Things I’d Like Never To Run Out Of

 Instead of thinking about the things I need, as I do every time I put together a monthly shopping list, I wanted to switch it up. Of course, I can't actually do this for real, but I can dream.

This morning, while looking through my Amazon Wish List(s), I realized that it's not a very good list. Most of the things on it are Needs, not Wants. A more accurate list would look like this:

• 3 of my favorite hair products - Honey Hydrate, TGIN Miracle RepaiRX, and Silicon mix bamboo leave-in (my hair is lost without this stuff)
• Glossier's You compact solid perfume (because the spray has zero longevity).
• Olay's Skin Refreshing Serum Stick (best facial product ever)
• Huggies Nourish & Care Baby Wipes (best face cleaning product ever, ever, ever)
• Candle Science's Lemon Pound Cake fragrance oil (because I run through Walmart's Iced Lemon Sugar Cookie wax melts way too quickly)
• Yoga pants (even though I won't be caught dead doing yoga... the pants are life itself.)
• A good weighted blanket - one for winter and one for summer. (I've gotten to where I have trouble sleeping without mine but it's too hot for summer)
• Ninja Foodi (because it has replaced every other appliance I have except for the coffee pot)
• Those nail stickers that are so cute and lack the mess of wet polish. (I like the Diva nail brand but have to find something more affordable.)
• EOS lotion. (I get the Vanilla Cashmere for the fragrance but that lotion itself is, hands-down, the best I've ever used - including those 20-dollar special formulas!)
• A Rocketbook notebook and erasable pens. (My notebook and pens are lifesaving workarounds for my lousy memory)

I could add at least 10 more things, but they would all be various perfumes. 

Or more hair products.

I got into a comment discussion once on Reddit about things we can't live without. Everybody has their certain something that just makes their daily life better. One person said that they have to keep a large jar of Jolly Ranchers and Jelly Beans around. It's their go-to snack for when they have anxiety.  One person shared their version of retail therapy. They peruse their favorite shopping site for about an hour but then empty out their cart when they feel better. I wish I had that kind of willpower. I have an Amazon cart loaded right now worth around $200. All that stuff will go to my Save For Later basket.

My late best friend (a gangsta-level shopaholic) could afford any kind of food she wanted but the only thing she to always had to have in her house was fresh fruit. Fruit and tea. She had a pantry the size of my bedroom closet and it was completely filled with every kind of tea that you could think of. All that tea but she had to run out and buy a coffee pot for when I visited her...Weirdo! (RIP Barbie girl.)

I just realized that I don't have food or coffee on my list up there. A few years ago - or even just last year - coffee would have taken up at least 3 spots. 

In 10 years, I imagine my list will consist of things like Ben-Gay or Aspercreme. Who knows? Lord willing, I hope to live long enough to find out.

Peace

--Free

The Devil is STILL a Liar

Six years ago, I wrote a semi-humorous post about a saying I grew up hearing in church: "The Devil is a liar!"

This is the not so humorous sequel about what the Devil will and won't tell us.

He'll tell you that all money is good money because any money will spend.
He won't tell you that you can't spend money as well if you're dead or locked up.

He'll tell you that money can buy everything you need to look good, eat well, live high and mighty..
He won't tell you that the money that bought your clothes can't buy self-respect; that the money that lets you travel the world can't tell you where to find peace of mind. The money that makes people want to be around you can't buy you one true friend.

He'll tell you that we should try everything at least once. Life is, after all, for living to the fullest.
He won't remind you about the person who OD'd the first time they tried drugs, or got pregnant the first time they had sex with a stranger. He won't tell you that you can go to jail the first time you do something illegal. He won't tell you that the very first time you do something stupid you could end up with a life - your's or someone else's - changed for the worst. He won't tell you that living life to the fullest doesn't have to mean living life to the stupidest and most reckless. He won't tell you that you could end up brain dead, all dead or just wishing you were dead.

He'll tell you, when you are at your peak, that you can do it all, have it all and be it all.
He won't show you how to cope when you hit your lowest point and can't do, have or be anything that you once could.

He will tell you, when you are at your lowest, that no one loves you, needs you, or wants you.
He won't tell you about that you have mattered, or can one day matter, to someone. He won't tell you about a God who loves you. He won't remind you that you aren't the only one who has felt this way and lived past the feelings and the struggle.

He will tell you that because some people who are doing stupid, ignorant, illegal or immoral stuff and seem to be happy, unconcerned, or getting away with it, that you should too.
He won't' remind you that there is a reason some things are considered stupid, illegal or immoral. He doesn't want you to think about the people doing those things who aren't happy. unconcerned or getting away with anything.

He will tell you, especially if you are very young or very vulnerable, that YOLO (You Only Live Once).
He won't tell you that how you live at any age matters and has consequences. He won't remind you that you only live this life once.

He will tell you that you should want to be like the celebrities you see in the media. That you should be living the life they are living.
He won't tell you that, just like the rest of us, those people get sad, sick, worried, heartbroken and, eventually, dead. He won't remind you that feelings - good or bad - are the same whether a person is wearing designer clothes or handed down rags. He won't' remind you that some things cost more than money and that some people have paid for what they have with something more precious than gold.

He will tell you that you'd be happier "if only". He wants you to think that you'd be happier if only you were coupled up, or single; childless or a parent; black instead of white; rich instead of poor; this instead of that....
He won't tell you that there are people just like you who are happy, content, successful and fulfilled. He won't tell you that everything he is saying to you, he is saying to someone else.

