I went to Twelve 28 Tattoo today for my appointment with Joy. As you may remember, I went in last week for my consultation and it was fun telling Joy all my bee-nerd stuff.

Today, I went back. But before I went back, I took THE LAST PHOTO OF MY UN-BEED SHOULDER. EVER.

When I got there, she had four simple line-drawings of bees for me to look at, and I picked three of them to transfer to my skin. I also got to see Joy’s awesome work room which has many excellent Star Wars things in it, including many many Star Wars Pez dispensers that I do not own, such as a glow-in-the-dark Palpatine. How awesome is that?

Anyway, if you’ve never had a tattoo, the procedure was pretty much like my first one to begin. We talked a little bit about placement, and then Joy transferred one of the line drawings to my shoulder. I lay down on the chair, and Joy pinned up the pictures of bees that I had given her (bee pinups!) and got out a whole bunch of inks, and went to work.

The rest of it was nothing like my first one. First off, the first tattoo I got was all black. So I didn’t realize quite how much blood was being wiped away with the ink. It’s not a ton, but it’s enough to make everything smudgey red.

(However, I will also tell you the same thing I said the last time– for those of you who have thought about getting a tattoo but are afraid of the pain, it does not hurt very much. If you have ever gone to the dentist and gotten your teeth cleaned, the best thing I can compare it to is that scrapey sensation,. Sometimes it will hurt a little bit for just a second or two, and then it goes back to feeling scrapey. If anything, my neck hurt more from getting stiff than my skin hurt from having a tiny needle in it).

Joy finished the first bee, and it looked awesome. So she asked if we should continue and I said yessirree, Bob. I did not actually say that, but I was pretty enthusiastic, I think.

These bees, they are tiny pieces of art. I can’t tell you how happy I am with them. They are like little watercolor paintings on my skin, the way all the colors mix together.

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beautyofgrey

I wore this one to work today! I really like the little rosette on it.

I have been having a little love affair with dresses that I probably would never have even considered wearing a couple of years ago. The kind that look frumpy on the hanger! The kind with crazy prints that look like the Von Trapp Family’s discarded curtains. When I started working at King Features, I had to upgrade my wardrobe after a year of working out of my apartment and having to dress for comic shows. I mean, I cuted up, but my cuting up involved cute tee shirts and floofy skirts, and I needed to step it up a little.

This one is a little little-girly, but I freaking loved the fabric too much to pass it up. It’s crazy soft and floaty and reminds me of a dress I had in college, that had butterflies on it in similar colors.

The thing is that at first I was buying slacks and stuff, and that’s just not me. I mean, like I was saying to drjeff, if I had my druthers, I would still be wearing ball gowns and shit like I did in college. And I just had no idea how to dress like me but still like a grownup. It was awkward. I think I posted a bunch of posts here asking people how to dress, but I just didn’t quite get it.

It didn’t help that my body type made dressing hard. I mean, I am lucky in that I’m a normal dress size
(6-8), but my boobs pretty much mean that a lot of clothes are out. Strapless? Out. Strappy? Out. Halter? Nope. Backless? Nope. Nothing with an empire waist or any kind of decoration around the bustline, because it always falls at the wrong place.

This one isn’t my typical style, really, but I really liked the print and the sleeves! I was on a cute floral print kick, apparently! Which I like because so many colors!

And then I started watching Mad Men, and like every single person who has ever seen Mad Men, developed a huge crush on Christina Hendricks. In between fanning myself off, though, I noticed that here’s finally someone who is pretty much exactly my size. We have almost the same measurements and it was like, hello, lightbulb! I can see how all these clothes look on her and try to buy things with similar styles. And that’s what I’ve been doing since, well, the end of last summer. And I never feel like I’ve put something stupid on because I don’t know how to dress anymore!

On to drinks!

Highland Park

Ingredients
2.5 oz G’Vine gin
.5 oz limoncello
1/4 cup fresh lilac blossoms (removed from stems) plus some blossoms for garnish.
.25 oz St. Germain

Instructions
Add gin, limoncello, lilacs to pitcher or glass with ice and muddle well.
Let sit for 5 minutes
Coat 1 chilled glass with St. Germain, discard excess
Pour, garnish with remaining lilacs.

Remedy (This and variations on this is what I was drinking all last week when I was crazy sick)

Ingredients
2 oz Bulldog gin
1 oz Elisir MP Roux
1 Tb local honey

Instructions
Put all ingredients in a pitcher or glass with ice and stir. You need to stir for a while to get the honey to dissolve if you are using thick honey.
Pour into chilled glass!
That is all!

