Heather

There are many incredible moments I have missed. Moments like

This

This

and This

All missed because of one simple reason. I had not yet been born.

That said, I have long asserted I was born right at the perfect time. If for no better reason that I’m as old as Harry. Sort of. Harry Potter was released to the US in September of 1998. At that moment, I had just started Kindergarten. When I finally picked up the Sorcerer’s Stone, I was a first grader, and so was Harry. As the years wore on, I anxiously awaited each year and the book it would bring with it. As Harry grew up, so did I. When that last book was released, I felt I had lost a friend. I’m not sure that I’ll ever be content with how it ended or rather that it ended period, but I know I will ever be grateful for the series.

With the books came the somewhat gimmicky toys, and as a 10-year old, I received the “official” Hogwarts potion kit. I only ever used it once (likely due to the mess we made of it), but all said it inspired, in me, a love of potion-making. Growing up, that meant purchasing DIY books for making my own lotions and every which face potion. Wouldn’t you know that 12 years later I was still able to make just as big of a mess as I had when I first received that magical kit? Word to the wise, do NOT attempt to make your own beeswax-based lotion in a Vitamix. You will regret it. While the lotion phase has fortunately passed, I still bookmark odds and ends to try. Last month, I stumbled upon this page. An apple cider hair rinse sounded weird enough to try. So I did and was I ever happy with the result. My scalp felt and continues to feel amazing!

Aloe and Apple Cider Vinegar Hair Rinse
AKA
SCALP POTION

*You can use this rinse in place of or after shampoo. I use the rinse in place of shampoo.*

BITS:
A squeeze bottle
12 g or 1 heaping Tbsp Aloe Vera Gel
30 g or 2 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar (with mother)
7 oz water

PIECES:
Put all ingredients into the bottle. Shake well.

Before each use, make sure to give the bottle a vigorous shake. You want to re-incorporate the aloe into the rinse.

Wet your hair thoroughly.

If you have mid-length to long hair, or if your hair errs on the thicker side, you will want to treat your scalp in parts. View your scalp as having 3 major areas. Front/mid-scalp, the crown, and the back. If any confusion, see this image. Repeat the following process for each scalp area until the product has been applied to your entire scalp.

Create mini parts in your hair with the bottle. Squeeze the bottle as you go to dispense the rinse. Once the product covers all scalp areas (do not forget the section directly behind your ears!), massage the rinse into your scalp. Let sit for 5-7 minutes. Then rinse out product. Please remember, do not get this in your eyes, it burns. Apply consistently 1X per week.

Prepare to be amazed!

 

 

 

As a Junior in college, I set a goal to write enough essays to pay my college tuition for the year. I wrote till my hands cramped, and my mind blanked. In March of 2015, I had nearly hit my mark. I had just one essay left to write, and the prompt was, “If you could go back to any one moment in time, which would you pick?”. I wanted to share this because of all the essays, this is the one I remember most, the one I cherished. I had not read or shared it in the 4 years since it was submitted. Only because I was writing this post, did I venture to find Seabiscuit. When I did, I made myself tear up all over again.

“If I could travel back to any one point in time, I would want to see and experience Seabiscuit’s last race, the 1940 Santa Anita Handicap at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California.

Although an unremarkable, imperfect horse Seabiscuit rose to become not only the best in his field but also a fantastic inspiration to many.

Mistreated as a foal, and saddled with birth defects including a limp, perpetual wheezing, and small stature, Seabiscuit was an unlikely champion. If Seabiscuit was too tiny, his jockey was too big, and for all the physical impediments Seabiscuit had to battle, he was not alone; his jockey was blind in one eye. Nevertheless, together, they became an unbeatable team.

Though Seabiscuit was physically the antithesis of a prize-winning horse, he had what most others lacked, heart. Seabiscuit was the underdog, much like the American public for which he raced. He was an incredible athlete who in conquering his defects became not only the best but more importantly, inspiration at a time when Americans were desperate for just that.

In 1939 Seabiscuit suffered an injury that should have ended his career. He was written off by many as finished. However, in 1940, Seabiscuit came back for one final race. That race, the 1940 Santa Anita Handicap, is the one I would have loved to witness.

Throughout his career, as Seabiscuit ran and fought with all his might, Americans did too. By 1940, America finally seemed clear of the Great Depression, but as war raged in Europe, destruction began throwing shadows on the horizon. At that moment, though, Americans could say that for all the strife, and all the hard times, they had finally made it. Seabiscuit had been with them, carrying them along, providing not just one leg up, but four.

