Salt's Alternate Universe

I did it! Bikram was the coolest (hottest?) thing ever!

nobody@vox.com(Salt) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:52:29 -0700

Tonight was my very first Bikram yoga class and I can't even describe how nervous I was before I walked in the studio. The very nice lady working at the front desk put me at ease as I noted that I was wearing entirely too many clothes...shorts would have been much more appropriate then 3/4 length yoga pants.

I took off my sandals and went into the large room to lay out my mat and towel and HOLY HELL was it hot in there! I don't know what I was expecting exactly, but as I relaxed before class and practiced my breathing, I began to rethink the whole thing. Would I pass out? Would I throw up like my coworker did?

Well...I was actually pretty great! I stuck it out through each of the 2 sets of 26 poses and could really hang with the seasoned veterans that were there. The instructor (who told us in the beginning that leaving the room was not allowed, basically adding to my anxiety) was upbeat, hysterical and really knew how to get us to push just that little bit more. All throughtout the class, he was picking out the great things that people were doing and it was so motivational. As a newbie to the studio, it felt great that he picked out my technique to compliment a couple times! Sure I wasn't perfect or anything, but the heat definitely allowed me to be more flexible then I am in my normal power classes.

Probably the only negative part of the experience was the sweat that got in my eyes. And there was a LOT of it. I don't think I have ever sweated that much in my life and there were a couple times with it felt like I had a gallon of water running into my eyes. Not even that was enough to dampen my enthusiasm though!

It was tough, don't get me wrong, but I am SO glad I went through with it. I know this is definitely something that will become a staple in my workout at least once a week and I can't wait to go back. With shorts this time. :-)

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My very first Bikram class...

nobody@vox.com(Salt) — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 08:08:06 -0700

IS BOOKED! I'm scared and excited all at the same time. I have heard so many horror and success stories about hot yoga and I'm wondering which category I will fall in. Will I throw up? I guess we shall find out on Wednesday evening at 6pm.

Living yoga master Bikram Choudhury is a Hot Yoga innovator. His method of Hot Yoga is a set series of 26 yoga poses, including two pranayama exercises, each of which is performed twice in a single 90 minute class.

Currently I practice yoga once or twice a week, but have never attempted it in a 105 degree room before and never have I done 90 minutes at a stretch. (My power yoga class is 45 minutes and my other class is an hour.) Must remember to take like a gallon of water with me. I hope I don't pass out and make an ass of myself. .

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My FF arrived about 6 months ago...

nobody@vox.com(Salt) — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 16:43:25 -0700

And I never bothered to update with any photos of her (or of anything else for that matter). Right out of the box, she was gorgeous; I was actually kind of pleased that her hair didn't end up as red as a Rouge Noir's, but rather it's a little more natural. I didn't worry about customization so much, but I did have to open her head in order to do the boggle and gaze lift. Opening an RBL head was SO EASY; it kind of makes me want to buy another one just to take apart. I'm not letting myself do that until I finish the reroot I've been working on for the past 6 months...let me just add here that working with curly nylon is kind of a pain in the ass.

So here is my Friendly Freckles, Makenna. She features chip changes, boggle, gaze lift and new eyelashes. I also did some work on her hair. I think she's just lovely. :-)

Makenna

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Somebody's getting maaaaarried!

nobody@vox.com(Salt) — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 07:58:49 -0700

It's a sad state of affairs when you can't even remember how to compose a new entry in your own damn blog. It took me 5 minutes of clicking around just to figure out how to get here.

Anyway, since my last entry Mike and I GOT ENGAGED!!! So exciting right? If anyone cares, here is the proposal story as C&P'ed from our wedding website. (I never thought in a million years that I would be the type of girl to have a damn wedding website, but getting engaged did something weird to me.)

We had my brothers that night so my dad could go on a date. I had gone to the gym right after work and when I got home Mike was about to leave with Henry so that he could pick up his nephew, Austin, from the hospital (Austin's mom/Mike's sister just had a new baby the previous day). So I got changed and was helping Appy with his homework, etc. waiting for Mike to come home so we could order pizza and watch movies.