Most of all, he will tell you that where you are now in life - whether in success or failure, joy or sorrow, wealth or poverty - is you will remain.
He doesn't want you  to know that everything he tells you is a lie. He doesn't want you to have hope or true happiness. He wants to hold us hostage to our present so that we don't think past it. He will hold our past over our heads so that we live in regret of mistakes or past glory. Most of all, he doesn't want to think that there is any more to life than what we have gained or lost.

Peace
--Free

Good Moments, Bad Moments

☹: Stuck doing chores on a nice day because you put them off all week.
☺: Finding the 5 dollar bill you forgot in pocket of dirty jeans.

☹: Spending too much time on your hair because it won't "act right" (and you don't even want to go to job/party/family event anyway).
☺: Your hair looks fabulous and everyone notices.

☹: Having to go to the gym - when you'd rather be doing anything else - because you ate too much at the potluck/party/family event.
☺: Putting on a favorite garment and realizing that it fits the way it's supposed to.

☹: Having to plaster a smile on your face when you really feel like crying.
Good: Running into someone who's having a worse day than you and knowing your smiled cheered them up (or at least didn't make them feel worse).

☹: Waking up freaked out by that strange sound outside your window (after watching crime shows all evening).
☺: Realizing that strange sound is just a cute little squirrel playing in the leaves.

☹: That recipe you've been working on didn't turn out quite the way it did for Guy Fieri.
☺: Your finished dish might not look all that great, but it tastes awesome.

☹: That little skitter thing your heart does because some idiot on the road with you never learned to go the speed limit/use their turn signal/drive on wet or icy pavement.
☺: When you think of all the people who have been killed by idiots like that and you're not one of them.

☹: Finding out that someone you love a lot is sick with a killer disease.
☺: Having one more day, one more week, or even one more moment with that person. And cherishing it more.

(っ◕‿◕)っ♥ 

Peace
--Free

Randomly Thought

A random thing went through my mind today. There are 5 things that can make someone feel either silly, scared, or brave:

Being with a child
Being in love
Being intoxicated
Being threatened
Being dared

Like I said, just a random thought.


Peace
--Free

Things That Shouldn't Bother Me. Shouldn't.

These are some things that really, seriously bother me. Maybe they shouldn't, but they do. Any of this ever happen to you?

• When there are 2 squares of tissue left, but no one changed the roll.
• Going to the store with a list and still managing to get all the way home missing something.
• Making plans with the people you love and they have the gall to hold you to them.
• When someone comes into a room and drops a stinky Butt Bomb then leaves. I don't know about you, but I'm always sitting there either a) wondering if, among my other health issues, I am now emitting some kind of funk that I am unaware of at the time, b) looking like the guilty party when someone else wanders in, or c) trying to hold my breath and find the air freshener before the Green Mist can cling to me.
• Getting your mouth all wet for last night's leftovers only to find an empty container.
• Preparing a meal and, halfway through cooking and measuring,  realizing you are out of something. It's never the main ingredient, but it's usually one that makes the dish worth the calories.
• When stuff is stacked so haphazard in a freezer that the ice cream fall out and damn near breaks one of your toes. (Does not matter at all that it's not my freezer and I am stealing a taste of your ice cream.)
• When I eye-flirt with the cute guy who smiled at me in the store and he misses it because he's off in la-la land, but not the John Gacy behind him. No. It's those guys that always catch the look...
• Waking up out of dead sleep because I have dreamed  the idea that will make me rich and happy - just as the idea is dissolving into a maddening fog of... nothing.
• Seeing your doppelganger who looks better, dresses better and seems to set the standard for... being you.

I just want to think that I'm not the only one who thinks like this.

Peace

--Free

Sunday Randomness

Stayed up until 4:00 this morning (except it was really 3:00 because of time change) and was up at 8:00.

Ugh.

Feel half-stoned on fatigue, but wanted to post so... randomness:

• My skin's been addicted to Bio Oil for years. I currently have 5 1/2 bottles of the stuff. Why? Because with my Sarc (I guess), every time I go to the store, I forget that I have some at home. At least it's cheaper at Sam's Club, but comes with a large and a small bottle. Damn. Lot of oil.
• My fridge is full of fruit, Vanilla Soy milk, Vanilla Caramel coffee creamer and Fage yogurt. I'm trying to eat lighter now that one of the docs stepped down my prednisone. I am kind of ick of fruit at the moment.
• Pissed at myself for watching hours of "Beverly Hills Nannies" last night. That was a sloppy mess, but roomie and I laughed until we ached. Lack of sleep makes me silly.
• Feel stupid for watching hours of scary crap like "Paranormal Witness." (Not so stupid that I'm taking it off my Hulu "Favorites" list...)
• Filched some of the roomie's perfume because of the cute bottle. That's some nice smelling fragrance & I'll be damned if I can't read the smeared label. Going to have to 'fess up so I can get some of my own.
• Why did I never notice until a few days ago how absolutely smoking hot Eminem is? He seems very serious though.
• Laughing my ass off at this video & not wanting to offend anyone for their voting choices: 

                                                                                       C'mon, admit it, that's just funny, no matter how you vote. (By the way: DO go vote!)

• My roomie drives me crazy, not rinsing and putting her dishes in the dishwasher. We are incompatible as far as the "neat factor," but I love her like a sister. (If I didn't, I'd smother her in her sleep.)
• The nephew D.J. is learning to walk with his little push-toy. He's still to learn that wood floors are trickier than carpet for those strolls of his. Still missing the kid.
• Intrigued, fascinated, mesmerized by the Gwen & the band here:

The bass player is just killing it.

Okay. It's obvious that I am tired, so I'm going to stop the madness, make like I'm five years old and take a nap.

Peace

--Free

P.S.: For the voters out there, this is interesting, but please don't ask why I still read "Cracked."