The crowd that day would rival current day Super Bowl numbers. I can only imagine and long to experience the electricity running through the stadium on that day. To feel the spirited cheers as an American hero, a symbol of American fortitude, conquered illness and incredible setbacks to race one last time, to pull off the improbable victory. The exhilaration, communal joy, anticipation and, ultimately, relief of the crowd that day would have been beautiful to share.

Just reading about, or even watching theatrical remakes of the 1940 Santa Anita Handicap fills me with emotion; Seabiscuit is an inspiration. As an American, I am very proud of the people who helped form our nation and those who fight for it. Moments in history, like this one, where we stand together as one and triumph, are extraordinarily meaningful to me. Seabiscuit is a manifestation of the American strength for getting past dark days.

This race and the story of Seabiscuit are also of great importance to me because as a fighter who perseveres every day, I relish the moments and the heroes who prove that the fight is worth it. Who shows that even with bad days in between we can still come out winners.”

Uncharacteristically, I went out and bought a book right off the shelf.

Atomic Habits by James Clear.

I am 33 pages in, and I have already gotten my money’s worth. Clear suggests that there are 3 layers of behavior change: the outermost layer, OUTCOME, then PROCESS, then IDENTITY. The whole process over outcome was comprehensible. Stop focusing on goals. Instead, focus on process, and seismic change will one day follow. But “Identity” above process? Are we talking about attitude? Have a positive outlook, positive self-image, and you’ll do well? If that’s it, I win… But that wasn’t it.

The foundation of success is the way you see your habits, like losing weight or cessation of smoking. If the cessation of smoking is your goal and someone offers you a cigarette, what do you do? According to Clear, you do NOT say, “No, thanks, I am trying to quit.” WHAT?!?!? Instead, you say, ” No, thank you, I am not a smoker.” To change your life, you have to change your identity. My mind was blown right there. That’s so simple, but had I ever thought about that? Probably not.

It was at that moment that I realized, I am not emulating Katie.

Who’s Katie? My friend Katie is the most put together, intelligent, hardest working young person I’ve ever met. We sat next to each other in our biology courses, and for me, it was the best thing that came out of my NU experience. I made a true friend (which in and of itself is incredible and beyond meaningful), but I also found a mentor. She has helped me in every step along the journey to med school from setting the bar in class, to showing me that it is possible to “beat” the MCAT. She is at the top of her game in everything she does, and you’d never know it; Katie is one of the most humble and kind individuals walking this Earth. She shared her successes with me, her constant advice, her methods, her time, when all I could say, was, “I don’t think I can do this.” Her response, “but you can.”

We have an inside joke in my family, it’s that “Wow, Katie sure is bossy!” 🙂 She is the total opposite of bossy, and we all know that. However, we say that because when Katie makes a suggestion, I make it a requisite. Katie RECOMMENDED that I write drafts of my secondaries early. I turned around and told myself, you MUST write your secondaries early. It was always an iteration of if you want to do well, you MUST go and do this, go and do that.

Truth is, I wanted to emulate her success, to be just like Katie. I wanted to make my parents cry as I broke the news of my MCAT score. I wanted to travel the US to interview at schools I couldn’t have dreamed of as a kid; waiting on acceptance letters and knowing that they would be sent to me, then making my parents cry again when the letters did arrive, having a choice in where I’d end up. Then I read Clear’s book, and I realized it’s not that I want to be Katie, I am Katie.

Chris covers Chris. Too cool.

“And before I let one more tear hit the ground
I will be the one standing between you and the sound”

There’s something about the way Stapleton sings that. I believe it.

January 6, 2019
I’ll never forget that double-doink. In part because Sergio called it nearly to a tee. And in larger part, because that night we laughed so hard at life (aka mom). Those are the moments I hold on to.

And oh, I murdered Sergio in Rummikub. That too is worth remembering. ;P

Song of the Week. Thanks to our now mutual Revivalist love.

482020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbIRb-svqlg

Where in the world did this come from? This deep of a cut, it’s a shame I didn’t attribute reasoning and words to it.

482020

Letter to Hermione. I am not sure what prompted my emailing this song. Perhaps I read something about it. Or perhaps I found it as I looked for something to type in Bowie’s handwriting. I’m not even sure what I liked about it. But I did.

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He’s crazy talented, but let’s be honest. This is the SOM because one day, I will have a suit like that made, and I will prance around as the female Prince for Halloween.

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It’s no surprise that in the midst of studying for MCAT (content review at that point), I earmarked a song that I found “incredibly relaxing”.

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What am I missing or perhaps I should ask, what is she missing?

