PUT SOME CLOTHES ON PROBATION

Life in my new state has taken on a personality of its own. I see now you have to experience all the seasons in a new place to know what you need.  Nobody dreamed TX would have ice melting off the little twigs outside my window in the middle of the afternoon. 

The cold made me drag out clothes, shoes, and socks I'd  forgotten I brought.  I still need a good car coat.  (The one I bought yesterday is going back asap.)  And some winter pants, and, and, and. 

Luckily, the weather made me assemble one outfit I'd put off thinking about.

For the rest, I've invented the probation system:  For instance: One new top was bought for sizzling weather at the end of summer, so I'll give it a year's probation  and if it still hangs unused, I may toss it in the donate bag. 

Planning to give stuff a year, more or less, may avoid waking up in two or more years with a pile of clothes I don't wear and can't fix.  


Important:  If you don't have a full-length mirror, find a way to get one.  Or try on things at your sister's or someplace.  That denim skirt that added a visual 15 pounds is finally in the donate bag.

And by the way, I'll be using timed drying on the dryer, now that I've shrunk my jeans after paying to have them taken in.  

So I guess I'll have to put my desserts and my waist on probation, too, until further notice. 

SKIN CARE CLUTTER . . .The rules I need to follow

The title of this  post should probably be changed!  I was going to mention the endless things I've read about drinking water to hydrate your skin!

When I looked at the Mayo clinic website, I found --they're still not sure how drinking water acts on skin.  (But I still need to drink more water.)

Mayo Clinic experts' skin suggestions won't fill your medicine cabinet with products.  And they suggest something I've already started: using a gentle cleanser instead of soap.  I've been using Cocoon baby liquid cleanser from the health section of my grocery store, because of my recent DCIS radiation treatments.  This cleanser doesn't have the worrisome ingredients I avoid (but I still keep checking) and it does have lemongrass to give me some fragrance.  And fragrance I like always cheers me up.


You can read the other Mayo Clinic skin suggestions for yourself:

http://www.mayoclinic.org/hydrated-skin/expert-answers/FAQ-20058067


The doctor's secret rule:

This is so simple, makes perfect sense, and I always forget to do it.

To test whether you're getting improvement from a skin product:  Use it only on one side of your face for maybe a month!

You know what to do if you don't see better skin:  toss the stuff and recycle the bottle.

Write to me if you've tried this method.  (It came from my wonderful doctor in CA.)

HOW TO AVOID BATHROOM CLUTTER

Save those receipts!

The good news:  I just threw away some not-new mascara and powder-makeup plus some very ancient lipstick.

I got new mascara as a gift, bought new compact makeup that's the perfect color, replaced the old lipstick with a color that's not so girly, and even got eye shadow that I can probably mix to get the teal color I need.

The bad news:  I also bought a big bottle of lotion that's not the "original" version I wanted.  This morning I read the fine print Sunburn warning, and learned that this version has ALPHA HYDROXY ACID which can make us more vulnerable to the sun!  Since I just finished radiation this week, I can't even use the stuff on the bottoms of my feet!

Why do you care?   It took me a half hour to find the receipt.  (Miraculously I hadn't thrown it away after I wrote it in my spending record.)

You know I can't easily throw "good" products away, so the lotion would have languished in the bathroom cabinet or the Bermuda triangle on the bottom closet shelf until I finally gave up on it in the far future.

I bought all this at CVS, so I can take the lotion back, but only with the receipt.  Ask even at Macy's if you can return makeup and other products that don't work for you!

Then put a folder or a jar or even a plastic sandwich bag wherever you keep makeup and medicine.  Put a label on this container that says RECEIPTS!

When you get your refund money, give yourself a treat for being so organized.

What makes me save the wrong things - a Rant

I've written about this before:  I save things that don't fit because I can't find what does fit. Several years ago in L.A. a podiatrist reluctantly discussed my metatarsal arch problem and sent me to an orthotics shop.  They brought out a tiny metatarsal support, made me stand on it until we found exactly where it worked best (which is under the metatarsal bones near the middle of my foot, not under the metatarsal arch) and glued one permanently in each shoe.  Last time I went there, they had gone out of business.

I've searched the stores and the web and all I can find are supports that are too big.  So I'm wearing my old lumpy clogs around the house.  Sheer desperation.  When I have to go out, my newer clogs are making my foot problems worse.

I need pants with a long rise, because I have buns and a long torso, and such pants apparently don't exist.  I have to buy a bigger size and then have that pair altered extensively.  The last time, the tailor got a little too eager, so now they're on the hanger until I lose a couple pounds.

Men's pants used to have a rise specified, but now I don't even see that in the catalogs.

What makes you wear the wrong thing?

Correction: Must haves: I meant to say Excel --I'm sure you've figured that out! Apologies.

AFTER THE MEGA-TOSS-OUT; I'M GLAD I SAVED:

I was ten weeks post spine fusion when I moved by plane, to Texas.  I knew Austin could be very hot, but I wasn't going to Austin.  Did I mention the joke was on me?

My winter coat, with twelve things wrong with it, weighed so much my daughter didn't even encourage me to bring it.  I brought my old black "raincoat" with the heavy, quilted, zip lining.  Not just because I didn't want to bring the heavier coat, but because a male friend had seen me wearing this one and exclaimed, "New York!"  It's a royal pain in restaurants we ordinarily choose, but it makes me walk more confidently!

Mom once said:  After a certain age, women stop dressing for men and start dressing to make other women furious.  Personally, I just don't want to feel like Poor Pitiful Pearl when I leave the house.  Who knows what will happen?

I also saved a waist-length sweater with gold buttons.  Waist-length is my thing, and it's fine with me if the tunic tee under it shows.

There's that long black knit skirt that I sometimes need, even though I don't wear Spanks or however you spell it - my spine won't even let me pull them up!

Now for the part where celebrities tell us what they can't  live without:

Mine are my INC boot cut jeans.  Old but still flattering.
And my INC slightly boot cut grey pants that wash and refuse, refuse to wrinkle. I always feel just right in them.   If I ever get a book tour, those pants are with me!

Since even some fashion moguls have admitted in print that boot cut is the flattering cut, feel free to call me if you are marching on a manufacturer who doesn't get the point yet.

The secret of pants for me, alas, is I have a long torso, so I still have to buy a size too big and have them tailored to fit.  It's worth the fee to be able to sit down.

WHAT'RE YOU DOING NEW YEAR'S DAY?

Promises, promises!  Had lots of energy the last couple of nights for organizing and straightening.  And made the bed a different way with my new Christmas cuddly blanket.

Need to get out for my morning half of my new exercise-for-health plan.

I have a little basket of things I might need if I wake up in the middle of the night:  flashlight, itch medicine for dermatitis, cell phone and such.  I call it my portable nightstand.  This morning I even made a place for it in the closet.  Since, duh!, it's daytime.  Of course the phone is in my purse for daytime.

This season brings on extra emotion for me and many others.  After today's new year energy, there can be a letdown, or for some people, grim determination to go on with the holiday cleaning.  I have a few "rules" for these start-the-year-right attacks:

Unless you're a person who loves winter, don't dig around in old belongings, old letters, old files of loss and conflict and what we think was failure.  Wait for a sunny, warmer spring day.

If  you absolutely can't wait, ask someone, bribe someone, to come and sit with you while you dig into the past.

If no one is available to come over, maybe you can put a friend on speaker phone while both of you do the unpleasant archaeology in trunk or file cabinet.  If one of you gets a few tears, that's okay.  Then you both deserve an outing!

Many Happy New Year days to you!