Sea Salt and Other Spices

I've noticed America has an obsession with salt.  I have to admit, I used to be the same way.  There was a time when french fries had to have so much salt that I couldn't taste the fries.  I guess that should say something about the fries.  I always wanted the saltiest chips, the saltiest everything.  I'm starting to notice that the American culture is filled with salt addiction.

When I look at Americans in restaurants I notice salt being poured on meals everywhere.  It's the same, mostly bland table salt.  Every food seems to get the salt treatment.  Nothing from burgers to pasta is too good for salt.  I'm sure many a fine chef would be heartbroken to see their dishes ruined by a patron dousing it with salt.

Salt has become an unhealthy answer to our inability to know how to spice a dish properly.  Very few people actually know how to use spices.  I don't really blame Americans for being bad cooks.  In many cases it's not their fault.  No one ever taught them how to cook, so how can they be expected to know how to properly spice.  Sometimes recipes seem too bland and tasteless if you work from the book.  If you aren't familiar with cooking, it's hard to figure out how to spice something right.

One of the things that helped me learn how to get away from salt was a guessing game with spices.  I used trial and error a little at a time.  Pepper is a miracle replacement for salt.  I quickly found that I didn't need salt in my cooking at all.  It was just used to taste by the people eating it and even then I didn't often find anyone using it.  The salt wasn't kept out and easy where people were dining.  I've found far fewer people grab for the salt when it's not out and easy to access.  When you have to ask for something, you're less likely to use it.

Another thing that drastically reduced my salt consumption was the use of sea salt.  Sea salt is so much more flavorful than regular table salt.  As a result, so much less is needed on any dish, which is far healthier.  I have to say, it's certainly helped reduce my salt consumption.

Perhaps that's a direction we need to start going in this country.  We need to push away from salt on everything and instead focus on good food and learning how to really cook.  Foods would taste better and we'd be happier and healthier!

Happiness Is a Houseplant

Most of my friend's houses are pretty barren.  They've got furnishings, sure.  They may have toys for their kids, pets, video games.  They've got plenty of noise with televisions or radios playing.  The homes have a lot of stuff, and sometimes even a lot of life, but they're still barren.  They're still kind of, well, lacking.

When I was a kid we used to spend a lot of time outdoors whenever we could.  In the winter it was much more challenging, but come spring there were plenty of things to do outside.  My mother helped us keep our own garden.  She would clip roses for us off the rose bush climbing up our porch.  We would disappear into the forsythia bushes and pretend to be bunnies from Jim Henson's Bunny Picnic.  The summer would bring trips to the beach or the reservoir, summer camp, and bike rides.  The fall would bring camping trips with our Girl Scout troop at Camp Cedar Hill and tons of Halloween adventures.  As I got older just going for a walk was plenty of reason to go out and get fresh air.  The world was so vibrant, green, and bright.  It was truly beautiful.

When I was little I remember not having many house plants.  My mom would certainly try.  We'd get poinsettia nearly every Christmas, but they wouldn't survive for long after the season was over.  I never knew if it was simply because they weren't a long-lived plant or because they just weren't getting the right care.  At one point we went over to Christmas cactus, but they didn't fare well either.  They were forgotten and dried up.  I brought them back from near death three times, but eventually I just stopped trying.  I even remember an ivy plant that grew in a goose planter.  It was pretty small and the neck curled around to it's back where the plant was potted.  I think I remember my mom loving ivy, but even that didn't last long.  We seemed to have no luck with house plants.  I just figured it's because we were so much better with plants that lived outside.

When I got out on my own I tried a couple times to have houseplants.  For a while when I lived with my two male room mates and our small collection of cats in Sutton I had a small African violet plant that sat in the kitchen window.  I made sure to pick the most hopeless looking plant.  I told them it was because I was a miracle worker at bringing plants to life, but in truth it was because I was afraid it wouldn't last.  I would feel a lot less bad about killing a plant that was already dying than I would about killing a plant that was so vibrant and full of life.  I was pretty well a miracle worker for plants, much like my mother could be, but plants take dedication and care.  They need to be watered.  They're harder to care for than pets as far as I'm concerned because pets come and bother you when they're in need, but plants never do.  They sit there and silently suffer until they wither and die.  It's just their way.  Many don't need constant and daily care either, so they are that much easier to forget about.  My little violet thrived for quite some time, but it was the move out of that place that killed it.

