I am sitting in a dark house, staring out at a brooding sky and wind-tossed trees. It is deliciously quiet right now. Thanks to your powerful not-Covid thoughts, Carla is Covid negative and back at school. Hooray!
We were very productive yesterday: in addition to going to the doctor, I did four loads of laundry – INCLUDING folding – and have a last load waiting for me to put it in the washer (I have been trying to see a load through from hamper to folding before I start a new load; reduces the pile up). We also cleaned out Carla’s desk, which had an entire trash bag’s worth of junk in it, and we listened to Project Hail Mary (which I listened to based on Jaida’s excellent recommendation and loved so much that I explained it to Carla, and my enthusiasm made her want to listen to it also), and we watched a very long video of someone who gives makeovers to OMG dolls. Carla subsequently added “liquid latex” and “heat gun” to her list of must-have crafting items. It was nice to have a little extra time with my kid, but she has another day off coming up and I am very glad she is back at school.
After I dropped Carla off, I went to the grocery store and spent all our savings on food. I have not been noticing a huge number of shortages… things seem to have leveled off, a bit. (Although at Costco this weekend, there was no Kirkland-brand toilet paper, and both toilet paper and paper towels were one-per-customer.) Plenty of staples – beans, pasta, flour, sugar, pepperoni. Even Lunchables are available again. A thing that I do find concerning is that Target now has “only X left” on pretty much anything I try to order online. This is true whether I choose “pick-up” or “shipping” as my delivery option. It could simply be marketers playing to the scarcity strategy, but whatever it is, it definitely cues my panic response.
You know a thing that I find unnecessarily anxiety-provoking? When someone can’t hear what you’re saying. The checker at the grocery store had a hard time hearing me, and was really frustrated-acting about it. Which I get! It must be frustrating, to not hear someone! And I am sure that she has to deal with this same situation multiple times per day, what with people wearing masks, and her being stuck behind a plexiglass shield and all. But she did that thing where she shook her head and closed her eyes in an “I am counting to ten” kind of way, and, her tone said “this is entirely YOUR fault” and I felt helpless and defensive and equally frustrated that I couldn’t make myself heard and ugh. I just hate that. Makes me feel shaky and tearful when it should be a simple exchange of, “Oh, sorry! I will speak up!” and “Thank you! That’s better!” instead of disgusted dismissive shrugging like I am purposefully being a jerk.
She also seemed mad at me that I asked her to re-scan my apples. I bought Jonagold apples because a) I can’t remember the last time I ate a Jonagold apple, and cannot remember how they taste and b) because they looked so beautiful and shiny and red. I purposely avoided the Honeycrisp apples because a) they were $0.50 per pound more expensive and b) also looked pale and bloated. So I pointed out that they had rung up as the wrong apple – which she had me repeat twice – and then she said in an angry way, “Well, they come up as Honeycrisp when I type in the number on the tag.” Which. Okay. Either some Honeycrisp apples migrated into the Jonagold section or the tag was incorrect or the computer was reading them incorrectly or she typed the number into the computer incorrectly or I blacked out in the apple section and got Honeycrisp instead of Jonagold… I don’t know, but it didn’t seem to me that I had been BLAMING her for doing something WRONG when that is clearly how it came across. She is never as friendly as some of the checkers, but she sure drank some curdled milk this morning or something.
A package of M&Ms classic mix (M&Ms, peanut M&Ms, and peanut butter M&Ms all in a single bag) caught my eye at the checkout, but I neglected to act on my impulse and buy it. I wavered because I don’t really like plain M&Ms. But I am regretting my inaction now.
We got the bill for the exterminator, and it was MUCH higher than indicated in our previous infuriating and elliptical conversation. And I can’t decide whether I need to simply pay it and find a new exterminator service or if I should email him back and request an explanation. And I KNOW that prices are rising and costs are increasing, so there could be a reasonable explanation for the discrepancy. But I want to KNOW. I don’t want to just pay whatever he says the price is, willy nilly. We got a nice letter from our snowplow service saying – in advance – that they had a lot of increased costs and so our bill would go up, and I really appreciate that kind of up-front transparency. We will gladly pay the increase. Part of me wants to email the exterminator, just to see what he says. Although I am afraid he will then call me.
My root canal takes place next week. My husband took the day off from work and will drive me to and from the appointment and presumably ensure I don’t die afterward. I am not looking forward to it. But it will be nice to no longer have severe pain in my jaw. (Although I have heard plenty of stories about root canals not “taking” and needing to be repeated. Arrrrggghhhhh.)
