Tired

When I'm tired (like right now) and achy (like right now), the effort to think coherent thoughts seems about as futile as trying to make sense out of white noise.  Or trying to hear a whisper in an engine room.  Or trying to understand a completely foreign language.

Dream of a Miracle Cure

I had a weird dream this morning.  What's new, right?  Actually, this was one of the kind that feel so real... in fact, was notable for being markedly less weird than my usual dreams.

There was this man - dark hair, charismatic, looked like a handsome actor who usually plays the successful, driven businessman who turns out to be the bad guy.  He wasn't a bad guy here, but did have a forceful personality.

So this guy, this dark haired, charismatic guy... he came up with an amazing, almost "miracle cure" kind of thing.  The primary ingredient was whipped egg whites.  Or maybe it was a derivative of whipped egg whites.  Anyway, this stuff could completely erase scars and wrinkles, but it also cured things like... I don't know, cancer, pancreatitis and kidney disease.  Older people were especially benefiting from complete and total health.  So I guess it addressed arthritis, osteoporosis and heart disease.

The cures were pretty much instantaneous and lasting.  The man made a big deal of it, like at a religious revival, where he would call people up to the stage one at a time, ask them what their problems were, and apply this miracle egg-white stuff in different ways, depending on what was wrong.  Everyone - everyone - was cured, instantly and completely.  Then he would have fun with them, fixing little things like those crow's feet they disliked.

The drawback was that this stuff interacted badly with a few kinds of medications.  People who wanted to be cured by it had to be off these medications.  Nothing unusual there, pharmaceutically speaking (is that even a word?).  Except in the case of the allergy medicine Zyrtec.  If a person had ever taken Zyrtec, even once, they were no longer a candidate for this egg-white treatment.

Having had seasonal allergies since childhood, there was a short time I did take Zyrtec in real life.  (It worked okay for about a month or so, then lost effectiveness.)

In my dream, I was talking with a couple of old ladies about what they wanted to have cured and trying to decide whether to lie about the Zyrtec in my own past.

In the dream, people did often lie in order to receive treatment.  This infuriated the dark-haired man because, while sometimes the treatment worked anyway, there was a measurable chance of negative interactions and even death.  He was angry not only because it made him and his product look bad, but more to the point, he felt powerless to help the people who had lied.

I woke up, and, as dreams sometimes do, it had felt so real.  It seemed important.  Maybe sometime soon, a biologist or chemical engineer somewhere will read this and think to himself, "Egg whites... cetirizine hydrochloride... EUREKA!"  Who knows?

In the meantime, if you're suffering from seasonal allergies, there's Alfalfa Complex from Shaklee, made primarily from - you guessed it - alfalfa, with a litte bit of spearmint.  Rich in protein, calcium, minerals, and vitamins A, B, C, D, E and K, alfalfa can be helpful in various illnesses and ailments including:

• Anemia
• Diabetes
• Indigestion and bladder disorders
• Menopause
• Poor lactation
• High blood pressure
• Intestinal ulcers
• Gastritis
• Asthma
• Eczema
• Constipation
• Body and breath odor
• Infections
• Burns
• Athletes foot
• Cancer
• Urinary tract problems
• Atherosclerosis
• Nosebleeds
• Osteoporosis

Check it out.

What Do You Wish You Were Doing Today?

I was reading Travel + Leisure Magazine today on my break at work and found myself idly thinking, "I'd like to be there right now," regarding some pretty picture of a hotel.

Then I thought, "No.  If I am to wish, I want it to be really good.  Today, I wish I were..."

Today, I wish I were doing something really comfortable. 

Like getting a head-to-toe massage in a beach-side cabana with the warm but refreshing breeze feathering across my skin.  With a drink?  No, not an alcoholic one, not today.  Today, it's cold and fruity, sweet and tart, and entirely healthful.  Today, there are steel drums playing in the distance, so that sometimes I hear them on the breeze, and sometimes I hear the waves.  I smell the salt air, the sun-warm sand.  I feel the tension being worked from each limb, my neck, my back, my feet.

