((little fat notebook))

The crazies next door

laelene Post in general blog，Tags: behavior, office, people, work

10 January 2016

At work, we’ve had about half of the floor for the past two years and now we’re taking over the rest of it. It’s nice to have the place to ourselves and my colleagues and I were reminiscing about some of the strange folks who worked across the way.

For the most part, it seemed to be the bathroom behavior of the ladies that drew a lot of raised eyebrows from our office. For example, many of these ladies would take phone calls in the restroom. Didn’t matter if they were in a stall or just standing by the sinks, it was awkward. Who wants to walk in on a phone conversation and have to do your business?

Yeah.

I mean, I understand that they’re a more traditional office so they can’t take calls in their space, but there’s plenty of hallway and it’s not hard to hop on an elevator to stroll around the lobby or even outside. It got to the point where someone actually printed a sign to ask them to take their calls outside the restroom.

Then there was a random woman who would apparently bang her head on the wall, consistently and very much out in the open by the paper towel dispenser. I never actually ran into that situation, but two of my colleagues described it and one said that when she asked the woman if she was ok, she was ignored. Maybe this was some sort of trance? Again, not something that makes you comfortable walking into a restroom.

And then there were the grooming habits that went on in there, with folks washing their faces, brushing their teeth, flossing, or even applying nail polish. I don’t understand why any of these matters would be so urgent that you must do it midday at your office (usually around 2 pm). I mean, if it was at the end of the day, I can see how you might need to tidy up before going straight to an evening event. But when you’re still going to be sitting at the office for a few more hours, what is that really accomplishing?

Granted, these behaviors were certainly less odd, but the most uncomfortable was the flosser who would let things fly out of her mouth and never clean the sink area when she was done. Ick. For someone who seems to care about hygiene, that is not a very hygienic behavior.

And finally, for those who did take their calls in the hallway, there was always one girl who seemed to argue on every single call and have no qualms about airing her laundry (dirty or not). You’d think private conversations would either not be spoken so loudly or be taken somewhere out of the way. Alas, she did neither and nearly all of our office heard her complaints at one point or another. Yet another awkward situation to walk into and ignore.

Suffice it to say, we do not miss the oddballs in bathroom or hallway. Funny enough, they apparently found us odd. It seems that our choice of clothing – not business casual – was something for them to raise their eyebrows over. Good thing they don’t work out west! I can only imagine how they’d react to flip flops, hoodies, and board shorts if our everyday wear was strange to them. So I guess we’re all crazy in someone else’s eyes.

Prospurly December 2015 review

laelene Post in reviews, subscriptions，Tags: balms, boxes, cooking, food, kits, pictures, plants, products, reviews, scrubs, seeds, skincare, spices, subscriptions, teas

08 January 2016

Ok, with all but one application submitted, I’ve got some time to tell you all about the most recent Prospurly box that I got. I haven’t had time to really dig in with these items, but I look forward to it!

Prospurly is just under $45 per box (with code for 10% off your subscription – use my referral links from this post) and comes with artisan foods, bath & body items, home products, and other sustainably crafted items. Boxes are sent monthly with no option to skip. They offer a referral program that earns you free boxes.

The Savvy Heart peppermint body resurfacer – This leaked a bit in transit, so there were some refreshing oils left in the box. It’s a lovely mint scent that is very refreshing and the granules of sugar rub well into skin. It leaves a cooling feeling that’s great after working out or to start your day invigorated.

Aimee’s Home Cookin’ Germania Gluhwein mulling spices – Ooo it’s the perfect time to use mulling spices to make some apple cider! I love that it comes with its own little reusable pouch to keep the spices in when brewing. The scent is very aromatic and I feel like this would make awesome potpurri. Any chance there’s enough scent left after boiling that it can be dried and used as such? Doubtful, but we’ll see. I can’t wait to try this out since I’ve been loving apple cider lately.

St. Fiacre’s Farm organic loose leaf peppermint patty tea – Whoa, peppermint chocolate tea. Now that sounds interesting. What’s up with this minty theme in the winter? Is that common? I’m trying to stay warm over here! For now I’m keeping this sealed as I work through other teas I have, but come February or so I’ll probably break this out.