When he walked in the front door he immediately says "Did you drop something in the parking lot when you came in earlier?" He sounded kind of panicked and I'm kind of a klutz and have been known to drop stuff in the parking lot when I'm getting out of my car...so I was like "oh crap...maybe..."

And then Henry says, "Here...I found this on the ground next to your car." And he reached into his pocket and pulls out a white ring box. My first thought was, "wait that's not mine..." Then something clicked and my mind went completely blank. I took the box and opened it and it was my beautiful ring inside. I just stared at it and couldn't even talk...I barely even heard Mike saying "Lauren...will you marry me?"

Nodding works well as a confirmation, so I did that first and was finally able to squeak out a yes. I jumped up to hug him and he was totally sweaty from all of his nervousness (haha). My little brothers were jumping up and down and hugging us and calling Mike "brother" and telling Austin how excited they were to be his "uncles" (imagine...Appy as a 10 year old "uncle" of a kid that is 2 years older than him!).

I could not be happier with the way it all went down. Mike asked me if I was upset that he didn't ask me at some posh restaurant or at the top of a mountain and I told him OF COURSE NOT! Neither of those things are my style. One thing that has always drawn me to him is the closeness that he has with his family and his willing acceptance of my brothers as a huge part of his life. The fact that he thought to include them in on the most special day of my life so far only makes this engagement that much sweeter.

If I weren't the one getting married, I'd probably gag from the cuteness. Our wedding date is February 27, 2010.

Anyway, it took us about a month to figure out that planning at at home wedding was going to be the most epic pain in the ass either of our lives had ever seen. I never really thought about my wedding either way, so I had no idea what I wanted and the fact that I'm indecisive as hell certainly wouldn't have helped the situation. So in the end, we decided that the best route to go was a destination wedding. And believe me, it has DEFINITELY been the best route we possibly ever could have gone.

I mean, first of all, look at where we get to get married:

Turks & Caicos

I am probably going to be wetting my pants as the plane attempts to land on that runway that you can clearly see spanning the entire length of the island, but I think it will be worth it. Turks and Caicos is about a 75 minute flight from Miami and while it kind of looks as if it's in the Caribbean, it's not. It's in the Atlantic Ocean. Which is just fine by me.

Turks & Caicos

We have chosen to get hitched at an all-inclusive resort called Beaches. Beaches is owned by the same folks that own the Sandals resorts, but unlike Sandals, Beaches is very kid-friendly. Which works out great for our situation since all my younger brothers will be in attendance. We are booked to stay there for 11 days/10 nights; a nice long stay as it includes the time that we are supposed to be on the island per residency requirements and also our honeymoon. By law, we have to be there for 24 hours before applying for a marriage license and that takes two days to process.

Beaches - Turks & Caicos

As you can see from this photo, the water there is unbelievable and T&C is very well known for it's scuba diving. I've made it one of my personal missions to get certified while I am there and I'm hoping that Mike will too. February is supposedly the least rainy month of the whole year and temps average in the low 80's. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the weather will be gorgeous so we can stick to our original plan of saying our vows on a perfect beach just like that one!

The nicest thing about getting married at a resort is that I don't have to do a damn thing. There is a coordinator on site that takes care of all the details for me, which is important because I won't see the venue until 4 days before the wedding. Our guest list is probably going to top out around 15 people.

We are currently about a week away from being exactly 7 months out. I've heard from other bride-friends that time really starts flying as you get closer to the wedding and that I will eventually be stressed out, but for now I'm enjoying this extremely relaxed approach that I have taken to everything. I just hope I don't end up missing some big detail at the end!

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Friendly Freckles - My 18th Blythe

nobody@vox.com(Salt) — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 16:43:21 -0800

Friendly Freckles - cartoon pic

I thought she looked so adorable from this sketch (THOSE HEADPHONES!!), but I was reserving my final opinion for when I saw an actual photo of her. Well, someone posted one up on TIB the other day, and I totally buckled. So she's been pre-ordered from HLJ. I hope that the same fiasco that occurred when I p-o'ed Aubrey doesn't happen again because I think I really love her. My B family needs more redheads.

