Ode to Hello Kitty: Mascot of my 30s

When I hit 30, I decided that the next decade would be about class, sophistication and not taking any shit. In my mind, I envisioned red nail polish, girly shoes, dresses, and harmonious ensembles of tops, slacks/skirts, cardigans.

As I sit here wearing my sport zip-up jacket, my glitter pink nail polish, jeans, rainbow-print shoes, and chunky elephant ring, I realize that my vision of my 30s is the actuality of my early 20s. How quickly I've ditched the vision. This was confirmed when I realized I had quite the addiction to Hello Kitty.

It all started with the Hello Kitty line at Sephora. All I got was the Apple balm, but it was enough to get me started.

It's super moisturizing and the right amount of color, btw. Nevermind that the container is cute to the max.

Then it was the pouch I found for $7 at the mall.

You can get it at Cutesense.com

Then I found the vending machines at an Asian mall in Richmond and spent about $6 on frivolity.

Upon showing my vending machine finds to my friend, Tina, she looked at my husband and asked, "Why did you let her do this?" which cracked me up to no end. FYI, he wasn't there to stop me.

And while looking for two of those photos above, can somebody explain to me why I want this?

You can get this at Cutesense.com too!

So what about the class, sophistication, and taking no shit? Well, I like Hello Kitty, and my crazy getup. I tend to just do what I feel is right. Being 30 is about not taking any shit. This includes any shit  from myself of who I should be or what I should like.

I think this makes Hello Kitty my mascot for my 30s, which seems odd to pair with the anthem of my 30s (Gwen Stefani's Hollerback girl).

My son has The Robot Termintaor Eye

On Saturday the family went to a friend's house for their son's first birthday party. We let our son run around their HUGE backyard. The family had a little dog, but they cleaned the poopies before the party. But somehow...SOMEHOW, my son was able to find a piece of poopie that was the size of like a screw head and picks it up with his hand! What were the chances? I mean, did I say their yard was HUGE??? This is why I think my son has a Robot Terminator Eye that somehow locked into the dog poopies.

The parents felt so bad, but it totally wasn't their fault. Ahhh the joys of motherhood.

Yoga Mat Review: Lululemon The Mat (Travel)

After practicing yoga consistently for 1.5 years, I had worn out my mat. Imagine me beating the crap out of my mat 3 to 5 times a week for that period of time. They say that the more you practice, the stickier your mat should be. Not the case with the mat I had. I was slipping and sliding all over the place. In fact, I may decide to accumulate old slippery mats, and fashion myself a Slip N Slide. Remember those? Sorry, am a child of the 80s.

I practice Vinyasa (or Flow) yoga, and one can get quite sweaty as the class progresses. With my old worn-out mat, I could feel my back leg sliding further and further away in Warrior II despite my efforts in hugging in my inner leg muscles.

Warrior II

Because my mat was slippery, I also didn't feel confident going deeper into my poses. Could you imagine trying to stick your leg up in wheel pose while on a slippery mat? Wipe out city!

Wheel Pose

So after scouring the internet, and reading many (MANY) yoga mat reviews, I finally settled on Lululemon's The Mat, the Travel version. I've been using it for almost five months now.

Hello, lover!

Lululemon does carry a non-travel version of this mat. However, I decided on the Travel mat because I do like to take my yoga mat with me when I go on vacation or business trips. However, when I'm in the studio, I throw it over my old mat just to get a bit of extra cushioning. Alternatively, I could throw it over one of the shared studio mats to protect myself from getting foot fungus...on my forehead.



