You all know the most wonderful time of the year isn’t when the big fat man in a red suit tries to squeeze his hiney down your chimney.  In fact it is actually the time when the little angels in green and brown stand at the door of every supermarket in town and whore their delectible confections.  Yep, girl scout cookie time.  I have blogged about it before.

Well… next to girl scout cookie time the most wonderful time of the year is the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale.  It still amazes me that there are Nordstrom stores outside of Washington State, but I suppose you all can partake of our little tradition too.  You know the original Nordstrom’s is in Seattle right?

Anyway, I get an email from a friend yesterday asking if I wanted to have lunch and then do a little shopping at the sale.  Hmm… lunch with I and shopping.  The only thing better would be coffee afterward, but she had a hair appointment.  Of course I said yes!  I needed to get out of the house.

Since I am trying to pay to travel back to Russia I don’t really have a whole ton of money.  But… I did have a little money squirreled away from my birthday.  So there was this rack with the most beautiful little jean jackets.  It has been eons since I have owned a jean jacket.  I convinces me to try one on.  It is gorgeous!  Better yet… only $32.00!  Woo Hoo!  So it may not be cookies, but it really is just as sweet.

Sorry honey. 

I bet you thought me packing up and moving to a new site was my secret surprise…  Ahhh think again!  I wrote the weekly update last week and I just made the decision to move this morning.  Yes, I designed a new blog and moved all my posts before lunch this morning.  Call me crazy, but I thought it would be fun.  Much of it has to do with my avoidance of anything remotely related to preparing to leave the country.

No. The big surprise is that I actually got my hair cut today.  If you may recall it has been since May 2005, you read that right 2005, since I last had my hair cut.  For a while it was a money issue.  I have gone to the same lady for the last 14 years and I pay her $25 to cut my hair.  I am sure some of you pay more for a haircut and I am sure many more of you pay a whole lot less, but for the longest time $25 was just a little more than I was willing to spend.  Of course I could have paid less and gone somewhere else, but this lady really knows my funky hair.

I figured while I am at it I would treat myself to a little pampering.  I got it highlighted too.  I have not colored my hair in years.  Jake pick your chin up off the table.  Yes, those photos in the video are of my natural hair color (right after I had it cut last time.)  I have awesome trendy blond highlights now.  That and my fancy new glasses are giving me a bit of a personal boost right about now.  I looked in the mirror and finally felt my age!

I would post a photo, but I tried to take one of myself and it just wasn’t pretty.  You will just have to trust me on this one.  Maybe you will be lucky and a random photo will show up in Act 2 of D & Elle’s Khabarovsk Adventure. 

 

*I apologize for any spelling mistakes.  I have yet to figure out something as simple as spell check on this new fangled blog. 

 ** Sorry about the comments too.  I think I have it fixed now.  Comment away or run the risk of me whoring for future comments.

Up until the age of 8 I was an only child. I was also a very spoiled child. Despite the fact that my parents did not have much money, I was granted nearly everything I asked for. Of course there were a few things I recall not being granted. They were often overly priced toys that we just couldn’t afford. My family somehow always found a way to compromise with me. If you ever meet my Grandfather ask him to tell you the infamous "cowboy hat story."

Spoiled little girls tend to evolve into spoiled adult women. I am the prime example of that. I like brand name things, what can I say. I do carry a Coach handbag. I love shopping at Nordstrom. And I rarely drink anything other that Starbucks coffee.

Of course all that changes when you adopt. All of your money is magically vacuumed right out of your pockets. You are given a choice. Curb your spending or get creative. I have elected a happy medium between the two.

Discount brand names. This comes in the form of places like the outlet mall and Costco.

There is one other thing that I had "given up." I had not bought new contacts is about a year. I haven’t had new glasses in about 4. Sure, we have insurance. Our eye insurance covers a yearly exam and contacts every year and glasses every 2 years. The problem is that they won’t cover contacts and glasses in the same year. Contact lens prescriptions are only good for one year. So rather than get new glasses I always elect for the less expensive contacts.

However, my glasses have gotten so bad that I can’t drive at night when it rains. I live in Washington. I rains a lot here. D said that we were going to have eye appointments and that I was getting new glasses. This was part of our Friday morning.

We head off to our local Costco for eye exams. Why Costco? They take our insurance. I am here to tell you that insurance is a fabulous thing! Not only were our eye exams only $40, but we found out that they cover frames up to $130!!! This meant I could pick any frame they had available and insurance would pay for it.

Costco may not carry designer clothing, but they DO carry designer glasses frames. Dolce & Gabana, Tommy Hillfiger, and none other than Burberry!!! That one little word to a woman who has been unable to purchase something so extravagant in a very long time was like the heavens opened up and angels sang. So yes… I selected a very cute and very trendy set of Burberry frames. I am just way too excited about all of this.

I am soooo spoiled.

