Author Archives: LA Blogger Gal

Uh Oh, I Just Spent $100 on New Lipsticks

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lipstick
Yes, you read that right…$100 on new lipsticks (plural, more than one).

As you may or may not have heard (if you follow me on Twitter you’ll likely have heard), I just found out last week that my favorite, go to lipstick has been discontinued.  I’ve always heard about those ladies that freak out when their favorite whatever gets discontinued, but I’ve always been one to freak as I’ve found .  Up until now, that is.

This loss is about ready to do me in.  My favorite color, Clinique‘s Almost Lipstick, in Black Plum is the perfect shade for me.  It doesn’t scream “I’m wearing lipstick” instead it’s a totally, naturally flattering color. It’s also an almost lipstick, so it’s more sheer than a regular lipstick, but not as goopy or shiny as a gloss with the right about of last to it.  Perfection, I tell you, perfection.

Of course, they discontinued it because according to them, Black Honey flatters everyone so there’s no longer any need to carry any other color.  So not true and companies need to stop thinking that one color can flatter everyone.  I can’t wear Nars‘ Orgasim and I can’t wear Clinque’s Black Honey no matter how many makeup aficionados, counter girls, or magazines might try to convince me.  Put it on and you’ll see, they do nothing for me and just look garish.

But I digress.

So, I was able to call the Estee Lauder Lost But Not Forgotten line to see if they can track down some of my magical lipsticks, but until then, I figured I had to do something.  First up, I head to Ulta to see what they had…not much, but I did see a Stila lipstick line I was interested so I placed an order with Sephora.com.  Of course, I wanted the darker, more plumier of the two, but I guess that one was no longer available.

I ended up with Anna.  It’s a nice enough color, though it really could use a tad more plum.  It’s a little sheer, though the consistency is more of a lipstick than a sheer.  The staying power is pretty good though.

Next up, I head over to the Bobbie Brown counter as I hear that they have a new line of sheers.  Yeah, in a whopping four colors only!  Total disappointment.  Then again, I forgot just how subtle their palette tends to be, so they really didn’t have anything anyway.

From there I wander over to MAC.  I stopped using MAC as a whole a few years ago when 1) the salespeople were so obnoxious that I could never get anyone to wait on me and 2) I realized the foundation that I  loved so much because it covered my zits was in fact, causing more zits.  The saleslady today was actually quite helpful.  Turns out they do have a sheer line as well, but nothing in my color range – what’s with all these unnaturally pale colors?  We did find a Lustre in Desire that looks workable.  I picked it up along with my a backup of my favorite kohl eyeliner in Teddy.

Lastly, I headed over to Sephora and decided to play around a bit.  I needed to pick up a new Boscia Jujube Salve Stick anyway and hoped that I might be able to snag one for their goody bags that I missed out on with my mailorder.  While they were of course, out of the goody bags, the sales gal did hook me up with some samples, so that was nice.  And in the process, I think I just might have found my new sheer lip color.

Drumroll please….

Dior Addict High Shine in Front Row Fig!  It’s a great, barely there color that I can apply without a mirror.  It’s moisturizing and has a bit of a shine, but it isn’t goopy.  I think it just might be The One. Of course, I’m still holding out for those three backup sticks I ordered from Lost But Not Forgotten.  But this could truly be their replacement if need be.

Ladies, I gotta ask…how do you do it?  How do you survive when your favorite color (of anything) just disappears like that?

It’s expensive work.  And of course, the hubs and I just put all our credit cards and accounts online through Mint.com (a very cool site), and now every time a purchase is made (and in particular if you go over budget) it shoots out an email or text.  He’s now going to KNOW that I just spent $100 in lipsticks!!!! And another $45 in yoga pants at Old Navy. 😐 I guess the good news is that I can return whatever doesn’t work.

Photo: AuntieP on Flickr

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I’ve Been Tagged: Seven Things

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I was tagged by EmmaJames over at Pleasure Notes some time last week to participate in the Seven Things Meme and figured it was about time I get on it.  I’ll admit that I don’t usually participate in memes.  But for some reason, maybe because blog readership is always in flux, I love these “let me tell you something you didn’t know about me” sort of memes.  So I figured I’d give it a go, but don’t hold out for secrets, this will be more of “hey, didja know…” sort of thing.