Melisa’s bundt cake soap – Mmm, this smells sweet. I think bath products shaped and scented like desserts are awesome. It’s really cute that she includes a recipe for a pound cake on the tag! Now that’s tying in the theme.

St. Fiacre’s Farm Winter Balm – This is a hand balm that smells like none I’ve had before. It definitely reminds me of the holidays and the formula is perfect for winter. Letting a bit start to melt with my body heat, I can then rub it on my hands to keep them nice and soft. I like that this is lightweight yet packs a punch. It’s super cool that it uses natural disinfectants so I can also help ward off some germs every time I lotion up!

jpants Crimson Clover seeds – I’m a little confused because there’s supposed to be stickers and “other goodies” in this pouch according to the card, but what I got was seeds. Did they miss something with mine or perhaps change their mind after producing the cards? Well, whatever the case, I have some nice little clover seeds that look like they will produce flowers! I like that prospect, so I’ll add this to my “to plant” pile and figure out when I want to actually do that. We don’t get much good sunlight indoors, so I don’t think now would be a good time.

jpants Dwarf Mugo Pine Bonsai Tree Kit – Now this is just the type of thing I was hoping to receive from a box like this. I’m all about cute, useful items that I wouldn’t find on my own! Since it takes awhile to grow get this to germinate, I can do some research and then get started later this winter. We’ll see if I’m successful! Usually I can get a plant to grow to a certain stage, but keeping it alive seems to be the hard part. Plus with travel plans, it’s not easy to keep plants well-maintained.

I’ll likely use everything from this box, though I miiiiight share the tea with someone else. I look forward to taking a bath at some point to give myself time to relax and use the scrub. This week has been long and tiring. What do you think of these products?

[This post contains affiliate links. Signing up through them helps support my subscription and I’d be ever so grateful. 🙂 All opinions are my own and I received no compensation for this review. I just purchased this box and wanted to share what I got!]

Tick tock

laelene Post in general blog，Tags: applications, business schools, experiences, mba

06 January 2016

Wow, I’m tired! I’ve been obsessively going through applications, reading and rereading everything I input to make sure it’s all accurate. So far three deadlines have passed and I’ve submitted four of six applications. I’ll send in one more tomorrow night and then the final one over the weekend! Oh my, I can’t believe it’s that time. Now I can’t wait to hear back, fingers crossed. I really feel like I have a good chance with the essays I put together and I hope that the admissions committees agree.

Each night I’ve had Panda review my final work to help catch minor typos and also give feedback on how strong my message is. I’ve made some modifications based on his reactions to parts of my applications that weren’t as strong and I feel really good about it all! I’ve worked really hard, read A TON, and incorporated everything I was learning and thinking into how I approached my applications. In a few short days I can breathe a sigh of relief that this stage is complete and I can put some more energy back into work and exercise.

If I don’t start hearing about interviews in about a month, I’ll be getting worried. Surely I’ll get a few! For now, I need sleep so I can finalize two more awesome applications. 🙂

Treatsie December 2015 review

laelene Post in reviews, subscriptions，Tags: boxes, caramels, chocolates, food, marshmallows, pictures, popcorn, reviews, snacks, subscriptions, treats, treatsie

04 January 2016

I’ve been so busy with applications that I only recently got a chance to try some of these snacks! This one didn’t come with a card and I’m not sure if that was intentional…

Treatsie is $15 per box + $4.95 shipping and comes with artisan candy from 3-4 brands. That means about 6 or 7 different flavors of treats. Boxes are sent monthly with no option to skip. They offer a referral link program to earn store credit. Use my referral link and code FRBUCO01 to get double the treats (a purported $40 value) in your first box!

Malvi Marshmallow Confections cookie sandwich in Red Velvet: I’ve got to say, I’m not getting the red velvet, but the marshmallow is wonderfully fluffy so I’m not sure I care. The cookie part is harder than the previous vanilla flavor I received. I think I like that one better, but these pillows will still be devoured.

