Strong am I with The Force.

WTF?

I got a facial on Friday. I mentioned the state of my face in a previous entry. It was getting better, but still bad. Most of it was healing blemishes, which adds to the flakiness on top of the oil slick. Still depressing. The lady who does my facials just opened her own shop, having worked from her home before. It was really nice. It had the feel of a doctor's office, but the actual treatment room felt like a spa. There was soft music, a water fountain, and candles.

She is so nice. I guess from having the same type of skin as me - oily, acne-prone (in fact she's on a low dose of Accut@ne now), sometimes flaky - she can understand my mental state as well as the treatments necessary. She said that since my skin seemed to 'like' the Pro@ctiv, having started to clear up almost immediately when I went back to it, that I should continue. She did suggest I use something heavier at night, alternating between Aquaph0r and some expensive lotion which she gave me a sample of (D3rmal Repair). Since finding this site, I'm obsessed with checking the ingredients of products to see how they rate for irritation and comedogenicity. There were conflicting opinions on algae extract, which is in the expensive lotion. One site said that the grade of the ingredient affected this. I trust her, so I went ahead and used it last night. No adverse affects yet. And of course I was concerned about the Aquaph0r, since it's like V@seline, but a higher grade/quality. I only used that in desperation while on Accut@ne when my face was cracking and bleeding. It was ok, though. I used it Saturday night. I didn't use a lot of either lotion, so my face wasn't sticky. She said that the Aquaph0r would help seal in moisture, and I think the other is used after laser and microdermabrasion treatments to help heal the skin.

On a related note, I've upped the anal retentiveness in my quest to be blemish-free. I now only wear a pajama shirt once instead of twice, and flip or replace my pillow case every day instead of weekly. I was already doing this with towels and washcloths, washing makeup brushes and sponges weekly, and various other things. The maple syrup always goes on the table before the pancakes.

Gee, wasn't that boring? Well, it's important to me, so screw you assholes. This is my diary, dammit! Especially these assholes. (You know I love ya!)

I went to pick up my sister and take her to lunch on Saturday, She lives in town with her mom and stepdad in an area that I was told by a coworker can be a bit...sketchy, depending on the street you're on. I saw what he meant. The first thing I see when I get to the intersection to turn onto their street is a burned out house. I asked Danielle about it, and she said it had been like that for about a year and used to be a 'drug house.' Nice. She said that the street wasn't as scary after that happened. I had my gun with me, anyway.

We then went to Buckhe@d to lunch at Cafe Sunflower. I'm not sure if it's just that she's quiet, or that she's still getting to know me, but we started out kind of...awkward (though not as bad as previous times). As we ate lunch, I think we both opened up a bit and talked about all kinds of things (my skin issues - yeah I bored her with that, workouts, her Dad, her mom's neighborhood, my brothers, etc.). I felt like I rambled on and jumped from topic to topic. She didn't seem to be bothered by it. I think we'll get along well. She hates tomatoes, isn't too girly, and doesn't care much for meat. Well, she did use double negatives a couple of times. I tried not to let my eye twitch too noticeably. I refrained from correcting her, but maybe I should have? That's such a parental thing to do.

We then went to L3nox and gave ourselves headaches smelling stuff in Seph0ra and B&BW. The place was packed, so I was getting claustrophobic in Seph0ra. Eek. I got my froufrou makeup, and we left. I didn't buy her anything, though. I didn't want to set that precedent. There was only the chopsticks for hair in the little teenybopper store that she expressed an interest in. We then took the 'Jennifer way' back to the highway to get back to her house. I hate B/Fuckhead traffic.

She said that because it was so late in the school year, she was just going to have to wait until the new school year in August to start back, after her mom finds her a school to go to. She said she may try to get some P@ce Academy books so she can catch up in the meantime. She wants to get a job, but she's not sure where, since most of the places where she lives are kind of 'scary.'

I have had about a dozen bags and boxes sitting in the garage full of items left over from the yard sales I had last year. I'd been sorting them in preparation to call a charity organization to pick them up, but had been procrastinating a bit. And now I know the reason for this. Danielle's mom sent out an email about a single mom with 4 kids who they've been helping out for a while now. They recently moved from a shelter to section 8 housing, but have nothing - no dishes, no curtains, no furniture, nothing. She wants anything anyone has to spare to help them out. So yeah, I think I've got plenty for them, even some of Jeff's old jeans for her teenaged sons. I'm glad to be able to do something like this, since it's a more direct way to help someone. I'm not one to brag about charitable acts, but I just feel really good about this the more I think about it.

Time to work out. Hurray.