Plus, EmmaJames is a new Twitter friend (and she’s got an amazing writing voice) so I thought it would be neighborly and all that 😉

Here’s the Deal: Seven Things Meme and “rules”:

  • Link to your original tagger(s) and list these rules in your post.
  • Share seven facts about yourself in the post.
  • Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
  • Let them know they’ve been tagged.

I’m never really sure where to start, so um, in no particular order, here we go…

1.  My mom died when I was about 5 or 6 – To be honest, I don’t really remember much of my childhood up until high school or so and I think a lot of that was because of my mom’s passing (then my grandfather’s, then my great grandmother’s then my grand aunt’s passings).  There were times when I was middle school or so that I missed her immensely, but to be honest, she never even entered my mind when I got married.  On the other hand, I missed my paternal grandmother who basically raised my brother and I something fierce on my wedding day (and many other days in between, like my graduations).  I rarely talk about her and I’ve never played the “dead mom” card to get attention of any sort.  I did bring it up once when my students (I taught 4th grade, inner city kids) were playing their own pity cards just to prove that it really doesn’t matter what your past or your present life is like…what matters is what you choose to do with what you’ve been handed.

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2. I’m quite intuitive (and not afraid to use it!) – I’ve earning money as a psychic since I was about 15 or so.  I remember finding my mom’s old “psychic science” books when I was about 8 or so and reading them.  To this day I still swear I’ll be able to close doors with just a thought – LOL.  My grandmother always said it ran in her side of the family and considering we’re Hungarian Gypsy stock, I’m not surprised.  Each time to I go back to Albuquerque to visit my best friend, I also do readings at my other friends’ store for the weekend – I love it!  The energy is amazing, like nothing you’ve ever experienced.  I’ve even worked on a psychic phone line for the longest 6 hours of my life (it was such a horrible experience, I never even took the money I earned that day – talk about people preying on the weak).

I’m basically clairsentient which means I get my information or “messages” just by “knowing,” sort of like having something just pop into your head.  I’ve always known things before they happen: family weddings, deaths in the family, troubling work situations, when friends or family where in need, etc.  I’ve been woken up out of a dead slumber to have “messages” related to me (once in Spanish – passing that one on was a little challenging to say the least).  It’s also why I don’t wonder too much about my “weird dreams” – I know that more often than not, it’s a message that I just didn’t receive clearly. I don’t do readings all that much any more, but I still trust my intuition.  Funny enough, my intuitiveness is the reason that I went onto get my Masters in counseling.  I wanted to be able to follow those hunches and relate the messages I received to help others to move on with their lives without it seeming odd or un-natural.

3. I am a former telephone actress – Seriously.  I’ve always been told that I have a great phone voice (same thing when I was a DJ back in college).  When I was in grad school, I hit a real financial low point.  I owed money left and right while waiting for my financial aid money to come in (later than late).  I figured that the quickest and easiest way to earn money, outside of waitressing (or stripping…yeah, so not me! or doing something illegal) was to do phone sex.  I researched it, got the gig and paid off about $5000 of debt in three months.  I quit when I started taking on more clients in my internship and actually needed to sleep through my nights.  What a shame too, since by that time I had a couple regulars.  Easiest job I’ve EVER had.

4.  I’ve lived in four states – each time moving further west – I like to joke that it means that I’ll soon have a house in Hawaii.  Granted, four states might not be much, but we didn’t move around as a kid.  I did all my moving as an adult.  I’ve actually lived in nine cities/towns in less than 12 years.  That’s not insane, but it’s still a bit much if you ask me.

5.  I salt all Mexican food without first tasting it – This drives my Mexican-American husband nuts.  The plates arrive at the table and without fail, I reach for the salt shaker and shake.  Then I taste (and rarely need to add more).  Every once and a while, when dining out with said hubs, I’ll remember to taste it first, but without fail, it always needs salt.  Otherwise, I don’t salt my food except for eggs, homemade chicken noodle soup and potatoes…but I always taste before salting.

6.  Peppermint makes me sneeze – I will, rarely, if ever take a mint that’s offered to me.  In particular, I won’t take them after eating at a restaurant.  Without fail, when I do take one, I will sneeze.  You can set your clock by it.  Interestingly, winter green mints rarely make me sneeze, so those are the only mints I will eat.