The Art of Caramel Artisanal Carameled Popcorn in Brandy Spiked Eggnog: Well, this has an alcohol flavor, so it shall be shared with my coworkers. What’s with the holidays and drinking? I guess it’s a way to stay warm, but it just ain’t my thing. That’s ok, I’m not super crazy about popcorn anyway (cue the gasps).

AvenueSweets caramels in vanilla, pecan, chocolate, sea salt, and peppermint: Oh yes, now caramels are something I can appreciate. I’ve had these before and I’m plenty happy to get more of them. I’m just guessing on the flavors here because they aren’t labeled and the colors sometimes seem like they could be one of two options. I guess I will see how accurate I was when I eat each of them. 🙂

chuao chocolatier peace, love & peppermint, hope, joy & gingerbread, caramel apple crush, and cinnamon cereal smooch ChocoPods: Amazing. I really like this brand a lot and will definitely be buying some. I wonder where I can get these chocopods versus the regular bars though? These adorable leaf-shaped pieces are perfect for a quick bite. I like how they have tiny bits of the flavor embedded, so each bite contains some crunch. One of my favs is the potato chip one, but these holiday ones are good too.

What a festive set of treats! I definitely felt the holiday season in these. Which treats do you like from this box? To get Treatsie, sign up with my link and code FRBUCO01 to get double the treats in your first box!

Braindead

laelene Post in general blog，Tags: applications, business school, mba

02 January 2016

Happy 2016! It’s a new year and I feel so out of touch with the season, what with El Nino making this winter very mild thus far. I’m looking forward to the first snow of the year and I think many others might be too, despite my coworkers who claim to hate it.

I’ve been heads down reading books to learn about business ideas and applying that towards my essays and applications. I just went through and typed alllllll the tedious bits to the applications, which took a lot longer than I expected! I’ll put together a post of things I learned and tips for anyone else who might be applying to schools. I guess it’s been so long that I forgot about some of the nuances.

So with that, I will leave you pretty quickly today so I can rest for one more day. I’m not ready for work again, what with all my applications due in the next week! It’s so surreal that I’m at that point and will soon have no applications to work on. That means I’ll have more energy to read all the books I want though. 🙂

Three decades

laelene Post in general blog，Tags: brithday, childhood, experiences, life, memories, thirtieth, thirty

30 December 2015

1985 – The year I was born. My dad had left China to go to grad school at Penn State. Not much else happened since it was quickly a new year!

1986 – The year my mom left to join my dad at Penn State.

1987 – The year I was raised by my grandparents and extended family. Of course I have little recollection of this, except for a vague memory of my grandma chasing me around the sandbox trying to feed me rice.

1988 – The year my future husband was born! Little did I know that there was this boy on the other side of the world.

1989 – The year I immigrated to reunite with my parents, who were basically strangers to me at that point.

1990 – The year I was studied by education grad students at Penn State as part of my child care. My mom even clipped an article about the research with a picture of me in it. I remember they had really awesome ice cream for a special event each year and I thought the minerals display was magical because the stones all seemed to glow in the dark.

1991 – The year we moved to Kansas and I started kindergarten. I learned that I was really good at memorizing the Peter Rabbit play. I believe this was also the year that my mom made me an awesome lion mane from yarn, so I could be a lion in a play.

1992 – The year we moved from a townhouse to a house house and I changed schools. This was just the beginning of being the new kid at many places!

1993 – The year I made my first best friend, who was a year younger than me. I loved going to her house to do something crafty like those baked art things. I believe this was also the year my dad got in a really bad car accident and I drew him a picture of us and our pet snapping turtle, which he had caught fishing at the lake.

1994 – The year my parents sent me back to China to stay with my other grandma for a year. I went to class with my cousin, who’s a year older than me, and was basically lost in most topics except for English (where I was far too advanced). I ended up never going to third grade in either China or the US. My language skills improved immensely according to my parents, though I feel I’ve always been pretty good! 😛

1995 – The year I returned to Kansas and went on to fourth grade as if I never left the school district. I had a special tutor who taught me cursive because that was really the one thing I missed in third grade. So I’m really good with cursive (if you can tell the difference between the Q and Z then you probably are too), yet who even uses it? I journaled in cursive for awhile just to keep practicing. Speaking of, this is the year I started my daily journal because I reeeeally wanted a diary that was being sold at the Scholastic Book Fair and my dad made me promise to write in it every day. Little did he know I’d keep doing that for 13 years, even when he and my mom would figuratively roll their eyes and question why I spent so much time doing it.

