The Party's Over - With A Few Pictures...

Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur 

Now that the party is over, so to speak, and my adrenaline is completely depleted, I have absolutely no idea how I will be able to make it home. After a party, you're running on "wasn't that fun" fumes for a bit, but really, everything is a mess, the balloons are sagging and much air has gone out of them (metaphorically speaking) and you're suddenly exhausted, the kind of exhaustion that often causes involuntary tears, the CFIDS/ME/fibro kind, because it is so much more than exhaustion and simple sensory over-load, as well as being brain tired/fried/fogged. It's almost indescribably more.


That's how I feel today: it was a good party. I saw my first child get married on Sunday and on Monday I even managed to go with hubby and the newly-weds to the famous Petronas Twin Towers, did a tiny bit of shopping, and waited for the dark so we could see the beautifully colored fountains and breathtakingly stunning lighting of the towers.


But though my feet held up marvelously, they are full of blisters and are signaling me that it's time to go home, as I still have four more days here, days I know I need to gather up the energy to make yet another trip half-way around the world. The rest of my body is screaming for its own bed, but my brain is trying to figure out how we'll - body, brain and spirit - ever get there. Packing needs to be done. Changing flights will again be a challenge. Duty free shopping is, as I feared, impossible (thus, no fun!) and sitting on tarmacs for hours puts me in a mood that says, "it's just all too much."

But as I rest up today with my brain-fried, beaten-up body and try to rest up enough for the journey home, I can take satisfaction in that I accomplished two "superficial" things. I say "superficial" because the biggest joy by far - completely immeasurable - was meeting my son's now wife and her parents and siblings, not to mention the parents' many brothers and sisters. Everyone was so kind and gentle, words I'd use to describe the Malaysians in general. This is an experience I'll never forget and will always cherish. And the couple was kind enough to take us shopping while they had wedding plans of their own that needed taken care of, as well as spending time with us the day after the wedding, the only day they had off until their delayed honeymoon. And it was, truly, wonderful to spend time time with them, to see the interaction between this beautiful, young couple.

Nighttime display of colored fountains, KL has a stunning "City of Lights" look going on!

But my "superficials"? At the Petronas Towers we were almost overwhelmed by all we saw. It's a beautiful mall for the first 5 or so floors but since we were there on a weekday, it didn't have too many people, nor was it empty either. It was absolutely great not just for window shopping, but for taking in the magnificent architecture, and my all-time favorite activity, people-watching.


Somehow my brain didn't go into sensory overload. When it came to finding a restaurant, for example, we left the first one, since the music was entirely too loud for me, and managed to find a quiet restaurant with, thankfully, few customers. The Indian food was delicious and the wait staff was superb, which I have come to appreciate in this beautiful country.


I even made a few purchases: a couple of books about Malaysia's history after WW2 dealing mostly with how Malaysia did not succumb to communism....fascinating and I now regret that hubby put the books into his luggage to spare me the trouble. Yes, he's left on an early flight back to work and my son came by also before flying up to his job. (The party IS indeed over.)

The groom is trying to figure out what he wants to eat at an Indian restaurant.

Then to the fun part, the decadent part of the shopping: I actually bought the Sisley face mask and a travel size assortment of Sisley products. After seeing the Sisley booth in duty free in Singapore out of the corner of my eye as I was whisked from one terminal to another, Sisley has been haunting me! One thing to check off my list!


And, finally, though we have our own mini Sephora, which I've never been to, there was a real one on our way out of the tower and at one point I thought I'd died and gone to heaven! I especially loved the lay-out of the store: so organized and not at all overwhelming but fun.


So, it's been a bit of an action-packed eight days, so different from my usual style! I'm sure bits and pieces of the trip will find their way into my posts for a while, especially as I have access to my pictures and am sent even more pictures from the young couple and as I think about what I saw and learned. But for now, I need a few days of rest as I wait for this body of mine to gather up enough energy for the trip home, back to my bed!

The fruit platter was always full, no matter what you ordered.

Does anyone know what the leaves with the golden cherry tomato look-alike is?

Laughing about the price of being a girl...

Happy feet in flip flops.

I hope that this is the last of any reports on my "beauty adventure" from last Saturday - for a while.  I'm crashing badly although yesterday I finally got a chance to check out my new washer and dryer - the one that's been in the house for almost two weeks!  It was absolute torture not to try out those machines with their bells and whistles, finally delivered to the house and not be able to do a single thing about it. Understand, I absolutely love doing laundry - one of my many quirks.

I also wanted to slip out of the house to take pictures of the tulips which continue to come up, as well as the dogwoods in full bloom.  Frustration.  Hubby did this for me but, bless his heart, he forgot the trees.  He also couldn't get the hang of cutting down MASSIVE amounts of lilacs for vases around the house, perhaps the one tradition I have every the spring, a total must.  The smell of those lilacs in the house always triggers some primitive part of my brain that says, "hallelujah! we're in for some wonderful gardens now!"

But one wild adventure a day (a load of laundry in case you've lost count) is almost too much and putting in a load of towels - well, since they were all whites, I figured I couldn't mess that load up too badly.  

