Contest winners, new hairstyles, and other random things

So today is the day I announce the Inspired By contest winners. I hope everyone had a chance to vote or at least viewed all the entries and if you didn't please go here to check them out. It was a really tight race, everyone was literally within a vote or two from each other.

My Fan Art grand prize winner is Ritsuka. Second Place is Paul with Liviania and Jonathon as runners up.

The Soundtrack grand prize winner is Justine with Kay and Lucile as runners up.

Yay, congrats to everyone since they all did an amazing job and I thank them for entering!

Now I have a bunch of random thoughts and stuff to share. I've been all about Twitter lately (and you should follow me there to experience my random thoughts on a daily basis), but occasionally I have thoughts that don't quite fit into Twitter's 140 characters and yet aren't quite worthy of their own blog. So I'm compiling them into a list today. Most of them are things I'm wondering about and could use input on, so please leave a comment and let me know your opinion!

• So I'm about to run out of my prescription acne face wash, Brevoxyl. Yeah I'm nearly 30 and I still have acne. I blame my dad. I remember him getting zits as an adult too. My mom has perfect skin. Why, why couldn't I have inherited it! Anyway, so this Brevoxyl face wash and Differin cream are the only things keeping my skin semi-clear. But now I have crappy insurance so I can't get any more Brevoxyl :( I grabbed a coupon for that proactiv system at the grocery store the other day. Is anyone using this stuff? Does it work? Or do you have other recommendations?
• I've become a total tea snob. I realized this yesterday when I was at the hair salon and had to drink plain old Lipton green tea. I became addicted to tea while I was doing revisions on BALLADS, now I drink it every morning. My friend Kevin is my fancy tea supplier. He runs Dimensions Gallery Frame Shop in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. What does that have to do with tea? Well, in case you haven't noticed, the economy kinda sucks, so for small business like Kevin's to stay afloat, they have to do unique things, so now Kevin sells frames for your art and tea for your frame of mind :) When I was up in Madison in October, he gave us some samples of his tea and we immediately became addicted, particularly to Starry Night (a black tea with vanilla bits) and Hojicha de la Creme (a green tea with vanilla bits-- that's my every morning tea now). We literally ordered like 50$ worth of tea a few weeks ago. We ordered it by the ounce so it felt funny, like we were ordering drugs. One of the teas we ordered was Immortal Nectar, this ten-year cave-aged Pu-erh that is like the espresso of teas. Kevin described it as like a fine whiskey or expensive cheese. It kinda tastes like cave which I think is awesome. But yeah, total tea snob now. My mom is also a big tea drinker. Like her I also got into gardening a couple years ago. So I'm turning into my mom, which since she is cool, is not a bad thing. I just wish I had her skin :(
• Another frustrating body thing (and I don't have many body issues, I am finally out of that hating myself thing that I was in from like 10 to 25) is that I'm trying to lose 10 pounds, preferably by summer but definitely by my wedding. I'm not overweight, it's about being toned. Summer of 2007, I had my ideal body. Me and my friend Kathy were going to these awesome free classes at our gym at work. I had abs and buns of steel (well, maybe not quite, but as close as I get to that) and I felt good. Its not so much about looks but feeling for me. Last summer it all fell apart. My friend died and my book came out and I went on book tour and I think I was out of the gym for almost 2 months. Soon after that I quit my job so now I don't have access to those cool free classes anymore. I just have my workout DVDs and my elliptical which is just not as good as the gym (I can't go as fast! Scott says more resistance is good, but I want to go fast and get my heart rate way up). I'm working out 5 to 6 days a week, getting some tone back but not losing weight. It is terribly frustrating. And I'm guessing my eating habits are to blame. I suck at portion control. I make a delicious vegan dish and want to eat a ton of it. Also I have big sweet tooth and dude, I love the carbs. Rice, bread, potatoes, mmmm. I don't think the access to popcorn at the Beacon is helping. Argh! 
• Okay enough complaining. I'm randomly curious about how other people listen to music. Not like on what device or what bands, but do you listen to a wide variety of stuff all the time or do you get obsessed. Because I get obsessed. I can't stop listening to certain things or certain bands over and over and over. And I feel kinda guilty about it because I have literally 355 artists on my iPod. When I get a new album, I listen to it repeatedly for a couple weeks. I did this with Tom Gabel's solo EP and the Gaslight Anthem. I'm still doing it with Civet. And then I have my Ballads of Suburbia mix which is like my go-to right now. Or else I'm listening to Rise Against, Nirvana or the Replacements. I feel like I'm neglecting all the other bands. Sometimes I wish I could listen to five different things at once. Do you or am I a total freak?
• Speaking of music, in case you missed my tweet here are two bands you must absolutely check out. They are also on my obsessive listening list: Old Fake and The Brass Beans.
• I don't just develop music obsessions, I also have TV obsessions. I just watched all the seasons of both Weeds and Californication and even though I can't afford it I will be signing up for Showtime as soon as both of those come back. And then, last week I hung out with my friend Jenny and we watched the first three episodes of Veronica Mars. OMG why did I not discover this show earlier??? I don't think I've loved a high school show this much since My So-Called Life. I mean I love me some 90210 and Degrassi for the melodrama, but watching Veronica Mars is like reading a really good book. So much depth. And a TV show that actually addresses class issues. Awesome. I can't wait til Jenny and I can have a marathon.

My last random thing to share with you is my hair. Yesterday I tweeted about getting my bangs bleached out. (And I briefly pondered going platinum again. I have days where I want to be blonde again, but they don't last long enough to justify the extreme torture I'd have to put my hair through. Maybe I just need a good blond wig?) I did this so I could put both blue and pink in my bangs. Y'know, I did pink, then purple, then blue and I couldn't decide what I liked best, so I thought why not have it all? If I do pink and blue, some little purple streaks will result. I think it looks awesome. My stylist's hairdye supplier was out of magenta so we had to do regular pink, which will fade a little lighter than I'd like, but we'll fix that next time. The blue is more visible after it fades a bit, but here it is. What do you think?

Um, yeah obviously I took this in the bathroom (and first thing after I woke up and I'm not leaving the house except for pilates today hence no makeup) so ignore Scott's mess on the sink, but don't you love my pirate themed shower curtain? I had to take it in the bathroom since it is the brightest place in the house and it's dreary out again. But I'm not complaining. I'll take rain over snow any day and it's the perfect day to curl up and read my critique partners work which I am off to do now.