Catch Up, Ketchup!

Since I don't have a whole lot to rant/rave about today, I thought I'd do a little catching up on some of my favorite things, old and new, curiosities, and everything in between.

Let's start with some of my favorite things, that just might be in your top ten list too!

• Lululemon sweatshirts. These pricey body tents make me feel like a hot, organic-loving jedi
• Flower decorations that light up. I have a set in room at home, a string of flower lights in my dorm, and a jewelry stand that is more like a tree but hey it's close to a flower and it lights up
• The book "Go the F*&% to Sleep". One page reads, "The owls fly forth from the treetops. Through the air, they soar and they sweep. A hot crimson rage fills my heart, love. For real, shut the fuck up and go to sleep". I'm sure this is Kate Gosselin's favorite book as well.
• Whitney Port. Love that girl.
• The elderly couple who wed on the morning of July 24 in New York. The two women were well over the age of 70 and had been dating for more than 20 years. They reminded me that marriage is not just a piece of paper.

Because I still have some time on my hands I also want to talk about my favorite topic, more than anything ev-er: skin care. Right now I'm in the middle of a skin regimen crisis, due to the extreme summer heat and my inability to stick with one type of product/brand. What I love right now are the following:

• Elemis Tri-Enzyme Facial Wash. This is amazing simply because it does not dry out my skin and comes in such a pretty, practical package. No frills here.
• Kiehl's Midnight Recovery. I only use this once or twice a week, but it makes my skin feel so soft, doesn't cause breakouts and fakes 10 hours of peaceful sleep.
• Lush Brazen Honey mask. I only use this once a week since it is such a strong product, but I love to use this fresh mask when I feel like my skin is congested or a little "thick" (with sweat and grime, thanks NYC). **Also, whenever I use a mask or exfoliator, I always boil some water and let the steam open my pores for a couple minutes before. I find this to be the most effective method when I really need to clean my blackheads.
• Clinica Ivo Pitanguy Toner. Unfortunately I got the cleansing set as a gift, and I wasn't too crazy about the whole system, but the toner works nicely. That's about it. I might try it again though, just because.
• Peter Thomas Roth Oxygenating Mask. This mask is nice just before a party or night out, when I want my skin to glow a little. I really don't think this mask can do a whole lot besides brighten, but it is certainly nice and it has lasted me over 8 months.

As far as facials go, I don't get those too often seeing as they are expensive, very expensive in NYC to be exact. But at the beginning of each school year I usually splurge on a facial at Bliss because the spa's amenities are so amazing. I tried a $55 half hour facial at the Elemis counter recently. They had a nice massage chair and a wonderful skin expert, but it really just felt like a car wash. I was cleansed, toned, wiped down, and that was it. I am excited to try the $50 facial at the Dermalogica academy, mostly because it is an hour long, extraction included facial, the catch being that it is performed by students, in a room with other women getting facials. But from what I understand, the Dermalogica academy is sort of a grad school for serious skin therapists, so I'm not worried. When there's a budget involved, some standards are lowered. Hopefully I can afford to experience this facial soon, at which point I will make an update to let everyone know how it goes! I am going to go catch up on some Teen Mom right now, and for the record, Farrah scares the crap out of me.

MTA Under Pressure

Remember the movie The Warriors? Or the classic love story Ghost? Remember the subway scenes? Graffiti was plastered on the train, garbage rolled across the floor and people in trench coats kept their hands deep in their pockets as they yelled at the invisible passenger next to them. Those days of subway horror are long gone, but a new kind of terror reigns. That terror is also known as the MTA. Ok, maybe I'm being a tad dramatic by referring to the MTA as some sort of tyrannical monster who plans on ruling the people with an iron fist. Yet I can't really find another source to blame besides the organization in charge of making sure the subways run efficiently. Subway construction, delays, express to local, local to express, there is no telling what kind of surprises the MTA has in store for me and the rest of New York.

As someone who rides the trains every day, and uses many different lines to get to work and whatnot, I experience my fair share of subway troubles. At this point I expect certain things from each subway line that I use on a daily basis. The 6 is pretty reliable, although a pain when it decides to run from 14 st Union Square all the way to Brooklyn Bridge express. The N is slow, unreliable yet nicely air conditioned. The B or D is pretty clutch, but always slow right before Columbus Circle. The 7 is great unless you have somewhere to be by a certain time. Knowing all these little nuances still doesn't mean I can predict everything. The weekends are particularly heinous since there's about half the number of trains running and they seem to switch up the lines completely. For those of us who work on the weekends, and that's a lot now thanks to this draining economy, it is still crucial to be able to rely on the trains to get us to work on time. Even when I leave an extra five-ten minutes earlier on the weekends, I still end up jogging past tourists to get to my job on time. According to this article recently posted on NY Times website http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/11/nyregion/with-weekends-not-sleepy-anymore-subway-faces-a-test.html?_r=1&pagewanted=2, there's about an 85% retention rate on the weekends depending on the subway line. That's a lot of commuters! I don't care if the MTA has greatly improved the quality of the subways since the 70s and 80s, I am paying for reliable services NOW. In 2011, we have the intellectual and physical means of creating a great subway system.

Services have gone down, prices have gone up. It's irritating. I wish I could boycott the system until it improves, but I need the system. Just like most New Yorkers, I don't have a great deal of time to spend trying to piss off the MTA. I have a job, and internship and a little bit of a life in between my responsibilities. On a daily basis, nothing runs smoothly, so it would be fantastic if the MTA could lighten my load a little and get me where I need to be on time, without having to tell me in the most passive aggressive tone, to "please be patient".