Mat Details (From the Lululemon Website)

• The super grippy polyurethane top layer is ideal for hot, power, and flow yoga classes
• Due to the properties of natural rubber, the mat will have a strong smell that will fade over time
• For optimum care, clean the mat after each practice with a natural solvent
• For more thorough cleanings, completely submerge the mat in water and allow to air-dry overnight 
• Dimensions: 26" x 71", 1.5mm thick

Benefits (What I LOVE about it)

• Protection: Throw it over a shared studio mat to protect yourself from the sweat residue left by other students
• Lightweight...  so you don't have to break your shoulders carrying it around the city or across the airport. Heck, you can even fold 'er up and stick it in your tote.
• Thin!: I love feeling the earth below me when I practice yoga. This means I'm stabilized and grounded. Layering it over my old mat brings the total thickness up to 4.5mm, which is still pretty thin in my opinion
• Encourages impromptu Yoga (if you have it on you) - Oh yes, in the middle of Starbucks. I call this pose ardna tazonasana.
• Optimal for in-between sweaters: Yoga towels are great for heavy sweaters. I sweat, but not enough to use the towels. In fact, I have a yoga towel, and because I don't sweat enough, I can't get a grip on that thing.
• Absorbent: This baby absorbs sweat which makes it non-slippery - To the amazement of my classmates, I dropped a bit of water onto the mat, and within seconds, it had vanished into the mat. Magical like unicorns!
• Not smelly - I unrolled this mat, and didn't notice the strong smell that they warned about. Possibly because this is the thin version of the The Mat.

Things to Consider

• Last I checked, it only comes in black - which is fine by me!
• I usually don't get a grip on this mat until I'm warmed up (which doesn't take long). This is likely why they recommended it specifically for hot, power, and flow classes and not something like hatha, where you don't get as heated as quickly

Overall Rating
5/5 - I am a zen and happy yogi

Burned! The Hubby said that I needed a PowerBand bracelet!

The family went to Sports Chalet over the weekend to exchange the Crocs that I had bought my 2 year old son. As my husband, Duke, went to exchange the shoes, he couldn't help but fall for the PowerBand bracelet display.

Lately, Duke has been suffering from arthritis, particularly when there is a drastic change in the weather. He mistook the PowerBand bracelet with those Ion type bracelets. Both have been researched or noted to be scams (results are typically due to the placebo effect), but he didn't care. He thought, "Shoot, these things look pretty darn cool!"

I'll admit, I was about to buy one because it looked cool (I swear I wasn't going to ask random people to try to pull me down, and stand heroically with my hands on my hips due to their failed attempts!). The bracelets remind me of the "LiveStrong" bracelets, only these bracelets aren't for a good cause. But there wasn't a price tag on the boxes when I looked at them a few weeks ago so I passed them up.

Back to last weekend. So Duke was proudly wearing the bracelet and then tells me that I should get one since I'm so clumsy and my balance is terrible. WHAT??? 'SCUSE ME? Apparently my inner voice was louder than I thought, and he proceeded to tell me how I'm always falling down when we were in school and stuff.

I could only think of one occasion where I [was totally sober and] fell down in front of him at school and this was yearsssss ago!

Ok, so you're probably now wondering, "What's this story where you fell down in front of Duke?"

This is when Duke and I were first dating. Jr. Year of college. We were taking a quiz. I'm a very nervous test taker, and apparently, I had crossed my legs so hard, my leg fell asleep! I completed my quiz, got up to turn it in (thinking my sleepy leg wasn't that bad) only to discover my left leg won't move and fell on my ass. Duke was sitting next to me and grabbed my arm and lessened the severity of the fall. Embarrassing!!

Returning Products - Not my Favorite Thing to Do

I had picked up the Biore Warming Blackhead Cream Cleanser and had decided to return it because it broke me out after one use. My skin is quite sensitive. I think it can't handle anything harsh like the 2% of Salicylic Acid that is found in the product. In other words, wrong product for my skin type.

Thing is, I hate doing returns (unless it's Sephora). Sometimes it just feels like I'm being interrogated or guilted...or both.

They: Why do you want to return this? Who else has used this? What about women in developing countries who don't even get facial scrub, did you think about that? Ingrate.

Me: OMG! I'm sorry!! So sorry! I'll buy like 10 more of these products that don't work for me!

So I asked my husband to do the return as he has no problems asking for money back.