A few years later, after the birth of my daughter, we got another African violet that also lived in our kitchen.  We lived in a beautiful, sunny third story apartment in Cambridge.  I didn't pick it out.  My fiancee at the time had decided it would be the perfect housewarming gift for us.  Our room mate didn't much care for the plant, but I adored it.  It was the perfect addition to our little home.  Unfortunately, that room mate brought with him a plague of bed bugs, so we had to leave, leaving much of our prized possessions behind.  As much as I didn't think the bugs would infest my house plant, but it wouldn't have survived the house we were staying in while my husband went into the military.  African violets aren't terribly known for thriving in a house that's kept at a standard temperature of about fifty to sixty degrees.  I left the plant with my room mate who promised to care for it.

When we moved to Texas I tried several times to keep a house plant.  In our first home we had a couple of kalanchoe plants, but they didn't make it.  I picked up a couple more after our first move, but they suffered the same fate.  I know I could have thriving kalanchoe plants.  When I was in biotech in high school my kalanchoe plant and my African violet were my babies.  Those were the plants I used for my particular projects, growing plants in culture.  They all did very well until their final transfer into soil in which they got infected with mold.  I guess I didn't get enough of the agar off when I transplanted them.  I was beginning to think I just couldn't raise house plants.  Maybe, much like things seemed with my mom, I would be better to have an outdoor garden.

Recently I decided it was time to try again.  Much of the reason I didn't have successful houseplants in the past was all of the other distractions I had in my life.  How could I remember to water a plant every couple of days when I could barely see the house under all the clutter?  How could I properly care for a plant if I was so wrapped up in all the things I needed to get done?  Then again, I'd have a bad tendency to put my blinkers on and go.  I'd focus on what I needed to do and forget about everything else.  It meant my poor plants got overlooked in the bustle of it all.

Off I went to the local garden center of Walmart.  I know they don't sell the highest quality plants, but I was just looking for a cheap house plant.  I wasn't looking for something fancy, and they were having a lot of sales.  I was certain I could just run in, pick something up, and go about my day.  It was harder than I thought it would be.  I live in a fourplex that faces west.  There aren't many windows, which is sad because I love rooms with lots of light.  This presented a challenge because most of my favorite plants required full sun.  I finally decided I would just pick a plant to put outside on our front porch, that way I could have some flowers with some color, even if I couldn't find any good ones to put up in my house.  I found a nice partial sun plant for our west facing front porch, then went on to pick out some pansies for our living room and a hanging ivy plant for our dining room near the window.  Plans changed when we decided to get it a nicer planter, which was too big for our small ivy plant, so I splurged and got two more ivy plants to hang it over the bar top between our living room and dining room.  It was a wonderful choice as our ivy is perfectly placed there.  The finishing touch was a small "lucky bamboo" plant I stumbled upon while looking to pick up the second and third ivy plants for our planters.  I gave that to my partner because he's not very good with green things.  He doesn't have the dedication to care for a plant.

As I was looking at my ivy, I had seriously considered a different plant instead.  As I walked up on the spider plants I remembered my grandmother's kitchen.  They had spider plants hanging between all the windows.  I remember sitting in their kitchen with the sun streaming in, looking at the spider plant babies that were jumping down from the mother plant.  I thought they were the strangest looking plants ever.  I remembered the kids in the environmental class in my high school growing up spider plant babies hydroponically.  Spider plants hold fond memories for me.  They're almost as dear to me as African violets and kalanchoe.  The only reason I didn't go with a spider plant was the cost.  The ivy was cheaper.  Since then I've decided that we need to get two spider plants, one to hang on either side of the window in our dining room.