This past Sunday, because Carla wasn’t going to school the following day, the three of us watched Cruella, with Emmas Stone and Thompson. There were some men in it, too, but the Emmas were the real stars. It was a decent movie, although it made Cruella a little too sympathetic, and I still am not quite sure I can make the narrative jump to her wanting to skin and wear a bunch of a Dalmatians as a coat. Also, the whole nature-vs-nurture theme of the movie could have done with a little more thinking through, but I suppose what do you want from a children’s storybook villain origin story. Carla was quite taken with her and has resumed speaking with a semi-British accent.
This is a bit of a delicate topic, maybe. But… do you shave your face? I had not done any sort of facial hair removal until a couple of months ago, aside from an occasional plucking of a stray eyebrow hair, or pulling out the hair that insists on sprouting witchily from the mole on my chin. But now I am completely obsessed with these Tinkle razors. I think I have used these enough times now to be able to recommend them with confidence. A little back story: an acquaintance mentioned these to me over the summer, and said she’d gotten a couple extra and she would give them to me. Note that she did not ask if I wanted them. Then the next couple of times we ran into each other, she’d slap her thigh and say, “Oh darn, I forgot to bring them for you!” As you might imagine, after each of these exchanges, I would spend long minutes with my face pressed up against the mirror, trying to determine whether my peach fuzz had graduated into full on facial shrubbery. Surely, my furry outer layer was so evident that this person felt COMPELLED to get me to take action. So when she finally pressed a couple into my hands, I was ready to give them a try. I had never tried any sort of facial hair removal options before because my mother had always given me stern and strenuous warnings about how the hair would grow back thicker and darker than before. A mother’s admonitions are a hard thing to get past, even when one is in her fifth decade of life. So far, I have not noticed this to be the case with the Tinkle razors. There is a period during which the face feels a teeny bit rougher than normal, but then the hair goes back to its normal downy state, and I haven’t noticed any change in color whatsoever. Anyway, these are very easy to use and I LOVE THEM and I am not going back and if you are looking for a facial hair solution I recommend you give these a go.
What are we supposed to be watching on TV these days? My husband and I watched Midnight Mass (interesting and thoughtful concept; Hamish Linklater; too many long-winded monologues) and Squid Game (VERY stressful but impossible to stop once we started) and are of course watching the latest season of Great British Baking Show. But we need something new. I want to watch that murder comedy with Selena Gomez (Only Murders in the Building) and my husband wants to watch Succession and neither of us is particularly excited about the other’s choice. What have you watched recently and loved?
I looked up the person who does the OMG doll makeovers and she apparently makes somewhere around $14,000 a month.
I’m so glad that Carla was negative! But so sorry that the clerk was SO VERY negative. Some people, I just don’t know. Speaking of which, why is that when one is having any dental work done, people have so many horror stories that they feel compelled to share? I got my wisdom teeth out 25 years ago, and I still remember how everyone seemed to have a story of the process being miserable, whether it was them or their relative or friend or cousin’s neighbor’s mother-in-law. You would have thought that there was no way to have it not be a terrible, awful experience. And mine was not that bad! But oh, everyone had to WARN me.
I have not heard about those little facial razors, and it is amusing me that the description suggests them as stocking stuffers! That would be a very pointed gift, no pun intended.
Only Murders in the Building was amazing and you should watch that.
I also did nothing about my face until recently. But I have noticed a darker area lately that is exactly along the lines of where I make my disgusted face under a mask and I guess that area has been getting a workout lately. I’m also getting forehead wrinkles exactly where I raise my eyebrows in disgust or skepticism. Pandemics! Bad for your skin apparently.
Yes, another thing the pandemic has stolen from us: youth and beauty! LOL
I watched with fascination a large segment of an infomercial about Tinkles (wincey name) or a similar product, without being able to figure out what was the difference between it and a regular disposable razor (other than that it’s little). They kept talking about gentle and feminine and delicate and so on, but it still sounded/looked the same as shaving. I have noticed an uptick in facial peach fuzz in recent years, and have been considering waxing strips, and in fact have PURCHASED the waxing strips, but they sit in a drawer because I remember using them years ago on my upper lip and finding them more painful than expected, and also my skin stayed all pink for quite awhile afterward.
Zero idea how it’s different, and 100% agree with the wince. It feels very easy and breezy to do, while I imagine that a regular razor would feel like A Big Thing. And it is definitely easy (easier than a regular razor?) to use around the lip area.
Ooh, no – for the love of all that is holy, please do NOT use wax strips anywhere on your face other than your top lip (even there things can go sideways very easily), your facial skin is far too delicate for that nonsense! Categorically the best thing that I have found is an at-home IPL unit – I just wish I’d started decades ago – you’ve got to be prepared for a regular weekly session, but I’m now at the stage where I haven’t had to shave certain areas for over three years!
Ooo, I am intrigued! Do you have a particular brand/model you’d recommend?