1996 – The year we moved to Missouri because my dad decided to leave his local government job and move to the private sector. I was doing well in school, so I was chosen to be a traffic monitor for the kindergarteners and I got to miss part of class each day to walk the kids to the buses. I think I still have the silver badge and orange belt I wore. I played a Native American in a school play about Lewis & Clark. Around this time I got my first cat Tom/Mimi in Kansas and then Jerriey in Missouri.

1997 – The year I had a pseudo boyfriend over the summer (this guy I had a major crush on who I told on the bus the last day of school – was started calling each other and I walked to his house to take walks with him and his bouncy ball). I started middle school that fall (and maybe this is TMI but I got my period after two years wondering when this whole puberty thing would hit). I think this is when we found a Chinese school for me to start attending on the weekends. Or maybe it was the following year?

1998 – The year I moved during winter break and the only time my education was split in the winter rather than the summer. My first half of seventh grade was in Missouri and my second half was in New York. This led to some incongruency in the classes I was taking and what I learned. At this point, I had chosen French for my foreign language after testing out Japanese, Spanish, and I think German. My school in Missouri had us learn all four language options in 6th grade so we could better choose one to continue with in 7th.

1999 – The year I settled in New York, found friends with a group of girls, and decided to join track & field. This was the stage when I decided that of my three career options, I most liked businesswoman. The other two options were doctor or engineer. I don’t know if my parents said this to me or I inferred that they’d want one of those. Well, this is when my dream to get an MBA was born! We got Jerriey a friend, my third cat Simon.

2000 – The year we all thought Y2K would shut down the world, so my parents and I went to Times Square for NYE to watch what would happen… and of course nothing did. Alas, it was still historic! I started high school and joined the founding swim team as well as NJROTC.

2001 – The year I took 11 classes – one on Monday nights, two alternated days, and the other either were during the remaining 8 class periods in the day. I did not have a lunch period (is that still legal?) so I’d grab something right before ROTC class. Usually a sandwich or Gatorade and Rice Krispies. Yeah, I’ve always had a penchant for junk food. One Tuesday morning, I was in math when the principal came in and said something to our teacher. I remember she was young and a strawberry blonde type. The shock on her face as she told us about the Twin Towers did not help me grasp the situation. I think she cried. We were all so stunned and in the next class, we just huddled and watched the TV looping awful footage. One of my classmates found out his aunt had died and many others weren’t sure of their impact. One of the planes must have flown right over our area just an hour earlier. I was grateful my mom was home and my dad was on business. We waited as the buses came to take us all home and then we sat glued to the TV, watching the same horrific scenes. I later learned that my mom felt she got lucky because she had nearly taken a job in one of the towers. Meanwhile, my dad had heard the plane flying way too low over his hotel on its way to the Pentagon. Closer calls than I ever expected, but thankfully still plenty out of the way for us all.

2002 – The year my parents and I moved from New York to California and I felt miserable. I did not like this new state at all and I was forced to choose between track and swimming. Swimming won out because my dad’s coworker had a daughter on the team. I also had to switch to AFJROTC because there was no Navy unit in the area. Luckily, I got to keep all my ribbons so I ended up having more than anyone else!

2003 – The year I learned that I was deterred by guys who showed interest in me. When my crush asked me to winter formal, I balked and never liked him again. I felt awful, but we reconciled and now he’s married to one of my best friend’s sister. I also had a foray into Christianity, but it turns out my “faith” was a feeling I couldn’t figure out and it was actually my feelings for said crush. Simon got lost while out playing and we never saw him again. 🙁

2004 – The year I graduated high school and started college at UCLA! I had the longest summer since we were the last school to start and I ended up joining Facebook to get a head start on making friends.