I'm now starting to understand the benefits of having plants in the house.  It's kind of nice to see something green and alive in the house.  The whole house, as much as it still looks like your average poor family's house in a neighborhood that isn't the best, looks a little less low class now.  The front porch has transformed from looking like somewhere we simply store our recycling with an old beat up outdoor love seat and a couple camp chairs.  It still doesn't look that classy, but it's a step up.  When our kitchen and dining room are clean the ivy and small bamboo make a world of difference.  Plants are known to be calming and are thought to lower blood pressure, which is also wonderful.  On top of that, they purify the air you breathe and provide more oxygen.  It may sound strange, but the house has seemed a whole lot less stuffy since we've introduced plant life into the house.

Now that I have a couple of plants, I'm starting to wonder if this is becoming a new addiction for me.  I have to admit, just the act of doing the rounds to check on all the plants is so incredibly calming.  We've had these plants for at least a couple of weeks now, and the whole process of caring for them has been wonderful.  I've already been thinking about putting plants up to frame our dining room window as well as our living room window.  I'm more excited about saving up for new plants in the house than nearly any other item of decor, such as curtains.  It's amazing how something as passed over as plants can make such a drastic change in mental perspective.

Going to other friend's houses I'm starting to notice that void.  When I see a house that doesn't have any plants it seems empty.  It seems like something is missing.  The whole house seems so much more dead and stale.  Yes, I've got house plants now and I'm never going back.

The Dread Journey: Hitting the Three Month Mark

After three months I'm really starting to understand this whole journey of dreads.  In the time I've had them I've almost had them come out on me twice now and they're not exactly doing what I expected them to do.  I've found some things about them that I love.  I've found some things that I hate.  It's been an experience.

Three months in I've found that I haven't lost any length.  I've barely got any dreading going on.  The roots are grown long and wild.  It's pretty obvious how much length I've gotten out of my dreads in the past couple of months.  You can see it in just how long my roots have gotten, but I'm not going to be bleaching my hair again any time soon.  The dye is slowly starting to fade out.  Before long my hair will be just a completely average shade of blond with an average shade of brown.  Would you believe I'm actually looking forward to that?  My how things have changed!  Just a few short months have made me into a different person, and the hair is just an extension of all of that.  It's also amazing how much my hair has grown.  It's only been three months!

I think I'm looking forward to the rest of this journey, but at the same time, I don't know.  A part of me has become very defeated by the whole thing.  I'm getting frustrated by the way it's all turning out.  It's not coming along as quickly as I hoped and the dreaded section is so incredibly short.  I guess I'd kind of hoped that my hair would have more length dreaded by now.  I had wanted them to progress so much faster.  I was always told shorter hair always locked up and started growing faster than someone with longer dreads.  I'm a little disappointed because so many people talk about how much their dreads shrink in the first year, but my dreads haven't shrunk at all.  They're the same length as my natural hair, and it all started the same length.  I was told my dreads would thicken up, but so far they're no thicker at all.  I was told they would start to get more solid, but again not a lot of change there.  I guess I was expecting things to be a lot different by now, but they're not, and it's not necessarily a bad thing.

So, here we go, one more month down!

Playing with the Kids!

Anyone who knows me can tell you how much I love my kids.  They're the highlight of my life.  As much as some days I say life would be easier without them, I wouldn't give them up for everything.  No matter how true that statement is, because life really is easier without kids, I couldn't imagine life without them!

Playing with your kids is a natural way to relieve stress and (in many cases) stay in shape.  It's so relaxing to chase them around.  Arts and crafts time is a wonderful way to kick back and do something fun.  Then there's all the laughs that kids provide. 

For many parents, kids are the reason they get up in the morning.  It's the reason they struggle through the most trying situations.  I know at least a few occasions where parents have avoiding doing something that could be risky because it wasn't worth it.  Their kids were worth far more than that.  It's amazing how much of an impact something as simple as family can make in a person's life.

Today I spent some time laughing with my kids.  They gave me tons of reasons to laugh today.  They said funny things.  They acted goofy.  I had a million reasons to smile.  I took some time to chase them around.  It was wonderful.  The whole world seems so much better now.  I think that's part of what keeps me going.