As I've already established, I'm still crashing  - badly -  from Saturday's beauty adventure but the results were great.  First I want to say: it was FANTASTIC getting out of the house.  Not fantastic getting ready, but after that part was over, the rest was pretty darn good.

I loved going to my "beauty heaven" for my hair, mani/pedi, and having my eyelashes and eyebrows colored - the brows shaped as well, into the newest form which calls for a softer arch, and I am loving it.  Everyone did a great job and thanks to all that teamwork - emphasis on "team," which actually felt very much like a "village" - I'm starting to look like a girl again - OK, "woman," but understand that we females of a certain age still have a really hard time saying that word about ourselves with a straight face!

The "fixing me up" feels so incredibly renewing.  The hair is quite short (think "pixie"), my usual, with good highlights and lowlights.  Diana found FIVE more balding spots but was able work her genius.  Shaving my head (really!) is starting to sound better all the time.  I think I could carry off the turban look but my BFF said that a friend of her's was really miserable when her hair started growing out.  More misery I don't need.

But I'm so delighted that I now have eyebrows and ones you can actually see because of the coloring.  Lan, the eyelash/eyebrow superwoman, really was surprised that I have a few more hairs in the eyebrow area and this allowed the brows to pick up a lot more color than usual (go brow-hair growth enhancers!) thus deflecting the eye away from the age spots I love to fight.  I love that I no longer feel as if I have an arrow pointing at them for all to see.  Come on, I need a hobby and who says fighting age spots can't be fun?

I'm trying to organize the products I used - a lot, and I couldn't find some of my old "stand-bys - reorganization and decluttering badly needed!  Actually moving back to my bedroom and bathroom is what is badly needed.  Living with remodeling is the absolute pits and soon it'll have been a year on this latest phase alone.  

Anyhow, as I try to make sense out of my beauty products, my wardrobe, I keep getting flashbacks of an old movie from the early 60's, "The Flower Drum Song."  This is rather unusual because so many of us with CFIDS, CFS/ME, fibromyalgia, insomnia and migraines (etc.!) are so sensitive to sound and the energy that it induces is hard on our neurological systems, giving us an artificial "high" which we then pay for later, in SPADES!  Nonetheless, I keep wanting to burst out with one of my all-time favorite songs, "I Enjoy Being a Girl!"  

I saw the movie back in the old days when there'd be a double-feature and you'd usually walk in to that first showing, caring not one iota as to which part of the movie was going on - probably because no one seemed to keep track of time back when life was slower in the '50's and early '60's, most especially in the South.  You'd watch till the end of the first movie, then enjoy (hopefully) the second film, usually leaving when you reached the point where you'd walked in with that first feature - or when your parents wanted you back home again, whichever came first, I suppose.  

Well, not me with "Flower Drum Song." I watched it three times!  That's a whopping six plus movies in a row.  How did my backside handle it?  I guess it was being so young, a nine-year old.  

But even back then, though I was an unrepentant and proud tomboy - I actually earning myself the nickname "Jane" (as in Tarzan's wife), after one episode of beating and scaring the tar out of the four older boys who were attacking my younger brother.  EVERYONE called me a tomboy (as well as "bookworm' but that's for many later posts) which I rather liked.  It was an identity I carried proudly, despite the ballet lessons I took each week.  But I ALWAYS knew I loved being a girl.  The words, "with a pound and a half of cream upon my face" from the song "I Enjoy Being A Girl" fascinated me and drew me in.  After "The Flower Drum Song," I wondered about all those "girly" things for days and days...if not years and decades!

Oh my.  I just took a break and returned from YouTube. I discovered that there was a book, as well as Broadway and West End versions, of "The Flower Drum Song" and the movie's hit song, "I Enjoy Being a Girl."  I'm so incredibly happy that it's not been forgotten.  It would be like forgetting "the Sound of Music."  Actually, I can envision Maria singing, "I Enjoy Being A Girl" from that mountain top!  I think I've been won over by the latest version of the song with its peppiness and gusto.  I don't usually go in for peppiness but when I have to do "the girl" thing, as when going out for a doctor's appointment, this may start my blood flowing and, what little adrenaline my body can still produce, to start percolating.  It's certainly worth a try.  

So, hands and feet, check...a huge consideration since I can't do these little jobs since the accident with "the claw."  Of everything, I miss manicuring the most - how crazy is that?  Anyway, eyebrows and eyelashes check.  Hair cut, highlighted and low lighted within an inch of it's life, check.  New skincare products to try and to enjoy, check. (More on those at another time too!)

"I Enjoy Being a Girl" from "The Flower Drum Song," thanks to YouTube, check.  Here's the link. I hope you enjoy the gusto even if you don't happen to be a person who cares for perkiness.  But it does get the adrenaline flowing and reminds you why we "women" love and need these little extras in our lives, despite paying the the price men just don't understand! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URlW5NK2doA 

(If this link doesn't work, simply go to YouTube and put in "Flower Drum Song" as sung by Lea Salonga.  I think it's worth it!)