My Name is Kate

Keeping Our Faces Clean - May's Addition to My Shoebox

It's getting a little warmer out. This week in yoga I not only broke a sweat, but had to bust out my "sweat towel" during my practice, not just at the end. This made me think that I need to get into my summer face care regimen - normally I just use Seabreeze (Yes, I'm still using the skin care product I discovered as a pre-teen. But don't judge me, I have amazing skin.) But in the summer, I like to step it up by using a cleanser in the shower.

A nice face cleanser makes me feel like I've done something good for my skin - so I thought I'd put one in my shoebox.

I didn't do an item in April because I wanted to have high-quality items. So I skipped a month. Though, I did find a makeup/accessories pouch that I received as a companion item for a laptop bag I reviewed. The accessories bag is unused and still in its original packaging, so I figured it would be OK to include it (I'm very strict about this! I can't believe some of the icky used things people included last year!). Who can't use an additional accessory or makeup pouch?!

The face cleanser cost $8.00 - so I'm up to $25.97; just over 1/2 way through my $50 and not quite 1/2 way through the year.

See my past posts on The Shoebox Project for Shelters.

Early media influences .. exerting their power for over 40 years

The other day, Rosemary was doing the dishes and I was helpfully sitting at the dining room table keeping her company (hey, don't judge, I could have been playing Kingdom Rush (when, WHEN are you going to release the new version, Ironhide Games?!?!!)). She was drying a frying pan and I started singing "I'm gonna wash that man right out of my hair." [mp3 of my singing unavailable]

Rosemary looked at me quite quizzically. I realised that my possibly martini-addled brain had crosswired the visuals from Enjoli's "Bring Home the Bacon" and the soundtrack from the Clariol "Wash that man right outta my hair" commercial from my youth. Terrifying. And then I remembered my third ghost of TV-viewing past, Jordache's "You've got the look, I want to know better" commercial. My nostalgic shame trifecta was complete. You can see all three of the spots below. Now, I was raised in the US, so I'm not sure which of these aired up here. But all three of them (and their insidious sound tracks!) drift in and out of my consciousness more often than I'd like to admit.

You know what else has a stranglehold on my auditory cortex? After-school and Saturday morning interstitials. Surprisingly, not the well-known Schoolhouse Rock ones (though I love all of them and can sing most). No, the ones that rise unbidden to my lips are the Time for Timer series. My favourite was "Hanker for a Hunk of Cheese" though I think I probably hear "Don't Drown Your Food" more often. It is this one that I blame for my inability to truly enjoy any type of creamy dressing on my salad. The Time for Timer series (like Schoolhouse Rock) was created by ABC. Are there educational series like this now? The Saturday Morning Brain Food site does an amazing job of cataloging all these educational tidbits.

Finally .. there is one last set of auditory memories that still get dropped into my playlist of life - theme songs from TV Shows (of course!). But not your Brady Bunches or Gilligan's Islands. No .. the New Zoo Revue is what pops up occasionally. I watched a clip of an episode - it is actually pretty hilarious. And the theme song: INTENSE. And I'm pretty sure that this is where I acquired all my fancy dance moves. Other theme songs I hear rattling around: Electric Company and Zoom! (oh how I longed to be a Zoomer). And, of course, Land of the Lost. Poor Marshall, Will and Holly. Sid and Marty Kroftt did some pretty cool shows. I loved Sigmund and the Sea Monster - but I don't remember the theme song.

These are my recurring childhood earworms. Any favourites you'd like to share?