"Just Do It" Day and I Just Did It All... January 24th

I feel like I am going to puke. I hate anticipation. I have been waiting for tonight's event for a long time, and I cannot decide if I am happy that it’s almost over, or if I just want to crawl into a hole and pretend that it isn’t happening. I went to bed at 1am. I woke up at 2a.m. thinking that it was almost time to get up. Again at 4a.m. That time I mostly just pretended to go back to sleep. I drifted in and out of awakedness until 5a.m. when I decided that I couldn’t handle being in bed any more and I got up.

I could have taken two different roads at this point… I should have gone down the road less taken, and gone out to my living room to do my Yoga video. That would have worked out my nervous energy, and it would have only taken 57 minutes. I didn’t. Instead, I got into the shower.

I was an hour ahead of schedule and so I felt that I had some pampering time. I decided to take advantage of the time and the Christmas presents from my grandmother: a facial, a moisturizing sea pack for hair, and salt scrub for the body. I gathered all the bottles and jars together and started my shower. It was 5:15 a.m. Plenty of time. I need to start drying my hair at 6:15 to be at work on time. How much time can it take to do a couple of extra things in the shower? I should have time and extra… and be to work early!

I begin sudsing myself down with my Ivory soap. The bar was beginning to show signs of decay, signs that I should possibly get my next bar ready, but it was not down to slivers or anything, so I was shocked, SHOCKED I tell you, when I dropped the bar and it shattered into pieces smaller than Cheerios. It is very difficult to wash with 15 Cheerio-sized soap pieces. I always thought that Ivory floated? So, I gave up on the soap, figuring that I still had the salt scrub to get to, and that should get me reasonably clean.

I wash and condition my hair, and mixed and applied the moisturizing sea pack for hair. The sea pack has salt, and it started to drip down my face and into my eyes. Yeow! Have to fix this! So, I get out and grab a small towel to wrap around my head while I am letting the pack do its magic.

I decide that if I am going to do the salt scrub, I want to do it over smoothly shaven legs. So, quickly I shave, because the water is getting a little bit less warm than I like it, and I know that I have a long way to go still. I apply the salt scrub, and DOUBLE YEOW! I did not read the warning on back of the jar that says not to apply to newly shaven skin. Salt + tiny nicks = pain. Still, I continue, because at this point, I must be completely beautiful, and I have come so far. Scrub, scrub, scrub. Whoops! Bam! Salt scrubs make the tub rather slippery. Thank goodness my head was wrapped in a towel. As it is I am a bit dazed by my fall. As I recover myself, I have images of how my-naked-but-salt-covered-body is discovered in the shower three days hence when my co-workers finally become annoyed with the fact that I am not showing up to work, or my neighbors become annoyed at the never-ending sound of water coming from my apartment.

I begin to ponder if starting my facial is a good idea, but, every other pore on my body has been scrubbed and tightened, I might as well do my face. So, I squeeze out the clay and spread it over my face, forgetting that I need to leave it on for 15 minutes, and I still need to rinse my hair, and the water is bordering on lukewarm. I don’t know how much longer I will have until all the warm is gone. Maybe it would be a good idea to check the time… Okay, 5:50: not too bad. I should just stop the water, and wrap myself in a towel. 5:57: shivering uncontrollably. Must get back into warm shower. No longer care about maximum benefits of facial mask. Too bad the water isn’t warm. Rinse, rinse, rinse. Wrap up in two towels. Crawl into bed.

6:20: Have stopped shivering enough to crawl out of bed and start blow drying hair with new pomade. Actually, it’s an old pomade, one which I haven’t used since my hair started growing out. Have visions of the pomade creating beautiful separated corkscrew curls. No, it just increased my blow-dry time by 10 minutes. 10 minutes!!! 7:00 finish with drying and hot rolling hair. Brush teeth. Do make-up.

7:15: take out hot rollers. Hmm. Those are some mega-curls on top of your head sweetheart, straight as a bone on the bottom part. Nice. A professionally styled mullet. When are you ever going to learn not to try out new hair routine on an important day! Didn’t the pipe-cleaner frizz incident (not the gentle waves promised by Seventeen magazine) at age 13 teach you a lesson? Finger comb hair; clip it back from face. Will figure out the rest later.

Put on clothes. Hmm, grey skirt, needs black nylons to match—so glad that I wasted time shaving my legs! Out the door at 7:25 a.m. Have to be at work at 7:30. I have 5 minutes to get 14.7 miles. Yeah. Very productive extra hour this morning. Lots to show for it. My hair looks stupid, and I am hiding my VERY silky legs under opaque hose.

Okay, after I got to work, I was able to fix the hair, and it has settled into a nice soft 1940-ish wave. I am happy with that. My skin does feel good from the salt scrub, and I feel like I still smell pretty, even now at lunch time. That is nice. I do have a nice bruise developing on my upper thigh to remind me of my morning. But, despite all, I feel put together enough that I can face my dreadful evening... at least until I get lost on my way there.