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I am liking the style, but not the split ends.

I DID call the salon back and they put me in for a redo. Nice! Just because, you know. Split ends. We’ll see how that goes. Same stylist. I think just, you know, chopping off a full inch all the way around would fix it. I’m not sure how that’ll work with the style she gave me, but hey! We’ll see.

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I always freak out a little bit before I go to the hairdresser. I know, it’s kind of crazy, and probably if I went more than once a year, I wouldn’t freak out as much. But I was looking for curly hairstyles online and if you Google “curly hairstyles” the first things you get are:

and:

Yeah. I think not. So then pointed me toward Googling Styling Naturally Curly Hair instead, which was significantly better and I am a little ashamed that I didn’t think of putting in the “naturally” myself. Sadly, I was also rushing out the door by then so I did a quick cursory look but didn’t really get to think about any of them.

I got to the salon and waited a bit for my appointment (the hairdresser was running late but was very apologetic), and then I consulted with her for a bit. My first disappointment was that she immediately nixed short hair without even seeming to consider it when I brought up the possibility. I told her that I didn’t have something specific in mind, but that I really just wanted a hairstyle that was an actual hairstyle and not just lopping off the ends. I said I’d been thinking about cutting it very short and she did the whole “no, your hair is too beautiful, you don’t want to do that,” which always kind of pisses me off because it’s a very objectifying view of women’s hair, as far as I’m concerned. But she had some suggestions and did listen to what I did want and knew I definitely didn’t want.

I got shampooed (the only time my hair has been shampooed in two years has been when I’ve gone to salons) and then they handed me back over to the hairdresser, and I talked a little more about how I didn’t like how flat the top of my head looked with my current hair.

She lopped off maybe four inches, so it’s short…er, but it’s not short. It’s still longer than shoulder-length, and she cut it at an angle and thinned the back.

Things that impressed me: one, she and her assistant put my whole head in finger-curls. Two, when I told her that I don’t use products, she didn’t push me to buy stuff or try to convince me that my way was wrong. Usually when I go for a haircut, I tell the stylist that I don’t use any products except silicone-free conditioner, shea butter, honey, goat’s milk soap, and natural oils in my hair, and they freak out and start telling me that I NEED products. But she didn’t, she actually went to the back and got out all the bottles of all their conditioners and let me read them and told me to pick which one I wanted her to use because she wanted to make sure that what I got was closest to what I’d get at home. One of them was silicone-free. So that was awesome.

Things that didn’t impress me: Apart from the whole “it’s a crime to cut your hair” bullshit which I’m kind of sick of hearing and definitely don’t want from a hairdresser, I still have split ends this morning. Which I don’t think is acceptable from a haircut at a ridiculously expensive salon, even if I get a discount because of my job. They always say to call back if there is a problem but I never know whether to believe them or not, or if they’ll get pissed off if people do, or if that’s only something that giant douchebags do, but I’ve never left a hair salon still with split ends.

She did, however, make my hair look like it has a style, and definitely took care of my complaint about the top being so flat.

So! That is my story. I have mixed feelings, largely because of the split ends and the fact that I don’t like a hairdresser nixing one option out of hand. But I liked other parts of the experience very much.

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I have been splitting hairs a lot lately.

No, literally.

I haven’t had my hair cut in a little less than a year. This is normal for me, once or twice a year is about all I cut my hair. What is abnormal for me is that I have split ends.

DOZENS of them.

They are fascinating to me, these hairs that are slowly multiplying themselves, separating like some kind of amoeba, sometimes from the ends but even more fascinatingly from their centers, so they bubble up and create strange little spaces in their middles. I keep catching them and peeling them as far as I can before they split off completely, which I know is horrible for my hair, but it is just too much fun. I’m completely mesmerized by it!

Anyway, tomorrow, I am going to get my hairs cut. I discovered that my job entitles me to a discount at Bumble & Bumble (go figure!), so I booked an appointment there, and I’m very excited about it.

I’m trying to figure out whether to get a significant haircut or not. The problem with my hair is that I have never had long hair and a genuine hair style at the same time– it’s hard to find a hairdresser, even at a curly-hair salon, who actually gives curly hair a unique style instead of just lopping off the dead bits and shaping it a little. And I don’t even really know what styles would be available, since everyone I know with long, curly hair, wears it the same– unless I cut it short, but I can’t decide if I want to do that or not. My hair is starting to go grey and I keep thinking that if I cut my hair all off now, it might be the last time in my life that I have long hair in its proper color.

I don’t know! Here is my hair now, what do you think?

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Comics Go Pink!