7.  I don’t chew gum – When I was younger, I had braces.  So like many of us, I can remember chewing gum only to have it get stuck in my braces.  At some point, after they came off, I startetd having weird dreams where I’d be chewing gum and it would get caught on my tooth.  Then, as I would pull the gum away, the tooth would always come with it.  These dreams are so vivid and occur so frequently, that I just don’t chew gum any more.  Odd, I know, but I’ve avoided gum for so long that I don’t even question it any more.  And hey, it must be working since I still have all but one of my teeth (and I only lost that one because an impacted wisdom tooth messed it up).

Man, this was more difficult that I thought it would be.  Don’t worry, you won’t be tagged.  If you do feel like playing along then just feel free to jump on in and participate. Just remember to link back so that we all know you’ve done it.  And well, it is fun and all the cool kids are doing it 😉

What It Can Be Like to Admin a Community Forum

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Incandescent light bulb
Image via Wikipedia

A friend sent this to me and well, it’s so spot on, I just had to share.  If you’ve ever participated in a forum about anything, this is how the drama (and I do mean DRAMA) unfolds…

How Many People Does it Take to Change a Lightbulb in a Community Forum?

1 to change the light bulb and to post that the light bulb has been changed

14 to share similar experiences of changing light bulbs and how the light bulb could have been changed differently

1 to move it to the Lighting section after 2 have argued to move it to the Electricals section

7 to point out spelling/grammar errors in posts about changing light bulbs

5 to flame the spell checkers

6 to argue over whether it’s “lightbulb” or “light bulb” … another 6 to condemn those 6 as stupid

2 industry professionals to inform the group that the proper term is “lamp”

15 know-it-alls who claim they were in the industry, and that “light bulb” is perfectly correct

19 to post that this forum is not about light bulbs and to please take this discussion to a lightbulb forum

11 to defend the posting to this forum saying that we all use light bulbs and therefore the posts are relevant to this forum

36 to debate which method of changing light bulbs is superior, where to buy the best light bulbs, what supermarkets are offering discounts on brands of light bulbs, and what customer service they expect in a lightbulb shop

4 to say that they’ve been disappointed in Lightbulb Live for the last 4 years

12 to ask why those 4 keep going to Lightbulb Live only to complain about it

1 to break the news about the new limited release light bulb

1 to post that the news was already broken in another thread and start a poll about reading entire threads

12 to post that they shouldn’t mention limited releases because someone might buy them to resell
1 to insist he has every right to buy and sell lightbulbs

1 to obsessively insist that no-one should make profit from lightbulbs on this forum

5 to post that they’ve collected 11 of the limited edition lightbulbs already so might as well get the whole set.

32 to not bother posting because there’s no post count showing anymore

8 to say that their electric company sent them 4 free lightbulbs, when quite clearly they would have preferred the moon on a stick.

6 to post thinly veiled criticisms of forum staff’s management of lightbulbs

15 to post that forum staff can do exactly as they want with their own lightbulbs

6 to pretend they were just asking innocent questions about lightbulb management and didn’t do anything wrong

1 to ask that forum staff backup all mention of lightbulbs so they can write a book about their really interesting life with lightbulbs

11 to reply that it’s not a personal lightbulb anecdote storage facility

7 to post URL’s where one can see examples of different light bulbs

4 to post that the URL’s were posted incorrectly and then post the corrected URL’s

13 to link all posts to date, quote them in their entirety including pictures, and add “Me too”

5 to post to the group that they will no longer post because they cannot handle the light bulb controversy

4 to say “didn’t we go through this already a short time ago?”

13 to say “do a Google search on light bulbs before posting questions about light bulbs”

1 forum lurker to respond to the original post 6 months from now and start it all over again.

These are my favorite two:

6 to pretend they were just asking innocent questions about lightbulb management and didn’t do anything wrong

and

1 forum lurker to respond to the original post 6 months from now and start it all over again.

So do I miss running a forum?  You just read the list…what do you think?

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We Have a Winner…

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and the winner is...

Congratulations Life’saMama!! You’re the winner of the Ultimate Pepsi Super Bowl Party Pack.  I’ve sent you an email. The sooner I receive your contact info, the sooner I can pass it along to the Pepsi Folks.  And then the sooner you can start your Super Bowl party! 😉

Thanks so much to everyone for stopping by and playing along.  As I’m not much of a sports fan, I still loved reading about the highs and lows of everyone’s favorite teams.

