Valen’s Vanity Square

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.

*Sniffles* I’m having a flu, and I’m slightly feverish. By right I should start to feel chilly and have cold feet and hands, but I feel the night is too warm, even with the fan spinning at a high speed. Even after a heavy rain!

I’m sleeping over at mom’s place, occupying my sister’s room as she had just left for London two days ago. The air-conditioner in her room is not working. Being used to sleeping in an air-conditioned room at my own house, I know for sure that I will wake up a couple of times in the night, sweating all over.

If sweating in the sleep could help me lose a lot of weight, then I wouldn’t mind it all. Haha! Many women would be then so glad to know that they didn’t have to buy the best weight loss pills or fat burners to get rid of excess body weight. They just have to make sure that they sleep in a warm bedroom and sweat in their sleep to find themselves a pound lighter in the morning!

Ok, that’s just my rambling, you’d better not have the slightest hope that what I just mentioned could be true! Haha! Sweat or not sweat, I just hope that tomorrow morning I will wake up feeling better than today.

I just called to cancel my facial originally scheduled at this afternoon. I have a runny nose and just feel tired to leave the house. Don’t think it’s a good idea to go to busy public places (the shopping mall) when I’m down with a flu. I think I will just take an early nap after this.

Perhaps when I wake up later, I will feel better and be able to schedule my activities for this and the coming weeks. My ‘activities’ include - getting a haircut, rescheduling my facial appointment, a trip to the mall to shop for stuffs in preparation for CNY, deciding when to start baking cookies for CNY, when to go to the supermarket to get the baking ingredients, when to spring clean the house, etc.

And when I’m planning all these, I have to carefully plan the expenses as well. I guess work will be easier if there’s a home budget software to help me with it. (If anyone needs a home budgeting software, you can check it out at www.homebudgetsoftware.net.)

Whatever it is, I’ll think about it later. For now, I need some sleep therapy…

I was making a list of to-buy and to-do since I will be going to the shopping mall tomorrow. Oh man, so many things to buy, so little money to spend. Haha!

I have got several personal care items to replenish - my favorite Elianto facial cleanser and compact powder, my favorite L’Oreal anti-wrinkle day cream and night cream, the Green Tea Revitalizer Shampoo from Follow Me (which I said I want to try long time ago but didn’t), facial tissues, toothpaste, etc.

I hope the Green Tea Revitalizer shampoo will help to strengthen my hair from breaking and falling. The scene of my bathroom floor is just to eerie, with long strands of hair everywhere… The same goes to my bedroom floor. It was very annoying at first, I couldn’t help but keep sweeping the floor to get rid of those hair. Now, I’m numbed to it. Just hope that I won’t ever reach the stage where I need to resort to hair growth shampoo to treat hair loss! That will be so sad…