Next Sunday, 56 of the King Features comics will be printed in pink (or mostly pink, or use pink as a significant color in the strip) in EVERY NEWSPAPER that they appear in. We are also raising money for breast cancer research, either through donations or by bidding on our auction for an original piece of artwork by Dan Piraro.

I designed the website, and today it was featured in the New York Times!

More importantly, I imagine almost everyone reading this has been affected by breast cancer in some way. I know a lot of different activities and events take place in October, and I just wanted to say that I hope that beyond any money we raise, you know that we are all behind you 100% and support you and your loved ones. Next Sunday, we’ll be posting all the comics that “went pink” for the event so that you can take a look at them all even if your local newspaper doesn’t carry them.

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Our team was made up of about 20 cartoonists, comic fans, friends, and people who lost a bet. Everyone was so nice and a lot of fun to chat with. We also ended up raising about $3500, the second-highest amount raised by any other group in the run! I personally raised about $300, and I would like to thank all of you so much for contributing.

I was very proud of myself– I ran all 5k from start to finish without stopping or walking. I ran a bit slower than a lot of people, but I met my goal of running the entire thing. It was a bit intimidating, though, when the lady pushing the double-stroller ran faster than me. That might get turned into a comic. It was a pretty hard run, harder than my usual track, but it was so gratifying to finish it.

I have decided that I want to keep running in the morning, although I am not going to run 5k every morning– that was a bit much, and I often felt a bit strained by the end. Today I ran 3k, but I made a point of making myself run harder than I did when I was running 5k, so it was still a proper workout. One thing I really like about running in the morning is that if I get up at 6:30, by the time I get to work at 9 am, I’ve already been up for two hours, and that really makes a difference in how I feel at work. I’m ready to work, and not groggy for the first hour.

There is one drawback I haven’t mentioned, and that is the effect on my boobs! My breasts are really sore when I finish a long run– on Saturday, they were pretty painful, more painful than anything else I felt. I also have been breaking out like a kid who just hit puberty in my cleavage area, with really big, painful acne. Which is ugly, too. And it’s a place I rarely got acne before I started running, so I can tell it’s directly related. I was wondering, do any of the runners who read this have either of these issues? What do you do about them? Thanks!

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So, beginning to run marked the first time in my life probably since I hit puberty and started to have to shower every day that I got up and did things in the morning, regularly, without showering first.

I get up. I put on my running clothes. I drink a glass of water. I go to the track, I run my 5k, I come home. I eat breakfast: yogurt and granola, sometimes with honey or fruit. A glass of water or lemonade. Then, and only then do I shower.

It’s changed my routine on days when I don’t run, too. I get up, I do my yoga while still wearing my pajamas. I eat the same breakfast and dawdle over email, since I always have more time on these mornings. Then I shower.

The thing is, it changes the experience of stepping under that spigot of hot water. I no longer feel like I’m half-asleep, like I need the sensation of droplets beating against my back to wake me up: I’m already awake. Instead, I can feel just exactly how the heat and the pressure and the moisture interacts with my skin and my muscles: loosening tightness, making me feel more free. I can feel the sweat washing away; I can tell the difference in the way my body reacts to things pre- and post-shower.

Is it a little weird to wax poetic about the difference in a single mundane experience when a routine changes? Maybe. But it is such a little, common thing, that the way it has changed is astounding to me; I never imagined that it could change in quite that way.

There are a few other things I’ve noticed. Today, at my parents, I weighed myself for the first time in a few weeks. In spite of everyone saying I look skinnier, my weight has actually increased about three pounds since the last time I weighed myself. I’m also noticing more difficulty in getting pants (which I barely wear in the summer; I am much more of a skirt person and only put on pants when the weather cools and demands it) to fit around my thighs. Three pounds is hardly enough weight gain for it to be noticeable on someone completely average in size like myself, but it tells me that running is having an effect, a noticeable, quantifiable effect on my body.

I’ve run 5k six times now. The run is next Saturday and I am confident that I am prepared for it. I will be reminding you all again that you can donate money to Run for Congo Women through my team here or through me individually here, but you can go do it right now if you would like to. It lets you donate even little amounts like $2.50 so give what you can.

I’va also decided that I like the way I feel, knowing that I am fit and active and not at risk of becoming a WALL-E like sedentary blob of humanity, my bones and muscles deteriorating from all the time spent typing letters into a computer. I intend to keep running once the run is over, maybe not 5k every day but probably 3k, which is a little under 2 miles.