Sing, It's Good for the Soul

I decided to take a break from everything I was doing earlier.  The kids were the only ones home with me.  I wasn't doing much.  I was just knitting, not an unusual pastime for me.  It was actually a pretty normal at home and quiet kind of time.

Out of nowhere I felt an urge I haven't felt in a very long time.  I decided I was going to sing.  I started out with the opening song in Chess.  From there we moved on to Les Miserables and Phantom of the Opera.  I stumbled over some of the lines here and there and had to all out quit singing some songs because I couldn't remember anything but the first couple of verses.

I don't really know when I stopped singing, or why.  I used to sing all the time.  I would sing while walking home from my aunt's house when I was in high school, belting out Broadway tunes as I went.  I would sing quietly in my room.  It was like I never stopped singing, and then suddenly I did.  Music became an annoyance to me and I couldn't tolerate my own voice.

Singing again was wonderful.  I almost didn't want to stop, but it was distracting my daughter from reading like she was supposed to do.  My son thought it was pretty funny and called me "the singing lady".  My youngest just laughed.  It was nice.  I wish I could just open up like that and sing any time I felt like it, but I'm really self-conscious of my voice.

Sometimes you really just need to open up and let your voice go.  I don't think I've found anyone who doesn't like singing.  Most people will only sing to the radio when they're alone.  A handful of people have the guts to sing wherever they happen to be.  It's good for the soul!  Everyone should do it!

Self-Image

I've been thinking a lot about image lately.  Isn't image kind of a part of mental health?  When you look good, you feel good.  That's something we all need to consider.

I've come under criticism in the past about caring too much about my self-image.  I don't exactly put a lot of time into my appearance.  As much as I was told dreads would be a whole lot more work, I've found that it's turned into a massive time-saver!  I wish I'd done this years ago!  I don't spend time on make-up every day.  I make a bit of an effort on what I wear and I don't have a problem spending money on having nice clothes.  I'm not like some women out there that spend a good deal of time on their image every day, but it seems like there's this unwritten law that moms can't spend time on their appearance until their children are older.  I just don't get that.

One of the major things I've noticed is when I look good, I feel good.  When I feel good, I'm a better mom to my kids, a better friend to have around, and a better partner to whatever relationship I've got going at the time.  When I'm happy, the world around me is impacted in a positive way.  Shouldn't that alone be a reason to take a little extra time and money for my appearance?  And it's really not that much time at all.  It would be a bath once a month (because sometimes showers just don't cut it!), wearing nice clothes, or at least clothes that I like, and spending all of a couple minutes putting my hair up in the morning in some way that looks cute.

So, why do this?  I'm kind of stuck looking in the mirror several times each day.  Every time I go into the master bathroom, the bathroom I actually go out of my way to use, I see the mirror right as I walk in the door.  Public restrooms often have mirrors that can't easily be avoided as well.  It means several times each day I catch my own reflection.  That's not even counting the dark shadowed figure I see reflected in the monitor of my laptop, my phone, and on occasion the television.  Each of those moments can be a moment of knowing I look good, or looking at myself and thinking, "Wow, I've really let myself go."  It really does change your perspective, even if you don't care much about your appearance.

The same goes for what I'm wearing each day.  When you put clothing on you know you're going to see it all day long.  Comfort is a must, of course.  When you're comfortable you feel good too!  However, looking at yourself in sweats and a beat-up t-shirt doesn't exactly inspire a feeling of greatness.  Maybe that's why I've always leaned away from sweat pants and always go for cute and fashionable t-shirts.  I just can't stand the idea that maybe I'm starting to let go of caring a little too much.

Then there's the external half of it.  It feels really nice to get a compliment on your outfit at the supermarket.  I've gotten more compliments on my hair with the wool dreads than I can count.  While I've gotten significantly less without the woolies, I still get a lot of positive feedback.  On top of that, regardless of gender people who look nice tend to get more of a positive reaction from strangers wherever they go.  When I take the time to look nice before going out I get more smiles from strangers, and those smiles are infectious!

