Eyebrow Shaping, Manicures, Pedicures and Professional Hair Services….
Well, these go right along with the shopping I shared about last week. This one is really about the pampering that I used to treat myself to on a regular basis.
As part of my regular upkeep I had bi-weekly appointments for my nails and toes…back then it was acrylics or gel nails and during those same appointments I would have my eyebrows shaped. Right before I had my son I stopped getting the acrylics (I was worried about poking or scratching him with the long nails, and I used to get them long) and converted to regular manicures and pedicures. I used to go bi-weekly for my hair services but then started going weekly.
Aside from having a great sense of self-care, the entire process was truly therapeutic. It felt good to sit back and have someone take good care of me. I knew that the people I entrusted my hair and body to were committed to their craft. I wasn’t going to get out of their chairs until they were completely satisfied with their work. This meant a lot to me because I knew they cared about how good I looked as much as I did, I was after all a walking advertisement for their work. And this isn’t about being conceited, but it’s about knowing that I was doing what made me happy in my efforts to exude a healthy outer appearance.
Probably one of my favorite aspects of these regular services, aside from the amazing hand, foot and head massages that normally came with the services, ahhhhh, were the relationships built over time. When you start seeing the same people for services over and over you begin to get to know each other and build a friendship that you come to appreciate. I remember my nail lady Susan and how she used to tell funny stories and jokes. My favorite hair stylist hands down was my best friend from high school, Camille.
Camille and I shared a lot together and as the years progressed after high school we weren’t as close as we once were. But I always looked forward to my appointments with her because there was usually good conversation, and of course, amazing hair. Camille is truly gifted when it comes to her ability to not just style your hair but take care of it and keep it healthy. I always loved my styles from her and I loved how healthy and strong my hair was. At the beginning of this post is a photo from back in the day after Camille had worked her magic before I stopped relaxing my hair, with freshly waxed brows to boot.
If you live in the Northern California Bay Area you should check her out. She owns her own salon called Mildred’s Place in Concord. I’m really proud of her and I miss Camille as much as I miss my regular pampering services.
So why have all of these services stopped? A couple of reasons. 1. Pretty much the same reason I don’t shop like I used to – we’re living on one salary. We’re not struggling by any means, but those luxury items add up quickly. So, when I can get around to it, I do my nails and toes myself. Perhaps I should schedule regular appointments with myself just as I used to schedule regular appointments in the salon?? 2. I stopped relaxing my hair back in 2006. So far everyplace we’ve lived I have not been able to find a stylist who specializes in naturally curly hair who can not only give a good cut, but style my hair according to its needs. I have tight, coily curls. They cannot be managed, manipulated and styled the same way as someone with with looser curls. I tried it once and while she gave me a good cut, I didn’t like how she styled my hair. So, I take full control of my hair care, and I do a pretty good job.
I’ve vowed to make 2010 a bigger, better, badder and bolder year for me and my family. Once I start making those things come to fruition, I’ll be back to my regular mani/pedi appointments. Since the hair issue is null and void for me, perhaps I’ll replace that luxury with regular facials or massages. I’m already off to a good start, I had my eyebrows shaped last week! Do something good for yourself this week, you deserve it!
In Celebration,
I hope your resolution will come to fruition and that your 2010 will be “bigger, better, badder, and bolder”! 🙂
Thank you Teresa. I hope the same for you as well!
Hello Mom Blogger,
Please consider joining this Facebook group:
MANY Jobs, GREAT for Children: America’s upcoming “jobs stimulus” should leverage America’s advantages to make America the Silicon Valley of customized education
The group URL: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=268637143538
Re: the potential benefits of joining:
A child’s brain “literally operates better, signals faster” when the child’s education is customized (source: Nutureshock — New Thinking About Children, a 2009 book that spent two months on the New York Times bestseller list).
From Nurtureshock:
“Motivation is experienced in the brain as the release of dopamine. It’s not released like other neurotransmitters, into the synapses, but rather it’s sort of spritzed onto large areas of the brain, which enhances the signaling of neurons.”
From Saving Schools, a forthcoming 2010 book by Harvard professor of government Paul E. Peterson:
“Cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham provides an explanation for the power of customized learning. “Working on problems that are the right level of difficulty is rewarding, but working on problems that are too easy or too difficult is unpleasant,” he notes.”
