No 'poo (no, its not a constipation thing)

Remember here when I whined endlessly about the nastiness that had overtaken the back of my head. Well I did some (more) searching and found Miss Brown had a strikingly similar ailment (great minds...) despite her hair being enviably curly and thick while mine is n fine, unruly class of semi-waviness. I ended up doing what her stylist did - shampooed my hair three times in one shower (finally, I can follow the lather, rinse, repeat portion of the directions instead of asking why that's even there). My hair returned to looking like this:

But then, THEN, I suddenly began to produce copious amounts of oil along my hairline and part. I could easily begin to maintain my own car with the quarts I am producing each week.  I am a working mom and wife with a serious blog-reading habit. I do not have time to wash my hair seven days a week and heat style it at least five of those days.  I just don't. My husband, probably tired of hearing me complain, suggested it was my shampoo so I logged into the Dooce community where I had previously seen a question about selecting shampoos that smell yummy and found this discussion instead.

Hmmm, thought I.  Perhaps it is not my shampoo. Maybe it is just shampoo that is causing me so many problems. I have, bringing us back to my post title, decided to throw my hat into the "no 'poo" ring. There is plenty of info to be found and read by typing "no poo" into the Google search engine, but it all boils down to a few main points:
1. Shampoo, especially sudsy lather, as a daily necessity is pretty much a myth perpetuated by the marketing world.
2. A person's hair and scalp can become cleaner and healthier through regular rinsing and massage with the optional help of baking soda, conditioner, vinegar, and various essential oils.
3. A number of shampoos contain ingredients that are bad for the body and bad for the environment.

It seems a lot of people have had great success with giving up shampoo and a few others have found it is not for them.  However, nobody has found themselves actually hurt in some way by their going no 'poo so I figure it can't hurt anything except my vanity. Like so many others I'll keep track of my experiment and let you know how it goes.  Feel free to weigh in.

My shampooed and styled hair just hours before the experiment began:

Emily!

Emily has a boyfriend. Sadly, I think their relationship may be on its way out.  Last week he was all Emily talked about and she described him as "HOT!"  Ah, the honeymoon phase.  This week however...


"He's not cute cute. You know?  Like  he's not cute cute cute like me, but he's cute...Like a snail."

Thinking

I could never be a restaurant owner because there are people on this earth who DO NOT THINK AVOCADOS ARE DELICIOUS.

Time Time Time Time Time

The other Dooce published this post about dreading the weekend.  While I am working hard to keep things light on my little slice of the internet, her post really resonated with me.  These lines actually bolded themselves just for my benefit and then began flashing in a series of un-ignorable shades of pink:

...it's hard for me to sit still knowing there are a million projects I could be working on.

I can start to feel the anxiety creep up early Friday morning, and by dinner time I'm pacing.

  

Because slowing down doesn't feel right. In fact, it makes me sick.

I urge you to read her post and as many of the hundreds of comments as you can, especially if you also have an inexplicable dread of downtime.

I have that dread.  I start making plans for the weekend by Tuesday.  I have to. Or my head will explode.  Weeknights can be like this too. I cut back my hours at work so I could devote more time to helping my daughter with her homework and also to offer her more downtime at the end of the day. All that did was make me feel like a failure as a parent. It is ridiculously difficult for me to focus on the things that Emily likes to do for fun.  How can I pretend to be a mermaid pet-shop owner who sells horses when there is laundry to fold and a thick layer of pollen dust on all the furniture? How can I keep up with the ever-changing rules of playing secret agent when my brain is full of what needs to be done for dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow? Also, these games are boring for me.  And hard. Evidently I've lost my imagination. And all this umimagitiveness, boredom, and inability to focus, not to mention Emily's frustration, has made me feel awful.

My best solution is to set a timer on my activities both with Emily and about the house.  Somehow knowing I have such-and-such time to do such-and-such thing gives me better ability to focus on the task at hand. I alternate Emily, house, Emily, house. This has the added benefit of helping Em learn to entertain herself. Still, it feels unfair to all involved despite it lessening my anxiety a bit.

I know so many of my friends are talented and dedicated parents.  Any suggestions for me?

Going and coming and some stuff in between

Once again I disappeared from the blogosphere for a while.  Two weeks actually.And what exactly have I been doing with myself, you ask?

Well back in March you can see where Honey helped me fill one of these:

And on April 1 Emily and I enjoyed five hours of a view like this:

Then we spent some time with these cats:

And had lots of giggles along with this crowd:

 I also squeezed in some good eats with the fam, the fam-in-law, Katie W., Mindy H., Kevin H., Amy  and 3/4 of the Wests before dedicating myself to some serious outlet shopping.

Then, I collected Em for another few hours of:

 

and

before being met at the airport by this guy:

!!!!!!!!!

So you'll have to forgive me if I seem a little preoccupied over the next month. Don't worry, though.  I've been busy and I'll be back to tell you all about it.