Keratin

Geuten-day folks.

I had a Keratin treatment on my hairs yesterday. It took about 2.5 hours and my hair came out on top, I would say! I went to Style Downtown in Pensacola to stylist Kelly.

Before

To anyone considering the treatment, I will attest that it is certainly worth the money. It was about $350, but the straightening lasts six months.

Plus, there are added bonuses. The treatment is chemical/formaldehyde free, and doesn’t get all stinky like normal treatments. Your hair dries twice as fast, and it’s actually good for your hair since keratin is protein that your head produces naturally. Your hair feels super soft, and it is smooth and tangle free. Most likely that straightener you have will not be used much anymore because you can either air dry it, or blowdry it and be out the door in minutes. Compared to the hour(s) it used to take.

Although…you do have to keep it down for three days without washing it…so that should be interesting tomorrow when I need my hair in a bun for work…

After

Beauty is pain I suppose. It’s all worth it!

My next investment will be extensions. The tape-in kind. Which are a new thing on the market. It seems like I have been eternally growing my hair out – or as I like to tell people- I’m growing it out for the wedding. Not particularly any wedding specifically….mine or otherwise..but someday I will be at or in a wedding and will want long hair. 🙂

So, I’m researching for now. And may need to take out a teensy weensy loan for the hair. lol It’s going to be expensive…maybe I’ll just put it on my bucket list or something.

Scrapbookers Anonymous

Someone told me yesterday, “I think you need to go to SBA.”

Well, this may be a true fact.

However, there are much worse hobbies. And much more expensive hobbies. Though, I do admit scrapping is not cheap, but if you fly by the deals and find sales when you can, it is do-able. Some things are worth paying full price for.

SO, in my future home of San Diego, I have been wondering if there is a Hobby Lobby. I finally looked it up online, and there is indeed a HobLob opening in Temecula, CA. I was surprised actually that there are only six stores Cali-wide for us scrapbooking and hobby enthusiasts. Sad news, however the one in Temecula will be opening the end of October, which I think is quite the coincidence since that’s when I will just be settling into the west, planting my roots etc.  I will be in need of decorations galore. I haven’t had an apartment to myself in… over four years. So. Furnishings are on the list.

The sales at the Lobby weren’t the greatest this week. On Thursday I frequented the usuals, in search of some wedding stickers and paper. I found plenty of options, don’t get me wrong, but nothing was on sale really. Usually HobLob has some killer deals. Finding nothing, I pressed on to Joanne’s and found…..nothing on sale again. Well, they had  40% off of albums and 3D stickers, but not what I was in the market for. Then, at Michael’s nothing at all was on sale. It was like twilight zone. Usually there are great deals at at least one of these places. Maybe with the economy they called in for a hault on all great scrapbook sales. Who knows.

So, this forced me to search for a new store. I googled “scrapbook stores Pensacola” and found a place called Scraphappy. Though it was across town I decided the gas was worth the potential new gold mine. So, I arrived and as is typical with independent stores the prices were quite a bit higher than a commercial Hobby Lobby type place. But then, I found a separate room in the back that had all clearance items.  I don’t like to consider myself especially cheap, but when I find 12 x 12 paper that is 10 cents, vice 79 cents, I call that a steal. I picked through the items, there were a lot and it was very disorganized but I had all afternoon anyway so it wasn’t any hair off my back.

I ended up finding a ton of paper, and also the wedding paper I was looking for. That’s called two birds with one stone I think.

If you are in the area, here’s the Scraphappy site, they also do crop classes and such: http://www.scraphappypensacola.com/

The Hamptons

This week I will move to the Hamptons.

Okay, not the actual Hamptons, though I have always felt the urge to visit, just once. Ever since I saw White Chicks, I’ve wanted to visit. That is in the far distant future. And first I need to acquire an offensively large floppy beach hat and some very expensive nonsense jewelry that is too big for my neck and fingers.

I will be relocating to the Hampton Inn & Suites on a beach near you! Okay, well a beach near Pensacola.

I am overjoyed to finally be nearing the end of my studies here in Florida, so I figure for my last month-ish I will live a little closer to the ocean. Like, pretty much in the ocean.

There is a fitness center with ocean views, a tiki bar, and a pool for those sand-haters.

