Valen’s Vanity Square

Hubby came home unusually early today. Was it because he wanted to give me a surprise? Did he actually bring me a surprise?

Nope. He came home early at around 4 pm because he felt ill.

Hubby got a gastric attack again. I think this is an after-effect of the 4-consecutive days of meeting last week. Hotel meals were heavy, meetings were stressful, and he didn’t get to exercise. Whenever hubby has a gastric attack, he’ll also have headache and can’t stop yawning. (That’s so weird, the yawning part.)

But he’ll have to go back to work tomorrow, coz there’s MORE meetings to attend tomorrow. That’s the reality of a working life as an employee. Your time is controlled by your employer. Unlike being an insurance agent, you can choose to work from home when you’re sick. If you have a website, you can even offer life insurance online quote. It’s really not essential to leave the house, except for seeing clients and attending meetings.

Oh well, one has to do what one has to do. It’s life…

What is going on? Is this a season for house renovation or what?

While my neighbor on the left is still not finished with his mega renovation project (almost 2 months!), my neighbor on the right just started a kitchen extension project! Can you imagine, there is drilling and hammering noise coming from the front and back, left and right? That really sucks, right?

Then, the house two doors away is also having some construction work going on, the house that is back-to-back to my left neighbor also had some sort of knocking and drilling thing taken place yesterday.

Why is everyone renovating their house?

January is the month where companies are busy setting their new business targets and strategic plans for a brand new year. That’s why hubby is out of town for such a company meeting.

To the company and their staffs, it’s about whether they are able to grow their business more than the previous year. To the insurance agents, it’s about if they can achieve the highest award and recognition plus getting lots of other incentives, including a trip to….. two Scandinavian countries!!!!!

Jeez, perhaps I should ask hubby to quit his job and start selling insurance instead, and see if he could be as successful as this super agent of the Blue Cross Blue Shield NC. Then he could work his way to get for me free free holiday tickets to all the luxury oversea trips every year - London, Hokkaido, South Africa….

Yeah, that would be nice… but that would also mean that I need to go back to working full-time again! Because the income is unsteady in the beginning stage of an insurance agent career, when you are still trying to build your clientele base, getting contacts, forming network. It’s starting everything from scratch, zero. How to survive if nobody in the family is bringing in cash?

Okay then, may be hubby should stick to his job for the time being, and I’ll be contented to just have holiday in the country, for awhile.

If your 2010 resolution is to add some self value, upgrade your knowledge or skills, or even get yourself an additional certification or degree, then go for it!

If your excuse is that you won’t have time to become a full-time student because you have a job, this can be solved. You can either look for a course that allows you to do it on a part-time basis, or you can even sign up for an online university, such as the Western Governors University (WGU).

For your information, WGU is a non-profit online university that offer more affordable tuition fees than other online universities. It is a fully accredited online education institution, so you don’t have to worry that your qualification not being recognized by employees. Many of WGU students are working full-time or part-time jobs. If you think that you may be too old for education, well, the average age of the WGU student is about 36.

If you are interested in their online mba program, you can always contact their student counselor and get any of your questions answered. At WGU, they emphasize on providing the best support to their students.

The approach of assessment at WGU is rather different from other online universities. They don’t ask you to accumulate credit hours, they are more interested if you have developed competence and are able to translate what you learned into usable knowledge and skills. This means that you are less likely to struggle between work, family, and study, because most of the time you’ll be the one who decides when and where you study.

If you are interested to learn more about WGU, you can actually look at some videos about this online university at http://www.youtube.com/westerngovernorsuniv.

Just recently I came across a piece of news saying that Malaysians in general have poor oral health problems. Well, may be most of us (perhaps it’s just me) don’t like to visit dentist, and hate dental check-up!

I don’t know, I just can’t stand listening and FEELING the machine buzzing in my mouth during the teeth cleaning process. And isn’t the dentist supposed to clean my teeth, not my gum?

It was also mentioned that the dentist to population ration in our country is very low. Okay, perhaps that is one of the reasons why many Malaysians (including me) have tooth decay problem. So, our country should train more dentists, whether they are general dentists or specializes in cosmetic dentistry.

The dentists can then advertise their services online, just like with dental implants Plano. But what they need to do to ‘entice’ a big bunch of dentist-phobic people to visit them is to give great discounts and good after-care to calm down traumatized patients (such as ME). Oh, perhaps they should also provide some counseling before any dental procedure to reduce the patient’s anxiety level.

