on twitter, you already know who it is). :-)
  
• I'm still drinking Shakeology for breakfast. I've always liked it, but now I've grown to love it. Well, I love everything about it except for one small thing (something they don't tell you about)... it gives you crazy gas! It makes sense because it, uh, well, it cleans you out (it's quite shocking to see how much is packed up there). However, I think they need to consider repackaging their mix with "Warning: this product will cause you to leak toxic sewer gas at the most inconvenient times" label. Oy.
  
• The battery in my watch died three weeks ago. I pulled out my secondary watch and discovered that the battery in that watch was also dead. I could have pulled out my third watch (a beautiful Hello Kitty Japanese import), but I decided I would just go watch-less for the time being. Three weeks later, I am still sans watch. I've been faithfully wearing a watch ever since I was twelve-ish. I've never not wanted to wear one, but now that I'm not, I feel liberated! I still always know what time it is (thanks to the overabundance of clocks in my apartment & office and my handy iPhone) and I'm still on time for everything... I'm just doing it all without a watch strapped to my wrist. It's strangely freeing. We'll see how long it lasts though, as I may freak out and have an anal change of heart.
  
• I finally got around to updating my mint.com account and setting up a budget. Thanks to my skin obsession/Dermalogica spree, I was $50 over my personal care budget only two days into June. Ugh. That website is depressing.