Arkansas Adventure Day Seven Part I

Dear Friends,

I have been in Arkansas for a week now. I brought a big suitcase along. I will be going to England for six weeks soon and I consider Arkansas to be my packing trial-run. I don't want to bring anything excess to England, so I need to streamline what I bring and what stays behind. This week I have used some items a lot and other not at all.

I hope this proves helpful for your summer travels!

Love,
Lucy Rose

Some Packing Mistakes

Number One: Too Many Socks
My Friend Joanna was making fun of me for having brought 15 pairs (does anybody out there say "pair" for the plural of Pairs? Sheldon does and for some reason I really don't like it...) of socks for my short stay. She was right. So far I have defy lately not needed this many socks. I love my socks and I don't like to leave any of my lovely heavy duty hiking socks behind, but I think I only need one pair a day. Sometimes I only need one pair for two days! Shhhh...

Number Two: No Jewellery 
I brought a small bag with some jewellery in it. It was just a few pairs of earrings and a bracelet or two, but I have not been motivated to wear any of it. I will not be bringing much jewellery to England. In one of my favourite films called Rear Window, Grace Kelly says that no woman ever travels without all her jewels. Wrong.

Number Three: Not Enough Shirts
I am sitting here writing this in one of Joanna's T-shirts. I did not bring enough tops that I genuinely wanted to wear. You have to be very selective about what clothes to bring on a trip. Some of it you will just plain not want to wear. Only bring what you really like. If you never really wear it at home there is not way you will wear it abroad.

Number Four: No Medium Bag
As you may know from a previous post about travelling, I like to carry a tiny purse when I travel for all my documents and wallet and gum. I also had my suitcase, of course. But I have found that while I have been here I have been using my sketchbook and books a lot. I take them everywhere we go in case there is a free moment for some doodling. But I have to carry them around in an old T.J. Max bag because I didn't bring a purse big wrought for them. I will bring some sort of canvas bag to England. It will be compact and a little cooler than a plastic shopping bag.

Sugar-Free, Make-Up Routines and Unravelled Socks

Dear Friends,

This week I have decided to eat only vegetables, fruits and proteins (nuts, meat, cottage cheese, eggs, plain yogurt). I will have nothing with sugar or honey. I am doing this because I have been researching that sugar can contribute to acne and because I have felt out of shape lately. I want to have more energy. I have also noticed that food has become the thing that I look forward to most in my days and I do not like that.

This is the close of Day One. It has been difficult. One of the hardest moments of the day was gazing across the table at my friend's Rueben sandwich oozing cheese onto the plate. Ruebens are my favourite sandwich.

Because I cannot particularly look forward to food and mealtimes I am trying to focus on other parts of the day to look forward to.

Here are some of the things that I have been planning throughout my day that I can genuinely look forward to:

1. Putting On Makeup
This is kind of a funny one, because it seems like it should be a routine and banal thing to cross off the list for getting ready in the morning. But I have been really enjoying experimenting a little with this. I am a little shy to admit it but I am addicted to certain makeup YouTube channels that are hosted by young women. This addiction started in 2012. I just found them comforting and they inspire me to beauty and experimentation in my personal style.

Here are some of my favourite ladies:

Liz Meghan: She's a sweet girl and I don't even know why I follow her. Her style is totally different from mine. She is a girly-girl. I guess I feel safe when I enter her world of make-up and hairstyles.

Melanie Murphy (BONUS: She has a great Irish accent which is great for practicing!)

Anastasjia Louise She's funny and has a great style. I love her outfit ideas and thrift hauls.

2. Writing a Letter
I love doing this but I never make enough time to do this. I want to write a Birthday Card for my dear friend Barbora.

3. Taking Off Make-up
At the end of the day I love to spend ten minutes pampering my face. It feels so refreshing and clean. Here's my routine:

1) Gently use Sephora face brush to scrub face all over.

2) Use a creamy face wash and makeup remover to clean face, neck and chest. I use this.

3) Rinse.

4) Dry face with clean face towel. I got mine from Walmart. Classy.

5) Splash face with a handful of witch-hazel toner.

6) Air-dry. Use this extra time to floss! Fun! I like to use an unravelled sweater. Just kidding. But that reminds me of the the other day when one of the little boys came home with one-and-a-half socks on his feet. When I asked him what had happened to the top part of his sock he told me that he had systematically unravelled it throughout the day. Wow. School is doing great things for that child.

7) Moisturise with a few drops of this oil. Sorry. I realise this is in Czech. Um. It's called Ylang Ylang oil.

8) Use dabs of this very strong ointment for bad spots of acne. CAREFUL! This stuff is super drying and bleaches fabric. I don't mind if it bleaches my pillow or the old T-Shirts I sleep in, but you might wanna be careful.

I am actually going to hop off and go implement this routine right now.

Goodnight, people!

LR

More Travel Advice

Dearest Folks,

I am in Texas right now visiting my grandparents. I am having a lovely time eating, reading, sleeping and eating.

I travelled here by plane and I thought that I would share some more of my travel advice with you poor inexperienced slobs. Ha! Just kidding! You aren't slobs.