I think the place will be quite relaxing. I guess they have just recently opened, so it is a brand new facility. The only problem now is moving. I have so much stuff. I seriously have no idea how I got here in only two suitcases. Maybe it’s just stuff I’ve got to eat? I’m not sure. But I will pack well and stuff everything into my car one more time.

I’m really wondering how it will be taking my car across country this fall. I have to drive from FL to CA to my duty station. On the way will be MO to see the fam and CO to see my friend, then pressing onto CA. Luckily I have a bit of music to keep me company and I’m sure I will be able to get some sour straws, diet dr. p, and my pillow pet to get me through the trip. Road trips are fun!

Up in the NAS(ty)

Had a wonderful weekend and got much accomplished. Shopping at the ol Cordova Mall. Luckily we made a quick pass.

Got some pedis. P.S. Tip n Toe in the mall has the most luxurious massage chairs. And it was probably the best pedi I have ever had. They have some serious massaging skills up in that joint. Leg massage? Yes, please!

Went to see Friends With Benefits, with Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis. HILARIOUS. You must see this. Also saw HP7. Sad but very nicely done to end off the series. The theater wasn’t as packed as I thought it would be and there were surprisingly very few children.

Got some laundry done. For some reason I end up having at least three loads by the weekend. How? I have no idea seeing as I wear a uniform to school every day and then change into pjs… But, luckily the laundry machines are only a few doors down.

Went to Red Robin for the FIRST time in my life. It was ay-may-zing. Holy shit. Seriously you have to go there ASAP if you have one in the area. Unlimited steak fries!! And free refills on root beer floats. What?? You heard me FREE refills on the root beer floats. As in an entirely new frosty mug with a float in it as a refill. Crazy stuff

And last but not least. The beach!

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Just what I needed. A nice peaceful weekend.

Ode to Janet

So, today was the day I had set aside to go to the DMV. Conveniently enough, the Blue Angels decided to wake me up in their ever-so-subtle way:

Flying directly over the Navy Gateway. Show-offs! Pretty sure they took some shingles off this time.

I have to say it was a welcomed interruption since I had slept through my first two phone alarms… Damn snooze button.

Anyhow, first thing’s first. Collect any and all paperwork I need, might need, and probably won’t need for this excursion. A trip to the DMV can turn into an event, so it’s good to be prepared. Since my car was “imported” from overseas, unregistered, insured in one state, titled in another state, and I had a Driver’s License from yet another state (thank God for military loopholes)….I knew I had to be in for one hell of an adventure.

2nd task: Find DMV. The facilities in Pensacola are all named “Janet Holley Tax Collector”. Every DMV location is called exactly that. Strange, I thought to myself….but I set my suspicions aside and got directions from a friend of mine to the closest Janet Holley and headed out, to what I expected would be similar to a visit to the 2nd ring of Hell.

During my trip over, I recollected one of Dane Cook’s skits where he was talking about the DMV, how every time you have to go there you just dread it, and expect to wait in the line for three hours, get a rude clerk, and have to pay out the ass for whatever service the State demands you complete. He went on about how with the rate of technology these days, that in the future everything will be so fast. You will be able to travel at the speed of light, there will never be traffic jams, and drive-thrus will take under a minute, but the DMV will still take NINE minutes to get through the line and up to the desk to the lazy old fat lady with a giant hairy mole and three inch fake nails who moves at the speed of a constipated turtle.

So I arrive at said DMV, and there are only about five people in the waiting room – what luck-, and I make it up to the counter in record time. The lady asks for my paperwork and Driver’s License and I explain the sitch about my car. She accepts my story and begins furiously typing and about 5 mins into the process she looks over and says, “There’s a lot of paperwork for this one”, to which I say “Ah, you picked a winner this time!” We both politely chuckle and she continues with her 30 wpm’s as I go back to staring into space. This is a great start, polite small talk, she’s processing my shit, so I must have the exact paperwork I need, though she’s being coy and hasn’t said exactly what she’s doing… Women.

Anywho, the DMV Goddess clerk prints two pages, I sign both, she tells me I need to pay her monies and then casually slides my new license plate and registration over the table and makes a Viola! type of gesture. I wanted to hug her, or toss her a piece of candy.

That’s it!? Easy Peasy! Especially on my part, all I had to do was sign a couple things, sit and try not to look at anyone the wrong way…especially the select individuals that were present on this particular day (trying not to stare at DMV patrons is a difficult task for me).