This, this is what I wish I were doing today.

What do you wish you were doing today?

Happy Mothers Day

So, a satisfied customer was leaving our store - a great guy, mid-forties, in a wheelchair, frequent customer - and on his way out, gave my manager and me a jaunty wave and wished us, "Happy Mothers Day!"

"You, too!" we chorused happily.

Durr.  General laughter.  "Erm, um, what do you say... THANK YOU!"

May the fourth!

... be with you.

Yes, I'm a geek.  Forgot to say it earlier.  Happy Star Wars day.  Have fun!

Tasting

Today at work, I tried the Squirrel nuts mentioned in yesterday's blog - the Truffle flavor.  We're talking actual mushroomy truffles, rather than the chocolate kind - though if you're into chocolate truffles, Williams-Sonoma sells an awesome confection that looks like a malted milk "robin's egg," but tastes like a little bite of chocolate heaven.  Those are only available at Easter, so you'll have to wait till next year for more; sorry.  But the wait is worth it.  Until then, Godiva will have to do.  ;)

Anyway, the truffle flavored almonds?  You should hear the moans of pleasure when people try these beauties!  Mysterious, dark and woodsy, they taste of real truffles.  If you've never tried truffles, there's nothing quite like them.  I think they're as rich as a good oyster, but vegetarian, and honestly worth the moaning they precipitate.

If you're stumped (haha, no squirrel pun intended) for a good gift idea, these are unusual and delicious, packaged in a delightfully chic black-and-gold canister, appropriate for men as well as ladies.  An awesome "hostess" gift, one they'll remember you for! 

Also, I tried two Tishbi jellies.  One was a red wine (I think cabernet) and the other a white (I think chardonnay) jelly.  Oh, my goodness!  The red tasted like wine, not sweet, or sugary, or syrupy.  All the flavors of a good red, but without a bite-y, tannin-ey taste.  I could eat it right out of the jar all day long.  This jelly would be excellent on buttered toast, possibly with tea to drink.  I think it would also rock a good red meat, either glazed in the oven with it, or spread on a cold leftover meat sandwich the next day.  That's good eatin'.

The white wine jelly was far more delicate and sweeter.  You could also use this on toast, but I would go with white toast rather than a hearty whole grain, and one of the milder teas to drink.  Not sure how or if I would use this in cooking, though I'm sure there are plenty of delicious combinations just waiting to be discovered.

Both jellies and the nuts can be found at the Annapolis, Maryland Williams-Sonoma.  They haven't appeared on Williams-Sonoma online, but that may just be a matter of time.  If you stop by our store, give me a holler!

At Work Today

We were receiving cartons of product in the stockroom today.  Several new products arrived, including a variety of flavored nuts from the "Squirrel Brand" company.  We love it when new stuff arrives.

So my manager says in innocent glee, "Oh, Squirrel nuts!  I'd like to see those!"

I enjoy the people I work with.

Spring Awakening/Reviving/Reanimating

I woke up this past Monday morning, the very day after Easter, feeling somehow… alive.  Like a bear coming out of hibernation.  No… more like a spring flower emerging from the snow to bloom.  No, really… quite a lot like I imagine a person would feel returning from the dead.  Suddenly I could move.  And accomplish stuff.  And think!  I could contemplate actually doing the things I had longed to do all winter, but did not have the ability: visiting friends, blogging, doing anything more than slogging through part-time work (wonderful as it is, and wonderful as my co-workers are, it has been physically all I could manage), and best of all: once again having cognitive functions.  Yay, cognitive functions!

I can’t imagine that it’s the spring – boy, that would suck, seeing as we have winter every single year around here.

This past winter was one of, well, deep hibernation.  Healing from within.  Rest and recuperation.  And suddenly… here I am, world!

Here I am, me.  It is so nice to be me again.

Day Two and Beyond...