One thing I keep thinking about is my high school physical education experience. I think the largest contributing factor to my not working out, to my not keeping physically fit over the years was the lack of a positive phys ed experience. I don’t think it was a bad experience by any means but it was targeted largely at getting us to hit fitness milestones required by the state, and not so much at giving us a set of good fitness habits we could carry with us. Not like English, where I learned to self-edit and take criticism well, not like History, where I learned to debate with consideration for another viewpoint. Not like Science, where I learned organization and methods.

One thing we did in Phys Ed class from time to time was run a mile. I remember running that mile, the way I would be out of breath, anguished, in agony by the time the first lap was over, the way it seemed interminable and excruciating, like every step was a chore. I think about that, and compare it to my experience now, where I can, at my current pace, only having worked on this for about a month exactly, run close to twice that before I start to feel like running is hard work. I am lucky in that I have a body that works well, that does what I tell it, even when I haven’t always been a very good caretaker. I am surprised, pleasantly surprised, that my body has responded as well as it has, but it has also taught me something:

Running is not as hard as it seemed when I was a teenager.

I have no doubt that my seventeen-year-old body, if I had pushed it to be a better athlete, would have responded better than my 32-year-old body. And yet, no matter how many times I was sent out to the track and told to run a mile, it was a torturous experience. I never improved, never got better, never had the moments like the ones I have been having so often lately, where I realize that I can do this, and maybe more. And it is leaving me wondering why that is. Why, at a point in my life when I should have been able to excel at this, given the appropriate measure of commitment, could I barely manage to succeed?

I started thinking about how the mile run was handled in my Phys Ed classes, and how we were basically turned loose on the track, and told to run (after some stretching). We weren’t given advice or tips, but more importantly– and this is the place where my experience now differs the most– we were never told to go out and run a lap. We weren’t told to work up to a mile, to practice doing one lap until we were comfortable doing that much and didn’t feel like we were out of breath or in pain by the end of it. To them more to two laps. To conquer the half-mile or even the quarter-mile and have a strong sense of our own success at that before being told to run a full mile. And yes, there will always be some people who really can’t do more than a half-mile or a quarter-mile because of health or ability factors outside of their control, but for kids like me, we would have been able to lift barriers to our success at fitness that should not have existed to begin with.

I can now consistently run three miles. I can consistently run about one and three-quarters before I start feeling much of an effect on my body. If you had told me that at sixteen, that at twice my age, I would be able to run three times what I could run then, I would not have believed it. And while I’m proud of myself now, I can’t help feeling that it is a shame that I was unable to really have confidence in my ability then.

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I was disappointed because this is the first time I ran less than my previous runs, but my chest started to twinge really badly and slowing down didn’t stop it. It was also windy and rainy, and I suspect that the weather made it more difficult for me to run. I think I also may have accelerated too quickly early on.

Some things I’ve noticed about running: First off, I have been waking up at 6:15 every morning to do my running, and that’s about two hours earlier than I usually wake up– and one hour earlier than I wake up in the summer. Yet, I am not going to bed any earlier and I don’t feel tired. I am much more alert when I get to work than when I woke up at my usual time, and that I really like.

I am also a LOT hungrier, especially for fats, proteins and carbs. I am eating a lot more food, and specifically have found myself craving meat, dairy, bready foods and potatoes. I don’t find that I want vegetables as much as I usually do. It’s sort of weird because it’s the opposite of my usual diet, which is very green-vegetable-and-legume-heavy. I have been eating breakfast, but still have a hard time getting to lunch without a snack.

Other than today, when I just felt awful by the time I hit 4k, I have been really impressed with how visibly my endurance has improved. The first time I ran 1k, I felt like it was really wearing on me at about .5k, but by the time I got to 4k, I really only started feeling tired and out of breath around 2k. And it’s enough I can work through it.

One thing that is funny is that I have a hard time keeping myself at a slower pace, even though I’m trying to pace myself. If there are other people running, my body automatically adjusts to run at their pace, without me even really thinking about it. I also find myself speeding up when I am close to reaching milestones. For example, when I get close to completing 1k, I start running a little faster. I often don’t even notice it and it’s actually harder for me to adjust to a slower pace than a faster one.

I think that’s really everything I have to say for today. In spite of today’s setbacks, I’m very confident that in two weeks I’ll be fairly comfortable with running 5k and should be ok for the run!

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My parents say they can actually see a physical difference since I started running. It’s only been three weeks, though, so I don’t really believe them. I think it’s more that they’re proud of me for doing it :-P I am going to take more pictures, though, and see if there really is any comparison to some of my earlier fitness pics.

3k is hard stuff! I was actually more proud of myself the second time, because doing it once could just be a fluke. Twice is getting more like I can do it consistently.

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