No joke, the whole process took about 15 mins, tops. My clerk was polite, efficient, knowledgeable, and it was in record time. Expeditious and DMV are never in the same sentence, or paragraph for that matter.

So, we parted ways, with my encyclopedia of paperwork in one hand, and my new FL plates in the other. When I got to the parking lot, I screwed in my new plate and went my way.

I should really go back there and fill out a Customer Comment card. When’s the last time they got good feedback? Maybe never.

Dreamscape

I had THE strangest dreams last night.

Several people I know were there….and people I don’t necessarily know on a close encounter kind of basis.

The only thing I did outside of my normal bedtime routine was get Arby’s. Curly fries and a roast beef sammy. Medium. Somewhere in between getting my foodstuffs, driving home, watching “Fringe”, and turning in for the night, someone might have slipped me a roofie. I have never had this amount of dreams and slept so poorly in my life.

Firstly, I could not even get to sleep. I laid for an hour and a half wide awake. Then, once I did get to sleep I would wake up every two hours. Not because of a a startling sound, or because I had to use the ladies rm, I just woke up out of nowhere.

My first dream was of my family. My Mom was out on vacation, so me and the sister Roch were watching the kids while they were out of town. The Mums was on vacation with a boyfriend (despite her real life husband of 16 yrs…??–but single in the dream) and we were babysitting the little brothers and sisters that were in the dream. The house was a MESS. A mess, so we were dutifully cleaning. The strange part was that there were pool floatie noodles everywhere. In ever room disbursed out in a mess. So, Mom and her bf come home from vacay with three kids in tow, and a moving truck. She had decided it would be best for them to move in with us. A man she had MET a short week ago, and some kids we had never met. Three kids to be exact. You can imagine my surprise.

Flash to dream II. In this dream I was snorkeling. But it was really deep in the water, and it was freshwater. Yeah, not the ocean, though ocean life was present, but a lake-like thing that was very clear to see through. My company was a girl I met in Pensacola seven years ago, and also who I was stationed with on the USS Essex with two years after that. We were snorkeling and all of a sudden my entire left leg was in the mouth of a crab. This must of been one giant crab, because my legs are neither short nor frail. So I turn around and this crab has got me nearly swallowed. And, as in any dream, things are not the norm…I can actually see from the inside of the crab as my leg is being eaten and digested.

I am woken up for a bathroom break. Thank God, I need that leg.

Dream III, I am shopping at a mall with my three friends that are coming to visit me in Florida this summer. Jewleggi, Penny, and Shmarshmandra. We are in this mall, and I spy from across the hall that they have a Coach store. Naturally, I gotta go check it out. As I get closer, the end of the mall opens up and there is one side of it that is lined in shelves. These shelves are FULL of designer handbags that are on serious discount. This is my kind of dream shopping mall. So, I start checkin them out, trying them on, seeing if they feel just right. Most of them were outdated/old styles, but I have an eye for these things, as does every woman in the market for a purse. And I see a couple peeps from High School go sauntering by. People that were a couple grades below me. I was rather surprised to see them in the exact mall that I was shopping in. And in Florida no less. How random. So I shout to them, as they had already walked by when I realized who they were, “Hey, I remember you from High School” -insert ‘you know me’ face- and they just stared at me. No words. And turned around and kept walking. Well that was rude. I look pretty much like I did nearly ten years ago. So, I continued on with my shopping, which leads me into my next dream… (I guess when dreams get boring, your mind moves on?)

