Shampoo that makes your hair…dirtier?

Guest blog from Gabby:

As many of you know, thanks to my BFF Modernista, I recently turned 30. I did a little bit of appraising of where I am in my life, but all in all, it wasn’t too traumatic. The real traumatic experience happened a few days later…when I decided to try a new shampoo.

I have a favorite shampoo that I’ve been using for a while, but I ran out. Since I happened to be at the mall with my mom and she needed something at Sephora, I decided to take a look with her and try a new shampoo. I had no idea what I was getting into.

I picked up a bottle of Rosemary Mint Herbal Shampoo with Sea Moss for dry or damaged hair by Carol’s Daughter. My hair tends to be on the dry side naturally, plus I use a flat iron quite a bit, so I like to use moisturizing shampoos. I also like a nice tingle, so I thought rosemary mint might do the trick. Was I ever wrong! The shampoo was kind of watery and I didn’t get much of a lather at first. So, I dumped some more on my hands and kept scrubbing. When I rinsed out the first round of shampoo, my hair didn’t feel clean, so I made another bad decision, dumped some more shampoo in my hands, and washed it again. The second time around, I got more of a lather, but my hair felt even dirtier than it did when I started this whole process! It was sticking to my hands and felt gross and tacky.

My hair is naturally curly, so I usually comb it out, throw in some gel, and forget about it. Not this time. As I was combing my wet hair, it just did whatever the comb did! I could’ve bent it at a 90 degree angle and it would have stayed! My normally springy, curly hair that does whatever it wants was just plastered to my head. I managed to make it semi presentable by blowing it dry, but it was still extremely pliable and sticky. To make matters worse, not only did my hair feel dirty, but my color didn’t look nearly as vibrant as it did before this shampoo.

Needless to say, when I went to the grocery store, I picked up some good old Pantene Pro V. After three shampoos (in one shower, mind you!), my hair feels better…but it’s still not back to normal. Luckily, Sephora takes back pretty much anything, so I returned this terrible product and got some lipgloss (I did NOT try anything new, but rather stuck with my Smashbox O gloss). The moral of this story: DO NOT BUY CAROL’S DAUGHTER’S ROSEMARY MINT HERBAL SHAMPOO WITH SEA MOSS (unless you’re being Pippi Longstocking for Halloween and need your hair to bend)! I guess I should’ve known not to buy a product made by someone who won’t even put their own name on it…Whoever Carol is, I hope she doesn’t get homemade presents from her daughter!

Cafe Allegro is Closing :(

Cafe Allegro is closing.  They have one of my most favorite pasta dishes…the Pasta Del Sol.  This is sad news for Pittsburgh and the South Side.

Gabby Turns the Big 3-0

My best friend since the sixth grade is 30 today! I’m not exactly sure when it happened, but it seems like we’re all grown up or something now. Maybe it should have hit me when my close friends started getting married (and some having BABIES!), but this kind of cements it for me…my twenties are quickly coming to an end.

I’m not exactly sure how Gabs feels about turning 30…I’m not exactly freaking out about it…yet. It is nine+ months away, but it is looming. The hardest birthday I’ve had so far was 22. For some reason, I felt so old and had nothing look really look forward to any more – especially after the long wait to turn 21. My friend actually gave me a subscription to Redbook for my 22nd…it caused me to burst into tears.

But, I think if you surround yourself with family and good friends and focus on what makes you happy, you’re off to a great start towards happiness…and all of the other stuff will seem incidental.

Happy 30th Birthday, Gabby!!!

Nordstrom Comes to Pittsburgh

Finally.  The official opening is Friday, October 24, but yesterday employees invited friends and families for a sneak preview, and through a friend of a friend, I made the list.  The store is nice, bright, and not too big, but not too small.  The shoe department is huge – with a mix of shoes from Jimmy Choo to Stuart Weitzman to Jessica Simpson.  I found a cute pair of Dolce Vita pumps with a nice four inch heel.  It’s probably possible to spend about three days straight just in the shoe department. 

The women’s clothing upstairs was a little less impressive.  They have nice things, but they also don’t seem to have that much merchanides yet.  The dress section has about four dresses.  But, if you need a pair of jeans or a coat, they are stocked with those. 

The handbag section was definitely an improvement over Macy’s…but too many Coach and Michael Kors bags…which you can get at their respective stores elsewhere in Ross Park Mall. 

After one trip and several purchases, I’m definitely excited to see Nordstrom open.  They have a good mix of high end designer and more reasonable priced things and are definitely a welcomed improvement to the Pittsburgh shopping scene.

The Lying Has To Stop. Now.

I am so ready for this election to be over.  It’s really disturbing how candidates are lying, twisting things around and making false claims.  There needs to be election reform…if you lie, you should get penalized…called out, publically embarassed, fined, whatever. 

Take this article for example – Obama is basically just making stuff up. How can this be permitted?  The scarier thing to me is that people seem to believe anything they hear or a candidate says.  We should be smarter than that.  But, the system and the candidates should be held accountable.

