Welcome to Phoenix!

AND HELLO, beautiful, shiny, sleek hair! Where were you when I needed you in New Orleans?! I've been here for an hour and I already don't recognize my hair.
This is just a quick post that serves as a shout-out to the Chandler Fashion Center Marriot. This place is great! They allowed me to check in at 9 am instead of 3pm, and when the concierge saw my laptop bag he asked the clerk to upgrade me to a suite with an office. So yeah! I'm in a top-floor suite with a view and I'm working on that darned continuing education article, at a desk with all manner of charging outlets, and using free wifi. This is so much nicer than crashing at Starbucks with my luggage like I had planned. I did get some Starbucks at the cafe downstairs, though - getting up at 4 am makes a gal tired. I plan on getting some work in this morning, then going for a run around the grounds before registering for the conference and meeting my company for dinner. Here's to getting things done!

Breaking Beauty Rules

Subtitle: "How to totally misuse items in your makeup kit".
This might be my single biggest lazy beauty trick. And 'cause I'm a sweetheart, I'll share it with you!
It's about eyeliner. To me, eyeliner should give the impression of thick lashes (or enhance thick lashes), not "define the eye" or circle the eye or underline the eye or ring the eye. Basically, I'm too lazy to put mascara on (It's so hard to get right, so time-consuming to apply correctly, so difficult and messy to remove), so I let my eyeliner do the job instead.
The big secret? Use lipliner instead. I mean a high quality, self-sharpening one (the kind that telescopes out of the stick). There are a wide variety of lipliner colors available, but they all have one thing in common: a red base. This makes your liner look incredibly natural. If you look at your lash line you'll notice the skin has a pink, red, or purple tint in that area. Selecting a color that picks up that tint makes the line look much more natural and gives the impression of naturally thick lashes. A plain black or brown can't blend in with your skin and therefor does not appear to be part of your lash line at all, but a fake line of pigment (which is what it is). You have to go with a red!
I promise.
Right now I'm using Revlon Colorstay in Figs, but I've also used Eggplant, Wine, Blackberry, and Plum. If you have lighter lashes, you would probably look great in Sienna, Nude, or Rust.
Now go try it and then tell me how impressed you are.

Some gross things only happen to me.

Yesterday I worked an early shift in Mandeville (across Lake Ponchartrain) and decided that, since I was already over there, I would go for a run on the Mandeville Lakefront along the seawall.

So I packed my gym bag and changed in the bathroom before heading to the lake. It was hot out, and I realized that I hadn't filled up my water bottle. It was about 1/2 full and I had an hour drive back home. About a mile in I stopped to stretch and eyed the lake thirstily. Here I was, all hot and thirsty already, and there was this huge body of water just feet away! I know I shouldn't drink lake water - the lake is polluted and can be brackish, and is probably host to a variety of parasites. But it was SO hot! I tiptoed down some seawall stairs and slurped up a little handful of water. Ahhh! I resumed my run - then stopped short in about 3 yards. Less than ten feet from my little drink there was a dead dog floating in the lake. It had obviously been dead for awhile and was starting to decompose. I'm not joking. I couldn't see it when I got a drink because of the position of the stairs.
YUMMY!
In better news: My friend Steve who came over for lunch after the Crescent City Classic talked my into weaning myself off my knee strap. He pointed out that relying on the strap prevents development of muscles that keep your patella tracking correctly. So yesterday I left the strap off and I was surprised that it wasn't too painful. This morning it is a little sore but I think I'll skip it again on today's run. I'll let you know about my progress with that.

Dress re-do

On my recent shopping spree I bought a FREAKIN' CUTE (sorry to get all high school on you there) dress at an undisclosed location (ok, ok, it was Rainbow). Weeell...the dress was adorable on the hanger.

On me it made me look like I had two butts. I'm serious! The large peplum imitates, you know, the hip area. Ideally, a peplum should be placed parallel to your hips and rear - ie, the widest part of the peplum corresponds with the widest part of your bum, and the top of the peplum cinches in at your waist. This dress didn't fit that way at all. Perhaps this is a direct result of shopping in a pre-teen clothing store, but I think that's just a correlation. Whatever the reason, or reasoning on the designers' parts, the peplum started above the waist and ended mid-rear. This gave a profile of, well, two butts.
I have used a handy piece of torn notebook paper to illustrate this design concept.

See?
Not one to waste $10, I grabbed my trusty sewing scissors and performed dress surgery. I removed part of the peplum and restitched it as a sleeker "mini peplum" that totally flatters!


Now I'm back to one butt, albeit large. You see it is totally holding its own and did not need back up from a second butt. What do you think - worth the $10 and a half hour of sewing? I say yes!

Crescent City Classic 10k!

Sorry about no awesome race pictures of my brothers whizzing across the finish line...my personal photographer was running, too, so I might have to post some ugly MarathonFoto picture in all their pirated glory later (please excuse the watermark).