We went up to the Customer Service counter at the drugstore, and the following conversation takes place...

Customer Service Manager: Was there anything wrong with it?

<silence>

My husband (who is South Asian): I used to be white.

This made me bust my gut. Note to self: Doing returns? Ask the hubby.

Anyone else uncomfortable returning products that don't work?

Happiness came in the mail today! Garmin Forerunner 305

In mid January I took up running to take my weight loss and fitness to the next level. I wanted the hotness of a runner's physique and I also wanted to tackle on something that I couldn't do before. I started with an accelerated version of the "Couch to 5K program", then I completed two 5Ks in the past month. Now I want to work on my speed and train for a 10K.

I had been using my IPhone with the Nike+ GPS app. But shortly became fascinated with all of the stats my runner friends were posting about their runs thanks to their Garmin Forerunners. UH OH...I want a new gadget!

After doing a little bit of research, I ended up ordering the Garmin Forerunner305.

It came in the mail today! As I was ready to start charging this bad boy up so that I can play around with it tonight, my dad walks by my cubicle (yes, I work with my dad) and proceeds to inquire about my new gadget:

Dad: Oh, you bought one of those TOO?

Me: TOO?

Dad: Yeah, I bought one a while back, but it was too advanced for me, so I never used it. You can have it.

Me: WHAT?!

Dad: Yea, *looks at amazon receipt* Darn, I paid way more.

I could've had a Garmin Forerunner305 for free all this time (ok, so it's only been 3 months)!!! Oh well, it was still exciting to open up a box. :) One of my bosses who is a hardcore runner told me that I had made a good choice. He had upgraded to a 405, but told me that the 305 is his favorite.

Soon to come:

Garmin Forerunner305 Review



Clarins - You've Saved me from my Workouts!

The Issue
I have gone through skin hell in the past 8 months. Having increased my workouts to five times a week (from three to four times), I started to breakout severely. I went from the skin that my friends fawned over to one riddled with cystic acne. These painful muttertruckers were along my jawline, cheek, chin, and forehead. One of those suckers would pop out, and I could feel it throbbing on my face, mocking me.

Don't think that I wasn't thoroughly cleansing, because I was. After every workout, I'd immediately hop in the shower and get into my skincare routine - but it wasn't working for my face anymore.

TIP: It's very important to shower or give yourself a wipe down with an astringent pad or towelette after you work out! When you're working out, your body is producing a lot of your body's natural oils. Once these oils cool, they harden, and lead to plugged pores. (I learned this from Runner's World Complete Book of Women's Running) .


I tried just about everything, until my gf, Steph, recommended Clarins. In particular, she recommended their One Step Facial Cleanser.

Photo taken from Clarins website

I kid you not, upon using this product, my cystic acne ceased immediately.

Ingredients
Who cares? It works! Just joking! There really isn't much to it. According to their website, the ingredients are as follows:

• Ultrafine oils: thoroughly cleanse the skin.
• Moringa seed extract: neutralizes the effets of pollution and purifies the skin to restore its natural radiance.
• Orange extract: refreshes, tones, revitalizes. 

Directions (as per the Clarins website)

Shake well before use. Soak a cotton pad and begin by gently dabbing over face to dislodge impurities. Turn pad over and gently smooth over face. No need to rinse off.

How I Use It
I use it in the evening after my shower and follow up with moisturizer (Clarins Hydraquench for Normal to Dry Skin - Also awesome btw)

What to Expect

• I don't wear a lot of makeup (concealer and blush only). If I wear more makeup than I usually do, (i.e. mineral foundation), I use two cottonpads of the cleanser.
• There will be an oily residue on your face. HOWEVER, your skin will drink this up within a minute or two. This oil is quite fine and didn't break me out. In fact, it has minimized the bumps on my face.
• Pleasant, light, orange smell.
• I've been using this cleanser for 3 months, and still have more than 1/4 of the bottle left.

Overall Rating
5/5  - Hi, it's a Miracle in a Bottle!