Embracing Change

I am back, and with news... but this time, it's actually good news.

Also, my hair is blue! Sort of anyway.

I'll make you wait for the good news but first, a look at my journey to sort-of-blueness. 

I've always liked the idea of having "fun" hair- if you're going through the trouble to dye it, why settle on a normal hair color?? I've been terrified to take the plunge though because my hair is very fine and if genetics has anything to say about it (and of course, it usually does), it'll start to get dangerously thin soon enough. I have this (admittedly misguided) notion that if I'm nice to my hair, it won't abandon me and that coupled with the fact that I don't want to do anything that might ruin it- I need to be able to enjoy it while I have it!- has led me to have "virgin hair" for the first 31.5 years of my life. 

Recently though, I stumbled across a product called Overtone. They make hair dye that is essentially a tinted deep conditioner and there's a line specially formulated for people with dark hair that requires no lightening/bleaching. Of course, this means your hair isn't going to be a vibrant color but I mean, a dye that's actually good for my hair?? It's exactly what I've been looking for so I had to try it.

 

This is the one I got. I kinda wanted to do green (my favorite color!) but it was sold out. I love blue too though so that's the one I chose out of the 7 possible options. This is clearly a picture of the tub AFTER I used it, as evidenced by the blue smudges. I wish that was the only place I found blue smudges after my ordeal...

I have to admit, my nerve started to waver at this point. I mean, that's really freaking blue. On the plus side, it also smelled delightfully of herbs and made my hair smell nice for days afterward.

This is the before shot, not the best I'll admit. M assisted me with the photography and he was too busy laughing at me most of the time to get an especially good shots, for reasons you will see below. It's also freshly fully blow-dried with no products in it, hence the visible sad dryness. 

Here I am waiting for the color to process (about 15 minutes) after I globbed on about 3/4 of the tub, covered in blue, and rethinking all of my like choices while M cackled at my predicament in the background. My sister bought the orange dye and reported to me that it wasn't too messy and didn't stain so I wasn't as careful as I probably should've been because that blue all over my neck, back, and shoulders DID NOT IMMEDIATELY WIPE OFF. I thought I was a Smurf for life. I also dropped some dye on my sink and in my shower which required bleach to remove. Next time I do this, I'm forcing M to stand by with wet wipes to wipe it off my skin immediately. I'm sure he'll totally agree to that.

I was very careful to wear gloves when I put the dye on of course but didn't think anything of it when I rinsed it off in the shower... and of course dyed my hands blue. Here they are after I attempted to scrub it off.

This is a terrible picture of what it looked like afterward- I discovered that the blueness is super hard to capture in pictures. It's there though, I promise! Also, I was too impatient to see what it really looked like to do my normal air dry so I blow-dried it yet again. My poor curls. 
 

This picture from the Overtone website is a much better representation of what my hair looked like before and looks like now. It's much darker with a bluish tinge to it, especially visible in the sunlight. I absolutely love it! And I went dark just in time for spooky season.

I would most definitely do this again, despite the mess (which was mostly due to me being somewhat unprepared). I also got the daily conditioner which deposits blue in your hair so it should last a while, even though it wasn't cheap. It did make my hair soft and nice though, and when I run out of dye, it'll fade out naturally- no shocking roots. Who knows, I may even try a different color next!

[That all sounded a bit like a sponsored plug but I assure you, my enthusiasm is genuine and unpaid.]

Well, that's my blue hair journey for you. As promised, if you've stayed with me through all that, you will now be rewarded with good news.

Not only did I get the job I wanted as discussed in my last post, but I got the pay I wanted/deserved. 

If you don't want to go through the trouble of reading the last post, here's a quick recap: I went to a job interview, nailed it, they called me to ask if I wanted the job even before I left the parking lot, then HR decided I should get paid half of what I was initially told I would get because they felt my past experience didn't transfer despite clearly not really knowing what it actually was. 

I decided I couldn't let that stand and needed to write an email to HR but put it off until the next day so I could calm down a bit. I had M help me write a professional yet clearly disgruntled email (he's far more used to corporate emailing than me and his help was invaluable), copying the principal I interviewed with (did I mention the job was with an elementary school? Well, I am now if I didn't before). He emailed me back soon afterward, apologized for HR, and said he'd speak to them. The very next day I got a new offer email with the pay I was expecting and had a delightful conversation with the principal about how he knew I was perfect for the job and was excited to have me be part of the team.

What was initially a bad situation made me even more excited to start the job. The people I'm going to be directly working with fought to get me on board and already value what I'm bringing to the table- a super nice feeling, especially given how things have been at my current job. On top of that, I'm super proud of myself for not giving up and standing up for myself. In situations like this, I often get very anxious and overwhelmed and would normally opt to walk away and try again somewhere else. This time though, I decided I had had enough of applying to jobs and interviews and all that, so I wasn't going to give up that easy. And now, I've put in my two weeks notice and am excited to start a new adventure at the beginning of November!

Here's to embracing change!

Get a Move On: Angry Walk

A lot has happened since last we met. I went on a much needed vacation where I visited my family. The day before I ventured on my 8 hour drive to Maryland however, I had a job interview.

A very successful job interview.

So successful that I, well, got the job. They called me before I was even out of the parking lot. 

Oh don't get too excited though. I'm not finished. 