Children will benefit enormously, then, if America’s upcoming jobs stimulus centers on:
* subsidizing consumption of customized education (CE) by children and unemployed workers (e.g., via tax credits, vouchers)
* supporting producers of CE (e.g., via loan guarantees)
As you may know, any jobs plan that becomes law will have bipartisan appeal.
From the January 21, 2010 edition of the Wall Street Journal:
“Republican Scott Brown’s election to a Massachusetts Senate seat Tuesday means that Democrats will have to craft proposals for spurring job creation, new financial regulations and other priorities to win at least some Republican votes.”
Happily, recent history suggests that both Democrat and Republican politicians in Washington will be particularly enthusiastic about a jobs plan that features direct benefits for children.
From The Sandbox Investment — The Preschool Movement and Kids-First Politics, a 2007 book by David Kirp, a professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley:
“The Seventeenth Congressional District [in Texas]…is among the most lopsidedly Republican in the nation…But in the race for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives that same year [2004], a Democrat named Chet Edwards bucked long odds and won, running 37 percent ahead of the national ticket.
…Edwards’s opponent [was] Texas state legislator Arlene Wohlgemuth…The conservative establishment went all out to get her elected.
…What undid her were the cuts she’d inflicted on the budget of the Children’s Health Insurance Program, generally known as CHIP — 150,000 youngsters removed from the rolls, half a million denied any dental and eye care, all in the name of lean government. “Children were never my primary concern,” she said. It was a remark she grew to regret.
…According to the exit polls, 11 percent of the voters — enough to swing the election — said that Wohlgemuth’s record on children had made up their minds. A quarter of those who supported Edwards said they were thinking foremost of children.”
In addition to the Facebook group, I have created a website at OpportuniTV.com that I hope makes it easy to understand:
* why the CE industry can be expected to create an enormous number of jobs
* why America is ideally suited to become the Silicon Valley of CE
* how much the build-out of the CE industry can be expected to benefit children
The site adapts and expands on a business plan of mine which has been praised by analysts at Microsoft, Amazon.com and top venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson. In particular, the site shares much of the plan’s blueprint for establishing a popular online market for CE.
From the site:
“Stanford economist Paul Romer is the originator of New Growth Theory, which updates growth economics for the information age. From Romer’s entry on Economic Growth in the 2007 edition of The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics:
“The country that takes the lead in the twenty-first century will be the one that implements an innovation that more effectively supports the production of new ideas in the private sector.”
“Perhaps the most important ideas of all are…ideas about how to support the production and transmission of other ideas…North Americans invented the modern research university…As national markets for talent and education merge into unified global markets, opportunities for important policy innovation will surely emerge.”
From The Mystery of Economic Growth, a 2004 book by Harvard economist Elhanan Helpman:
“Interest in growth theory abruptly revived…in the 1980s. The two key papers were by Romer (1986) and Lucas (1988).
…Romer (1990) also initiated the second wave of research on the “new” growth theory.
…A more detailed study of the U.S. economy is provided by Jones (2002). He found that between 1950 and 1993 improvements in educational attainments, which amounted to an increase of four years of schooling on average, explain about 30 percent of growth of output per hour. The remaining 70 percent is attributable to the rise in the stock of ideas that was produced in the United States, France, West Germany, the United Kingdom, and Japan.”
From What Makes a Great Teacher?, an article in the January 2010 issue of The Atlantic:
“Teach for America [a nonprofit that recruits college graduates to spend two years teaching in low-income schools] has been…for more than a decade…tracking hundreds of thousands of kids, and analyzing why some teachers can move those kids three grade levels ahead in one year and others can’t.
…Those who have been accepted [as TFA teachers] will go to a Teach for America training institute. That’s when Steven Farr, the in-house professor, and his colleagues take over. For them, the challenge is not to pick the perfect teacher but to diagnose strengths and weaknesses early and provide intense, customized training to correct them.
…This year, D.C. public schools have begun using a new evaluation system for all faculty and staff, from teachers to custodians…Throughout the year, teachers will receive customized training. The handbook for the new system looks eerily similar to the Teach for America model, which is not a coincidence.”
As the membership of the Facebook group grows, I will work hard to alert bloggers, journalists and politicians.
So, again, I hope you will consider joining.
Please feel free, of course, to invite friends to join. 🙂
Please feel free also to contact me with any questions, suggestions, etc.
Best regards,
Frank Ruscica
Frank@OpportuniTV.com