Dream IV: This time I was at a dealership somewhere in FL checking out some cars. The dealer rolls up in a caddy that looks 1/3 jeep, 1/3 nice car, and 1/3 hearse. The hearse/jeep part being located at the very end of the car, with an open top…. I just stood there. He pops out, looking all excited. There was a couple test driving it and he had been in the back seat. They seemed very interested and ready to buy. He shows me the car and gives me a little story about it and how he searched high and low to find just the thing I was looking for. (I have a thing for manuals, and this one was the only one they had on the lot). He had to specially hunt this thing down because they don’t really sell them much anymore these days. I explain that it is hideous looking and I hate it. To which he looks at me disgustedly and tells me he has had his eye on this one because he knew I would like it. I tell him I don’t even want to test drive it because it is huge, and I hate it. Meanwhile I am still sitting in a friend of mine’s car, not even getting out to give it the eyeball. I was at this dealership with a guy from class -we were there in his new jeep-, my friend Jewleggi again, and a distant cousin of mine, to which I have not even seen in person in at least 7 yrs. We used to party back in college, but I haven’t been home much since the Navy happened. Anywho, so me and her sit in the car and jeep-class guy, we’ll call him Miker gets out to scope this thing out. He gets in the car and proceeds to test drive it. Anything to make the dealer happy, we need him on our side if I ever hope to get a new car. No idea where my actual car was in this dream… I own a decently new car. So Miker and the dealer get back from the test drive, and this guy is still angry with me. He makes me and my cousin-girl wash all of their cars in the warehouse. Like, soap, hose, and sponge style. And apparently this man not only owns a dealership, he also owns a golf course, which had to be in the same area because above us in the warehouse were hundreds of golf shoes. Like when you see shoes hung on a power line, but these were literally hanging at different levels above our heads. Flash forward to several hours later, Jewlegs had to leave us since she had somewhere to be before 6pm. There was now a party going on in the warehouse. Though the dealer-man was ignoring me, he was kind enough to let me have some of his liquor. So we drank, and a friend from Hawaii shows up, who is apparently buddy-buddy with this dealer. And they hit if off like two peas in a pod, and I am left wandering the warehouse staring up at the shoes and wondering what exactly this guy was up to with all these shoes.

Then, I wake up. Well, let me rephrase that. I was RUDELY awaken by the houskeeping. Four very abrupt knocks. As if there were a 600 pound gorilla outside my room, seriously. I hear you lady, no need for the early-morning rapping. It was 8am. Now, these ladies don’t come by until at least early afternoon on the weekdays. What makes weekends so special that you must come at 8am. Who on earth is awake at this hour?!

I think watching this “Fringe” show is really messing with me.

Sister, don’t you have a dream book? What is wrong with me?!

Chuck’d

It needs to be said again…Charlie Hunnam is kiiiiiind of a hottie…but nevermind that stocking cap.

Exhibit A:

Before I get into my daily rant…check out my friends’ blog, ———>    it’s over there to the right under BLOGS. Holly writes about their adoption journey, and it’s heart wrenching and heartwarming both at the same time. It’s an amazing story, you got to read about it sometime when you have a couple mins to kick back with some hot tea and read about their lives. On the 18th of May, they FINALLY got a baby, after years and years of trying. They are the sweetest people and I am so happy for them. One. Lucky. Baby.

Tomorrow is Cultural awareness day here in Pensacola for the Navy. So, naturally I’m expecting all kinds of awesomeness. When there’s booters involved you can count on a whole different level of special… Let the fun & games begin! Luckily, our morning muster begins at 0615, thank god, up to see the sun rise. Who needs to sleep in anyway? For the birds if you ask me. Thank you Navy. Also I have duty this weekend. Thank you again, Navy. I’m feeling extra cynical today, can you tell?

On a lighter and more smiling note, I did decide to rent a jalopy this weekend. I hope to sputter around and visit a few of my old stomping grounds. Well, last time I was here I visited a couple of strip clubs, just about every restaurant, the malls, and about five of the popular bars. Hey, I was 19 what do you expect? So when I say old stomping grounds, I really mean that I’ll prob go check out Pensacola beach, and maybe drive over to Milton. We had some family that used to live there, and if I’m correct, I think we still have a distant cousin that resides in Milton. It’s about 45 mins from Pcola if memory serves me correctly. This is the first time in two–ish years that I’ve been able to drive around my country, so it’s happening. Oh I can’t WAIT for the stoplights and retarded drivers. If Bahrain prepared me for anything, it’s crazy drivers. Praying there’s no accident…I better splurge that $20 and get full coverage. Oh rental vehicle, you don’t even know what’s comin..

Speaking of cars…every time I get home I search my “whereismypov.com” and my car is nowhere to be found. It gives me some cop-out excuse for a location, “vehicle is with carrier in the trans-oceanic”…wtf does that even mean? It could still be at the port of Bahrain for all I know. I keep joking with the Mista that the container ship probably got pirated. Who knows, maybe it did. “Thank you for inquiring about your vehicle. It is currently being held hostage by Somali Pirates, please check again tomorrow.”

