Brazilian waxing horror

I went to get a Brazilian yesterday and it was simply horrible. I feel like a fool for having the vanity to desire a smooth p*ssy and butt. Well, it ain't smooth and I'm still sore on the left side from where she made me bleed!

To start off, I have only done this twice before. The waxer didn't seem to know I was scheduled for an appointment, as she was in the middle of an eyebrow threading and looked harried. I felt like an afterthought. They had a strip of new paper running down the length of the towel-covered table, but the towel itself didn't look new, there were spots or stains on it.

When we got started, she said I had waited too long in between. If it was "too long" for her to do a good job, she should have told me so and declined, or warned me of the specific problems I might be facing. But she was not a native English speaker and so was unable to really communicate. I begged her to be as gentle as possible because it was only my third time doing this. But I was petrified at her first application of wax, which covered a huge area and seemed really, really thickly applied. Last time, the waxer did it in little sections.

All she did was repeatedly comment on how long my hair supposedly was. She slapped the wax on in huge thick slabs, didn't seem to know how to make the skin tight to make it hurt less, and kept up the running commentary throughout on my hair -- I had shaved a few weeks ago so it couldn't have been THAT long. (someone is probably going to tell me I shouldn't have shaved -- guess what? when you're busy and don't have time, or a waxing doesn't fit into your regular budget, you shave).

She also insisted on repeatedly showing me the hair she had just waxed off. Did I mention she was VERY hard to communicate with? Several times she reapplied wax over areas she'd already waxed. Finally, she ripped me so hard on the left side that I bled. This was right near the end and I didn't realize I was bleeding until after she had applied baby oil all over. When I sat up I saw that I was bleeding. She said, over and over, "Is no problem. Don' worry." and "is not you." (well, I'm the one bleeding here, honey -- I don't know who else it is). I was rather shaken and said, "Could I please get some peroxide to clean that off with?" She said, "Don' worry" and picked up a little bottle of something from her shelf that was obviously not peroxide. I said, "what's that?" and instead of answering my question, she said, "is okay," poured some on a cloth, and started to apply it. just before it hit my skin I saw that it was styptic. I braced myself, and yeah, it really burned! I said again, "Could I please get some peroxide to clean that off?" she said again, "Don' worry." I said, "I would like to clean it off." "Don' worry. Sometimes this happens." (it hasn't happened to me, and from what I understand, it's NOT a normal thing or a good thing when you bleed.)

She poured more baby oil on a cloth and told me to hold it there for a few minutes. I was getting rather annoyed. She said again, "is not you." Is it YOU, then? when I looked at and touched the area I also saw that even on the parts where I wasn't bleeding, I wasn't smooth. WHY did I go through this?

I didn't get my hydrogen peroxide. Manager downstairs at front when I paid said that they do have peroxide on the premises. Why she refused to bring me some, I don't know. I didn't tip her. I was in Manhattan and had to take bus home to Queens, so it took over an hour before I could clean it myself. I hope to god I am not infected. I'm going to call manager back, who called me after I left, to talk to him about it. I am embarrassed and bracing myself for a spiel about how it was my fault somehow.

Jade plants

I've always loved jade plants. I had one for a few years, starting in college. it got fairly large, but the cat owned by someone who was watching the plant while I was away destroyed it. Since I've had cats for the last 16 years, I've avoided getting new houseplants.

So when I saw my sister had not one, but TWO huge jades (both are 21 years old), I was slightly -- just slightly -- envious.

Ah, well. Someday we'll live on a farm with all the room we need...

Weekend away

monkey heads carved out of coconuts...

real live monkeys (both of these seen at a street fair)

Dutch Baby for breakfast - yummo!

On Thursday morning, an evil pole-leaner takes up precious space on the crowded R-train. I snuck her picture... because she deserves to be exposed!

And on Riverside Drive, dogs stick their heads out of cars windows. There were, I think, five dogs in the car.

Can you tell I am tired and have little to say? Went to Rochester to visit sis over weekend. Long, exhausting drive. We went canoeing Saturday morning, then to a street fair on Saturday afternoon, worked on a jigsaw puzzle, watched a chick flick, picked apples from the tree out back, ate lots of good food... I also posed as a republican briefly, helping them campaign for a local candidate by wearing a t-shirt to the fair...