Upon my return and as I wait in quarantine for my covid-19 test to come back, I had a Zoom meeting with HR where I discovered they apparently did not value my experience as much as I was lead to believe and the point at which they put me on their pay scale was shockingly, disappointingly low and quite at odds with what I was told from the get-go. 

I feel under appreciated- a feeling I'm too familiar with in my current job to accept it going into a new one-  and frustrated at the apparent lack of communication between the people I interviewed with who spoke excitedly about how well my experience would benefit the position, versus HR who, well, clearly doesn't see it that way. I had someone describe my current job as "just watching kids, making sure they don't run off," an insultingly gross underestimation of what I actually do, as a way to justify paying me less, turning what started out as disappointment into anger. 

Now, I know these things happen, job hunting takes persistence, yada yada yada, and I do have a couple emails to write before I'm completely out of the running here (I was excited about the job itself so I gotta try all I can to get that good ol' livable wage) but now, now was time for an Angry Walk.

Luckily it's Fall which, in my opinion, is the perfect time for an Angry Walk because the point of an Angry Walk is to come home with a lot less anger than you started out with and how can you not cool down both literally and metaphorically when you're walking through this?

[Quick interlude: look at my sneakers. Look at them. If you are in the market for athletic-ish type shoes (especially if your athletics mostly include putzing around outside and/or getting forced into sporting activities with kids), may I recommend these Merrell Alpines. They are the ideal blend of extreme comfort, style, and delightful color combos.]

I walked, I Angry Texted a friend, I took pictures. Lots of pictures.

I initially started out walking around town but quickly realized fall was in full force so it would be a shame to not find some more trees to walk through. This is the start of the rail trail I walked on, which is where many of these pictures come from.

This guy appears to be on fire. He's showing off more than his surrounding friends. You go small dude.

I do love some good bridge shots. What makes foliage shots even better? Water!

In high-emotion situations, I find I shut down, completed unable to express myself adequately, and often the only way to snap out of it is a good Angry Walk. This time was no exception. I feel far better, ready to move on to my next steps, whatever those may be. 

And at the very least, I know what I'm worth. 

I hope you enjoyed my Angry Walk through some delightful New England foliage as much as I did (though I hope you didn't start out as angry). Now, I'm going to self-medicate with a mini-binge of The Great British Bake Off and dyeing my hair blue. 

Yup.

Made It: Wedding Terrariums

With my wedding being pushed back thanks to Covid-19, I now have time to do a lot of the fun, crafty things I originally wanted to do but ran out of time for. 

At least, that's the idea.

I'm the queen of making grand plans that quickly get forgotten (which, yes, is what happened the first time around) so whether all this happens remains to be seen. Somehow though, I managed to make some slight progress recently in the form of a terrarium. 

At some point, I got it into my head that having living plants, especially terrariums, would make for a really cool centerpiece for the tables at my wedding; something people would actually want to take home and would be able to enjoy for a while. I've never made a terrarium before though so I knew I needed to have a test run before I commit. Luckily, I braved Ikea and stumbled across a really cool (and cheap) domed glass... thing that would make the perfect prototype. Et voila: 

I'd want to use a larger container (but not too large- I want people to bring them home with  them after all) for the centerpieces but this was just a dry run anyway. I really like how it turned out! I knew I'd want to include funny little figurines or whatever in my wedding stuff so I found this tiny alien that I'm pretty sure was an arcade prize of some sort (I don't mean to brag but I'm a pro-level skee baller). It seemed right to put an alien in a weird miniature world I created.

Something I did not think about when I chose the dome though, was that I'd have to put the rocks/charcoal/dirt in a separate container to plant my plant in so I could take the dome on and off for watering without lots of spillage. Luckily I had a small plastic container I could trim down to make fit.

I wanted to make a test terrarium super early because I wanted to see how it'd look over time to see if I needed to make them far in advance or super close to the wedding. Or at all of course. Here's what it looks like a little less than a month later where it sits on my bookshelf:

It's doing super well! As you can see, it's making it's own little rainforest in there. That was something I was worried about in the wedding department actually; would it be too hard to see into/look bad as a centerpiece with all the condensation? I don't think it looks terrible but I am leaning toward an open terrarium now to be honest. I'm still pretty happy to have this dude living on my self though so no regrets. That was the purpose of making it anyway! 

I highly recommend making your own if you're even considering it. It came together quickly and relatively inexpensively. Here are my materials:

1. A plant(s). Make sure they're moisture loving and will fit in your container obviously. I used a Peperomia Frost because it was my favorite plant in my Garden Center's terrarium plant section. You do you of course though.
2. Potting soil. I just used some that I had hanging around.
3. Horticultural charcoal so your plants don't rot in the wicked humid conditions.
4. Sphagnum moss to regulate the humidity.
5. Small stones for drainage.
6. Something to put it all in, preferably made of glass. Thrift stores would probably be a more fun place to find that then Ikea. 

I layered it like so, starting from the bottom: Stones, charcoal, soil, plant, moss. For more of the particulars of how and why, check out this Popular Mechanics article, and/or this one from The Spruce, they're what I consulted the most before starting this. There's tons of help out there for whatever kind of terrarium you want to make though.

It was really fun creating my own little world and look forward to maybe doing it more in the future. It was also nice do do something a little different with my plants, now that I'm a full fledged plant lady. 

And on that note, I'll leave you with this Strange Planet comic. Enjoy!