So, the week that began with my last post turned out to be the hardest work week in living memory.  Not only did I do my own regular shifts, but I picked up two additional extra-long shifts on my days off, and outside-of-work life turned out to have a bunch of deadlines of stuff I simply had to get done right then as well.  Physically, it should have put me down, sick and in bed, for at least a day or two.  But, I survived.  Almost as if I were doing just a little less than usual.

Nice.

My general energy level has risen steadily since then.  I'm also sleeping much better most nights.

I have added Alfalfa Complex to the mix, for allergies.  My reaction to taking this supplement has been thus: The first day or two, it loosened everything in my sinuses, and I sneezed and blew my nose more than usual.  Then, my regular "hay fever" type allergies backed way down, to a manageable level (minor nose tickles now and then).

I also added Menopause Balance Complex because I had a hysterectomy some years ago, and just last year, my hormone replacements were taken off the market.  Bah!  I was not at all willing to try out various new hormone formulas until I found one that worked - I've been down that road, and it's not pretty (think, "PMS explosion in your face").  So, with suddenly zero uterine or ovarian hormones coursing through my blood, the hot flashes were ... well, they felt atomic ... like atomic cluster bombs, because they were one after the other, day and night, heart racing, sweat pouring, nasty.  I tried two different kinds of natural Black Cohosh based women's balance formulae, and I got minor relief from those.  This product has gone above and beyond.  I still get minor hot flashes, but they're more like a too-warm summer breeze that makes me thirsty and a bit uncomfortable for about five minutes, two or three times a day.  What a relief!

Along with that, I have tried the Performance (R) Natural Endurance Sports Drink because, sorry guys, but I have to say this... menopause is a sweaty business.  I wanted something to replace the minerals and other things I was losing.  Gatorade had helped in the past.  So, I thought this might help more.  It does.  It's a little better, maybe ten to twenty-five percent better.  Also, it's not as sweet or sugary, so I don't have the worry that I'm fattening myself up (or, conversely, with the low- and zero-calorie options, putting strange and unnatural chemicals into my bloodstream that give me headaches).  The cool thing is that, if I have had a glass of the Sports Drink, then my body thinks about having a hot flash, sometimes it just thinks about it, then decides not to go there.  This makes me very happy.  It also makes me much more comfortable at work, especially when talking with customers.

On a final note, a cold virus has attempted to infiltrate my system this week.  In the past, colds have taken up residence within me for weeks at a time.  I once went to the doctor because one hung on so long.  As we all know, antibiotics will do nothing against a virus, so I was stuck, sticking it out for the duration.

This cold, now...

It started with sniffles, a few sneezes, and a cough or two.  Anyone with allergies can tell you that you can feel the difference when it's a cold.  This was a cold.  The next day, I had a sinus headache, a fairly minor one in comparison to others I have had.  The day after that, as well.  The day after that, I could feel the thing dying off and leaving.  It's gone now.  Four days, and it was done!

If you are interested in obtaining any of these products for yourself, please feel free to use this link: http://mara.myshaklee.com/. 

Namaste.

Day One

After an extra-long shift Wednesday afternoon and evening at my "day" job, then waking up yesterday at the crack of dawn to run errands in town before heading back to work, my Shaklee Gold Ambassador Starter Kit arrived.  I was so excited!  When I heard the UPS truck outside, I felt like a kid at Christmas, "Oh, I do hope it's Santa!"

The package got here right before I had to leave for my evening shift at work, but I tore it open and took a dose each of Vitalizer (vitamins, minerals, probiotics) and Vivix (anti-aging complex), in the hopes of giving myself any possible extra boost in the face of a difficult 24 hours.

I have to say, when my shift ended at 10:00 PM, I was still pretty perky (i.e., much perkier than usual).  I didn't feel like I could move mountains, but I did complete my work day without slogging through the end of it.

When I went to sleep, I slept more deeply and restfully than usual.  There is a lot of room for improvement there!  So, any improvement is a big deal to me.