Honestly, they’re fab! – I have the Braun Silk-expert Pro 5 (the PL5124 model is the latest iteration, I think) and it’s just so easy. They are often subject to half price offers (here in the U.K., so probably similar for you coming up to Black Friday) and then become really good value.
Tinkle razors! I use them too, based on a long ago recommendation from Linda at All & Sundry. @Swistle, I think the main difference for me between the Tinkle (haaaate the name) and a regular razor is it has a little comb safety guard thing over the teeny blade so that it’s not actually razor blade hitting skin, the guard kind of pulls the hair up and away to be cut. It feels safe and next-to-impossible to nick yourself unlike the one (1) time I tried with a disposable razor and felt like a slip of my hand would slice my face off. Plus the littleness makes it easy to get sideburn areas, and under my ears/jawline area which is where all of my peach fuzz is accumulating these days
SO glad to hear that Carla was negative for COVID! SO VERY glad!
My advice to people facing any kind of “procedure” (up to and including birth) do NOT listen to any horror stories! All it does is ratchet up your anxiety. And, odds are, you experience will be completely different.
Oh, I’m so glad Carla was negative! I was wondering!
I have had a few friends who have had root canals and they all said it was immediate relief. I hope that’s the case for you!
THE EXTERMINATOR. That really steams me up on your behalf.
I have never heard of Tinkle razors but now I’m looking into them because as I age I get more and more hirsute. I used to wax my upper lip but now my skin is too sensitive, so I pluck it instead. I also have to pluck my chin, more and more every day. I’m going to look into that. Don’t really want to be the Bearded Lady.
I’m glad Carla doesn’t have covid.
Also, I had no complications with my one root canal, if you’d like a more reassuring data point. You’re more likely to hear horror stories because it makes a more interesting story.
I felt the same way about Cruella, that there was no logical way to go from that to 101 Dalmatians. But as a stand-alone movie, it was fun.
Only Murders in the Building was delightful!!
Hooray for Carla’s clean bill of health and I love that she’s taken to speaking with a British accent. That falls right in line with my image of her. It made me smile.
I am outraged at this ridiculous bill. I would email for sure and write in bold that you will expect an explanation in writing in order to review their reasoning. ‘No phone calls will be acceptable in this matter.’
I’m sure if someone else had my face, they’d bother tweezing eyebrows. I’m not one to bother. Glad you like the razors.
We are not watching anything. Life, well – it’s been nuts, and on top of all that we are dealing with I’m helping Mini edit her college essays. Almost done on that. I’d like to watch Ted Lasso. I’ve heard great things.
Yes! Ted Lasso is wonderful!
You totally know that exterminator will call if you send an email (GRRR, I loathe that). But I would still want to know what the heck merits such a huge increase.
I am usually the one saying that I can’t understand someone – my hope is always that they will slip their mask down so I can read their lips. But I also explain that I’m deaf and I’m a lip reader. If they say they can’t hear me (I tend to talk softly because my own voice sounds loud in my head thanks to my cochlear implants) then I yell. Or at least it sounds to me like I’m yelling, ha!!
Based on the replies here, I think I will check out Only Murders in the Building, as well as the Tinkle razor (which I stuck in my Amazon wish list back when Sundry mentioned it, and never bought). Thanks for bringing them up so I could reap the rewards of your responses, lol.
YAY for no covid!
I just started Dopesick, which I was wary about but enjoyed the first episode; The Other Two has been a delightful surprise; and I like to watch food shows during dinner so I started watching Baking Impossible and it is fascinating!
I will check out your suggestions! And I can totally understand a person with hearing difficulties having a horrible time with all the masking these days. So frustrating. (But I also bet you are lovely and kind when asking people to repeat/pull down their masks!)
I’ve had a couple of root canals- they aren’t that bad and are usually successful. Just bring your ear buds and a good podcast for a distraction.
I just today bought a tiny electric shaver called Flawless. I’ve been having my face waxed for a few years, during Covid I shaved and then went back to waxing. A couple of friends I know just shave – it’s so easy & convenient. It’s a myth that the hair grows in thicker and darker. I think going forward I’ll just get my eyebrows done. ( I would not wax my face, the aesthetician uses different more gently wax on the face!).
Oh man, I don’t know how I’d feel about someone pressing facial razors into my hand like that! Ummm thanks?! But I’ve been feeling a little weird about my peach fuzz – mine is right around my jawline and I don’t notice it very often, only when the light hits my face in a certain way and it’s sudden SUPER NOTICEABLE. I’m going to try a facial razor – the host of a podcast I used to listen to talked about how she shaves her face regularly and all those warnings that the hair will grow back differently (or darker!) are false. But man, I already have enough trouble shaving my legs regularly – now I gotta worry about my face?!