Emma and Sidekicks

I love Groupon! It is the best thing in the whole world. You get to try things that you would probably not think to try on your own and you visit different places in different neighborhoods that you normally wouldn't know about. When we were recently living in Frankfurt, Germany, I found places in all sorts of neighborhoods by buying Groupon deals, that I would have never found. It was a great way to see the city.

Since being back in the States my addiction has continued. I usually buy kids activities or spa related stuff. Recently I had been seeing all of the long, luscious eyelashes that women all over seem to be sporting and I started to ask about them. Then I was curious to try eyelash extensions myself. Several Groupons had popped up, but the application of the eyelashes was still pretty pricey. Finally they had one for about $40 and I was sold!

I made my appointment and headed out to get myself some of these long lush eyelashes! When I arrived at the salon it was kind of in a "Tough Shed" type of establishment. One that usually houses tractor rentals and things like that. It seemed to me that maybe someone's dad or uncle owned the building and they let the "salon" owner open a nail shop on one side... that kind of thing.

So, despite the less than five star spa accommodations I pressed forward. The girl who did the eyelashes was really very nice, so that was a good sign. She had me sit in two pedicure chairs that were pushed to face each other and one laid back... great accommodations again. Then we went to get started and she said she only had black eyelashes, and was that ok?? How am I supposed to know if that is ok? She is the expert? I put on black mascarra everyday, so it seemed relatively reasonable, to me, that black eyelashes would work.

She also asked me what kind of look I was going for. Do I want really long diva lashes? Thick? More natural? I said I wanted them to be natural, but kind of like I can tell I did something, and thick, who doesn't want thick eyelashes!

We got started and I was staring up into this bright florescent light, which immediately made me tear-up. My eyes are so sensitive to bright light. It is a national emergency if I forget my sunglasses on a rainy day even. Then the process involves taping down your bottom eyelashes to make sure they are out of the way. She was using what looked like regular old Scotch tape for this activity. One side wasn't cooperating, so she had to repeatedly rip off and realign the tape on my bottom eyelid... ouch! So now I am kind of getting frustrated. Once we got the tape in place though things were pretty relaxing. I was able to close my eyes after that and didn't have any more issues. I was however kind of tired from work and the effort of getting out of the house again, and I had this nagging feeling that I was just kind of anxious to be done with this particular adventure.

When she was finished she gave me a tiny mirror to inspect the outcome, again staring into the extremely bright light over my head and I said, "Great!" and was out of there. As a final thought I asked her how to get them off if I didn't like them or they were bugging me or something. She just said to steam them over a pot of water and rub olive oil over them and they would come off... good enough.

So I went home, recovering from staring into the bright light, to see how they turned out. When I looked in the mirror at home I looked like Daisy the Cow. Seriously, I can't keep these things on here, they are ridiculous!

Everyone had pretty much gone to be by the time I got home, so I was glad that nobody was going to see me. I immediately got in the bathtub and though I would steam them off there. She had said not to get them wet for 24 hours, so I thought steaming them and getting them wet right away would be a sure thing. Needless to say... I steamed, I scrubbed, I used babyshampoo, I used a washcloth, until my eyes were red, sore, swollen baseballs and only a couple came off! Now I was sure that it was 20 times worse because a couple did come off and now there would be huge gaps in them.

So after that didn't work I got out of the tub and realized that from all the scrubbing instead of having nice neat Daisy the Cow eyelashes, I now had old, scabby toothbrush lashes from all of the scrubbing in every which direction!

So now I am convinced it is a million times worse and they have to come off! At this point I am sure the olive oil will be the magic bullet. Then, I expertly decided that if I trimmed them the olive oil would be able to get to the glue better and work its magic. So using fingernail scissors I pretty much just hacked away to make them shorter... because they were still coming off, tonight, so I didn't have to be very careful...right?

So now they look like blunt cut, someone mowed the lawn on my eyelashes, scabby toothbrush, Daisy the Cow lashes. Nightmare!

I got out a face steamer that we have for when you have a cold. I plugged that in, got the olive oil and proceeded over the next hour to continue to torture my already tortured eyes and none of it worked... not even a tiny bit.

When all else fails, look it up on the Internet! I Googled removing eyelash extensions and every page warned, "DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME!!!!!" Inorder to remove eyelash extensions you have to go to a salon where they have a special product to take them off. Without this, it is futile and you will just ruin your natural lashes. Great.

So now I have blunt cut, scabby toothbrush, stark black, Daisy the Cow eyelash extensions and they are not coming off. You can also see the millimeter or two of my natural blonde lashes in the space between my eyelid and where the big black lashes start, with there black gobs of glue.

So it sinks in that I am stuck with these until I can find a salon the next day to take them off. My supervisor at work is located in Las Vegas. She was scheduled to be in Salt Lake the next day and we were supposed to start work at 8:30, salons don't open until 10. So I have to go to work like this.

The next day I put the mascara on to hide the gap where my natural eyelashes extended from my eyelids and that did really help, but still... chopped, blunt, scabby, hugely black eyelashes. I have to make sure you are getting the appropriate vision here.

I went to work and caught my friend right away and she said she wouldn't have even noticed if I didn't tell her...that is good, but I am convinced all day that people are just aghast at my eyelashes. Not to mention that the previous days torture is still evident in the fact that my lid line is purple and swollen to 4 times a normal size.

I mad it through the day and after work I stopped at every salon between work and home. None of them could take me on the spot. I wasn't able to get an appointment anywhere until 3:00 the NEXT day. Super great.

At 3:00 the next day I went to my new favorite West Valley salon where the girls only speak Spanish to each other and to every other client, but me. I still love them though. If you are reading this from SLC area it is Roxy's on 5600 W.

I went in for my appointment and the poor gals were trying so hard not to laugh hysterically, which would have been just fine, by that time all you can do is laugh or hide in the closet.

She explained that she had never taken off extensions the next day before, usually it is after 6-10 weeks when the glue has started to degrade. She isn't really sure how well it is going to work. She helped me out though and everything was fine. I never felt so relieved, like those lashes weight 400 tons on my poor little eyelids. She charged me $10 to take them off and then explained how it should be done if I ever wanted to try again.... Probably not. I was so so glad.

So.... now I have a friend in a esthetician school and next week it is a laser facial! Hopefully that doesn't turn into the next post, but Rachel, if it does I promise to take a picture this time.

So I accidentally found something for my brain while I was taking a break in the hotel room in Madrid. I turned on BBC (the only channel in English) and found the Doha Debates. http://www.thedohadebates.com/ If you listened to all of these debates you would be smart. Smart about the middle east anyway and we could use WAAAAAYYYYY more people who are smart about the middle east. I thought the one I listened to was fascinating (Education without Free Speech is Worthless). Give it a shot.

Next I am obsessed with food blogs. I have tried to become obsessed with Foreign Service blogs, but food blogs always win. The admittedly geeky looking guy at www.closetcooking.com would give Alex a run for his money for title of husband if the closet cooker ever met me and decided he couldn't live without me. He makes the best looking stuff on the planet.

I went for a girls weekend in Madrid. It was fabulous to see all of the architecture there. I could get more out of it if I knew anything at all about architecture, like how to spell it even, but I don't. If we are ever posted in Europe again I should take a class first.

Emma is cruising along, bigger and bigger and smarter and smarter every day. I love her so much it is amazing to watch her grow and learn how her mind works. I am thinking of putting her in a bilingual preschool when we get to Florida. She needs to use those nice young brain cells to soak up another language while she has the chance.

Here are some pictures... next up, Istanbul!