To start with here is what I wore. I take the choice of an airport outfit very seriously. I consider it to be a unique and exciting challenge.

These are the criteria for a killer travel outfit:
1. Classy
Never dress like a slob in the airport. You'll just feel gross.
2. Comfortable
Obvious.
3. Layered
Temperatures in planes and airports are constantly changing.
4. Simple
Belts and metal hardware or shoes that are hard to take on and off.

Here are some more pointers:

This goes along with the "Dress Classy" concept. Traveling means leaving your comfort zone and so it is helpful to feel confident about yourself. 

Often times all seats at the gate that your plane leaves at are full. I often sit at a completely different gate if I have plenty of time. I sit at a nice seat at other people's gate with one eye on my real gate. It's pretty sneaky. People will try to befriend you thinking that you will be their new plane friend. Just act cool and play along. Then sneak off to your real gate when they take a bathroom break. 

There are several things that you really don't need to pack. Things like shampoo and conditioner are things that you can usually find at your destination. If you are going to a hotel they will have those tiny shampoos that one always feels compelled to steal. If you are going to your grandparent's house then you can borrow from your grandmother. You don't need a ton of jewellery, cuz you probably will loose some of it anyway and it will get tangled. You don't actually have to bring all of your pens and pencils. You will be more creative if you only have a few colours anyway. You only need 2 pairs of shoes. Sneakers and a nice pair that goes with everything. You also never need as many pants as you think. Wear them a bajillion times. 

Since you'll be wearing your pants so often bring a ton of fresh undies. Bring your entire sock collection. You will need all of your cords for your computer and MP3 device and phone. Travel breathe sucks. It just adds to the insecurity of getting out of your comfort zone to have the feeling of smelly breath. Never leave home without your swimsuit. I don't care if you are going to the desert. How terrible will you feel if you come to an oasis and everyone else can swim but you?

Have a great night, Friends!

Love,

LR

PS 

Here is more of my travel advice. 

How to Do a Winter Workout

Dear Humans,

Many of you have been asking how I stay in such good shape. "Lucy Rose, why are you so muscular and well-toned. You are incredibly fit! What do you do?!" Just kidding. No one has asked me.

BUT! Today I worked out with Sheldon in the Sports Centre. We did an intense workout on the indoor track. I led Sheldon in the method that I use in order not go crazy for running around and around a boring track.

Here's how to make your indoor track workout more interesting and more intense. It will work your whole body.

1. Run a few laps around the track. Start slow and speed up gradually. Just get warmed up.
2. Now you will start to incorporate some variations on the basic circuit around the track. Try these variations:

- Run a lap backwards. Watch out for other people!

- Run a lap with your arms completely extended above your head. It looks like surrendering. It looks dumb, but it is great for your shoulder muscles.

- High knees.

- Butt-kicks.

- Side criss-crosses. Run sideways (shoulder facing forward) and opposite leg crossing over the other leg.

- Lunges around the track.

- Do punches in the air as you run. Vary normal jabs with uppercuts and hooks. This also looks dumb.  Deal with it. You are fierce. No one can mess with you.

- Run a few laps with weighted backpacks or loaves. (That's what I called this.)

- Holding a weighted ball up to your chest.

Sheldon and I switched off choosing which variation to do. He is very trim and strong, but he does not work out with the regularity and intensity that I do. That is why he was dripping with sweat and exhausted. It was highly satisfying to make him feel the burn.

I am going to get to sleep now.

I hope this helps to make your Winter workouts less monotonous. And just in case you are brave enough to run outside this may help.

Love,
Lucy Rose

PS
I had a great outfit today. I carried my Converse shoes in a canvas bag so that I didn't have to walk in the heels to school. More Teacher Uniforms here and here.

How to Read Hard Texts

My Dear Readers,

I have not been very faithful to you this week. I have been running around trying to get everything done and get enough sleep. You know the drill.

I have recently been complaining of not having enough time to read. There are so many books that we talk about in my various classes which would be so interesting and helpful, but I feel like I never have time to read them! It hit me the other day that while I do not have time to read I apparently have plenty of time to watch Friends on Netflix. How embarrassing is that!

In order to begin to address this and try to retrain myself to read for pleasure I have forbidden myself to watch any television or film until Spring Break in a week. So far, so good. I even did some reading of The Rebel at lunch! It is still slow going, but at least I am trying instead of clicking the "Keep Watching?" button.

My favourite professor has a wonderful method of reading difficult texts. He had us read extremely difficult writings by Aristotle, St. Augustine, Plate, Rousseau, Horace Mann etc. using this method!

Here's how:

1. Read the text over once without stopping to decipher difficult phrases. Just read the words as fluidly as possible. Don't worry about understanding. Note-taking is forbidden. 

2. Go make a sandwich or something and come back in about half an hour. 

3. Read it again. This time read carefully and feel free to take notes. If you need to re-read something that is also allowed. 

By the time you have read it twice, once quickly and once carefully the text will make so much sense.  The problem, of course, is that it takes so much time. But that's your call.

How to Keep Warm

Hey Guys!

It is about -5 degrees outside today. Here are some helpful tips to surviving the cold. Enjoy!