You ever have the inclination that something major is going to happen in your life so you need to just seize the moment? I am not exactly sure if that is what I was feeling this weekend, but it is good justification for shopping.

In my attempt to peel myself away from my fancy new office I agreed to go shopping with Kathou this weekend for orphanage donations. We headed on up to our local mega outlet mall for some discount deals. In all fairness, the last time we went shopping Kathou left with a very expensive handbag and me with nothing more than a pair of shoes. This time I was the "big spender." Ok it is an outlet mall, how much can you really spend?

It started with, "oh lets go into this store!" So we head off to the first store. Then we passed the Eddie Bauer outlet. Ok we didn’t so much as pass it by as actually went in. Herein lies my downfall. They had the cutest kahkis for a whopping $19.99. None of that stretch material and they even roll up to flood pants. Very versatile when you don’t know what the weather is going to be like. So I bought them.

I will say that I did buy some orphanage donations. 3 sweaters, 5 hats, 4 long sleeve t-shirts and 3 pairs of sweat pants all for $48! I am learning the bargain hunt from the discount queen!

Of course no trip to the outlet mall would be complete without a trip into Ann Taylor. Cute clothes at reasonable prices. What more can you ask for? I had no intention of buying anything in there. That is until I haphazardly looked through the wall of pants. They had the cutest turquoise short pants for $4.99! I have nothing to go with turquoise pants, but they were $4.99 people. I also found a great pair of brown cords for $9.99. They are a little more flare legged than I usually purchase. They really are the kind of pants that when you look at photos of yourself long in the future you will think back and say… what was I thinking? But they are cute now, and frankly that is all that matters.

So I did a little retail therapy. Little did I know that it was going to be a hectic few weeks coming. I may be stressed, but I will look darn good.

well… not quite actually. The whole blue eyeshadow discussion got me thinking about how the 80’s were unbelievably cruel to me. I sat down and looked at all the photos of myself from the 80’s and man was I ever an FLK.

I will fully admit that at some point during the cold war I once sported a mullet. Of course we didn’t call it a mullet back then. It was one of those my cousin is doing it so I should too. If I knew then what I know now about that particular cousin I think I would have picked a better hair style!

Rhonda said she wanted to see a photo of me with leg warmers and a side pony tail. Sorry to disappoint you R, but my hair just isn’t long enough for the side pony. Besides I think that the only place you could get leg warmers would be the Goodwill and that falls into my fear of purchasing second hand items.

But what I can give you is a photo of me in leg warmers from the 80’s!! Please take note of what I am watching on the TV. Yes indeed it is the Muppets. Probably the Muppet Show to be exact. Although it could be the Great Muppet Caper. I love that movie! I still do, in fact… I own it. I might just go put in the DVD player right now.

So here it is for your viewing enjoyment. Elle in legwarmers.

About once a quarter Clinique comes out with their free gift promotion. You know the one. Where they price everything just above the minimum purchase price requiring you to buy and additional $32 lipstick that you really didn’t need just to get the free gift.

I was at the mall with my friend Kathou a few weeks ago and Clinique was running the special. Unfortunately I don’t use this particular line of cosmetics. No free gift for me. Kathou, however, does. Kathou makes a purchase that awards her the obligatory free gift. Of course I am a little jealous, because who doesn’t like buying something to get something free? I actually considering purchasing something so I too could have the free gift. Of course what would I have purchased? Lotion.

Anyway, we leave the department store 1 free gift richer. (ok Kathou was richer by it, but I live vicariously through her sometimes)

About a week later I get this package in the mail from Kathou. I love mail. Especially surprise packages! I open it up and lo and behold the package contains a free gift from the Clinique counter!! The little note read that she needed some moisturizer and got another free gift. So she sent it to me. Isn’t that just too sweet? Aren’t I lucky to have a good friend like this? I am. Thanks K!

This quarter’s free gift is pretty cool. 2 cute little bags, a little mascara (jury is still out on this one), a lipstick (almost a rockin’ color on me) and a little eyeshadow. I am not one for much eye make up, but on occasion I like to look a little more than a mousy housewife. The colors are even decent in this one. A soft pink, a cocoa brown and a steel blue.

Blue? I don’t think that even in the 80’s I wore blue eyeshadow. I try out the pink and brown. Love them. However, today I thought I would give the blue a shot. Yes people… I willingly put on blue eyeshadow. I am not exactly sure if I should be proud of this or horrified. It actually looked half way decent.

My god! Am I going throwback? I have the sudden urge to hunt down some stirrup pants and leg warmers. Thank god my hair isn’t long enough to put in a side pony tail. Someone might have to do an intervention.

