Introvert in an Extroverted family

Yesterday I went to my cousin’s wedding. I had an absolute blast! There are a couple of reasons for it. But the main reason was a personal realization. My gut always says “It’s okay to sit or stand to the side and watch the fun!” My training always says “Why aren’t you out there with the rest of your family?!” I said that last night to my hubby early in the reception.

I am so glad I did. Saying it out loud helped me to realize that by observing, watching my family celebrating, I am participating in my own, comfortable way. It also helped that this was a much more informal reception where no tables were assigned and we never sat down. We found spaces that worked for us to stand and be out of the path of traffic, but still be a part of things. We sang along with the music. We even danced to a few songs.

It felt so good finally finding my place in a big party/celebration like that. It allowed me to be a part of things instead of trying to maintain my walls and worry about what people are saying because I’m not out there like everyone else. I came home just as, if not more, energized than when I arrived! No introvert hangover this morning!

This is really going to help me out at DragonCon this year. It’s another place where being an introvert can be draining. But if I just remember that I’m there for the same reason as everyone else – DragonCon – I’ll be just fine!

Boxing Bull$*!#

On Friday, I arrived home to find three packages waiting for me. One had The Hamilton Mixtape cassette, one had 3 bars of Native deodorant, one had a corset. I was pissed off. Let me show you why.

I am not exaggerating. The box on the left was used to ship a cassette tape. The box on the right:

Three full-sized bars of deodorant. They fit three bars of deodorant into that box while the other contained a bunch of air-filled packing materials and a cassette tape. When I ordered the tape, I figured it would arrive in something small that would fit inside the mailbox. I’m planning to e-mail them and point this out. There is no reason to use a box even a 1/4 that size to ship a cassette tape.

This isn’t the first time something like this has happened, but it’s the first time it’s been to such a drastic degree. I’m not going to stay quiet about it anymore. It’s a ridiculous waste of material and resources. I’m tired of it. I’m definitely not buying anything from Urban Outfitters until they change their shipping policies. I guess we’ll see if they listen to what I have to say. But Native is a company I will gladly keep supporting!

Going Native: Week 0

Now that I finally have my Native deodorant, I can start using it! The little card that came with the deodorant says to wear it daily and that it can take up to 14 days to get the “maximum effectiveness”. So I’m going to start checking in with the progress of this amazing new product!

Since it is a 3-pack, it gives me options. The lavender & rose and unscented are going to be going back to school with me. The coconut & vanilla is staying at home. I figure it’s one less thing to pack for my remaining trips back and forth. I like both of the scent combinations, but I like the lavender & rose a little bit more, and hubby likes the coconut & vanilla better. This way everyone’s happy! And they both smell amazing. The scents are balanced wonderfully and compliment each other. Hopefully I’ll be posting again next Saturday with glowing news. I’m really looking forward to using this product! I don’t think I’ve ever looked forward to using a deodorant so much.

Again, I am not in any way associated with Native. I just really like their product and want to share it with all of you!

“Reset” button

I first bought Tea-Tox last year. I bought the entire Body and Soul set, but this is the one I use constantly. Well, I did until I started to get low and decided to wait until my refill came. The refill that came in the package I almost didn’t get.

On Thursday, I remembered that I had the refill for weeks now. I had no excuse to not make myself a cup again. I’m hooked yet again. It is a wonderful blend of “milk thistle, burdock, green rooibos tea, cinnamon bark, peppermint leaves, dandelion root & lemon balm”. This combination tastes delicious and really does leave me feeling better. I don’t care if it’s all in my head. I feel better for drinking it. Also, milk thistle has been a remedy for detoxifying the liver for a while now. Everything in there has benefits to the body.

It’s delicious and refreshing. It kind of puts a “reset” on my eating habits. Lately I’ve been stressed with a lot of things piling up. On Thursday, a lot of those stresses were gone, finally. I’ve been making sure to have a cup at least once a day. I am worried that it is possible to over-do it.

I’m writing this to share my experience as well as to remind all of us that we need to take care of ourselves. Never forget that. Take care of yourself, both bodily and mentally. Don’t let things overwhelm you. Take care of yourself!

Possibly the most interesting shipment notice ever!

This morning I got an e-mail letting me know that my order has been shipped. It’s the most amusing notice I’ve ever had!

Courtney,

Your bar of Native Deodorant was gently pulled by our team of experts and placed on a gold-trimmed pillow stuffed with the finest fibers known to man. Then, a team of six inspectors examined your deodorant under a magnifying glass, ensuring it was in perfect condition.

Once the inspection was complete, our veteran polisher (he was previously employed at the Tower of London, where he was responsible for polishing the Queen’s jewels) polished it as a quiet hush fell over the warehouse. “This package is getting shipped to Courtney,” he whispered. “Take good care of it.”

We hope you had a wonderful time shopping at Native. In celebration, we have placed your name on our wall under the title “World’s Best Customer” and assigned you a dedicated parking spot right upfront. We’ve also hired a pilot to skywrite “Courtney Rocks!” above the Golden Gate Bridge. Thank you for supporting Native!

I’ve been wanting to try out Native Deodorant for a while now, but I just haven’t been ready to commit…and I needed to be able to buy it. The other day I put in and order for their Women’s Sampler Pack:

3 sticks of their paraben free, aluminum free deodorant in different scents (including unscented) for $30. Basically it was buy 2 get one free! I haven’t used stick deodorant for a while now. I haven’t found something that my skin agrees with anymore. These have a great chance at becoming my regular deodorant. Especially having multiple scents to work with. Those will come in handy when costuming.

I am really looking forward to trying them out! And if you’re interested, use this link and I’ll get a free travel-sized stick if you order, and you get one too! I have no ties to Native. I just want to share this amazing product with all of you!