I don't go to Rochester often, it's too darn far away. I love my sister's house though. She's got a huge deck and lots of land for a garden and for the cats to roam. I wish my cats could go outside... sigh. Some day.

Horrible morning commute

Picture has nothing to do with what I'm writing. I just felt like sharing.

Morning commute was horrible, but not as bad as some people had it, thank god. It only took two-and-a-half hours for me to get from Bayside to 116th Street. Worst part was being packed tighter than I think I've ever been packed on a train, and sitting and waiting in that condition. I was thankfully up against the rail by the end seat (no, I didn't get a seat) and when the guy sitting there moved his arm, I thought he was trying to grab my butt! No, just moving. Hard to keep track of your purse and bag in those conditions, but I was able to have my purse in front of me for most of the trip, with my bag tucked away, half under a seat. I generally think it's unlikely that I'll be robbed, but I wouldn't put it past anyone who was just tempted by an easily reachable purse.

One good thing about the ride was the sense of camaraderie and "we're all in this together." On my train, the N train, I got on in Astoria and we had a bunch of stops to go through before hitting Manhattan. Yet the automatic "stop announcement system" and corresponding sign was off. When I got onto the train it was saying this was "42nd Street/Times Square." At the next stop, the robot lady voice said, "This station stop is 34th Street - Herald Square." I said, "REALLY?" and this made several people smile. We had to laugh about something...

Once at Times Square, the 1 Train north was not bad at all.

And work was not bad. It turns out even though I got there at almost 9:25, I was still one of the first people in. Not everyone made it.

I had a three hour meeting this afternoon, then i had to take bus to Queens to go open my meeting, and P was cranky because I didn't call earlier. But we seem to have forgiven each other, me for not calling, him for being cranky.

MySpace music

OK, for all those who have to deal with loud music when you open up someone's MySpace page -- you find the box with the two vertical black bars and click on it. This stops the music. Sometimes if there's a lot of art and various text boxes on the page, it's hard to find this box, but it does work.

I am tired and cranky (not sure if my boss likes me, but what else is new?) I am also feeling guilty about eating a huge piece of cake. There was cake in honor of a woman's one-year anniversary at the meeting last night, and one woman "insisted" I take some leftovers home to me and my husband. I did NOT need that. Morning workout continues, however, so I don't feel that guilty. I'm up to 60 pushups (one set 40, one set 20), 60 fire hydrants, 175 crunches, 25 bicycles (that's another abdomen workout) and then the triceps curls or whatever the heck they're called. I'm riding my bike to meetings when I can, BUT -- I need to get a bike light. Some of the guys at my Sunday meeting lectured me for not having one, and I didn't want to hear it, but they were right -- it's a good idea. I always wear a helmet, at least.

I'm a big Sudoku freak, and I've just found a related game called Wordoku. I'll report back later on how I like it.

wooden spoon

P decided to spank me with the big wooden spoon just now because I had a "bad attitude." All right, but I can't figure out how to stop music playing when i want to look at someone else's MySpace page! And they play so LOUD! wouldn't ANYONE have a bad attitude? I cursed a bit, after several attempts at fixing this...

I did have a frustrating morning, however. I purchased two new CDs from i-Tunes (why is the "i" small, by the way? what does that MEAN?) and I could not figure out how to get them into my i-Pod Shuffle. I have put music onto my i-Pod many times before; what was the issue? Finally determined, because I had signed up for the i-Tunes account at work (yes, that was wrong) it only had recognized my work computer. I had to authorize the HOME computer to accept music (funny, i-Tunes had no problem accepting my Master Card payment from my home computer).

After researching this issue in various i-Pod manuals found at Barnes and Noble, we returned home and I tried again. Maybe a half hour or so later, I FINALLY found the correct button to hit to authorize my home computer.

Yay! I now have Ryan Adams' "Easy Tiger" and the Decemberists' "Picaresque" on my i-Pod. And my butt is really sore right now. But I'm a happy girl.