Wouldn't it be wonderful if the next plague of man was the smile?  It would certainly mean that people feel better wherever they go.  Grocery shopping wouldn't seem like such a hassle.  Running errands wouldn't seem like such a chore.  Then they'd take that energy home and share it with their families and the plague would continue, infecting one after the other.  It could so easily come from something as simple as taking the time to dress in a way that makes you smile or do your hair up in that cute way that you love so much.

I think that's also a vital point that most people forget.  It's not about what other people like, it's about what I like.  When I put my dreads up in too cute little pigtails, it's practical because my hair is up and out of my way, and I look at it and think, "That's such a cute hair style!"  Other people might look at me and think I'm too old for pigtails.  Someone else might look at them and think the "typical male response" of handle bars.  Others might look at it and think how much they really hate that hair style for whatever reason.  None of that matters.  All that matters is that I think it's cute.  The same goes for my style of dress.  The same goes for makeup, or in my case a lack of makeup more often than not.  When I look good, I feel good.  When I feel good, I view the world differently.  When I see the world differently, I treat the people and things in that world differently.  It's a cascade effect that comes from nothing more than being myself.

This is something I've decided I need to put more thought into.  I need to start creating a self-image that makes me smile.  I need to start dressing the way I enjoy dressing.  I need to wear my hair the way I like it.  I need to carry myself in the way I choose.  After all, I can't worry about other people taking me seriously.  If I take myself seriously other people will see past what's on the outside and take me seriously too.

You know, I think that's a lot of the problem with people in alternative communities not being taken seriously.  When you walk into a job interview with piercings, funky colored hair, and gobs of black eyeliner topped with the attitude of superiority or the underlying thought that they won't hire you because of the way you look, well, guess what?  They're not going to hire you.  All they see is a rebellious troublemaker that's going to give them problems.  However, I've seen a woman walk into an interview at a very professional office with black and purple hair, over-the top black eyeliner and matching lip stick, long acrylic nails painted black, dressed in a black suit that wasn't exactly the most business looking in cut, with piercings up her ears, in her nose and eyebrow, big crazy rings (though admittedly smaller than I've seen her wear), and a big Gothic cross necklace and still walk away with the job.  Why?  She conducted herself in a professional, serious, and friendly way during the interview.  She wasn't changing who she was or acting in any way different.  She just went in there with confidence and showed a genuine portrayal of herself.  She was requested to tone down the look a little for work, but she still got the job.  If she had gone in there with a bad attitude trying to keep the goth image rather than just be herself as a woman trying to get a job, I doubt they would have hired her at all!

Of course, in some areas of the world it's not that easy if you stand out.  There's a lot of places that aren't accepting of piercings, tattoos, and crazy hair here in Texas, but not all of it is that much of a challenge, and companies are growing more and more accepting of self-expression by the day.  On top of that, if you don't make a big deal out of things, people are more likely not to notice.  For example, I had a friend who knew me for six months and when I got the second hole in my lip he thought they were both new!  I think he might not have even noticed if I hadn't pointed it out.  I can't count the number of people who don't realize I wear two gauge earrings in my ears.  I think most people would easily forget about the dreads too, were the colors not so shocking and bright.  Even if they did, it's something easy to tone down the appearance of with creative use of a scarf or wearing a pretty beret.  It's all a matter of what you make of it.

I've thought about this a lot on the whole image for a profession thing too.  A friend of mine was saying she didn't feel like she looked like an artist.  There are times I feel like I don't look like a belly dancer.  I know there have been people who haven't taken me seriously as a mom because I don't look like a mom.  I've heard friends complain that their job doesn't take them seriously because they don't look like tech support, IT, an accountant, you name it.  They feel like they have to adopt some expected look to fit in and succeed.  Unfortunately, by doing that you not only are promoting stereotypes, but you're also not being true to yourself!  Perhaps the reason these people (myself included) aren't taken seriously has more to do with taking themselves seriously.  It's about living the life, living the dream.  If you don't feel like other people will take you seriously as a corporate executive because you have a tattoo or an unconventional piercing, they're certainly not going to!  In my case, if I feel like people won't take me seriously as a belly dancer because I've got piercings, tattoos, dreads, and funky colored hair, they're not going to!  If I feel like I'm not going to be taken seriously as a mom because I don't wear mom jeans, t-shirts, have piercings, a tattoo, and crazy funky colored hair, people aren't going to take me seriously!