2005 – The year I interned on a movie, Wristcutters. I mean, it’s LA. I did enjoy it, but didn’t feel the need to make a career of it.

2006 – The year I pledged AKPsi and then interned at Smith Barney for the summer before moving to the UK to study abroad.

2007 – The year I absolutely loved being abroad, making international friends and living such a different lifestyle. I returned after a year and attended Monster DLP before interning at UCLA Live! and working as a product demonstrator (more about those jobs if you like).

2008 – The year I met Panda, became an Orientation Counselor, and graduated from UCLA. <3 Jerriey had been moved to Beijing with my parents and he died while we were on vacation in Cancun. </3

2009 – The year I moved to Singapore for a stint out there that was my first job out of college. When I returned in the fall, I interned for Opportunity Green and really got into sustainability.

2010 – The year I got my first “real” full-time, salaried job. I stayed with Panda in his apartment by UCLA most of the time and got to stay close to Bruin life.

2011 – The year I moved close to work and began to take yoga. Panda moved out to the greater DC area, though he was able to visit almost once a month. I got Missy and Molly!

2012 – The year I quit my job and decided to strike out on my own. I didn’t have much opportunity for growth at work, so they had kind of seen it coming. I was also struggling with not being able to see Panda as much anymore (he was traveling less) and I had long wanted to be an entrepreneur.

2013 – The year I transitioned from self-employment back to working at a company and officially moved out east. I learned that my entrepreneurial bug is something best satisfied with a co-founder. Solo work is so very lonely and not the type of environment I find invigorating. Panda got his Master’s degree and proposed to me on commencement day! We then found our dream condo and got the keys in December.

2014 – The year Panda and I got married with a simple ceremony at the courthouse with my parents, his parents, and his brother as witnesses. We’re not much for hoo ha. Early in the year, we moved into our first home and got Smokey from the shelter.

2015 – The year Panda and I had our 1-year anniversary “wedding” celebration with some extended family: my aunt and cousins and his uncle, aunt, and cousin. In January, I flew Missy from LA so she could live with us and Smokey would have a fur sister.

And that brings me to my 30th! This is the only time in my life when the dates match my age: on the 29th, I was 29 and on the 30th, I was 30. Fun, huh? Or am I just a numbers nerd? Whatever the case, I hear the 30’s are a time when you get into a rhythm of life and become more in tune with who you are. I certainly hope that I make good progress towards my goals and better understanding myself. I plan on making 2016 the year I went off to start my MBA. And there will be so much awesomeness to follow. 🙂

Language precision

laelene Post in general blog，Tags: childhood, chinese, language, learning, mandarin

29 December 2015

If you speak more than one language, how do you feel when you speak the languages that are not your primary one?

I’ve always been a proud Mandarin and English speaker, with native proficiency in both. I started off speaking Chinese as a child, then learned English when I immigrated before I turned 4. Around the age of 5, my grandmother came to visit and taught a Chinese class in our living room. When I was 8, my parents sent me to China for a year, where I attended school and was immersed in the culture and language. That helped my Mandarin a lot! I came back with stronger language skills and would return to China during summer breaks up until middle school. Meanwhile, I had been attending Chinese school since 4th grade or so.

In high school, all that dwindled as I focused on my classes, extracurriculars, and preparing for college. My junior year, I had moved from New York to California and could not find a suitable Chinese school in the area. My education in Mandarin was paused until I took a class in college. Since then, it’s been 10 years! Unbelievable. I only speak Chinese for a few hours a year now and I find myself more and more shy about it.

One of the things I was proudest of as a child was my near flawless accent. I sounded basically like a native Chinese person and did not have the accent that many of my peers had. But after years of dormancy, my language skills have been slipping. I’m perfectly fine to use Chinese when I’m in China, but in the states I often use English when Mandarin would have worked. A few days ago, I suddenly realized that this was totally silly. I’ve been trying to speak to myself in my head to practice. I didn’t want those speaking to me to judge any misuse of phrases or slight pronunciation variations I might have.