Friendly Freckles - Blythe Mobile

OMG isn't she awesome!? Her hair looks so much redder in the Blythe mobile photo than in the sketch, so I'm not going to hold my breath that it will be that vibrant. I hope it is though because it's fab.

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Ether

nobody@vox.com(Salt) — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 16:39:50 -0800

My Christmas present from Mike.

Ether

I never knew I would love a fantasy-colored hair girl so much.

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My first custom dolly in well over a year...

nobody@vox.com(Salt) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:54:47 -0700

It had been ages since I had the time/money to customize a Blythe. Unfortunately I ended up having to sell off a couple of my girls when money got a little tight...LA is expensive!! I sat on a bunch of mohair for a very long time (not literally or anything) and finally once I arrived back home, I re-discovered the joy that I get from taking apart dolls and putting them back together.

The result is the new and improved Ione. She originally was the girl in my Vox banner, but now she looks like this:

I am very fond of her new look and have totally fallen for her all over again! Ione was originally a Disco Boogie that endured 3 different makeovers until finally settling on this one. And no more...she's done for good. :-)

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The (alternate) universe works in mysterious ways...

nobody@vox.com(Salt) — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 15:09:41 -0700

So last we spoke I had been spending a lot of time in the LA...hanging out with friends new and old and completely hating my life up in Ventura; the only thing keeping me there at that point being my job and my roommate who didn't want me to abandon her before she moves away in December.

What happened next could only be described as a totally bizarre occurrence that leads me to believe that Ventura simply did not want me within it's boundaries any longer.

A mere 2 days after that last blog was written...I got laid off.

OH MY GOD!

The parent company of my own company lost its biggest account. This was no fault of mine, but because this main client was gone and more than $80,000 were lost in the process, the company I worked for had to be shut down. Personally I feel that it's very irresponsible of my ex-boss to go hiring on new people (I was only there for just shy of three months) for such a brand new business venture as my company was if everyone's life hangs in the balance of ONE CLIENT LEAVING...but that is neither here nor there at this point. There was general shock and dismay around the office that day. But not from me.

I drove home smirking because I knew I had my out.

I told my roommate that I was sorry, but that I was going to have to move. I had already paid my rent for the month of July so she had that time to find a new person to live with her, but that I would not be staying in Ventura. I needed to find a new job and I refused to do it in a town that I was scheduled to leave in a few months anyway. She was pretty pissed off, but what the hell could she do? It's not like it was my fault that the company closed down.

At this point, I already had a job interview lined up for the next day. It was like poetic justice really...I had been sending out resumes in the evenings and this place had called the very morning I lost my job and asked if I could come in to speak with them the next day. I figured that HAD to be a good sign. The next day I headed to the valley for my interview and then to my girl friend's house in Hollywood to start mass-sending out resumes. Craig's List, CareerBuilder, Monster, Hot Jobs...no one was safe. By friday I had several calls back and then had to wait through the weekend to see if anything else materialized. By Saturday, I had headed back up to Ventura and was sitting, sullen, in my apartment. My roommate had gone away to Germany on vacation and I had no one to hang out with. I went to bed early for the next couple of nights and was starting to get seriously depressed on Monday morning when I received a call that my resume had been received through CareerBuilder and would I like to come in the next day for an interview? That was followed by ANOTHER call saying the same thing. So two interviews lined up for that Tuesday, I was in much higher spirits and made plans to hang out down there the next day. I would also begin looking at apartments since I had decided that Oskar and I might be better suited to living in a studio. (Not that I don't adore Kate, but she has a dog and I'm not sure how well that would go over.)

