Spinning through life

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been watching Miss USA since I was old enough to watch TV. I’m assuming if you’re reading this that you have as well. I had all of the pageant Barbies. In fact, the only Barbie Dolls that I deemed relevant enough to save were the pageant queens:   I found these ladies, during my last move! When I got into high school, I decided that I wanted to be a part of this mysterious world and entered my first pageant. It was a small local pageant that wasn’t a qualifier for anything. If you won, you were awarded a beautiful crown and sash and the ability to ride in parades and do appearances all around town. Without any coaching or idea of what I was doing, I placed first runner-up in that pageant!   I can’t tell you right now, nearing 20 years later, if I even thought I was going to or wanted to win when I entered. But placing first runner-up struck me in a way that I would NEVER have expected, and I can’t explain to this day! Loo...

Have you ever tested the water in your house for hardness or chemicals? I never have before, and I lived in two cities with probably the nasties tap water in the country – if you leave out Flint – New Orleans and Houston! My bathwater in Houston was green on the reg! Give me a break if that wasn’t full of some form of chemicals or biological bodies. So, upon moving to D.C. and our home in Alexandria, I was told that Virginia has some of the best tap water in the country. Regardless, I still bought a fancy shower filter for my hair and skin. Think what you must, but I’m high maintenance, and I own it! (And for the most part, Mark allows it. Lol.) Fast forward a few weeks. I begin to start looking uglier and uglier. No. Take that back. Fast forward one shower. It took me a few weeks to notice! My skin was getting dried out and cracked! My hair was dried and breaking. The color of it was actually changing. I immediately thought it was due to the much lower humidity and a need t...

Do you ever experience illness or “hangovers” the next day from what you eat? For years I struggled with low energy, digestive issues, reflux – severe reflux – along with probably a slew of other issues that I can’t even identify at this point when I was far too young to be dealing with those type of problems. But it was a way of life for me. I had acid reflux so severe when I was young it would wake me up as a child. During my late 20s, I began having esophageal spasms, where it feels like you’re having severe heart pains while eating and your food or beverage gets stuck in your esophagus. Yes, you read that right – stuck! I had to go see a specialist and get a scope and now I take a fun prescription drug that mainly old men in their late 60s take. Gag!   So, why do I share this gross story? Well, following this scoping expedition with my gastroenterologist – I wish I didn’t know what that term even was – I decided that was a wake-up call to look at my diet more closely....