I’d like to see a referee at the debates.  Complete in a NFL-style white and black outfit.  When a candidate makes a flase statement, he (or she) would blow a whistle and clarify.

When a campaign runs an ad that contains a lie – whether it’s about a policy, a candidate’s view point or a fictional story created for rhetorical purposes (case in point, Obam credited Selma, AL for his existence when in fact his parents hadn’t even met at the time) - there needs to be a major clarification and action taken.

And the bigger question is, if the candidates are lying to us to get elected, what’s going to happen when they take office?

I trust John McCain more.  I believe he has a more proven track record and better experience.  I think he has run a more credible campaign.  His policy plans make more sense.  That’s why I’m voting McCain-Palin.

Adele’s Surprise Shower

Adele is getting married in three weeks!  Yesterday, we threw her a surprise shower at work.  Well, it was actually at a bar and restaurant during work hours, but it was all work people there, so it counted as work

It was my job to get her there…my plan was to act like I was having a bad day (not a hard thing to do any more with all of the insane reogranization stuff going on) and tell her I needed Starbucks.  Then, at the last minute I would decide that no…I needed a real drink and tell her to stop in the Union Grill with me.

Well, I was beyond excited about her surprise and couldn’t must up a “i hate work” act.  I was in too good of a mood!  (Seriously, that should have tipped her off right there!) So, we met and actually did work for about 15 minutes, and then I just interuppted and said that I needed Starbucks. 

The best part about the walk down Craig St was that Adele was telling me all about how great her fiance has been…it was so sweet.  She was going on and on about it – in a very cute way – so as we got to the Union Grill door, I literally just had to grab her arm and pull her in.  She followed me in with ease.

And waiting inside were about twelve of our coworkers.  Adele was surprised, and I think it was a really fun afternoon.  Now, I just can’t wait until the wedding!!!

Restaurant Review – 17th Street Cafe

I haven’t blogged in awhile…and now two in one day?! Can you tell I just really don’t want to work???

Anyway, we went to 17th Street Cafe last night with my mom, who is visiting from Florida. I love that restaurant. The food is great, it’s really cute and cozy inside, the wine is good, and the prices are reasonable. Since we moved to the South Side, we’ve eaten there several times, have gotten take out and had them cater last year’s holiday party. They never disappoint.

We started with the hot banana peppers appetizer…very good, and not really that spicy.  They could actually be a little spicier.  Then, we had bread and salads. I don’t know if they bake their own bread or where they get it from, but it’s simple Italian bread that is so soft and yummy.

For dinner, I ordered the filet, extra extra rare. Normally, I don’t like when filet comes with a bunch of sauce and other things, but the sauce and the mushrooms were excellent. I did scrape the blue cheese off the top though because the meat was too tasty and didn’t need it. And, it was cooked, or under-cooked as my mom said, to perfection.

My mom really enjoyed her pasta dish, and Brad loved his spicy diavolo pasta. They also have Chateau St Michelle Reisling by the glass…which is my preferred Reisling. It was a really great dinner, and nice to spend some time with my mommy.

Mean People Suck

If you want something from someone, it’s so much easier to get it when you ask nicely.

Yesterday, a person I work with – who we’ll call Joey B. – went out of his way to be mean and power trippy over the smallest thing.

Joey B. needed web stats to give to his boss, our CEO. Instead of Joey B. looking them up himself like every other competent person we work with, he always asks me to do it for him. Fine, it takes all of 4 minutes and that’s fine.

Well, yesterday Joey B. decided that he wanted to receive the information in a new combined format with a fancy Excel chart. I have about a million other things to do that are actually important and my work – not someone else’s – and I’m not an Excel chart whiz, so I put all of the data in the spreadsheet (per usual) and NICELY explained that I didn’t know how to make that chart, but here’s all the data, if you make it, I can update it next month and so on.

Joey B. proceeded to email and call me yelling at me like I was a worthless human being. He then went on to nastily yell that I need to also put the information in a powerpoint slide for him so he can add it to his presentation. Um, ok…I don’t work for you, so no I don’t think I should be doing your job for you.

I told him I’d figure out how to make the cart (not part of my job – you want information about stats, that’s one thing – what you do with them is not my concern) and hung up b/c he was being so rude. I actually pretty easily figured out how to make the stupid chart, plopped it onto one of his slides and sent it off. I purposefully left off the title he asked me to include…just b/c he was so mean, and I wanted to see if he’d yell at me for that. He did. I got another angry email stating that I didn’t include the title and to please add it.

I don’t know where people get off. This guy has no right to a) tell me what to do or b) yell at me. For anything. I’m not his – or anyone else’s – assistant/bitch. It’s not my job to do his job.

Yet, the thing is, had he asked me nicely to put the information into a slide to help him out and acted like a decent person when I said I didn’t know how to make the complex chart, I’d happily have done it all for him.

Being nice will get you so much further in life. Being mean about stupid things is just well, stupid.