I have issues. You all knew that though. I told D one day that I wanted a body transplant. If they can transplant a whole face, why not my body. Of course I am not sure of what on my body I would like to keep. I can tell you what I want to get rid of. This is not one of those "I’m fat and want the body of a supermodel" kinds of things. I just want parts that work. For instance, I would like eyes that can see, ears that can hear better, feet that have arches, a stomach that will actually process food in a normal fashion, a uterus that doesn’t spontaneously grow strange objects and most of all skin that doesn’t itch!!!

When I was a kid I used to get these weird red patches on my skin. My mom freaked out one day and took me to the doctor. She was convinced that it was ring worm. It looked distinctly like ringworm. The dr. said it wasn’t, gave me a cream and sent me on my way. I still get these little patches on occasion. However, they don’t really itch that much. It is just the rest of my freakin body.

I have tried nearly every lotion on the market. The problem is they may stop the itching, but they make my skin break out. Talk about damned if I do and damned if I don’t. I have never been able to moisturize my face. Any lotion that touches my face makes me look like a 12 year old boy. I wash my face with a basic neutrogena face wash and that is it. I wear as little make-up as possible and call it good. This seems to help, but it still doesn’t solve my itchy body problem.

To illustrate my point of the itchy skin, below is a photo of all the lotions I currently have in my house. I throw about 10 bottles away about once a year. Actually, I have curbed my lotion buying obsession because I am running out of room to keep them.

I have found nothing that truly works on my skin without making it break out… until now! Apparently the bargain lotions were just not good enough. I had to go into one of those fancy skin care shops that sells $65 face cream. For $65 I better look like a supermodel! However, I did scope out a body cream that might just be my ticket out of itchville. It is this super thick 25% Shea butter stuff. I got the girl to give me a couple free samples to try. I wasn’t quite sure if I really wanted to invest $36 in body lotion that is just going to throw me right back to my teenage years. Well… Day 2 and I am mostly itch free and mostly zit free. I think we might have a winner!!

What is better is this company also makes a hair conditioner with shea butter in it. I thought at $16 a bottle I could give it a try. D told me that at that price it better damn well work. Considering I think I spend $3.00 on my 2 in 1 shampoo. (I know it’s cheap, but I like it) So how did the conditioner work? FABULOUS!! I also whipped out my curling spray that I already had and by golly I have some fairly nice hair. I am still waiting on the stuff I ordered from Amazon, but Jen recommended it so it has to work right?

Now if any of you have the same skin condition I will gladly take any suggestions on what works for you. And yes, I even tried the baby oil on wet skin trick. I smelled nice, but that’s about it.

I think the world is out to get me! I really do. I feel like I take one step forward in the world and then 12 giant steps back.
First, the back seat of my car is wet. I have a large mass of pine needles that have built up where the hatch hinges are. During the really heavy rain the seal just couldn’t take it and the hatch leaked. So I have to shop-vac out the pine needles and hope my car dries out.

I figured since I have to whip out the shop-vac that I might as well clean the rest of the car. So I trot on off to Target and purchase a fancy new wash mitt. I figure my little car has been through enough abuse with the way I drive I might as well pamper it a little.

What does all this have to do with my hair? Well… as you may recall my hair is the bane of my existence. It is that type of hair that isn’t quite straight and isn’t quite curly. I still have not had it cut and it is getting dry. A girlfriend of mine suggested that I start using a conditioner every few days in addition to the 2 in 1 I already use. While we were in Canada I tried the hotel shampoo and conditioner. I know, I know, hotel shampoo sucks, but this was different. Apparently Bath & Body Works now supplies the hair and skin care products for Marriott. They had this aromatherapy (orange ginger) stuff. It is freakin awesome!!! My hair looked nice. It was a pretty curly not a frizzy curly. I loved it. So of course I forgot to take the little bottle with me.

The next weekend we stayed in Seattle for the fancy dinner and guess what? Another Marriott! I was smart this time. I took the conditioner with me. But as luck would have it I ran out today. That means tomorrow I will go back to frizz head or I have to find some conditioner and quick!

Now the smart person would just run out to her local B&BW store and pick up a bottle of the miracle cream, but would Elle? NOOOOOO! B&BW is in the mall. The mall is full of babies and teenage mothers, stupid people who don’t look where they are going and fun boys who wear too much cologne. I. hate. the. mall.

So as I am doing my errand this afternoon to purchase the fancy new wash mitt for the car I spied with my little eye the most fantastic thing ever. In the same shopping center with Target is a B&BW!!! Filled with joy over the though of ridding my life of the frizzy hair I ventured in. I saw the Aromatherapy line of products. I scanned, and scanned, and scanned. Didn’t see hair care. Little clerk girl asks if she can help me. "Hair conditioner" I grunted. "Oh, I’m sorry. All we have is the American Girl products. We will be getting the Aromatherapy line in soon though." "When will then be now?" "By the end of the month."

Great. I have to go another 3 weeks with this rat’s nest on my head! Hey, at least my car got a new wash mitt.