Weight, what?

So I did something really stupid.

I haven’t had a thorough workout, like holy shit this is a good workout that touches all the muscles in a long long while. Yeh, I’ve been getting my cardio in, but it’s been at least four months I would say since I’ve been around weights. Which. Is. A. Long. Time. And also pretty sad considering I am in the military and I should theoretically be in shape. Theoretically being one of the keywords here. There are so many people in the military that are out of standards. Whether it be fat and sloppy, a little overweight, or just plain out of shape.

And I am currently on that shit list.

I’ve been eating well, thanks to my bodybugg I’ve been able to see how many calories I’m afforded based on how many I’m able to burn a day. Pretty cool technology actually. The Mista has a wrist monitor for his. It’s a digital display that has the time, your heart rate, current calories burned, and it’s all conveniently located on your wrist.

Anyway, despite these gadgets, and my keen sense of how many calories are going in and out of my body, on Friday it was time to put some gym back in my life.

So, off to the gym it was. The Radford Gym on NAS Pensacola is…a decent gym. It’s a fairly new one, it’s probably been built since I was here last. But it’s a poor set-up. (Although now that I’ve googled to find a pic of this joint it looks pretty nice..) I miss the Bahrain gym, everything is set up nicely. Free weights on one side, the weight machines on the other side, and split right in the middle were the treadmills and bikes. Simple. Organized. Now, this gym is all sorts of messed up. To make things difficult, the room is a half moon shape. So the treadmills and bikes are lined up along the bending window on the rounded side. And then behind it is the free weights clustered in with the weight machines. It will take a few times to get the layout down like I had the gym in Bahrain. All mapped out in my head n shit. The gym here closes at 9pm too, so that’s lame.

SO, there I was, on friday ready to do my thing. I have a Women’s Muscle Fitness book, so I picked out a routine in the back of the book, and got going. This specific workout involved supersets. So, it was a legs/upper body day. Did some work on the smith machine, some squats, some calf raises, and some upper body shit. Easy day. Well, some of those reps were a bit of a struggle, but I stopped after my form was being compromised… like only a good gymlet (that’s like a piglet, but a gym nerd) would. The walk home from the gym was interesting. I felt like I was walking like a 90 yr old woman with a missing spinal cord. My legs were not moving properly and my back was a little wobbly. Alright, maybe I pushed too hard this first day back. Then it was time to go to class. Throughout the day I was fine. A bit sore. But nothing I couldn’t shake off.

The next morning was a whole nother story. Oh deer. I have never felt so much pain. After mustering the courage to roll out of bed, I moseyed to the bathroom and had to literally lower myself to the toilet like someone who had been in a terrible accident and lost their legs altogether. Seriously, I am not exaggerating. My. entire. body. hurt.

Despite my poor lame body, I did get out and see the city a bit yesterday. And when I say city I mean the seaside town of Pensacola, Florida. It’s a bit more ghetto than I recall from my 8 month stint back in the early 2000’s. Regardless, me and a fellow service member from class went out to find a tattoo shop. We first ate at Olive Garden, and YUM! Salad, soup, and bread sticks oh my!

Then, we typed in tattoo shop into the trusty Garmin (speaking of, I learned that my Sidekick 4G Andriod has a Garmin feature; awesome!), and the first place we stumbled upon was “All About Ink”. It’s a pretty decent shop, for tattoo places. Usually they are a tad shady, naturally. This one had a pool table, foosball table, two flat screen tvs and a lounge. Also some vending machines. The tattoo booths were set up on the edges of the room, about six in total. Brilliant idea for any Navy town. There’s something for kids to do while waiting to get their first “I heart Navy” globe and anchor tattoo. Or whatever tacky lettering they are lingering around to lay on a table for.

We signed our names, and waited. The chick that came in, her name was Leah, is a huge fan of peacocks, what luck! AND, her favorite colors are the teal, purple, and pink colors, juuust what I was planning on adding to my peacock anyway. Twas fate I decided, and took a seat to get about three hours of work done. The finished prod is a little blurry as you can see, but it turned out quite nicely, and my half sleeve is now complete. She also added some anchors and stars around the pinup. The guy who went with me got some curlie que stuff on his lower ribs. OUCH! Mine took a while, but the arm is probably the least painful spot on the body, until you get to the inner arm, then yikes!