But you know what? It doesn’t matter. They don’t care if I’m fresh from China or born here. In fact, I’ve always found that Chinese people get really excited when they see that I can converse with them in the language they are more comfortable with. It doesn’t matter if I stumble over reading Chinese or if I use slang that give away some of my background. I hear plenty of people speaking English with poor grammar and strong accents, but the only way to get better is to keep going. I’m going to take the same eagerness to practice Chinese that I have when speaking to my mom and extend that to any others who understand me. Screw speaking “perfect” Mandarin! Pretty soon, I might speak far too little if I chase too high a standard.

Crunch time

laelene Post in general blog，Tags: applications, business school, future, mba, panda

28 December 2015

Yikes, my first b-school applications are due in one week! I’ve spent a TON of time soul-searching, reflecting, reading, listening, and thinking. I hope I’ve been able to distill my essence into a potent little package that will come across well in my essays. I’m trying to wrap those up soon so I can also do a revamp of my resume before uploading that and completing the other aspects of each app. This is really nerve-wracking!! Luckily, I have a five-day weekend to focus and work through many of the details.

I’ll mostly be offline in the coming days, but I should have time to fit in a post or two. After that, I’m thinking of bringing back more of my journaling days. I miss being able to look back on any day in my life and knowing what happened. Panda and I were trying to rehash what we did over the Christmas weekend and things were already a little fuzzy. I don’t like that feeling, so perhaps I’ll incorporate more daily life stuff into my posts here. We’ll see! Right now I’m reserving most brain power for putting my best foot forward in my applications!!

Petit Vour December 2015 review

laelene Post in reviews, subscriptions，Tags: beauty, boxes, cruelty-free, eco-friendly, pictures, products, reviews, skincare, subscriptions, vegan

26 December 2015

I’m loving the glittery and rosy theme of this box. Definitely has a festive holiday feel to it.

Petit Vour is $15 per box (or as much as $30 for international subscribers) and comes with vegan beauty, skincare, and other personal care products. Boxes are sent monthly with no option to skip. They offer a referral program that earns you points towards free boxes (email contact@petitvour.com to say I referred you if you sign up!).

Kani Petal Polish – Ok, I was super confused by this one and I couldn’t figure out if it was one of those paper masks or a regular one. It turns out it’s like a super thick scrub paste sort of thing. It smells much like brown sugar and rose mixed together, which is basically what it is. I’m a fan of brown sugar and it’s a lot of fun to rub this on your face. It left my skin very soft and nice.

Mai Couture blush papier & highlighter papier – This reminds me a lot of those oil blotting papers, which it seems to act as in a secondary fashion. Primarily, these are for adding some color to your face! What a highly portable way to go about it. I know it says to tear one sheet in half to use on either cheek, but I found that it wasn’t created with easy tearing. At least perforate or make it easier to tear a somewhat even line if that the recommended use. The grain of the paper made the paper want to tear lengthwise rather than widthwise.

Zaban Essentials Golden Goddess glow stick – Oh my goodness, this smells GOOD. It’s some sort of delicious tropical smell that I attribute to the nectarine extract. It’s so fragrant and wonderful! It glides on easily and gives a nice subtle glow and shimmer that feels very festive. What a great little stick of fun.

blissoma scentless stick natural deodorant – There’s a dryness and graininess to this stick that makes me feel like it will definitely keep me dry and odor-free. I found it needed some extra rubbing in with my fingers for it to absorb and spread. After that, I felt great and instantly the moisture from that area was diminished.

I had fun with these products. The glow stick is perfect for the season and a great way to spruce things up when everything outside gets more dull. Which of these products do you like most?

[This post mentions a referral program. Signing up and emailing contact@petitvour.com to say I referred you helps support my subscription and I’d be ever so grateful. 🙂 All opinions are my own and I received no compensation for this review. I just purchased this box and wanted to share what I got!]

Escape Monthly December: New England Box review

laelene Post in reviews, subscriptions，Tags: boston, boxes, chocolates, escape monthly, facial moisturizers, food, granolas, guides, lip balms, massachusetts, new england, perfumes, pictures, products, reviews, snacks, subscriptions, treats, vermont

23 December 2015

It seems to be an ongoing trend that I sit on my boxes for days before I manage to get a review out. Last night I was going to post this, but then I realized I hadn’t taken a picture, so I waited until today to get the photo.

