postaday

Must be over 21 to remove nail polish?

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I might have been a Barbie girl, but I am not much anymore. Now I am a flip flop, comfy clothes wearing, keep it simple kind of girl. Having said all that, in the summer I like to paint my toenails. I have never been one to paint my fingernails. I like to keep my fingernails trimmed short, clean and free of polish. Toes on the other hand have an entirely different standard. I’ll tell you why. Feet are gross, and by connection so are toenails.

Since I am a flip flop girl, I spend most of the summer in my flip flops, which means my toes are freeing it all on their own. Since toes are gross, I have resorted to toenail polish. Generally speaking I keep them dark red, or my current color of a greyish blue. So when I came across this newsworthy information I was flabbergasted. Due to issues with using the acetone in nail polish remover for meth, CVS stores now require those purchasing nail polish remover to be over 18, show an ID, and you cannot purchase more than two bottles. I remember there were similar issues with Thera Flu, and now you can rarely find it in the store when you desperately need it.

Note: As of last Friday, CVS has reversed its decision and now it only applies in California, Hawaii, and West Virginia.

What will my toes do in the summer if nail polish remover becomes scarce? What has this world come to? Will we have a future of layers and layers of polish due to nail polish remover scarcity?

#firstworldproblems

A life full of opportunities, building, and being smart

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I want to talk about this. I want to talk about this poignant acceptance speech by Ashton Kutcher flying around the Internet and Facebook. You have probably already seen it. I want to say a few things about his speech. Ashton is twice as old as many of the teens watching the Teen Choice Awards. He is also a midwest boy (Iowa) and went through a lot as a kid with his sick twin brother, his parents divorce, and the trouble he got in as a teenager. He is not just Hollywood fluff. He has lived.

I loved what he told teens in 2013. Teens that might be obsessed with those that have money and power. He did not talk about that. Not about all the glam, money, and fame that he has had in his life, but about working hard. That life does not just come to us, that we have to work for it, show up, grow into our next phase. My favorite part is when he said the sexiest thing is being smart. I hope that those teenagers watching understand what he means. Here are a few excerpts, but be sure to also watch the video below:

Opportunities:

“And I’ve never had a job in my life that I was better than. I was always just lucky to have a job. And every job I had was a stepping stone to my next job, and I never quit my job until I had my next job. And so opportunities look a lot like work.”

Being Sexy:

“The sexiest thing in the entire world is being really smart, and being thoughtful, and being generous. Everything else is crap. I promise you…it’s just crap that people try to sell to you to make you feel like less. So don’t buy it. So be smart, be thoughtful, and be generous.”

Build a life:

“Everything around us that we call life, was made up by people that are no smarter than you. You can build your own life that other people can live in. So build a life, don’t live one.”

PDX: my art home

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Portland has my heart. Other than the small Indiana town I grew up in, Portland is the only other place I have lived for at least a decade of my life. From the ages of 15 to 25 I lived in a few different states while living away from home in high school, college, and my first few professional years. I never had a gut instinct of where I wanted to live my life, there was no city or town that captivated me. I can remember friends in college that could not wait to move to Seattle, LA, or New York. Not me, there was no place that I knew I would call home.

Portland is home now. Every time Chris and I travel, we exhale and breathe ahhh when we arrive back on NW soil. We are endeared by the creative food (not that we always partake, ahem, bone marrow on toast, elk tongue with beetroot, blue rabbit with acorn dumplings), the interesting people, the weather. Yes, we even do not mind the nine months of rain. One of our favorite things about Portland is the art. Last week I learned about a cool event called: Forest for the Trees, which is coming to PDX August 19 – 25, and includes artists from all over the world. It is a public mural project, allowing artists to collaborate for a week via outdoor murals. I am all for it. I can think of quite a few buildings that could use some lovin!

Be sure to check out the blog on their website. The artists have teamed up with a variety of companies to showcase their art. You’ll see videos from the artists mentioning creative sustainability, energy in old wood, and being conscious of your social environment. Another check mark on my list of all the things I love about Portland. I am looking forward to checking out the work that comes out of this week!

Water can save a life.

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It took me a few days to catch up on the world this week. I have felt that life has sent me a wave, and I have not done such a good job of riding it. Actually, I’ve belly-flopped a bit.

So when I finally caught up on my emails, and found a good friend had sent me a link to this poignant video, it was just what I needed to kick me in the ass, raise my head above water, and think about Nkaitole’s bucket list. You will have to watch to see what I mean. It will make you appreciate all that you have, it will make you cry for all those little precious ones that might not make it past their fifth birthday, and how access to water can change their world. Please watch.

I hope you did not skip ahead, and you took the time to go on an adventure and hear about Nkaitole’s bucket list. A foot in the ocean, a bubble bath, a hot air balloon ride.

More details about Water is Life.

More details about the lifesaving straw.

What kind of coffee would you be?

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Me? I am all black coffee. Unless of course we are on a road trip and the only coffee around is nasty gas station coffee, and if all I want, yes, all I want at that very moment is nasty gas station coffee, then I will take that watered down dirty coffee and add as much sugar and fake cream to disguise the bitter taste any day. Usually I just decline the bad coffee and go for a water.

Bad coffee aside. If we talk good coffee, local coffee, then it better be black. I want to taste it for all its richness, all its realness, I want to taste that coffee.

If I were coffee, I would be black, raw to the core of the bean, just me. No cream or sugar to coat the edges of that strong hit of goodness, just true to itself, real, and direct. Yes, there might be times when I add a little sugar to things, to smooth things out, but if you want the real me, go get that cup of joe… black as can be. It might come out bitter, it might come out strong, but it is me. I wasn’t always that way. I used to add lots of cream and lots of sugar, more of the latte variety, and over time I have migrated to the no additive version. Of course, I am still finicky, it has to be good coffee for me to drink it black.

If you were a cup of coffee, would you be a latte, a cappuccino, a mocha? Would you add mostly cream, or mostly sugar?