Welcome to Chaos !!

Today I had a facial at Face to Face Day Spa in Bend Oregon. I also added on a wild lime scalp treatment. Unfortunately I was not happy. This is the third time I am not happy with a facial. The time before today was at a place in Las Vegas in 2015 called Aminah's Organic Skin Spa, I complained nicely to the owner (she is gorgeous by the way) and got a full refund. She quickly realized that I knew what I was talking about and not just rambling nonsense. And the first time was at some salon in Huntington Beach CA a long time ago. The poorly trained esthetician used an extraction tool and I had angry red marks all over my face, I am talking about at least 20 red indentations for a week after the facial. It should not be like that and the owner gave me a complimentary facial. Then of course I've had many good and great face and body treatments but I have to say, the best estheticians have been Europeans. I used to go to an older Hungarian lady in Las Vegas called Beba and she still does facials, check out Faces By Beba - she is good. She used to be very good but I think she has lost some of her magic but she still does a good job. I do recommend her.
Now back to today's disappointing facial experience....



I could tell from the initial approach by the esthetician today that she was kind of "meh" or uninspired and it definitely showed in her performance. Her cleansing and massage techniques were poor. She did not pay attention to details.
She positioned the face steam machine on one side of my face, the steam should engulf your whole face to open up your pores so the products can really penetrate your skin. Well, only my right check and ear area got steam, not the middle of my face and the whole left side of my face. That is a bad mistake.
She sprayed some product from a bottle too far away from my face, barely any product made contact with my face, so why even bother spraying then?
She either went to a low standard school, I asked and the answer actually confirmed it and/or she just doesn't have that special touch. Not everybody has THAT touch. The facial was supposed to last one hour and then I also added on the scalp treatment. Thinking when you add on a treatment to a facial that is supposed to last one hour then your whole treatment should be more than one hour. Right? No, not today. 60 minutes later it was over.
When I politely asked the lady at the front desk about it she got defensive and wondered if I did not want to pay for the services? It is not that I don't want to pay but when you go to a place that describes themselves as quality and charges around $100 for a one hour facial you should also get quality. The service I got today I feel would had been OK if I would had received it from a student still not done with their esthetician education and was still practicing in school.
Not somebody that graduated from school with a diploma and working at a salon or spa. Of course I paid, $98.50 cash, I got 10% off (I did not ask for the discount).
I left the esthetician $15 in tip although she didn't really deserve it but I just don't think she knows any better. She is not, in my opinion, qualified to work as an esthetician. I can do a better job and I did not go to esthetician school - maybe I should! I will not return to this place. I have two other places I want to try in Oregon. One is in Lake Oswego outside Portland and that spa is owned and operated by a Russian lady and she comes highly recommended and then there is another place here in Bend and that esthetician travels between Bend and Lake Oswego. I have a feeling that the Russian will do an excellent job.

I go to Backporch coffee everyday for my latte here in Bend. It does not surprise me that they are voted the best in Central Oregon. I am a latte connoisseur as you all know. But Kaladi is still the best so far according to me.



What I do like about Backporch is that they use syrups by Holy Kakow, a company based out of Portland and the syrups are organic. And I much rather have organic than non organic.
I am trying to convince the owner of the cafe I worked at in Las Vegas to go with Holy Kakow syrups.

I thought I would take a look at the sunset from the top of Pilot Butte in Bend Oregon today.....so me and Chhaya drove up there. You can drive or walk. I would like to walk up there as well, some people bike also, I will walk up another time.



It only takes a few minutes to drive up and once at the destination we walked around and soaked up the rays. More people arrived the closer to sunset it got.....



We explored a little. And admired the view from the top.









The the sun started setting.....another day came and went. Thank You sun!






Continual is the journey: Past sunset toward morning.

There were still a lot of people left at Pilot Butte when we drove down. I realized that it is a full moon tomorrow and I am sure people wanted to watch the moon from up there tonight since it's almost full.

Way too often do I read about the single Mom's new boyfriend that abuses and sometimes kills her child. I understand that it must be difficult to be a single Mom.....but once you give birth to that child it should be your number one priority. Forming relationships with a new partner in my opinion should be put on the back burner. For a long time. If you want to go out and "have fun" then arrange for a trusted baby sitter and even a sane baby sitter is difficult to find it seems.
But introducing your child/children to new boyfriends is just not OK. Like I said.....I have read too many of these incidents, so I am extremely opinionated in this matter. Children's well-being and safety should ALWAYS come first. There are plenty of men out there but your children are your children, protect them.
Here are some statistics from brightfutures4kids.org

Child abuse transcends all ethnicities, cultures, religions, socio-economic and education levels.

