My Son, Music, Maryland Live!, Mario & Memories

It's been a while, huh?

Sorry.

I realized something this week: since my break from social media, I haven't lusted for polish as much as I used to. I still watch some YouTube videos, but for some reason, they don't trigger me like the IG photos and FB posts about polish did...hmm...

Having said that, there are still a few new polishes I would like from Colores De Carol and Moon Shine Mani. But I'm not chomping at the bit to get at 'em (at full price that is LOL). I wish I could get a birthday code for like 50 percent off or something. That would be nice :).

I've made a drastic change to my diet recently. I don't think I'm ready to talk about it yet, but, it's happening...

I'm currently sipping on cold green tea that my beautiful husband brewed for me last night. It has no sugar in it, but I put in some lime. I think unsweetened green tea with lime is my second favorite beverage next to water with lime. And when I say lime, I mean FRESH-SQUEEZED lime, not that garbage that comes in a plastic bottle or lime-shaped container. That stuff is gross. I hear lemon water is better for you, so I will be drinking lemon water/tea while at home, but at work, where I spend more time, ya girl is drinking her lime water/tea!

This past Tuesday, I found out when I got home that my son (Jay Rojas Twitter / Jay Rojas Instagram) and his band, Top5 (Top5DC Twitter / Top5DC Instagram) were going to be at Maryland Live! Casino for a birthday bash concert - my SON'S birthday! I'm usually way too tired after work, but this Tuesday, I had plenty of energy and was ready to go! And OH.MY.GAWSH!!! I had an AMAZING time! The music was every kind of nostalgic and wonderful and so much fun! There was also a special guest appearance by David Correy (David Correy Twitter / David Correy Instagram), whose voice is absolutely AMAZING! My son had flown to LA to play the guitar for one of David's gigs, or a studio session - I don't remember - a few months back and he was so appreciative, that he decided to honor my son with his presence, and sang a couple of songs.

I also met Mario's (Mario on Twitter) brother, DJ, and his father, Derryl, who introduced me to his daughter, AB (I believe her name is April, but that's how he refers to her :)) who is also pursuing a music career. He was extremely fun and social. Here are some crazy facts:

• Derryl used to work for UPS and my husband REMEMBERED him from his route in his parents neighborhood when he was a teenager! He used to wave at him while playing basketball! Crazy!!
• The song, "You Should Let Me Love You," by Mario was the very first song my husband Jay and I ever danced to together, and, I consider it a kind of "theme song" to our early relationship.
• My son has played the guitar for Mario.

I loved to hear all of the positive things people had to say about my son; David, Derryl, DJ and AB all had great things to say about how goodhearted and supportive my son is, and his band mates really celebrated him, too.

It was such a joy, as a mom, to witness all of that celebration in honor of my son. It made me think about the fact that I've loved and wanted that boy since the second I found out he was cooking in my belly. I was 17 and still in high school but I didn't care! Not one day did I ever regret conceiving, carrying and giving birth to that boy. Not ONE! I walked across that stage at graduation exactly two months before he was born, grateful not to be a dropout or failure, like most teenage girls tend to be when pregnant. He was loved so hard by all of us: ME, my mom, his dad's mom, my sister, brother, their friends - shoot, ANYONE who met my boy LOVED him! Not everyone can say they had that kind of start in life...he was and is truly blessed. I hope he knows that!

And it's no wonder he has such a love of music. Music was my LIFE back then. I was a school-choir girl; music stayed in my ear all day every day. I listened to it at home, in cars, didn't matter. I loved music. Now, though? I can do without it most days. I think it's been this way since probably my early 30's. Not sure what changed. What's funny is that at about the same time, my son was just about coming into his interest in, and tapping into his secret talent for, the guitar. He is 100 percent self-taught, too, and it just blows me away...

Anyway, it was an exciting evening! I got maybe one hour of sleep that night and still got to work on time the next morning:).

Other tidbits:

• Work has been busy-busy-busy!
• I'll be 42 in five days (8/29).
• I am still deciding what to buy myself for my birthday - if I buy myself anything at all this year....it's usually polish or a purse (and sometimes both LOL!) but we'll see :). 