Tonight, I have another long shift at work, then a sort of mini-vacation (overnight at a friend's house, feeding her cats and chickens while she's away), then back to work again tomorrow.

With two doses of vitamins and extracts under my metaphorical belt, let's see how the next 24 hours goes.

New Venture

Shaklee Independent Distributor

I just wanted to share the beginning of my new home-based business with y'all.  Very excited!  Most of that excitement stems from having tried several of the products and having seen and felt results anywhere from immediately to in a couple of days.  I was truly wowed.

So let's see where this takes us, shall we?

Mara's Beauty Tip O' the Day

Super-Indulgent Leg Treat

For those of my lovely readership who shave their legs, this is a luxuriously self-pampering way to go.  I came up with it while living in the high mountain desert, preparing for a modeling competition.  It's still a favorite indulgence - especially when I'm looking for a non-caloric way to indulge.

  Ingredients and tools:

    Lancome Exfoliant Fraichelle Invigorating Body Scrub
    Gillette Venus Razor
    Bath Pouf
    Olay Age-Defying Body Wash
    Fluffy or favorite towel
    Clinique Moisture Surge face gel (get the large size)
    Washcloth or small hand towel
    Aveda Hand Relief hand lotion

Begin with damp legs.  Lather Lancome Exfoliant Fraichelle Invigorating Body Scrub onto the legs.  Yes, it is a scrub with little granules, which is indeed counterintuitive for shaving.  I was skeptical at first, too, but the girl at the counter insisted that it produced the closest, smoothest shave ever.  She did not lie.  I am now her fellow proselytizer.  This stuff is amazing.  Plus, it smells awesome.

Once you have a good lather, shave as you normally would.  I recommend the Gillette Venus Razor because it's made to hug the curves of a leg like a race car hugs the road.  There is a world of difference between that and any disposable ever made.  (Personal experience has my legs cringing at the very thought.)  Note: If you choose a different razor, make sure it has a swivel head, multiple blades, and is not the kind with built-in shave cream, as that will get in the way of your Fraichelle lather and leave you with a goopy mess to clog and foul your blades.

When you have finished shaving, use your scrubby bath pouf to wash with the Olay Age-Defying Body Wash.  This is where you can take a complete shower if you like - not before (showering or bathing beforehand will cause your skin to absorb water so that your shave will result in longer stubble).  I prefer the Age-Defying body wash, as moisture is desired in this step, but the ones with moisture "ribbons" tend to be too oily for my skin, even when simply used in the shower without all this other stuff.  I suggest starting with Age-Defying (it's never too early to defy aging), then varying to whatever suits your skin and climate best.  (Don't bother with the Daily Exfoliating kind because you've already exfoliated thoroughly.)

After rinsing your body wash, gently towel dry.  Slather on the Clinique Moisture Surge.  (This is the truly "indulgent" part of the process, using a department store facial product on the legs!  Aveda used to make a similar gel product that was less expensive per ounce, but I can no longer find it.)  Be generous but not sloppy.  Take ten minutes of "me time" while it sinks in.  At the end of ten minutes, if necessary, blot excess gel with a damp washcloth or small hand towel.

Smooth on the Aveda Hand Relief, being sure to include feet and toes.  Be sparing, and rub it in.  This is a firm, solid lotion that you can think of as a top coat or sealant, if you like.

Your legs should now be smoother and softer than a baby's bottom.  They should stay that way for longer than usual, too.  (As an option, you might want to trade the Hand Relief for Bliss Get Out of Hair lotion to discourage regrowth.  Get Out of Hair isn't as thick or moisture-y, and it only works if you use it regularly, but I should think it would help maintain your beautiful results.)

This process, when I can afford it, always makes me feel refreshed, relaxed, and energized.

Enjoy, my darlings!

Rambly Pambly

Conundrums abound
When goths are around.

This is a test to see what my new blog will look like when it is spied.  Plus, it's late and my brain is fried.

So the content may be crappy, but at least we're all happy.

And I can say, "I tried."