Well, may be all of these won’t tempt me a bit to visit the dentist. Simply put, having a needle poked into my arm and have my blood withdrawn is better than seeing the dentist.

I’ve been sleeping a lot these two days. Went to bed by 10.30 pm, woke up 10 or 11 hours later, and took a 2-hour nap in the afternoon. I don’t usually sleep this much, but because I’m having a flu, I just feel so tired all the time. The more accurate term for this form of ‘tiredness’ is ‘malaise’ actually, which is a symptom of flu.

I do feel much better now, although I have this phlegm that makes my throat itchy and makes me cough from time to time. But I started to feel this ache on my shoulder and back. Is it because I slept too much or what? Or may be it’s because I’m not used to sleeping on my sister’s mattress and her pillow? Or may be I tossed and turned too much while sleeping?

Anyway, I bet all this ache and pain will disappear when I get to sleep on my own bed. (Well, that’s another two nights to go!) As long as it’s not a spine or shoulder joint problem, some stretching and massage will heal the aches in no time. If you have frequent backaches, on no matter which bed/mattress you sleep, then it might be due to some spine problem. You can either go to a chiropractitioner or specialist in spine surgery Mexico (if you are in Mexico, that is) to find out the real problem and have it corrected.

Nothing is more blissful than waking up feeling refresh and healthy from a good 8-hour quality sleep!

What do most people do in the beginning of a new year? I guess it would be looking for a new job or new career opportunity.

If you’ve got your bonus in December, great, you have received what you deserved and are ready to move on. If you didn’t get a bonus for last year, because your company decided to penalize your division for not doing a good job (and not because they are losing money or whatever), great, it just says how much your company appreciate you. It’s time to look for greener patches out there.

If you are in Minneapolis, you can do a quick Minneapolis job search online and find mass opportunities. But for hubby, it’s rather difficult to find a job in a similar industry that gives him what he’s getting now. Anyway, hubby’s planning to move into another area, just that he needs time to sharpen his skills and form some networks before he can set off his new career.

So for now, he will just continue to ride on a donkey before he can find a horse. (If you know what I mean, haha!)

Hubby has gone to JB for meeting, and will only be back after a few days.

Before we got married, hubby had also been traveling quite a bit. And when he was out of town, I knew that he missed me the most. But now, after being married for 8 years, I guess he misses his favorite exercise equipment - an elliptical cross trainer - more than he misses me. Haha!

Hubby will be stranded in meetings after meetings these few days, he won’t have time to exercise. He has been enjoying working out on the elliptical exercise machine a lot since we bought it. Even just 30 minutes on the machine makes him feel healthy. (He’s a guy who is very conscious about his waistline. :P) It would be a great torture for him not to be able to exercise.

That’s why I said he will miss the machine more than his wife! Let’s bet, the first thing he does when he comes back this Friday, would be to spend some precious time with his beloved elliptical machine. Haha!

Even if you are 30 years old, you may still have acne problem all the time, and naturally you’ll be constantly looking for the best acne treatment. Which woman wants to carry the ‘burden’ of zits all through their life?

While there are many over-the-counter anti-acne products you can get from the pharmacies, serious acne problems may need to be treated with medical options.

FYI, the top three acne medications are the following:

1. Benzoyl peroxide

This anti-bacterial medication (antiseptic) takes care of killing the acne-causing bacteria, P. Acnes. It is both over-the-counter and prescription drug that comes in gel or cream. After you start using BP, it usually takes approximately 3 weeks to notice the changes.

2. Salicylic Acid

Salicylic acid is normally used to treat skin disorders such as dandruff, calluses and warts,  but can also be used as an acne medication. It slows down the cells in the follicles from cracking; this helps to prevent blockage. It also assists in breaking down the whiteheads and blackheads.

Salicylic acid comes in many forms including cream, gel, lotion, ointment, and many more. You have to be careful when using SA - must use according to the directions from your doctor or on the label recommendations. It may cause side effects if wrongly used.

3. Sulfur

This ingredient is common among soaps, washes, and creams. It allows the skin to peel and dry, enabling the breaking down of the whiteheads and blackheads. As with SA, you have to carefully check the label directions to avoid unnecessary side effects or complications.

Some people might be allergic to the ingredients mentioned above, so you’ll want to be sure you are not allergic to them before you start using. Anyhow, it’s still the best to seek the advice of skin experts for acne treatment that is tailored to your condition.