My first interview went fantastically and I was invited back for a second interview 2 days later. I spent the afternoon looking at places to live. While I was visiting one apartment complex, the landlord from another called me back and gave me directions so I could come over and check out a studio he had for rent. I had never heard of the street before, but was thrilled to find it right smack in the middle of the location I had been hoping for. AND the rent was amazingly cheap for as well put together the community is. I filled out an application and he called me back a short time later to tell me I had been approved. I HAD A NEW APARTMENT! Now to just get a damn job too and everything would be peachy.

The second interview at the place I had spoken to on Tuesday went just as well and I had three more interviews lined up for the beginning of the next week. Confident that I would find something soon, I paid the security and first months rent and began moving stuff down into my awesome new apartment. At least it gave me something to do as being unemployed, if only for a week and a half at that point, was getting old really fast. The other interviews went well, but they were nothing like the one that I had had the week before....so that next Wednesday, I braced myself as I emailed the HR department to see if the position had yet been filled.

She got back to me in record time and told me that they were in the process of drawing up an offer letter already. FOR ME!!!

I started crying in my neighborhood Starbucks that had become my job hunt command post since I don't yet have internet access at home. I called my mom and dad and texted a bunch of my friends. Everything had finally come together for me. And it seemed in record time.

I should receive a check for the two weeks that I was unemployed, which should help a little. I am in a horrific amount of debt right now, but I honestly don't really care all that much. I love my new apartment more every day...I've made friends with several people in the complex. It's nice to have neighbors to sit out by the pool and drink a beer with! I started my new job on Monday morning as the new graphic designer for Variety Magazine...which all but completely fulfills my lifelong dream of what I've wanted to do for a living. I actually have plans for the weekend already and it's only Wednesday. I couldn't be happier.

Well, my love life still sucks, but hey, you can't have everything I guess. Besides...a guy would probably just get in my way right now anyway. :-)

So that's my newest update. I hope everyone else on here is doing great too. I feel like I've finally found my niche in California and oh my god I am so glad I didn't just run away like I was almost prepared to do!

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QotD: Worst. Hairstyle. Ever.

nobody@vox.com(Salt) — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 12:00:43 -0700

What was your worst hairstyle decision ever?

I feel like I may have written about this one time in the past, but by far the worst thing to ever happen to my head occurred at a local salon, which is now ironically closed down. I went early on a Saturday morning only to be greeted by a WAY too bright eyed woman who was literally SHOUTING at me as she asked if I would like some coffeeteawaterjuicepastries....just thinking about it makes my brain hurt all over again.

So then she proceeds to shampoo me and ask me what exactly I would like done today. So I suggest to her that maybe I would like to try bangs. My hair had gotten really long and I wanted to keep it that way, so if she could just cut the split ends and add the fringe, I'd be good to go. The first snip of her scissors, however, sent a VERY long piece of hair falling to the floor, and I instantly knew that no good would come of this.

I was so tired and out of it that I zoned into my own little world and she hacked away at my hair. I don't know why I didn't try to stop her. I must have been in some sort of shock or something. Then it was all over and she begins to load about 50 pounds of product into my hair all the while exclaiming about how fantastic it looks and how happy I will be with the results. It was then that I actually realized what had happened here. She had given me new layers. I had not asked for them....and there were about eight of them. My hair had fallen to around the middle of my shoulder blades prior to this fiasco and now the longest layer was above my shoulder. She had also given me bangs, but literally they went ALL THE WAY AROUND MY HEAD. I wanted to cry and scream and punch her in the face.

But I didn't do any of those things. I paid and left as quickly as I could.

Over the next week I considered shaving my head, getting extensions, hiding in my room for the next several months. Then I discovered one hairstyle that looked passable and literally ended up wearing my hair that way for 2 months until it was long enough to do anything else with.

I found out later that she had been let go shortly after she did my hair....although I still never recommended that place to anyone else.

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QotD: Here's A Tip For Ya

nobody@vox.com(Salt) — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 10:31:30 -0700

What's your best tax tip?

Do them early. Mine were done at the beginning of February and I had all my money by the middle of the month. It saves a lot of stress in the long run.

Seriously though...I don't really know why people wait so long. Taxes are easy.

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