“The next track, “Moment’s Silence (Common Tongue)” is the most upbeat of the album; if you were ever going to dance to a Hozier song (but you probably weren’t) this would be the one”

Is she joking? Has she listened to his previous album? Are we so conditioned as a society to think that twerking and bump and grinding are dance, that we don’t understand the concept of what dancing actually is?

From Vocabulary.com

A dance is a series of movements — sometimes choreographed, but sometimes not — where the person moves in time to music. … If you move in a rhythmic manner — especially to music — you can use the verb dance to explain your actions.

Dancing is swaying to the beat. Dancing is being enveloped by a feeling so overwhelming that you have no other option but to let your body take precedence over your mind. Dancing is movement.

Anyone who has listened to Hozier’s body of work. Anyone who has actually felt his music undoubtedly understands what this woman clearly does not. For a moment, turn away from the lyrics. Turn away from what your brain is interpreting. Listen with your soul. Listen with the part of your brain that isn’t analyzing.

Obviously, I am clearly biased as far as this song goes, but how can you (unless you are petrified of or staunchly against dancing) not feel pressed to movement by Jackie and Wilson?

or by this song?

how about Someone New?

Even the slower songs. Is there not an urge to sway to Sedated?

Did not Sergei Polunin perform a famous dance to Take Me To Church?

And obviously I can’t use this argument as at the time of her article, the song wasn’t published, but it can’t escape my purview. Movement. If you don’t feel the dancing lifeblood coursing through this song… wow.

I recognize that we all have a right to our opinion, but it seems that some people are so intent on being cute and witty, so intellectual that they flagrantly miss the mark.

Written 4/8/2020, but, per my notes, I had the same reaction and held the same opinion 11/7/18

The other night I was invited to a fundraiser for WITS Chicago. It was a delightful event. Outside of the inspirational stories and good company, my favorite part was their centerpiece: 10 books per table, 1 for each person sitting there, with each table having a different array. It was unusual not only because it generated literary conversation amongst attendees, but because of the discussion it generated amongst the banquet servers. At the end of the night, the employees of the venue were free to take any leftover books. As I walked out, I noticed a server who’d chosen SE Hinton’s The Outsiders. I praised her choice, and she smiled. It’s her favorite. She’d read the book 10 times, and wanted the copy so that she could gift the joy, that she’d experienced, to someone else. Just hearing that made me happy for the rest of the weekend.

Later, my friend wanted to know what the book was about. All I could say was that I loved it, and though I’ve forgotten the details and the plot, I remember how beautiful the book was. That prompted me to jog my memory. In the process, I ran across this synopsis. I’ve never looked at analysis and been struck by its beauty, but I did that night.

And I can’t help but share it:

“We all know what an outsider is, and we’ve all seen groups of people who are outsiders. In fact, we’re all outside of something.

At some point, perhaps daily, many of us feel separate from and different from others, to some degree or another. We can be isolated by lots of different things, including the politics and economics in our area, our states of mind, our physical conditions, things we’ve done and things that have been done to us, just to name a few.

But, these things can also connect us.”

Schmoop is right, that’s precisely what the book is about.

 

 

I emailed myself the Wikipedia link for this song back October 27th. I was not entirely sure why I would email myself a link from Wikipedia as opposed to sending myself the Apple music link or the YouTube video. So I read through the article. I imagine I kept the article for the following tidbit:

“To me, the most autobiographical line was: ‘My make-up may be flaking but my smile still stays on.’ That was true. No matter how ill Freddie felt, he never grumbled to anyone or sought sympathy of any kind. It was his battle, no one else’s, and he always wore a brave face against the ever-increasing odds against him. — Jim Hutton – 1994

That really is such a beautiful line. Everything can be falling apart, but if you can keep your head up, keep perspective, you can keep going. And really that’s all we can do. We can’t change the hand we’ve been dealt, only how we play it.

472020

How do you pick a favorite?

I’ve always been bad at that.

You ask me for one favorite, and I give you a list of them.

Or you ask me for a favorite, and I give you one, only to amend it two months later.

I do this often with albums. I have a favorite song, and then one day I’m driving along, and something about a different song strikes me.

It doesn’t mean that I no longer have that favorite, just that I have a new one.

That’s the cool thing about music, it’s a constant state of discovery. Even when things are so ordinary, so familiar, I still find something new, something redemptive. Music’s ability to preserve our history will never cease to amaze me.

I love old German music, swing music from the 40s, music from eras like the 50s and 60s, even the 90s! Songs, like those I have posted below. Please make sure you give that Rock Hall of Fame song a listen, it features what likely is one of the best Prince guitar solos EVER!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCol1dhLmco