It’s tea time!!!

It’s here! My replacement shipment is here! Finally!

I am so freaking happy! I felt like a kid on Christmas morning when I was going through and opening each box. It was so much fun! I can’t wait to taste most of these. The Mary Morstan and TARDIS are teas I’ve had and love, hence the large tins. The Tea-Tox is also a refill. Literally, I have the tin and the only other option is this 16oz refill bag. But that just means I have 4 tins worth of refill, so I won’t have to order more any time soon. This is going to be so much fun!

I won’t be going on over each individual tea here. That would get overwhelming. If you want to know what I think about each individual tea, check out Tea Notes, my tea Tumblr. It’s about to get quite busy again. Yay!

De-cluttering

Lately my drive and focus have been lacking. It’s like I’ve had brain fog. This happens from time to time. It’s annoying, but being aware of it has its upside. It allows me to try different ways to get it to clear. But sometimes it clears on its own.

Like this morning. I was struggling to want to get up because I had nothing I needed to do until 1p. Then I remembered I have a bunch of dishes to do. So I got up, got a dent in the dishes, and got some tidying up done in the apartment. The tidying continued into the office.

There have been many different people saying that being organized in your life means you’re organized in your brain. It’s true for me. The more I clean up, the more clear my brain feels, the more focused I feel.

Here’s to de-cluttering! Both physically and mentally!

I hate being sick

When I went home this weekend, I went home to a sick hubby. He has a head cold. I’m glad I went home because I was there to go on a supply run and continually order him back to bed. Unfortunately, I caught it.

I hate being sick. I especially hate having a fever. I, as I suspect many of you, was raised to break the fever by sweating it out. I hate that. I hate being all hot and sticky and sweaty. I’ve been taking oregano oil, elderberry, and Tylenol Cold Max. Yes, while I prefer natural remedies, I will take medicine if the situation is appropriate for it. I still have a fever. It won’t go away.

I just did a search about breaking a fever. Multiple sites said that you don’t necessarily need to get under covers and sweat it out. Many said that if you’re not cold, you should reduce the amount of clothing you’re wearing. I’m not chilled at all. I’m going to try just being comfortable, staying hydrated and fed, minimizing contact with others, and hope it goes away sometime tonight. Tomorrow is just too important to be sick for. I just don’t want to be patient zero for Con Crud at BroadwayCon. Hopefully getting over this will prevent me from getting Con Crud!

Intentional Interaction

I am part of, a phrase I am really loving, the Oregon Trail Generation. Basically, it means I was born before this massive shift in technology happened. I remember using 5-inch floppy disks and having to use dos to run the program. I remember when computer screens were black with green or orange text and pixelated graphics. I was in college when Ohio State was invited to join Facebook. I watched as cell phones went from larger than the handset of the corded phone at home to small enough to fit into a person’s pocket.

But, like much of the rest of the country, I have a smartphone that has all sorts of apps and regularly get notified to a list of things. Well, at least I used to.

Lately, I’ve been listening to more recent episodes of Kelly Carlin’s podcast, Waking from the American Dream. Kelly takes time every year to step away from social media for a time. Being a Generation X-er, this whole social media thing happened later in her life than mine. Being an Oregon Trail-er, I find an appeal in taking a break from social media. Which is interesting since I’ve recently started using my Twitter for more than a feed for my blogs and following other people. Kelly has taken months away from social media, something I could not bring myself to do.

But I have found something that I find I can do. I am going back to college. I am going back to the days when the only time I could access my social media is when I was in front of the computer. I have turned off notifications for Facebook. I have turned off notifications for Twitter. And, when I do bring up Facebook or Twitter or Instagram or Tumblr, I do it intentionally. I am not letting myself bring up the page just to kill time. I am bringing it up to intentionally look at what is going on. I don’t want to just mindlessly be scrolling and re-Tweeting or sharing things. I want to be consciously engaging with what is there.

I wonder what would happen if everyone did that. Consciously, intentionally interacting with social media.

Stop. Listen.

Dinner tonight!

A post shared by Pirogoeth (@pirogoeth05) on Sep 27, 2016 at 4:19pm PDT

I’m one of those people who likes to use their Instagram to post food. I try to only post when it’s something I’m really proud of, either what I’ve made or how I’ve plated it. Tonight is kind of both.

My diet has not been the greatest lately. Friday I put in an order to the local, amazing, pizza place for a pizza and some breadsticks. I just finished off the breadsticks yesterday. It’s been a stressful weekend, one complicated by not listening to my body about my diet. It culminated yesterday with a complete “blerg” feeling.

I got home from campus and decided to have the last two breadsticks. They’re nice and chewy and big. But I continued another bad habit I’d been encouraging over the week, I had a can of root beer with the breadsticks. The combination of bread and sugar was something my stomach did not appreciate.

I hit a point in the night where my brain was going “It’s late. You should eat.” while my stomach was going “Don’t. You. Dare.” I munched on some cottage cheese. It didn’t help. I went to the store and bought some cantaloupe. It didn’t help. Finally I decided to make myself a glass of green tea. Just green tea, no honey, no sweeteners. Just green tea.

It helped.

It helped so much that I made another mug. I started to feel a whole lot better. That’s when I realized how bad my diet had been lately. I decided to have no bread and as little sugar as possible today.

I had some baked catfish and a salad for lunch. I got a slice of banana bread and Earl Grey from Starbucks during the break in class. I had the plate of mozzarella, salami, and red pear, shown above, with a bottle of kombucha for dinner. I feel so much better.

Just because you have it in the house, doesn’t mean that you have to eat it. Listen to what your body is telling you. It knows what it needs.