I think you're all caught up now!

Until next time, be blessed!

XOXOXO -  Jess

Breaking From Social Media/New Nail Shape/Sally Hansen Metro Midnight

I made the decision to take a break from social media a few days ago: from Instagram and Facebook mostly. I'm barely on Twitter anyway, but I won't be sharing my new blogs to it like I was doing previously. I won't go into why I did this. I barely even know really. I just needed to step away and give my eyes a rest from those sites. I even deleted the apps from my phone to avoid temptation.

On Friday, I decided to reshape my nails. They're now somewhat almond-shaped? I only did it to my left hand because you need a little length in order to make it work. I'm waiting for the nails on my right hand to grow out before doing the same to them, though knowing me, I'll be sick of this shape before that happens. In the meantime, my Cinderella nails are squoval - yes, squoval. The last time I spoke about them, I'd rounded them out, but then I changed them back about a week or two later.

I spent all day out and about enjoying my husband yesterday. I'd taken my polish off on Thursday night to paint my nails on Friday, but I ended up just going naked for the entire day - I NEVER do this! Here's a picture of my newly shaped naked nails, flaws and all:

Naked Nails

I've never been able to leave the house with naked nails and NOT come back home with peeling or chips on my nails. However, since I went back to using Simply Pure Nail Oil, my nails have been doing great. They survived the entire day with zero issues, and I didn't feel like I had to be super extra careful with them either, which is crazy.

While we were out, I got the idea to stop at Rite Aid to look for Metro Midnight from the Sally Hansen Miracle Gel line. My husband drove me all around town a couple of weeks ago looking for this polish at CVS's only, because I wanted to use Extra Bucks. No luck. They simply didn't carry it. Yet my first and only visit to a Rite Aid - right by my house no less - was victorious! There was only one left, too! I ended up getting 20 percent off during Rite Aid's Friends and Family sale. I still paid more than I would have if I could have used EBs, but I don't regret it.

This polish is opaque in two coats, but, I like the color better in three, so that's what I did. I also accented my thumb and ring fingers with Colores De Carol's Camellia, which looks gorgeous over this slightly mauvey lilac holographic. I NEED Sally Hansen to create an entire collection or three of holographics in all kinds of colors: olive, dark blue, light blue, deep purple, orange, deep green, and so on and so forth. This shade is super chic, though I can't say it's good for all skin tones. It very barely looks decent on my light, neutral, olive skin, but I LOVE her anyway.

Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Metro Midnight - Natural Daylight
Colores De Carol Camellia on Top of Ring Finger

Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Metro Midnight - Natural Daylight
Colores De Carol Camellia on Top of Ring Finger

Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Metro Midnight - Indoors with Flash
Colores De Carol Camellia on Top of Ring Finger

As I said before, this polish is impossible to find in CVS stores, but I've heard several people mention finding it at Rite Aid and even Kmart. Ulta is also selling it on their website. I love when a mainstream brand goes out of their comfort zone and does something like this. It might not be special to more experienced polish connoisseurs, particularly those of us who frequently shop indie polish, but for Sally Hansen, it's special, and I'm happy to have her in my collection.

Until next time, Be Blessed!

XOXOXO - Jess

Rainbows And Unicorns...8/8/18

Today is my wedding anniversary. My husband and I have been married for eight years...it feels nowhere near that long...

In spite of the fact that we're two incredibly different people with different mindsets, interests, patience levels, backgrounds and upbringings, I look at him and see the very extension of my being... like, he IS me and I AM him...and yet I don't feel like we've known each other since 2004, been a couple since 2007, been married since 2010. He still feels new and foreign - I still can't believe that he's my husband - and yet he's so very familiar. Does that make any sense?

It's weird. I don't consider people property, and I certainly don't treat them that way (anymore), but I look at my husband and all I can think is, "Mine!" And yet, some days, I look at him and I'm like, "Is this my husband for real? This beautiful, kind, hilarious, sexy, loving and affectionate man actually chose to marry me and chooses to stay with me every day? How did I get so blessed?"