I had a WEIRD race. It was weird because I felt bad the whole time - like I was dehydrated and it was a lot of effort. This is the second race I ran where I started out dehydrated, and both had the same thing in common: two hours before start with no water available! I think I'm on to something with these races: I have GOT to hydrate better, the day before and morning of the race. And I guess I could skip the half-bottle of Chardonnay the evening before and the mugs of coffee early in the morning, right? But despite that, I did make my time goal - BARELY - finishing in 47:59. I'm happy about the time but I still feel like, "Ugh, bad race" even though it really wasn't. The weirdest part was after the race though. As I crossed the finish I was kind of gagging a little - just a little racing habit I have when it's hot out, sorry folks. I got pulled into the medical tent! I promised the EMTs I was ok but I think they just wanted me off the finish line. They made me sit, but then they started rushing to help a runner who collapsed at the line. Since they put him in a wheelchair, I got up to move out of their way. And another EMT walked over and started shouting at me and actually manhandled me out of the area! I was so surprised I could barely blurt, "I'm here because the EMTs made me sit down!" and he said, "Oh, oops, you're in medical? Oh." Well, too late pal, you already physically shoved me outside the police barricade! Only me. (however, I do want to mention that all the other EMTs were so sweet and helpful. This guy was an aberration).
And how did the fam do?
Wonderful of course! Dad walked it in 80 minutes; David actually shaved 10 minutes off last years time and finished in a little over an hour.
And the brothers? This was Sam's first big race. He ran his first actual race last week, a 5k, and placed 2nd in his age group. Today he ran in 43:06 and was in the top 500 finishers! He also got a chance to talk to one of the Kenyan competitors before the race, who very politely inquired about Sam's goal time!
Abe did well at 36:29,placing 55th, but I think he's a long distance runner at heart. His 1/2 marathon time only added 6 seconds per mile. However, he had some shoe complaints: he wore new racing flats today and decided he doesn't like them at all. It's his first pair of flats.
We had the family and some friends over for lunch after, and now I'm seeking COFFEE.
Happy Easter to all!

Business Trip in Phoenix

This is Phoenix, shown in a picture shamelessly swiped off the visitor's bureau website.
Next Thursday (at the crack of dawn, my flight departs at 6:05!) I'm heading to Phoenix to represent my region at the Clinical Care Options HIV symposium. I'm thrilled to go because HIV is one of my primary areas of interest and has a large impact in our area. Plus when I get back I'll be giving presentations throughout the region to transmit new information to other pharmacists, and I do so love public speaking (seriously, I do).
The problem is that I keep changing my mind about what to pack. Even though it is a weekend conference, I want to keep my appearance professional. But I also need to stay comfortable and be prepared for two extremes:
1. Freezing cold convention rooms.
2. Super hot and sunny weather (temps predicted to be mid 80's throughout).
So...I need your help packing!
Things to keep in mind: I arrive Thursday at 8:30 am and have nothing to do all day until a dinner at 6. And of course I can't check in until 3. So Thursday's outfit should probably be able to go from travel to some sort of all-day activity (I was planning on actually doing something in Phoenix but I decided it might be wise just to work on the CE I'm writing at the hotel coffee shop) to dinner with colleagues.
I don't expect to do much walking.
And Sunday is just a travel day.
My wardrobe has some good basic pieces:
- skinny black or khaki pants*
- black or gray dress pants
- black or brown blazers; short sleeved gray blazer
- gray sheath dress
- black or gray pencil skirts
- a plethora of button-downs, but I'm afraid of them wrinkling
- several long or short sleeved nice Ts that I usually dress up with statement jewelry or a scarf; most are bright colors (teal, royal, yellow, turquoise) but I have black and white as well.
- A few camisoles and pull over sweaters of the nicer variety
- A dressy white cardigan
- Comfortable back heels, black or copper flats
So if you feel like playing mix-n-match in my closet, I would be forever grateful for some guidance here!

*I had these amazing Banana Republic cigarette leg pants in black and olive and always bemoaned the fact that the style was no longer made. Then I found a khaki pair on Ebay and they arrived yesterday - HEAVEN! I love it when I find a discontinued style I adore! I feel so Audrey Hepburn!

Day off SHOPPING SPREE!

I was off work yesterday because I have to work on EASTER SUNDAY. Poor me. Actually I traded for Sunday: I was scheduled to work Saturday, but I had already registered for the Crescent City Classic 10k. So I swapped with another pharmacist - who was probably happy to get Easter off!
Working the weekend gives you a sometimes extremely useful day off in the middle of the week. If I have errands to run I love these mid-week days off, but apparently if I don't have pressing matters I just spend oodles of money.
That's what I did yesterday!
First I went to Pier 1, where I found baskets (on sale) to fit my wire shelf so I can pretend it isn't college student furniture. These baskets have been in the works for about a year: I have had so much trouble finding the right size; then when I did find a set of three on Target's website they sent me just one basket. When I called they informed me that the item had been discontinued (nice). The new baskets are shorter, so I am stacking them by twos.

I also bought these tiny bowls on clearance for $1; they match my casual plates and are much more cereal-sized than our big soup bowls.

The real reason for my errand was to buy drinking glasses at World Market, which is right next to Pier 1. Our glasses supply has been dwindling as we clumsily break them; we were down to just 4 glasses! I broke down and went shopping when I tried out a super cheap powdered dishwasher detergent from the dollar store. It scratched all my glassware, making it look like this:

I went with a fleur de lis design on our new ones. I love it! And of course, they were on sale.

I also bought some wine and saki (for some sakitinis!).
THEN (ha! Not done shoppin' yet!) I trotted across the parking lot to one of my secret shopping destinations: Rainbow! Yes, you have to squeeze through racks crammed so close together you have to suck your tummy in. Yes, there are probably going to be highschoolers in there. Yes, your clothes might fall apart in the wash (may I recommend cold water gentle cycle?). But you can get some deals on cute clothes you don't want to spend a lot of money on. See? Adorable dress and totally classic blazer - total $28, 10% Louisiana sales tax included.

I don't think I've ever actually bought this many items in one day in my whole life but I can honestly say all of it was needed - especially the glasses. I had to serve guests water out of wine glasses before! And in my defense everything I bought was on sale or clearance, per my usual habits.
What's your latest big purchase? And since I'm a major snoop, have you bought any cute clothes lately? That's my size? That I can borrow?
Up next: hep me pack for my Phoenix business trip!