Concert Band

On the advice of my one college instructor, I started performing with the Hamilton Concert Band back in September '10.  It felt just like being back in concert band at my old high school, except there's no angsty teenagers. We played a concert back in April, celebrating the Royal Marriage, and also performed with the Saltfleet high school band at their spring concert.  As a result, I now am certain that music performance is what my main focus will be over the next few years at school.  

We had our final rehearsal before the summer break a couple of weeks ago, and then right after, the band held it's general meeting to discuss the upcoming 2011/2012 year, and also to elect members to the executive.  I stayed just to hear what was going on, and then ended up being elected to the executive committee for the upcoming season.  Starting in September, I'm the treasurer for the next 2 years, so it seems like my 3 years as an accountant are finally going to be put to use again.

The Great Apartment Search

I've been searching for a 2 bedroom apartment for myself and my friend for almost 3 months now, and I'm really beginning to get frustrated.  I've seen places that they'd have to pay me to live there because of repairs, or the neigbourhood, and I've also seen nice places that were just too small.

Today, I call a place that advertised 2 Bedrooms starting at $730, and was told there was one available for September, and it was $795.  First off, why do these places lowball the price and then give sticker shock to potential tenants when they call?  Secondly, THIS IS HAMILTON, PEOPLE! There's such a thing as being too expensive for the area the apartment's located in.  I refuse to pay +$800, plus utilities for a shitty place downtown, that I know I'm just going to have issues with.

Beauty and Beastly Body Image

During my shift this evening at work I had an interaction with a customer that made me quite upset, to the point where I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes. This customer came right out and said (I'm quoting her exactly), "I don't want to be rude, but have you ever thought about laser hair removal? Your chin and mustache could really use it, and I've got a sale going on for four treatments. You're pretty, but the hair isn't." 

What the eff?!? Really?!?! Laser hair removal exists???  Also, I didn't notice that I have to shave my face every effing morning because of my illness (PCOS)... but thank you; REALLY, THANK YOU for pointing it out and making me feel like shit, and then I still have to be polite and serve you.  Oh, and pigs will fly before I ever go to your spa for any kind of service.  Thankfully my uniform shirt is long sleeved, otherwise there might've been a "hairy man arm" incident v2.0  

For those who don't know what PCOS is, it stands for Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, and to explain it as simply as possible, it's an endocrine disorder that causes women to have problems related to their reproductive systems, and usually is accompanied by one or more of the following issues: insulin resistance, androgen imbalance, thyroid problems, weight problems, excess body hair, hair loss, acne, and skin discolouration.  There's no "real" cure for the disorder, and it's essentially mother nature's grab-bag of ugliness that gets thrown at about 10% of all women.  Lucky me, I'm one of the 10%. Now back to the story...

Of course, the more and more I tried to forget what she said, the more upset I got, and I ended up sitting at the back of the bus and sniffling, the entire way home from work.  I'm pretty sure no one sat beside me because no one wants to sit next to someone who's almost crying... it's just uncomfortable for everyone.  I'm quite mad at myself for not being able to brush this woman's statement aside.  

I don't get how people can be mean like this to anyone, especially since in my case, and in many other cases, the "unsightly" problem is because of an underlying medical issue. Wouldn't it just be better to not say anything, about physical differences, be nice and accept people for who they are? 

I'd like to say that I don't care what people think about how I look, and that my personality should shine through all the superficial ideals of beauty, but let's be honest here, I'd be lying if I said I didn't care.  

Ear Piercings & current BME "Projects"

As some of my friends already know, I do love my ear piercings.  In fact, I love them so much that I've got 3 piercings in each lobe, and 2 cartilage piercings on my right upper ear.

My first set of earring holes were done when I was in grade 2, and I had so many problems with infections until my parents bought me a tiny pair of gold hoop keepers.  Keep in mind, it was the mid/late 80s, so when my ears finally healed, I wanted to wear the HUGE gold hoops that all the cool older girls were wearing. When I got a pair for Christmas, I think I wore them every day, not realizing that the weight of the earrings were damaging (stretching) my earring holes.

Now, over 20 years later and several pairs of heavy, dangly earrings later, I had earring holes that were too big to wear standard earrings, so on most days, I'd end up only wearing my CBEs in the 2nd & 3rd holes on my lobes, leaving no earrings in my first set of holes. For the past few years, I've purchased fake plugs, which hid the damage quite well; however, these plugs would inevitably break or worse, I'd loose a front or back of the earring, and have to constantly shell out more money to replace these quite expensive earrings.  At a minimum of $5.99 per earring; and having purchased at least 3 pairs in the past 6 months alone, I was starting to get very frustrated.

I did a bunch of research and decided my only plan of action was to buy a pair of larger gauge pinchers and "stretch" my first set of holes.  This is an idea I toyed with as a teenager and also while I was in university, but never tried, since I lived at home back then and my parents would've freaked out.  I estimated that I was currently somewhere between an 18g and 16g, so I opted to buy a pair of 14g pinchers that came with plugs. Yes, I'm using acrylic jewelery; however, I'm an adult, and am well aware of the potential risks of using acrylic pinchers and tapers.

So, after reading several "stretching methods", I opted to stretch my holes with the aid of antibacterial soap and a really warm compress. Here's my process, which took about 30 minutes in total for each ear.  Slow and steady is definitely the way to go when stretching your lobes, since you can cause tears and blowouts if you're too forceful or you try to stretch to a larger gauge too quickly.

First, I cleaned my new acrylic pinchers using warm water and liquid antibacterial soap. (Side note, I can't use too many things other than this unscented soap, since I tend to have allergic reactions to beauty/health products) I don't care that the earrings were fresh from a package... you don't know who touched them or where they were before they were put in the package.  I also know that you shouldn't boil acrylic jewelery or use corrosive disinfectants such as rubbing alcohol or peroxide, since this can deteriorate the jewelery and cause adverse chemical reactions, which I know I definitely wouldn't want happening in a freshly stretched ear lobe.  I also cleaned my ear lobes with the same soap and water.

Using the soap, I "lubed" up one end of the pincher and inserted into my earring hole until I felt a little bit of resistance, and then I left that ear alone until I got to the same point with the other ear.  I then sat with a warm compress on each of my ear lobes to ease the slight burning sensation and to wash away the excess soap.  I then just used warm water from the compress to act as the lubricant once I was ready to continue the stretching process.

Once the pinchers were fully in, with the widest point centred in my ear, I put on the o rings, and left the pinchers in for 2 days.  I then took out each pincher (tonight) and inserted the plugs into my newly stretched earring holes.  Caring for this BME is pretty easy, since I clean them in the shower every morning and then at night, just with a bit of the liquid soap and water.

Here's what my right ear looks like as of tonight.  The plugs were extremely easy to insert into my holes, and I had absolutely no pain or irritation with this process, save for the extremely minor pain I felt when I was pushing the pinchers through my ears during the stretching process.  I'm very happy with how it looks, especially now that the slight damage I'd originally had to my earring holes is no longer visible.

My next stretch will be to a 12g, which I plan on doing some time in February, which will then put the time at being 3 weeks between the stretches.  I'm in no rush, since I want to make sure my ears stay healthy and that I'm completely comfortable with the eventual gauge of earring I decide to stretch to. I'm only looking to stretch to either an 8g or 6g, so they're not overly noticeable, and I can have various options for jewelery - namely some pretty glass plugs I saw when I was shopping recently.