Escape Monthly is just under $40 per box (with code for 20% off your subscription – see end of post) and comes with a variety of food, home, skincare items themed around a city/region. Each box comes with a guide for that area. Boxes are sent monthly with no option to skip. They offer a referral commission program.

(click to enlarge and read full messaging)

escape-monthly-new-england-box-info-card-pdf

(view the file to read in detail)

Whoa, that’s a lot of chocolate! The majority of the brands seemed to come from Vermont, which is totally a place I want to visit because I always heard about the Vermont Teddy Bear Co on the radio when I was living in New York. I imagine it to be like a mini Colorado for whatever reason.

Here’s what came in the box:

Frommer’s EasyGuide to Boston, Cape Cod and the islands – I’ve been to Boston a few times, mostly when I was a teenager, but I haven’t been to Cape Cod or the surrounding area. Panda and I definitely plan on making a trip to those areas at some point, so this will be a handy guide (though I might regret arming him with so much knowledge). I’m not much of a guide kind of person, but Panda loves reading through them to find the gems.

body brush – If you know me by now, you know I love things like this. I read about dry brushing a few years back and it totally intrigued me. Now I have my very own tool to try it out! I’m sure I can find some instructional videos to try out this method. If it can really help with energy as it purports, or even if it clears off dead skin and maybe helps my circulation, this will be well worth it.

Plum Island Soap Co. face moisturizer – Ooo, the lovely lemon scent of this is very nice. The texture has a bit of a bounce to it and I feel like this will be the perfect moisturizer for whenever snow does decide to some this season. Looks like it certainly won’t be this year, but I hear February’s going to be a doozy. And randomly, I noticed the final ingredient is borax – my dad used to work at US Borax!

Nature’s Mysteries lavender roll-on perfume – I’ve never thought of lavender as a perfume, but I do like it. I’m used to it being the scent for products and often combined with other scents. I’ll have to use this on days out and be careful not to use it at home for fun, because I just discovered today that Smokey (one of my cats) doesn’t like lavender at all! We have a pouch by our pillow and when she sniffed it, she was not happy. This seems to be a personal preference thing, because Missy did not react that way at all.

Delights of the Earth Cran-Lavender lip balm – These unique blends are really cool and I’ve never heard of combining cranberry with lavender before. I have way too many lip balms I’m trying to use right now, so I’ll save this but I look forward to using it eventually! Hopefully it won’t be too old by then…

True North Maple-Vanilla granola – This is a most excellent snack pack for a trip or day when I might not be able to grab a meal. Or, I might start buying yogurt again and topping it with some of this. This looks so familiar and I feel like I’ve seen this flavor somewhere before. I just can’t quite place it, but apparently I did get this brand in the Vermont box. Somehow the maple vanilla combo is something I feel like I’ve seen, yet I can’t remember where.

Lake Champlain Chocolates dark chocolate rum caramel – Aw man! I was excited about a large chocolate bar made of dark chocolate with caramel… and then I saw the rum part. I don’t drink alcohol, eat food with their flavors, and I even avoid anything cooked with it. I’m pretty sure I’d taste the rum in this case, so I’ll share this with my coworkers!

dan’s chocolates lot-a-choc, trail hound, white delight, peppy-r-mint, pb ecstasy, and caramel river bars – Now here are chocolates I will eat! I love the variety so I can try out a bunch of different flavors. So far I’ve had the lot-a-choc, which is totally adorable because it is basically a milk chocolate bar fused with a dark chocolate bar. Of course, I bit straight down the middle and indulged in deeeeelicious chocolate goodness. I also had the caramel one, which tastes great, though I wish the caramel was gooier so I could enjoy that texture of it. These little bars are delightful.

Next month is back to India and I am super curious what will come this time. Which products from this New England Escape Monthly box do you like most? If you want to sign up, be sure to sign up for their newsletter to get a code for 20% off the lifetime of your subscription.

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