My Favorite Things...or how daily pleasures lead to greater contentment

This is the second My Favorite Things blog this week. Keep in mind though that I'm not endorsed (currently) by any product or Italian restaurant (Arrabiata recipe), and if I were, you all would know about it.

While taking my post-workout shower, I realized that one of My Favorite Things is my shampoo and conditioner. I use MSM by Ultra Aesthetics. Geesh this might be the girliest blog I've done yet! I'll try to top it in the near future with a blog on The Vagina Monologues or something. Anyway, about MSM and post-workout showers. Is there anything better than a shower just after an intense, dirty and sweaty workout? Seriously, they are so much better than normal showers. The only caveat is that today I felt like my legs were going to give-out because I played beach volleyball for my workout and running in sand always makes my legs a little mushy. So besides almost collapsing in said shower, it was fantastic.

Is this blog about My Favorite Thing being post-workout showers or my shampoo and conditioner? Well, since I'm the queen of this blog (with no king besides Papa Internet), and I make the rules, it's both.

MSM Shampoo and MSM Conditioner by Ultra Aesthetics. Never heard of it? Well, it's a bit obscure, but once you find it, you may never go back to other shampoo and conditioner.

I buy MSM shampoo & conditioner at my local neighbor Co-Op that has lots of healthy, organic, and alternative foods, supplements, and beauty products. Whole Foods may also carry it in certain locations, but you can also get it online at http://www.nourishingfoods.com/UltraAesthetics.html. Though I cannot vouch for their customer service or shipping. Other brands make their own version of MSM shampoo and conditioner, but I haven't tried them, so just check their ingredients and the integrity of the company.

Here are the reasons I like MSM Shampoo and Conditioner:

• The ingredients list is relatively short. Anyone who's read ingredients on hair-care or cosmetics knows the lists are not only lengthy, but also frighteningly unpronounceable. MSM's ingredients are mostly pronounceable.
  
• Beauty products are not regulated by the FDA on organic certification, so they can sort of set their own standards. While MSM doesn't claim to be organic, the ingredients are relatively benign and are not as chemical as other hair products I've used and researched.
  
• If you've ever been or know anyone who has been pregnant, doctors pretty unanimously tell expectant mothers to avoid dying their hair during pregnancy. Think about that for a moment. Anything that hurts the fetus hurts the mother, albeit in a reduced manner since adults immune systems are stronger. Still, with all the toxic exposure in most of our daily lives, it might be prudent to avoid toxins wherever we can, and although we're not dying our hair in this blog, if hair dye can seep through the scalp to potentially harm a fetus, it must wreak at least a little havoc on our systems too.
  
• It makes my hair strong.
• It makes my hair shiny.
• It smells delicious, but not too floral or feminine (as much as I love being a woman, I don't want to smell like one of those lotion and perfume stores - or as I like to say on my crasser days, I don't want to smell like a stripper). My attempt at describing the smell is some lovely blend of citrus, papaya, and some tropical flower that makes me want myself!
  

As for my hair. I really don't do much to my hair besides wash and condition it, and sometimes do old-fashioned pin curls when I feel like creating a curly-headed doppelganger of myself (which I typically do while watching a movie so I'm not sure it really counts as hair-doing). Since I added bangs to my hair (or rather, a skilled hairdresser added them), I blow-out my bangs. As far as the rest of my hair? I blow-dry it maybe 1-2 times per month. Also, besides shower-activities, I don't spend more than 5 minutes a day on my hair, average. So, I think I fall into the relatively low-maintenance category of hair-care. So the shampoo and conditioner counts, and I'm willing to spend a little more than the $2.99 cheap stuff at drug stores.

Here's why My Other Favorite Thing in this blog is my post-workout shower:

• It's like a warm and happy reward for working hard. (That sounds like another...more perverse job, doesn't it? Anyway, moving on.)
• Somehow it completes the workout for me. Like I don't feel done until I've showered and dried myself off. Sort of an exertion and cleanse ritual. (Did I just do it again?)
  
• Scrubbing muscles with hot, soapy water is the best after workout and I swear it acts to make me less sore. (I usually use an abrasive scrubber that was a gift from a very sweet man who had extremely soft skin, and believe me, it works. I think they're available at Asian markets which makes sense since the best scrub I've ever gotten was a from an angry woman at a Korean spa. Okay, maybe she wasn't all that angry, but she scrubbed me like she was.)
• The hot water and relaxation post-workout makes me a little drowsy and if I have the time, I get to take a nap (or go straight to bed depending on when I workout). Which is another one of my favorite things for another blog...Naps. Mmmmm.
  

