Hair Update: Summertime Ways

So I have a hair addiction... (just thought I'd get that out of the way lol)

I follow a TON of hair blogs, a few of which I will kindly list at the bottom of this post. Whether relaxed or natural, I love them all and use them to learn about my own hair.

My own head, by the way, is relaxed. I've been relaxed since I was eight or nine, so almost a good ten years now. Some of those years were real bad, and I've never really went farther than shoulder length. But I'm being more responsible with my hair, learning to monitor who and what goes in my head, and really just wanting to be able to do it myself.
I'm also in the process of growing out a bob I had cut (and re-cut by accident) last summer. Therefore, my back is short, my sides are long, and my front is...special. lol. But that's enough details...now to my Summer routine.

This Memphis heat is no joke and is brutally again curls, hair-dos, and perms. Since I sweat in my hair when I'm hot, I've decided not get many perms this summer in fear of reversion. Also, all I'm doing is chilling with nowhere really to go, so what's the need.

I got my hair permed the second or third week in May, so now I'm about seven weeks post, the time I would normally be itching for a perm. However, I'm becoming pretty good at this stretching; last time I went 15 weeks without one! So for the rest of the summer (aka the next 6 or 7 weeks), I will stretch by co-washing and air-drying most of the time, and roller-setting for special occasions. Yes, I flat-iron every now and then as well. So sue me.

Favorite Cheapie Conditioner of the Moment:
Suave Naturals Conditioner, Tropical Coconut

I found this Family-Sized bottle of goodness at Wal-greens for $1.99. It has a pretty good smell to it (not like my V05 though) and it gives good slip. Today I wet my hair, slathered it on, added a little honey, and stuck a plastic cap on my head. it's still sitting on here, but I can tell that it's going to rinse out well. I'll use this most of the summer I think, Mainly for co-washes. I also added some to my moisture mix, along with a little coconut oil, glycerin, and pepperment oil. My hair loves it, especially my new growth that tends to get frizzy in the middle.

I anticipate to get my next perm right before I leave for school (which is the 15th of August). A couple of weeks later, I suppose, I might come home and get my hair braided for a while. I don't know, this is up in the air, because my mom wants my hair braided before I leave.

I'll keep you guys posted, and I hope you enjoyed my first hair post. I'll include pics of my hair next time, but the camera's dead at the moment, so yeah.

Reccomended Hair Blogs for this Week:
CurlyNikki --> http://www.curlynikki.com
♥ love her curls! my favorite part of her blog: stories of transitions
Relaxed Hair Health --> http://relaxedhairhealth.blogspot.com
♥ this is the first blog I came upon with my hair curiosity. I still go back and read some of her beginning posts.
See My Healthy Hair Grow --> http://www.seemyhealthyhairgrow.com
♥ she's the one that really got me hooked on making my own moisture mix. She recently cut off her texlaxed hair and went natural again, and she still looks fabulous!

I have plenty more hair blogs I follow, but I figured it'd be better not to overwhelm anyone.

Enjoy. Hearts & Love,
♥ Shay

Those Who Are Patient --> Aren't Named Shay

Hello my blog loves:

sorry it's been a while since I checked in. I've been trying to update from my cell phone with the mobile thingy, but it wouldn't let me :-/ which had delayed me even more from posting.

So today, I really want to deal with this waiting game in life. Anyone who knows me well enough knows that I have NO patience for anything. But I have to bring up patience because it goes hand in hand with worrying less.

I've learned to lean on faith more than doubt lately. I realize that whenever it looked like a problem was to big for me to jump over, I made it. And whether you worry or you don't worry, time goes on and you get through it. So lately, I don't worry about not having a job, I don't worry about having a dead car, I don't worry about having money to get a new car, and I don't worry about all the friends and loved ones that aren't around anymore. Why? Because anything I need and most of the things I want will come when the time is right.

Alright....I accept that. But my question is always: when?!?

So you see, I don't worry about if things will happen. But I pace back and forth, check the calendar, speculate, and fantasize about the day when things will fall in place for me. Patience...people with patience and faith have a greater level of peace and joy than I can currently possess. People with patience really do only have to worry about the here and now.

With faith, you stop worrying how the past and present affect your future. And if you add patience, you stop worrying about how far your future is from your present. put those two together and voila! You can finally calm down and find some enjoyment in your life.

So for those of you with patience, I ask for you to share: How does one build their patience?

And for those of you like me who are lacking, let's see if we can try to figure out the answer ourselves.

Peace and love everyone!

and next post....hair updates!

A Writer's Fear

Words don't fail me now,
Not when I have so much to say
Come easily, don't fight me
There is so much at stake

Fingers to keys
Take this stress away from me
Scrawl the pain from my heart
Suck the poison from my mind
My emotions have waged a war on me
Words, if you don't help
I'm sure I'll be defeated.

