Just For Fun

Back when I lived in San Francisco proper you would have had to drag my ass kicking and screaming to Fisherman’s Wharf or Pier 39, two of San Francisco’s most renowned sights. I would have yelled, “Only tourists go there, yo!” But times have changed. El Hub just loooooves the touristy parts of the city, so this morning we drove the 10 miles south from Marin County across the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco for a relaxing day trip.

I still find SF’s tourist spots totally kitschy, but the weather was gorgeous in the city today, and I couldn’t help but fall in love a little bit more with beautiful San Francisco, one of my favorite places in the world.

Here’s a tip: next time you visit Fisherman’s Wharf, there’s a “secret” free parking lot at the end of Van Ness Avenue, next to Aquatic Park. It’s at the far end of the Wharf area, but if you don’t mind walking, it offers four hours of free parking! In SF, finding free parking is like finding your perfect foundation shade.

A view of Aquatic Park from the secret parking lot

We started out by walking down to historic Hyde Street Pier to check out the old boats docked there. It’s where the ferries headed north across the Bay to Marin would depart from before the Golden Gate Bridge was completed in 1937.

San Francisco fun fact: before the bridge connected San Francisco to Marin in the North Bay, the ferry route between Hyde Street Pier and the small town of Sausalito in Marin was once considered a segment of Highway 101.

El Hub found a friend taking a nap on the pier… [Continue reading…]

Why is your friendly neighborhood beauty addict so happy in this picture?

A. Because she got her roots highlighted (they had been completely unacceptable and just totally wrong for the past month).

B. Because she’s wearing her new favorite lip gloss, Coach 01 Gardenia, which also happens to fit into her favorite Coach wristlet.

.

C. Because she heard three of her favorite Journey songs today! — one in the privacy of her own home (Lights), and two IN FRICKIN’ PUBLIC (Oh Sherry in a restaurant and Don’t Stop Believing in a coffee shop).

You can’t deny your love for Journey!

D. All of the above.

What made you smile today?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

“My hump, my hump, my lovely lady lumps.”
— From the lyrical masterpiece, “My Humps,” by the Black Eyed Peas

Hmmm, am I the only person on this planet confused by what Fergie’s singing about in this song? She’s talking about her bum, right? Or do these words have a deeper symbolic meaning that only forward-thinking philosophers can truly understand?

The only thing I can say with certainty is Fergie ain’t crooning about 1.) Wednesdays (aka Hump Days) or 2.) dromedaries.

Anyway, in honor of Wednesdays, humps and lumps, here’s today’s edition of YOU MUST CHOOSE!

Would you rather…

1. Have a really great looking bum (it’s so great planets could revolve around it and poets would write odes to it) but have a missing front tooth (which you can’t replace — you’re a straight up jack o’ lantern, yo).

OR

2. Have a really great looking bum (and both your front teeth) but be cursed with a lifetime full of ill-fitting, terribly uncomfortable bras?

YOU MUST CHOOSE!

You know what to do.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Hallelujah, it’s a makeup miracle! For the next three years you are given every limited edition color collection from (insert your favorite makeup line here) for FREE. MAC Fafi? Free. Heatherette? Gratis. Every single dreamy piece of limited edition goodness for the next three years, free!

However… you can’t get your hot little hands on any of it unless you commit to EITHER

1. Forgoing all forms of hair removal for the next three years. No plucking, shaving, waxing, tweezing, threading, nada. You might as well legally change your name to Yeti, already, because you’re gonna be one hairy mo’ fo’.

OR

2. Wearing Renaissance fair gear ALL THE TIME for the next three years. Say goodbye to your Seven Jeans and hello to stylin’ Elizabethan costumes. Going to the gym? Gotta rock the corset. Headed out to the club with your girls? Don’t forget your snood.

What say ye, fair maiden? Will you rock the Ren fair look or go all jungle-style like Chewbaca? YOU MUST CHOOSE! (Please leave your answers in les comments.)

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

I keep seeing these Burger King commercials on TV where they show footage of real people freaking out at the counter after being told the Whopper is no longer for sale. It’s all a prank with hidden cameras done for the commercial, but most of the unwitting victims stare ahead in utter disbelief; others totally flip out, launching into verbal assaults on the poor cashiers who delivered the bad news. It’s as if a major paradigm shift has occurred. I love passionate people, but jeebus, guys, it’s a fast food burger!

Still, it got me thinking…. Is there anything I love so much that losing it would make me freak out like that at a sales counter? I always strive to be nice to customer service folks because I worked in retail for many years (girl, don’t make me bust out my pocket-T folding moves on ya), and I know how it is to be on the other side of a full-fledged customer freak-out. It takes a lot to get me to launch into a Whopper-esque meltdown in front of a sales person. It would have to be the loss of something really frickin’ great to push me over the edge. Perhaps integral to my existence, even.

Such things do exist, however, and without further ado (drumroll, please), here are nine things I would FREAK THE EFF OUT over if a sales person told me, “Sorry, we don’t sell _____ anymore. And neither does anyone else.”

In no particular order whatsoever:

1. Saucony Grid running shoes
2. The T3 hair dryer
3. Strawberry Frosted Pop Tarts
4. DKNY bras (Side note: this would be a freak-out of epic proportions. It’s so hard to find a bra that really fits!)
5. Dental floss
6. Toilet paper
7. Bumble & Bumble hair products
8. iPods
9. The holy grail minimal makeup trifecta: MAC 266 Brush, MAC Concrete Eyeshadow, MAC Select Moisturecover Concealer

So what’s on your freak-out list?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Last week’s What’s in Your Purse post was a lot of fun, wasn’t it? I get a kick out of making strange lists, and I take it a lot of other people do too.

I was thinking last night about an article I read a few months ago where people talked about what they’d tell their younger selves, so I made a list of the things I’d tell my 22-year-old self (yikes! that was 10 years ago?!) if given the chance.

9 things I would say to my younger self…

1. Savor eating fried zucchini sticks at three in morning and staying a size 2 because that high metabolism will be GONE FOREVER in four years (sigh…).

2. Be kinder to yourself.

3. In 10 years you’re going to look back and realize that several major life decisions you made were done to please other people. Take more time to think about what you really want and go for it.

4. OMG, wear sunscreen on your neck! Everyday!

5. Resist blowing your paycheck on clothes. Instead, save all that money and blow it on travel and seeing the world.

6. Leave those sorry little makeup sponge applicators alone and get yourself some real brushes, girl. While you’re at it, understand that bleaching your upper lip hair isn’t fooling nobody! Get that ‘stache waxed ASAP!

7. You know that nagging little gut feeling you get when you think about working for a magazine or newspaper? Listen to it. Bite the bullet, screw what everybody else says about employability and just do what you like.

8. Start lifting weights.

9. In four years you’ll meet a boy in a bookstore. You’ll think he’s kind of weird but funny and cute despite his questionable choice of footwear. At first you won’t think much of it, but that little nagging gut feeling will kick in again, so please, please, please listen to it, because knowing him will change your life forever.

What would you say to your younger self if given the chance?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

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