Suddenly the world has changed.  I've started owning who I am, funky hair and all.  I don't pay attention to it when I go out.  I don't even notice my piercings to the point where I got the deer in the headlights look when someone asked me why I decided to get my nose pierced "on the wrong side" because I couldn't even remember why I'd done it, and didn't even put much consideration to it.  People don't treat me like I have funky colored hair when I'm not calling attention to it myself.  The way I dress doesn't really catch much attention these days either, which is great because I can be comfortable and dress the way I love without having to worry how I'll be treated for it.  When I'm me for the sake of being me without a care in the world or putting any mental focus on how other people will view me, they treat me as though I'm no different than anyone else.  I'm just your average person, with a few quirky beliefs about life and a slightly more eccentric appearance than most.

Self-image is something I think we all need to focus on, not because we need to conform to some standard of society, but because we all need to accept our own beauty.  We need to create an image of ourselves that we love, something that inspires us, something that makes us happy.  It's time we all started caring about our self-image without worry about what society will think of us.  We're all beautiful people.  It's time we let our own inner beauty shine through.

Soaking It All In

Yesterday I decided to start a new cleaning regimen with my dreads.  I'd been doing the bicarb for a while now.  I stopped using the ACV because it was making my hair too silky so it didn't want to stay dreaded.  The bicarb made my hair feel kind of gross, but it wasn't too bad, and I knew the ACV would be back as soon as my hair was securely dreaded and wouldn't come out terribly easily.  Who knew something so acidic would turn out to be so conditioning?  If some day I decide not to have dreads I think I'm going to stick with this style of washing as well.  It's made my hair feel absolutely fantastic!

Since I've had my dreads in for about a two and a half months now I decided it was time for a deep clean.  Most of the research I've done on dreads seems to show there are really two methods of dreading hair.  One is done with products and additives.  The biggest component seems to be wax.  My friend over at Otherwise Quite Good has taken this approach.  She recently got a dread maintenance done and her dreads look fantastic!  I've known some people to say taking a crochet hook to your dreads now and again is an awesome way to keep them neat and pull in all those loose ends.  There are some who use a peppermint spray on their hair, though I'm not sure what that's supposed to do.  I've seen mixed reviews on all of these things, though it seems the dread forums I frequent shy away from wax more than anything else, though I've never been able to get a solid reason as to why aside from being able to trap water and dirt and being really messy if you decide to comb them out.

On the forums I've been on have seemed to be filled with people who go for completely natural dreads.  Many of them suggest letting your hair naturally start to dread and then separate it or let it go naturally.  I'm not quite that bold on the natural dreading.  For me it sounds like it would be too chaotic.  Instead I've kind of given them a push.  Besides, I wanted very fine dreads, not massive ones.  The big dreads are gorgeous on some people, but I'm such a delicate looking person that I think they'd look like too much on me.  It seems like the more time I spend on dread forums the more of a push there is to go naturally.  It seems like there are a number of people who don't even crochet their dreads or do any other kind of maintenance because many of those styles can create weak points in the dread.  Given my hair is already very fine to begin with and my dreads are pretty thin, I don't want to take any risks.  I'm just going to let them do their own thing.  I don't even palm roll, though a large part of that is because they're so incredibly short.  There isn't much hair that's actually dreaded to be rolled round anyway, and I'm starting to find that I like the small loops that are developing.  I'm liking the funky flattened dreads (which I hear will naturally round out as they tighten up).  I'm just in love with letting them go and do their own thing!  Given most of my research has said the best way to get your hair to dread and fast is to leave it alone for the first six months or so, not even doing any maintenance at all, that's what I'm doing.  I might consider other options if my hair was longer, but I honestly think I'm glad I've found the sites I did before I started.  My dreads may not look as neat and manicured as my friend, the Artsy Eclectic, but it feels very me.  Better still, my dreads are making the journey their own way, which I've heard is interesting with short hair.

