Another Short Entry...

I promise I'll get a nice long post up as soon as I'm done with all this craziness of presentations. I've got 2 in the next week and a half. >.< But graduation is fast approaching and I'm prepping for that. I don't want to say goodbye to my many friends!!!!

Short Update!!

>.> 31 days until Graduation. May 8th at 2 pm I will be walking across a stage in the Seabury Arena of Berea College accepting my Bachelor of Arts in General Biology (Yes, a B.A., my school is weird). I can't believe it is so close! I'm going to miss all the people I met and adventures I had, but I'm headed on to bigger and better things!

8 weeks and counting

That's 8 weeks and counting until my undergraduate education finally comes to a close. That finally is both a "Finally, I'm getting out of this damn place" and a "Finally? What do you mean I'm graduating? Are you sure I'm not still a sophomore???" I've come to love Berea more and more each year and, though I am more than ready to jump into the realm of the adult, I'm not sure I'm ready to leave the security of the family I've built here behind. But more on that in the future.

The past two months have been interesting. My hair is behaving like it should, thanks to the CG method, and I have lots more curly ringlets thanks to it.

I learned how to knit the Saturday before Valentine's and have just finished my first project (a scarf for my mom), have a second in progress (a baby blanket, don't know for which baby yet though), and a second scarf for the Red Scarf Project in September. Each thing has a different pattern and challenges my brain and my hands.

Speaking of my hands, I learned that I have something like Ulnar Nerve Dysfunction in my left hand. The nerve that runs up my ulna to my ring and pinky fingers gets pinched or compressed and caused said fingers to hurt or go numb. Dr. David at Health Services prescribed me Naproxin to make the slight swelling and inflammation go down in an effort to control it. I'm also supposed to be taking it easy on my hand. Yeah, right, like that's going to happen often when knitting is the only thing keeping me awake through evolution movies (though I do take frequent breaks to rest the hand and shake it out).

I also broke one of my teeth somehow and had to go see the college dentist for a temporary fix. He took one look at it and said the tooth was probably going to have to come out and I have to go back for a full exam and to figure out how much it is going to cost me. Thankfully I have family that loves me and one of my uncles is going to help me pay for it.

That said, I have a very dear friend (Holly) that will be attending summer term at Kingston University in Kingston upon Thames just outside of London in the UK. I'm very excited for her. I think she realized today just how much work this semester is going to be with study abroad stuff and keeping her grades up. She had a mini meltdown, but I reminded her that it's not over yet. We're only halfway through the semester and she still has time to pull the grade up a bit that she was so worried about. Also reminded her that I'm here for her even when she will be in England; after all, I'm only a skype message away.

Speaking of very dear friends, the other one (Kelly) has applied to attend Stirling University in Scotland for the summer as well. She is still working out kinks in her application, but I have no fear that she won't get in. And then the twins shall have a smashing time across the pond. And hopefully won't run into English Coconuts (you must watch History Channel's Ape to Man to get it) though if it were the type of English Coconut that was found and it proved authentic, they'd probably be rich and famous.

Wooo. Enough for tonight! Off to do other things.

Curly Girl Day 6

So... I missed a few days. I was lazy this weekend when it came to pictures, but I took plenty today. I had some beautiful ringlets and it was soft, but not too fluffy. I love it! You can also see the difference between my hair just after I finish plopping and am getting ready to run out the door and the dry, soft, fluffy end. I have a hair dryer/diffuser combo coming from home sometime so I can experiment with that.


Pictures!

Morning of Day 6 (Monday, January 24, 2011). My hair's still damp and I'm rocking out on my iPod as I'm getting ready to head to breakfast with friends.

Day 6 around 10:30 PM: Post day stress and frizz still isn't bad. I'm so glad I switched to the CG method. It's so soft too!

Night of Day 6 - Back of my hair. Pretty and soft ringlets are starting to form more easily!

Curly Girl Day 3

So no hair pictures today. I forgot this morning and my hair is up and back now. I didn't plop my hair last night, but that was fine. I used a different gel than normal though. I've been using Garnier Fructis Curl Scrunch Extra Strong Gel, but I have about 1/3 of a bottle of GF Curl Shaping Spray Gel Strong. I used it hoping it would still work as well. I was disappointed. I had to reactivate it using water several times throughout the day and I had frizz for a good portion of it. I'm switching back to my original stuff tomorrow. Otherwise no-poo is going great! Less frizz and soft! I haven't noticed a lot of shine yet, but I've definitely got softer, better moisturized curls.


Speaking of tomorrow, tomorrow is Saturday! I've got very little homework to do and great food to eat tomorrow as made by the wonderful たくきよんが (Taku Kiyonaga, I don't know his name in Kanji). I have to read a bit for developmental biology and practice my 日本語 (Japanese) for class as well as do a few worksheets. Thankfully this week is over! Today especially with all the ice and snow I woke up to and had to walk across campus in.

Because I have no hair picture today so you get a picture of my fish, Fish, instead.

Curly Girl Day 2

Trying to take pictures of your own hair is a pain in the butt. Especially the sides or back. And with a large camera.

Anyway, I took my shower last night and added a bit of my co-wash for leave-in and gel like I did before and plopped before going to bed, you know, expecting to wake up with the same kind of hair I had Wednesday morning. I did...sort of. Some of the curls were going funky directions (including some up then down) and nothing I did would fix it short of getting it wet. So in the shower I went for a quick water wash before plopping it for ~30 minutes (I meant only for 15 and got distracted on the computer). I don't have a hair dryer/diffuser combo here (we have one at home and will hopefully be on its way soon) so my hair was still damp when I left for lunch. Damp hair meant crunchy hair until it was dry completely so I could scrunch the crunch out.

I left my dorm this morning in a long skirt, slipper boots, and my every trusty winter coat thinking I'd be fine, it wasn't supposed to rain or anything today. It was fine until about 4:15 PM. Rain it didn't, snow it did; it snowed a ton, quickly building a thick layer across the ground. It was cold, I had snow in my face/eyes, and I was wearing a skirt. I wasn't worried about my hair at the time (mostly because all I had left was dinner) and only thought about the massive frizzing that would be happening. I was mildly when I returned to my room to find it only semi-frizzy, and mostly from the hood of my coat.

Perhaps tomorrow will be a better hair day yet. I'm glad I stumbled on the CG method. ^_^

Oh, and here's what I thought was an interesting shot of my damp curlies.

Curly Girl Day 1

Curly Girl method day 1 went well. Not much of a difference to be really seen except one major thing: LOTS LESS FRIZZZ!!! And it rained today which would have made it worse, but I didn't see much frizz until after dinner. That is an impressive feat for me.

Age 5 [1994-ish]: What I was born with - Naturally curly/ easily curled Hair. I can still get those ringlets if my hair is long enough and wet when I put it up.

Pre-CG [Sometime in Late September/Early October 2010]: Typical hair day when it is down. Fuzzy, ill defined waves/curls. And crooked glasses from my crooked ears.

Prep Day [January 18th, 2011]: Last good washing with sulfate containing shampoo. I did this at night so I didn't go out into the humid Berea weather. Frizz would have been super apparent.

CG Day 1[January 19th, 2011]: Ignore the look on my face. It's about 7 AM before I headed to breakfast and class. Already excited about the curls and they lasted all day through the rain! Didn't start frizzing until the end of the day when I was already back in my room. It was hard not to play with it because it was all soft and pretty. Ready for day 2!