Mane-stream Hair

It's been brought to my attention in more forms than one,  Black hair care is getting some limelight. Imagine my surprise when on my relaxing Friday night - watching Grey's on abc.com -- there's a Black hair care lesson thrown into the show! For context, Derek (Dr. McDreamy) and Meredith (main character) adopt a Black baby girl, and Dr. Bailey (a Black female doctor on the show) has to teach Derek about his daughter's "kitchen". A kitchen, dear readers is the consistently "tangled" part at the nape of the neck. Why is it called a kitchen? Who knows ... Anyway I thought this was so interesting because there's all this revived interest in Black hair! If we could count the number of tweets for Viola Davis' hair -- "go ahead girl show your natural do..." or "I think it's so great she's showing her natural hair..." For mainstream media to talk like they understand Black hair is interesting considering I've been practicing and studying for a quarter of a century and research shows inconclusive findings.
I do have an update and a plug, in my quest for a hair dresser. I think I might have found a salon ... in the city. Reasonably priced (again for the city) Shag Hair Studio NYC. So, I made an appointment from a friend's recommendation blindly walked in ... If you are unfamiliar with Black hair care and reading this post, let me preface this with not just anyone can work with our challenging tresses. There's technique and sometimes personal experience that qualifies someone to work with this facet of hair. Regardless of my hair stylist roots he was great - he used great product and made me feel good about my hair. You know those stylists that talk about how poorly you treat your hair with the only motive to make you visit more? We'll he didn't do that and I appreciate it, in fact I will go back!

Generation Y are we waiting?

I've noticed a trend in my friends and fellow peers - we're all just waiting. We're holding on to the carpe diem attitude - but it's for tomorrow. We are the most structured and imaginative generation to date. In terms of structure, we're reared to follow a path - school, college, job experience, money, balanced life, family. If someone veers off course they risk extreme disappointment or threat of missing one of these society-created grandiose milestones. And for women we worry about the timer we've self-imposed at each of the stations of life as if you stay too long you risk missing the next. Example: If a woman works hard,  she might make it to the "money" stage, but stay there basking in her dollars and career choices she forgoes a balanced life and family. May not be right - but it's what my ladies think.
For the imaginative - it's an effect of the MLK dream speech - we have a dream that one day BLANK... and you believe you can make it happen, but the drive and motivation to make it happen lacks in structure.
So you have a system of beliefs and beliefs without a system - and that's my generation.
This has resulted in a bunch of stressed and anxious individuals, a slump in cultural movement, we've been coined as the least active generation - generation y bother.
It's also created an ambitious group that has been told all their lives they can do and be whatever they want. Naturally, this creates a monster. We have lots of people thinking they are experts with two years experience and an untamed confidence that crashes when burned. Frankly, the only thing we are experts in is understand what we can be, but what does that do for everyone else who is living in the present? We're worried we won't make the right decision or we easily give in when different lines in the sand are drawn - but that's us and we'll run world some day soon, just not today but count on tomorrow.

Duh.

Guess what, if you train for a marathon - chances are it will go well. Adding another addition to the letters to my younger self :

Dear Younger Self,
Running 26.2 miles is no joke. It's not something you can half @$$ do and it's certainly not something to just run on hope - you need a solid base, hard work and mileage.

Last year my marathon was terrible. Take a look at Long Time No Blog for a snap shot. I won't even tell you my time, but the little truck was on my heels. For anyone who doesn't know each marathon has a time limit - it's typically 6.5 hours, or you must complete the half in 3 hours or something to that extent. Otherwise a huge truck comes nipping at your heels picking up cones threatening to swoop you up and rob you of that finishing medal. Last year I almost fell victim. This year I trained. I bugged my co-workers, complained of sleeplessness - got a personal best and I'm excited to do it again! Ok, it wasn't all candy canes and Christmas - there was a point after the 13.1 miles where I rejoiced - WOOO HALF WAY DONE .... oh wait, I have 13 more miles to run. Two more plus hours. The miles between 13 and 19 are the hardest, coincidentally there were no bands, or cheer squads to be found. I had to rely on my counting, random observation and thoughts, good thing for my imagination.

Short post, but to the point. No worries, more stories to come this week for my dear readers.