The excessive love in my system
Is too much pressure on my heart
It's causing pains and malfunctions
Threatening to rip apart my heart
Expel it from my system
Investigate it on paper
Save my life, words,
So I can live to tell the story

Words are all I need to get better
If only they cooperate
No drugs, no drinks, no cuts
Returns my smile like a good poem
-Written by Moi

Writing is my therapy, and I love to write. People give me compliments a lot about my writing abilities, but there is always a need, a want, to improve and get better.
But there's usually something else: doubt.

definition: doubt.
A fluctuation of mind arising from defect of knowledge or evidence; uncertainty of judgment or mind; unsettled state of opinion concerning the reality of an event, or the truth of an assertion, etc.; hesitation.

Sometimes you can never be sure if you're making a difference with your writing. Many people read without giving feedback, and more often, people never get around to reading what you have to say at all.
Or you criticize yourself too much, wondering if you should have said it "that" way over the the way you actually expressed yourself. I don't know any writer who doesn't wonder that.

It's more than just writers though. Everyone has doubted themselves at points. Especially when the situation they're in dramatically contrasts with where they aspire to be.

An interesting quote to ponder:

Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother.
Kahlil Gibran

Letting go of doubt, and latching on to faith is a good move to make. I don't try to make anyone do anything they don't want to do, but there are my opinions and my suggestions.

Doubt and faith both feed off the same thing: the unknown. How you react to the unknown determines whether you doubt or if you have faith.
When you panic, worry, and let the fact that you don't know what the future holds scare you, you doubt.
When you have confidence, believe everything is going to be fine, and perceive your future as the product of doing your very best, you have faith.

(Yes, this epiphany just came to me as I wrote. Lol. Even though part of me knew this all along...)

So writing is my therapy and it makes me feel better. Someone (or some people) out there enjoys my writing, what I do.
Therefore, I won't stop. Won't let my doubt override my faith. I'mma do me.

I'm gonna write.
Hearts and Love

|♦Optimism♦|

Despite all the things that have went haywire lately, the last couple of days seem to be bouncing back moments.

My sister bought me chocolate and strawberries! Which made me really happy. It helped pick up my mood. ::thanks to those mood-boosting chemicals in chocolate!:: I wouldn't say I'm an emotional eater, but if it makes me feel better, why should I feel bad about that? THAT'S WHAT IT's MEANT TO DO!

And I've been realizing that some people's faces light up when they see me! That makes me feel so remarkable. I'm not bragging on myself, but it does make me happy. When someone's face lights up at the site of you, that means you bring them real joy. That's something that's hard to fake ::though i don't put it past some to pull it off:: and it's a sign of true genuine happiness.

Got to get this confidence back. They say until you're confident enough to picture yourself somewhere, believe you can do it!, and push to get it done, everything will fall apart for you. Even the stuff that you're competent to do! Trust me. Things have fallen apart for me, and I know that it's time to pick up the pieces and start anew.

I might not have the best grades in the world. Might not have the best disposition. Not the prettiest. Don't have the most money in the world. Not always the correct. Might not be well known.

But I AM WHO I AM: Adrianne Lashey Gore, with a heart that loves and a smile that shines. With brains to take me far, with enough beauty to know I am pretty. I got the common sense to know my worth and how I should be treated and I have the tolerance to get rid of toxic people. <---recent discovery…clap clap.

And true, part of this is just to hype myself up to be encouraged, but I deep down, even in my anxiety, I know the true about myself. Dozens and dozens of people can't see something in you unless it's there, and there are plenty of people who see things in me even when I'm not looking for them.

So, let's hope the lonely days bite the dust. They will come back, unfortunately, but they always lose.

To those of you out there: Keep smiling, hold your head up, speak positivity into your future, even if it seems impossible. And if it feels like it's too much to bear, reach out to someone who cares. And if you think no one cares for you, you can always talk to me!

Hearts and love.

Time to Start Again.

I decided to go ahead and make a new start at this blogging thing.

First off,
Welcome to all those who come by. I hope you'll find something enlightening, thought provoking, etc. that might stimulate you. I encourage you to subscribe/follow me, as you never know when something prolific might spill from my mouth. ::smile::

The only theme to this blog is Me. I know that sounds selfish and self absorbed, but here me out. Some days, there will be a short story. On other days, you'll find a poem. It might be a journaling of what I'm going through, or it might simply be an update on my hobbies or my niece. Can't really offer you consistency when all I'm doing is exploring the realms of who I am and what I'm going through.

So, cheers to us! That we may have fun on this journey. And that we can discover and learn together.