After the tattage, we went to the all too familiar Cordova Mall. A large mall, for the town anyway. It’s no Mall of America, but it is decent. And it had some stores I wanted to visit anyhow. Tmobile, Foot Locker, Old Navy, etc. I don’t think I spotted an American Eagle but then again I wasn’t looking too hard. In one of the hallway kiosks they had a stand advertising sugar gliders. I think they’re also called “pocket pets”, but they are these little squirrels that kind of glide through the air. They are so cute and tiny!

http://my-pet-medicine.com/birds-and-other-pets/sugar-glider.html

The guy who was selling them who should have started out his speech with “Hi, my name is Bob and I know 7000 useless facts about these ten fingered-marsupials,” threw so many facts at us, it was like a used car salesman, for reals. But the little guys were in his pockets just waiting to be taken out and pet. he had five sugar gliders on him at the time, he would pull one out and call it by name and give it a little pet pet, and then let a guest hold the thing while he sputtered off in animal talk. Then, he would call the glider back, and say “Here, Charlotte!,” and she would jump/glide from the other person’s hand through the air back into the sales guy’s pocket. Pretty cool stuff. I feel like I might lose the little guy around the house somewheres tho.

Well, it’s time for some bengay and some healthy shit for supper. Since I had my dose of sexiness via skype this morning, I leave you with a little eye candy of your own (Men, read no further.):

The perfect summer satchel. Mista, are you reading this? =)

Buggin out

1. Someone is playing hopscotch or the like outside of my room.

2. Burping up fish oil pills is not pleasant

3. This morning I remembered that the Blue Angels practice here; of which I noticed when they jumped up overhead in the sky and I thought the buildings were crashing it was so loud. Do you think wanting to be a Blue Angel is a lofty goal? I mean, IS there a better job? Nope.

This isn't from this morning, but shit I wish it was!

SO. My first day in Pensacola went swimmingly. As did my second.

Today was officially my first day of 96 days of school. 95 more to go. I can also say that most of the “refresher” material went right over my head…I’m in for a dewsie. I was sitting through the lecture realizing that I will never use this stuff (flashback to 9th grade algebra anyone?) and remembering how useless my first school on this same material was…and getting very frustrated. It also made me sleepy. I will be one stressed out woman for the next 5 months. Mista B, consider this my pre-apology.

We only have seven in our class, and they say not all of us will be graduating, which is lovely to tell your students the first day of class. We have one booter in there who went into initial training and they pipelined him through the advanced course that all the fleet returnees are here for. Lucky dude. Course he is the one who gets picked on, so that’s alright with me. Is that wrong? I mean, we only have seven people, so we each get our fare share of teacher-student attention. Well this kid will learn up quick. Teach has appointed him as “class leader”, that poor boy.

Enough about school.

SO I am a new owner of a Body Bugg. I’m sure you’ve heard about it by word of mouth or from Biggest Loser (or as my mom calls it, “Big Fat Loser”). It’s this device that you wear around your upper arm, and it counts your calories burned, steps taken, heart rate, etc. Then you plug it into your computer every night and log the food you ate. It’s basically a way so you can count calories and also see how many you are burning so you can manage your intake daily. There are neat little graphs online once you get your account all set up (which is a task in itself..lots of biometrics and lifestyle questions). But anyhow, I’ve been wearing it for a few days now, and it has definitely opened my eyes to what I’ve been eating…

Me and the B are doing a little friendly competition of Biggest Loser in the next six weeks. We’ll do it just like Biggest Loser does it. Weigh ins every tuesday, and the poundage will go by percent since we are both at different weights. (It’s so much easier for guys to lose weight!)

The new BodyBugg has a sweet function that you can sync with your ipod/iphone where you can log your meals on your device instead of logging into the website via computer.

So, it’s back to eating healthy and shit. Since it’s a competition this time I think that should add some fun 😉 The fitness center on base is actually a fairly new building and has very nice facilities. Very nice. Plus, it’s a block from the beach, which means great views while you’re trekkin away on the treadmills.

I’ll keep you posted. For anyone who knows me, I am cutting down on the sweets- not ruling them out entirely- so I will be a cranky lady. Don’t poke.