78% of victims of child abuse related fatalities were 1 to 3 years old; 3/4 of deaths were caused by one or more parent(s).

Every year an estimated 900,000 children in the United States are victims of maltreatment, 18,000 are permanently disabled.

Head trauma is the leading cause of child abuse death among babies. The 100% preventable Shaken Baby Syndrome is a major cause of death, where 25% of victims die and the majority of survivors suffer brain damage.

Child abuse is reported every 10 seconds.

Almost five children die every day as a result of child abuse. More than three out of four are under the age of four.

About 30% of abused and neglected children will later abuse their own children, continuing the horrible cycle of abuse.

More than 90% of abusers are people children know, love, or trust.

79% of adults perpetrating against children are their parents.

57% of children will be victims of some form of physical assault during their lifetime.

1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys are sexually abused before the age of 18.

Nearly 70% of all reported sexual assaults (including assaults on adults) occur to children ages 17 and under.

90% of child sexual abuse victims know the perpetrator in some way; 68% are abused by their family members

Over 30% of victims never disclose the experience to others.

A typical child sex offender molests an average of 117 children.

20% of child sexual abuse victims are under the age of 8.

Sexual abuse is commonly associated with other family problems, such as parental alcoholism, parental rejection, and parental marital conflict.

One more of my opinions.....I am against spanking too. I don't want to hear, "Oh, I was spanked as a child and I am OK." I heard that too from people that got beat up by their parents.....and they use that as an excuse to spank their own kids.
And get drunk around their kids because this is what their childhood looked like. No, it is not OK.....you are continuing the abuse. Spanking for some people would be abuse in another person's eyes.
I have that blue ribbon in my car. I feel sad for all the mistreated children in this world.

Now to animals. Abused animals can now get a voice in court, at least in Connecticut thanks to Desmond's Law. All other states SHOULD follow suit, do the RIGHT thing! Desmond was a shelter dog that was starved, beaten and strangled to death a few years ago. I get a really awful feeling inside when I read about children and animals getting mistreated. The DISGUSTING PIECE OF SHIT that did this to the poor dog is walking free in society.....he got away with "rehabilitation". Charges dismissed, record wiped clean. Do you think he is rehabilitated?
Would you like to take him home and introduce him to your children and your pets? New boyfriend perhaps? Honestly.....I could probably execute people that commit these acts myself and feel completely OK doing it. I can be Jihadi John but for the one's with no voice - children and animals. Animals NEED a voice, people that fight for their rights. I would like to do some volunteer work with either abused children or animals BUT I can't because I would be charged with capital murder. Seriously, I would.

Australia is working on a law to take away passports from convicted child sex offenders because so many of them take trips to Asia to fulfill their sick sexual desires on innocent child victims there. I think all convicted pedophiles should have their passports confiscated and get mandatory chemical castration. Most of them are repeat offenders.
You can't enter Canada with a recent DUI on your record but a convicted child sex offender can travel abroad and continue with his crimes? Is that OK?

And now to War Machine (Jonathan Paul Koppenhaver) that got sentenced to life in prison with a possibility of parole after 36 years in a Las Vegas courtroom the other day. I wrote about War Machine and Chisty Mack a few years ago when that drama had just happened.
https://www.fargosisters.com/styx/archives/2289-Ice-Cream.html
In this case I have to say.....the punishment DOES NOT fit the crime. 36 years to life? Christy and the other dude that got beat up by War Machine but they are still alive. People that abuse and murder children, have sex with children and scar them for life, abuse and kill animals get WAY LESSER sentences, some even get away with murder and rape with basically a slap on the wrist and this guy gets 36 years? Hello, WHAT?! And NO, I do not think it's OK to beat women. But in this case I think the sentencing is a joke. War Machine and Christy Mack made a high profile case and he was made an example of. I actually feel bad for him. I hope somebody somehow will see how wrong this is and work on getting him a much shorter sentence. I feel 5 years and many hours of community service doing something useful would be better. And yes, I have read about his prior rage incidents, I think he needs work, in his case rehabilitation after a prison sentence would fit. I feel bad for Christy too, I understand she got severely beaten, it took her a long time to recover and I like her but I don't think this is right.
More statistics from brightfuture4kids.org

Domestic violence is the leading cause of injury for women ages 15 to 44.