Anyhow, I was going to talk about my deep cleaning and new hair care system!  I got completely sidetracked.  The suggestion I'd gotten was to throw a "packet" of bicarb into the tub, then fill the bath.  Given we don't have packets here, I was left to try and do a few conversions on the measurement she gave me.  It turns out she used a little over a cup of baking soda.  She said her hair was really long, so that's why she needed so much, but diluted in the bath it's all about the same.  I threw about that much in the tub, filled it up, and hopped on in.  It seems like it would be a lot more comfortable than sticking my head in a bucket for a half an hour!  I just sank back into the tub and soaked!  I added some good music, a couple candles for mood lighting, and set up about three teaspoons of apple cider vinegar diluted in about a gallon of water sitting on the toilet, waiting for use.  It was a half hour of relaxation, though the music was muffled by the water in my ears.  The water didn't turn out near as dirty as I expected, which is kind of nice.  I guess that means I'm doing a better job cleaning my dreads than I thought!  Either that or they're just not getting that dirty.

Once the half hour soak was done I just dumped the apple cider vinegar mix in with the rest of the bath water.  Last minute I was having some fears about the ACV making my hair too soft again, so I thought this would help.  I dipped my head back into the spot it had all been dumped and shook my hair around a bit.  Then I started to drain the water and used some clean water to rinse it all out of my hair.  Given the advice I'd gotten on some of the dread forums, I'd decided to pour it over my head with a cup instead of actually showering.  It seems that way is less risky for the hair wanting to come undone.  Again, I'm a bit paranoid with my short hair.  I think it would be a lot easier to dread if my hair was longer.

After my hair was clean I stepped out of the tub and dried off.  My skin felt so incredibly soft!  It seems like that bicarb bath did wonderful things for the rest of my body too!  I've decided I need to do that every month!  It's both good for my hair and good for my body!

Following some more advice from the dread forum, once my hair was clean and dry I took a spray bottle and filled it with a mix of water and sea salt.  I prefer the non-iodized stuff, but I suppose it doesn't really matter.  I sprayed it in my hair and now I smell like ocean water!  By that I mean salt water, not all the smell of fish and other sea creatures the ocean comes with.  It's making me a little homesick, but my hair actually feels like my hair is a little drier and likely to dread up this way.  My hair also didn't loosen up the way I expected it to.  It's starting to come along pretty well.

Finishing off, once my hair was completely dry again I decided I wanted to smell extra nice.  I put some nag champa oil in my hair.  You could use any oil, really.  I used to do this by getting the oil on my fingertips and running it through my hair, but that doesn't work so well now that my hair is dreaded.  I just dabbed it on the palm of my hand, rubbed my hands together, and rubbed it in my hair.  It's nice because the scent becomes pretty subtle after the initial application and as my hair moves I notice the scent gets slightly stronger and weaker.  While it would probably make a bigger difference if I played with my hair more, it's still nice.  Right now I'm just trying to touch my hair as little as possible so I don't interfere with the dreading process.  It's just nice to have that subtle scent.  It feels nice to smell nice!

I have to say, I'm really glad for the dread forums I have.  They've been wonderful.  It's been such a source of advice and ideas.  This is definitely more of a journey than I thought it would be, but I'm excited!  I can't wait to see where it all ends up!

My Wild Side

I've found my wild side again! It's whay gets me dancing with my kids until I'm too tired to go on. It's had me singing along to music I haven't heard since high school. Now I've got my feet up on the back of the chair while I use the arm as a head rest, something else I haven't done since high school. Can you see the trend forming?

I swear, this isn't a bad thing. I'm not trying to reclaim my youth. I'm starting to feel more like myself. I've always been a casual unconventional kind of girl. I'm starting to reclaim that. I'm starying to embrace that wild side that just wants to be chaotic, un predictablr, and full of fun.

Yeah, spring is here and my whole person is embracing it. It's wonderful! I've missed this side of me!