Also, about both of the aforementioned Favorite Things, they're both simple and accessible daily pleasures. I think we all would do well to appreciate more life's daily pleasures. I know that's true for me when I get caught up (aka obsessed) about other, not-so-pleasurable things. Now ultimately, I'd like to attain the zen-state where virtually everything is pleasurable or at the very least, feel contentment in most things. But for now, I'll cultivate the daily pleasures in the pursuit of making everything...more contented.

That's it for now. Weigh-in. What are your daily pleasures?

More Interesting Katie Strand World Posts

• My Favorite Things...Arrabiata Recipe - Fresh, Organic, Vegan or Primal
  
• My Favorite Shows on Television...or how David Duchovney & Jesus are likely Good in Bed
  
• The Hawaiian Islands and Washington D.C.’s sand-paper circle-jerk about Health Care
  
• My Buddha has Termites...A Lesson in Infinite Joy
• The One-Date-Wonders!
• I had to learn SIGN LANGUAGE when I moved to Los Angeles
• Guys can make a game out of anything
• Hello? The power of CONNECTING and how technology has changed things
  
• Popping the question is better than porn!
• Bravo, Stephen Colbert & Co! and your Olympic Vancouverage
• Songwriting is like SEX
• Born To Run by Christopher McDougall - Inspiring a inspiring all of us to be more in the FLOW
• A moment of silence for all the plastic surgery ca...
• Ricky Gervais should be the new Simon on American Idol
• Muscle SURPRISE! The key to physical, mental & emotional fitness
• I think my boyfriend's a snake...
• Release... Sweat & Power
• MY FAVORITE THINGS! - Vibram's Five Fingers
• Dick Morris... How do you sleep at night?
• Rusty DePass, Gorillas, and Obama, oh my!
• Michael Jackson - Troubled Genius

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Dick Morris... How do you sleep at night?

Must be with a serious cocktail of Bourbon laced with OxyContin...

People, I didn't mean for this blog to be political, but I feel like I have no choice here. First Rusty DePass makes his absurd, racist and rude comments about Gorillas and Michelle Obama. I thought we'd hit a new conservative-sh*t-slinging low, but once again, my low-expectations were much to high for the conservative media and their go-to journalists and politicians.

The infraction I speak of, of course, is Dick Morris' vile opinion spewing on Fox News regarding the release of Laura and Euna Ling from their 140-day detainment in North Korea; thanks in no small part to Bill Clinton's meeting with North Korea's Kim Jung Il.

I agree that any representative of the United States negotiating for the release of one of our citizens - journalist or otherwise, shouldn't compromise the safety or wellfare of other American citizens or civil liberties for said release. But there is no evidence this was done by Clinton or anyone else involved in the release of the Ling sisters. If a photo-op with Bill Clinton, and some positive press for North Korea - in the slew of negative-press about North Korea - is the price we've paid for the release of these two women, then maybe we should send Clinton and a photographer over to Iraq, because I'd like to see the stop-lossed soldiers home, with their families and with their full G.I. Bill.

What if this was you, or one of your family members? I feel certain you'd retort with something like, "Well, my family members and I would never go into North Korea, so this wouldn't happen to us..." But, come on. First of all, you should be ashamed for siding with North Korea and saying these women should "face the consequences" of their excursion into North Korea. Because that's what you're doing - siding with North Korea and implying that their sentencing of these women was fair. Secondly, is this the legacy you want to leave with your name? You have some health issues, I can tell just by looking at you, and I truly am sorry because I wouldn't wish bad health on anyone. But regardless of your state of health, you are in the latter part of your life, so I'd think seriously about what you're saying and how you're portraying yourself to the world. I again ask this very serious question, Is this the legacy you want to leave with your name? Because it's an ugly, heartless legacy, and I'm sure you are not, wholly, a heartless man. So what gives, Dick Morris?

Also, as far as "facing the consequences," isn't 140 days long enough a punishment for crossing into North Korea?

I'm getting more frustrated the more I reflect on this. How about this, Dick Morris. I bet we could find someone to simulate a North Korean detention center for this little experiment. How about someone gets you and subjects you to the same treatment and conditions Laura and Euna were subjected to. Let's see how you handle it for 140 days. Before this experiment, we'll give you some fake information on nuclear war-heads, but you won't know it's fake, and we'll see how long it takes you to a) crack, and b) beg for Bill Clinton to come meet with Kim Jong Il on your behalf. See how long it takes. I'd bet you'd last 5 days on the outset. Maybe a week if you got to hide your OxyContin in a cigar tube up your you-know-what. But I'd never really condone doing this to you, because that would be cruel and heartless. I suppose it's punishment enough you have to live with yourself day-in and day-out.

How do you sleep at night?