21% of women report being raped or physically or sexually assaulted in her life.

I can say this much.....had I caught my boyfriend in bed with another girl there would had probably been some violence involved. Depending on my feelings towards him and the overall situation of course. But I have a hot temper and I would had not just walked away. It is called a crime of passion and often sentencing is more lenient in cases like those due to the amount of feelings involved.

The other day I had a pedicure at Jinsei Spa located in Bend Oregon. I picked the one hour Jinsei Pedicure. But first I prepped my feet for the pedi with a refreshing soak at home using Dr. Teal's foot soak.



Then I headed for Jinsei spa, so looking forward to my pedicure. I LOVE the spa, who doesn't?



The lady that did my pedicure was from Japan and I greeted her in Japanese.
My brother speaks fluent Japanese so my pronunciation is on point. She was super nice and we chatted away. Except when she started rubbing my feet, then I leaned back and closed my eyes and enjoyed every second. Besides loving spa visits, I love getting my feet rubbed. Any kind of massage actually I like.





Since I am a spa connoisseur I am somewhat hard to please, I know what I like and I pay attention to details. The pedicure gets 4 out of 5 Tati approval points, which is good. What needs improvement are two things.....the salt scrub needs to last longer. A few casual rubs won't do it, at least two, three minutes on each foot with a generous slather of salt scrub, work the scrub into the feet and calves. And the aloe mask needs to be left on for at least 7 minutes or so to really do what it is supposed to do. While the hot towels are left on and during that the feet should get acupressure. That is what the pedi needed but lacked therefore the 4 Tati approval points instead of 5. But I will probably visit Jinsei spa again for another pedicure.
And finally.....freshly painted toes. Pink. Of course.

I called my Mom the other day.....for those who don't know, my Mom lives in Sweden a bit outside Stockholm. She told me about a situation that had recently transpired in the neighborhood.
My Mom noticed a couple of police cars outside a neighbor's house and about 8 plastic bags full of stuff close by. She asked one of the neighbors what was going on but the neighbor didn't know. Then my Mom saw the boy, a boy standing by the plastic bags and he was looking upset. So she walked up to him and asked what was going on. She knew that the boy lived there, part of a Muslim family, father, mother and three children that moved in not too long ago. The boy, actually 18 but my Mom thought he was a few years younger, started CRYING really hard when my Mom asked him how he was doing. My Mom is rather sensitive so she too started crying. The boy asked her for A GLASS OF WATER, because he was very thirsty. Ramadan has started and his father would not allow him to drink or eat during the sun being up, that is what dedicated Muslims practice during Ramadan. My Mom brought him water and he drank it and told her that he does not get along with his father, that he wants to live like the Swedish people, that he does not want to be a practicing Muslim, that he does not want to faint in school from being hungry and thirsty. Even I want to cry just writing about this. The young man goes to school, he told my Mom he wants to study and that he has good grades and wants to become a social worker.
And those plastic bags outside the house? That was his stuff that he took with him. He was leaving his family to go and stay with a friend, the police came to help him. I am not sure who called the police.
My Mom says that since Ramadan started the youngest child (a boy) is not outside playing soccer anymore, the blinds to the house are completely drawn shut all the time. The Mom of the family never spends time outside and her husband is much older than her. There is a teenage girl living there as well.
I am extremely opposed to people pushing their religious beliefs onto their children, whether it is withholding food and beverages from them during the month long Ramadan or forcing them to sit in church for several hours weekly. Once a person is grown, mature and can make their own decisons they can decide whether practicing a religion is something they want to be part of.
I feel bad for the other two kids in that family and the Mom, I am sure they are living a very oppressed life.
Not easy when two cultures collide, many children of Muslim families protest and run away or distance themselves from their families once they come to Sweden. When I lived there I knew of a teenage girl that ran away because her family were about to marry her off to some older man in a Turkish village. She did not want that, so she ran away. I would had done the same.
I think that a week at Burning Man yearly during childhood would teach children way more about life, humanity and getting along with others and helping others than any religion forced upon them during childhood.



I should add here that I feel strongly against any religion that forces children to practices that are in my opinion unhealthy, whether it's Islam, Christianity, Church of the Latter-day Saints, whatever other religion or the cult known as The Duggars.