Stuff Like This Totally Makes Me Cry

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I’m often moved by the plight of homelessness. More often than not though, I’m not really prompted to DO something. I give on the freeway off ramps when I can – water, money, food. I always smile to let the folks know that they’re not invisible. I donate our food to local foodbanks (which reminds me that I really should go through our cupboards already).

But whenever I see an indigent person with a dog, it just breaks my heart. So much so that I’ve gotten in the habit of keeping dog food samples (from my local pet shop) in the glove box so that I can hand them out. This picture, and the caption, just brings me to tears.

funny dog pictures

Excuse me, I must go love my boys and feed them a couple of cookies right now.

All This For $3.00!!!

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Seriously. Everything you see cost only $3.26. This same stash would cost about $15 or $20 at my local farmer’s market.

Those bananas there…$1.07! That head of romaine…only $.69! Romaine cost me about $1.50 at the farmer’s market (usually for a smaller bunch) and $1.99 or so at the grocery store. That orange pepper…usually $3 or so a pound (why orange cost more than red or green I just don’t know). I paid $.79!

The only drawback is that it’s not organic, whereas nearly everything at the farmer’s market is. But to be honest, I rarely buy organic fruits & veggies at the grocery store because it never looks this good.

Looks like I found a new place to buy my groceries. And don’t worry, I’m still only buying what’s in season and grown here in the US. Next time though, I’m picking up a jar of that dark chocolate peanut butter that just sounds insanely good!

I’d Lose My Head If it Wasn’t Attached

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Man, it’s been a rough couple of weeks.  I seem to be losing things left and right.  There’s the stuff that seems to be lost in theory, the stuff that just seems to be misplaced and I’m certain will show up shortly,  and the stuff that seems to be missing outright.

Let’s start with what is missing in theory…first we have my favorite lipstick that’s been discontinued.  It seems to be missing from any stores, any websites and can only be found easily on eBay for – twice the price of course.  That will work out though thanks to the Gone But Not Forgotten program that Estee Lauder supports.I should either have 1-3 new lipsticks in hand within the next three weeks or I’ll be S.O.L. with none to be had.  The good news is that this brings me to a great topic for an article for my site’s blog.

I also seem to have misplaced my birth control pills.  Odd, I know.  I use Seasonale, so I basically get three months worth of pills at once.  One morning I woke up and my package was on the floor (couldn’ve been post-quake, I don’t recall).  Thing is, I could only find the last page of pills.  I do believe that one page is missing.  I’ve checked all around and even under the outter areas of the fridge, but nothing.  I’ve already received my auto-refill on my thyroid meds, so if it was up for renewal, I’d have already received it.  I’m guessing that I’m going to have to pull out the fridge and deal with that ickiness in hopes of finding my next month’s page of pills or I’m just going to have to suck it up and start a new pack.  Can you report birth control pills as lost and ask for a replacement?

We also seem to have misplaced the new GPS unit.  Thing is, I don’t think it’s been misplaced (I’m pretty meticulous about where I put certain things and that unit had a place).  I think the guy that installed our new U-verse system swiped it.  It was right there, out in the open, just sitting next to the phone where he was working.  We noticed it was gone the following day when we were heading out to a place we’d not been to before. Now we can’t seem to find it anywhere (and trust me, I’ve looked everywhere).  And yes, he was left alone in the living room (my fault, I know) as I was often in the kitchen helping the landlord with my new stove.  So now we have to see if our Amex covers loss like it covers breakage.

Then there’s the most painful of all the seeming losses…while we were in Ireland, our business account got hacked and we had over $2500 worth of fraudulant cash advances taken out. Unfortunately, due to having had so much going since our arrival home, then the holidays, I didn’t catch it until just a couple of days ago…one day after the 60-day cut off to contest the fraudulent charges.  On top of that, our bank is going through a merger, so let’s be honest, they really could care less about us right about now.

We’re still contesting it, especially since we did call the bank to let them know we would be out of the country AND we called the fraud department when we returned (though it turns out that two different departments called a total of 10 or 12 times with identical messages and the person I spoke with only saw the personal stuff, not the business stuff).  I’m still keeping positive about the outcome.  I believe that if the money doesn’t come back from the bank itself, I have faith that the money will come to us another way.

All I can say is that with all this (seeming) misplaced and lost stuff, the Universe must be trying to get my attention about something.  I see a little meditation in my future later today.

So what about you, what have you lost or misplaced lately?  Anything you’re going nuts trying to find?