This man makes me laugh hysterically at least once every single day; I don't know how he does it. In my mind, he goes out of his way to do and say things to make me laugh. However, the other day when we were talking about how much fun we have with each other, he let me know that it's second nature to him; that he barely even thinks about it anymore, it just happens. He loves my laugh, too. I don't like it, and I've encountered people in public who were super annoyed by it, but when he sees that, he just makes me laugh even more. He thinks it's hilarious to further annoy people who, in his mind, are just bitter because they can't laugh like I do LOL!

I don't mean to paint this rainbows-and-unicorns-picture of my marriage. It's just that at the end of the day, the good always outweighs the bad. We forgive each other quickly. We touch, kiss, play and say we love each other every day. We still say please and thank you. We do little things for each other and consider each other. We enjoy each other's company and don't take it personally when we would prefer to be alone sometimes to do what we like to do, watch what we like to watch. Our tastes in TV are SO different. His interests are far more varied than mine, I tend to repeat watch movies and stick to only certain kinds of shows. But, we do sometimes come together to watch trash shows like 90 Day Fiance and Married At First Sight. I know, don't judge us! Oh, and as for non-trash shows we love to watch together, there's MasterChef, MasterChef Junior, some game shows (I really love Family Feud!) and The Walking Dead, yes! Not trash, just good :).

In short, we adore being together, yet respect each other's individuality. I love that about us.

Happy Eighth Anniversary to US! I pray we have infinity more!

Until Next Time, Be Blessed!

XOXOXO - Jess

Addicted To Woody...Plus Weird Things...8/1/18

So what's been keeping my chin down and any interest in normal every day life activities to an absolute minimum? This game called Woody. It's like an unforgiving game of Tetris with no undo's, save-for-laters or idea of what three pieces you're going to get next. I have no idea what attracts me to this extremely unpleasant game, but it's what's been occupying way too much of my time these days.

My daughter is home from school for three weeks. We drove up to New York last Friday to get her. On the way back, we stopped in Scranton, PA, cuz, The Office, but there's really no Office-related stuff to see there. We ended up eating at a diner called Sharon's Place, where we split a single three-egg omelet between the three of us, because, we're not vegan anymore, apparently, but still don't care to make eggs and meat the focus of our lives. We also had our own servings of home fries and pancakes (husband had french toast). I only ate one of the two pancakes I was served because one was rubber and the other was perfect. My husband said his french toast tasted like "old shoe." The waitress told us they had a new cook who was still learning the ropes when she noticed one of my pancakes was completely uneaten. She took it off our check.

Now I'm thinking about pancakes...did I ever tell you that I really LOVE pancakes, but rarely get to eat them? Also, I'm really picky about them - I don't eat just any old random pancakes. They gotta be just right. How my fork sinks into a pancake tells me all I need to know about it's edibility. If I don't like my fork's report, it ain't going in my mouth.

Anyway, after the diner, we visited the Everhart Museum and then took a short hike on the Scranton Lake walking trail. I was a sweaty disgusting mess - listen, it really was extremely hot and humid, and I NEVER do anything outdoors but walk to and from modes of transportation in that kind of weather. The fact that I didn't whine and complain the entire way was really quite shocking - the fact that I didn't even think about wanting to whine and complain, even shockinger (yes, made up word). Even my husband was impressed with my participation in this unexpected torture - I mean, family activity. It was something he wanted to do and I just went with it, no complaints, just resolve to get 'er done ("'er" being the hike itself in case you didn't get what I was saying :)).

My sister was texting me all day yesterday, and the things she was saying to and about me felt foreign. I don't recognize this sister she says she has in me. You know, if you think about it, people don't really get to hear how other people feel about them very often - or maybe it's just my experience. But, to hear her speak, I'm really something special. To read that she actually misses being around me is just plain weird. I love and miss her, too, of course, but she's actually likable, so it makes sense.

I never think anyone wants to be near me - except for Jason, of course; but then again, I'm the possessor of the vagina he likes so much, so, you know, necessity. I'm kidding. He's been inexplicably obsessed with me since way before he had access to that. Then again, God jive-like created him specifically for me so that doesn't count.

Anyway, that's all I have for now :)

Until next time, stay blessed!

XOXOXO - Jess