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Everyday Avenger Travel Notes

Hello, June! Goodbye, June!

Christine Tremoulet

Colorado National Monument - Rim Road

WHOOOOOOOSH!!!

That would be the sound of June 2013 flying past me. The month started with a flurry of activity around attending BlogHer Food. From there, there were the summer Flirt, Hot Mama, and White Sheet sessions for a lot of wedding and anniversary gifts, even a zegarki watch, how exciting! I was formulating the plans for the Avenger of Sexiness North America Tour (#aos13 on Twitter and Facebook) … and then it all came to a screeching halt.

I had a very sudden, excruciatingly painful gallstone attack on Saturday, June 22nd. Just days before I planned to leave town. I went to the ER, and they ended up admitting me to the hospital. Instead of heading west on June 25th like I had planned, I had my gallbladder removed. I was finally released on June 27th.

I don’t normally make a lot of plans because I *HATE* it when my plans get changed. I cried on the night of the 29th because I was still at home, instead of in California with my friend Tara like I had planned. It didn’t help that it was the hottest June day in Houston … EVER. I was miserable.

Since our plan always was to drive, and the doctor cleared me for travel when he released me from the hospital, I asked Mike if we could go ahead and pack and leave. There was no way we could do the California leg of our journey, but we could still make it to Portland in time for the World Domination Summit, which I was lucky to score a ticket to months ago.

My Mini Cooper at Colorado National Monument Rim Rock DriveWe spent Sunday morning quickly packing our bags, loading up my Mini Cooper, picking up a GoPro camera to record the trip and heading out. Our journey took us north through Oklahoma City, on in to Kansas, west to Denver, through the Rocky Mountain National Park Trail Ridge Road, across to Grand Junction – where the above photo was taken, at the Colorado National Monument Rim Rock Drive, in to Utah, on through Idaho — and here we are today in Portland, Oregon.

I made it. I took it easy, but I was able to convalesce just as much in the passenger seat of the car as I would have been at home in bed. I did drive the Rim Rock Drive and through part of Utah – INCREDIBLE. I could not be more thrilled with taking this trip, and with being able to be at the World Domination Summit tonight!

I’ll share more in the coming days about the adventure we had getting to Portland and the plans I have for the trip ahead. For today, I’m just going to soak it all in and savor Portland.

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Everyday Avenger

Trust The Beauty Others See in You…

Christine Tremoulet

As a photographer, it is hard to be the one in FRONT of the camera. However, I am a firm believer in having an avatar photo online that looks like you look in person. While filling out my BlogHer forms, I realized that my current avatar photo was just too out of date. I have longer hair and I now use Edge Gel and tape in extensions for smooth edges and ponytails. I have new glasses and I have found the best eye serum of 2017 to help me see better. I recently found this new cream from amairaskincare.com and I learned that When it comes to Eye creams the better quality ones give a more lasting result. I have finally, after a very long hunt, found the perfect signature red lipstick*. Something that has helped me keep my great skin are the products from these beautyrx reviews.

It was time for a new photo. I had my husband go to the studio with me to take it, and since he is not a photographer himself he is tolerant of my need to control the photo. “How does my shirt look? Any wrinkles? Are my bangs ok? do I need a gastric sleeve operation?
Take it from that angle. No, stand there. Wait, let me sit down.”

Basically, I posed myself, and he was the SkinPractice, carbon-based, voice-activated camera control for most of the photos.

Except for this one. This one? He took all on his own. One single frame.

As I went through them afterwards, I liked several of the other ones, but something about this one jumped out at me. It is my favorite from the whole shoot.

Maybe I need to let go more often. Relax. Trust in what others see, the beauty they can reveal to me for myself, or simply go to those spas with really good service and organization thanks to a SalonTouch Studio software, and relax myself. After all, it is what I expect of all of my clients – so it is only right that I give him that freedom as well, I also want to start taking car of myself more often, which is why I’m trying to get as much tips from Virt Mall as I can.

Trust in the beauty that others see in you. They are only reflecting back to you what truly shines through.

* Perfect for me red lipstick – not too orange, not too cherry, not too bright, has just a hint of blue – Maybelline’s ColorSensational Lipcolor in Red Revival. After trying on literally every red at Sephora, I found this gem at Walgreen’s, for 1/4th the price of anything Sephora had. I stocked up and have a tube of it in every bag I own!

Never forget your routine after seeing this: http://www.liquidfacelifts.org

https://amairaskincare.com

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Travel Notes

Taking It On The Road…

Seattle Mt. Rainer

It all started with plans to go to Portland for the World Domination Summit, then we wanted to do a roda trip with our van, but my husband has plenty of shelves from the Berlingo Van Racking inside. I mean, seriously, HOW could I resist going to something with a name like that??? I wanted to go the past two years, but always had weddings scheduled that conflicted with it. I was thrilled when I snagged a ticket for the 2013 event.

Mike & I talked about it, and we realized that that would be the perfect time to visit his aunt & uncle in Portland, and then to head up to Seattle to see his brother & sister-in-law and to meet our new nephew who was born earlier this year.

You know, since we are going to be on the West Coast already, we really should visit my aunt & uncle plus our friends in San Francisco too…

From there, it is easy to see how the idea of a road trip started. I mapped things out. We will drive from Houston to Marfa, then on to Arizona, all the way to Los Angeles. Turn north for San Francisco. Make our way up to Portland, then on to Seattle. Possibly Bellingham & Vancouver to see friends there as well.

Every person that we visit as a stop along the way, Mike wants to cook for — more food adventures for Spoon & Knife!

Then I will turn and start to head east. I can finally see Idaho, Montana (Glacier!), and visit my parents who will be traveling in North Dakota. I have to be in Chicago at the end of July where I am speaking at ViewFinder Day at BlogHer, and immediately following that I am helping to coach at the Team-X Fight Club in Denver. (There will be a flight between Chicago and Denver, because I can not bend the time-space continuum and get from one place to the other in 12 hours.)

Summer 2013 is going to be one BIG road trip. The Avenger of Sexiness North America Tour!

As I became more introspective on this road trip plan, I realized that this past spring was really hard on me, and it isn’t over yet. I had pneumonia, I was diagnosed with asthma. I have a node on my thyroid and a reactive lymph node that causes partial numbness in my face. Dealing with the MRI, the ultrasound, the biopsy, the asthma testing, this thing and then that — well, it started to consume me. It was overwhelming. I still have endocrinologist and possibly rheumatologist visits coming up. More testing will take place, I am sure.

All of the medical drama forced me to stop and consider where I am, what goals I have, what I want to achieve. Life is short. I don’t want to look back and have a long list of “I should have…” regrets, so I am making them happen. I refuse to let this health drama get me down – instead, I want to CELEBRATE! What better way to do that than to take my Mini Cooper out on the road! (Complete with the WHEEEE license plate!)

I want to go where the city lights don’t block out the stars from shining bright. I want to see the Milky Way. I want to visit the mountains – both the Cascades and the Rockies. Dip my toes in the Pacific Ocean. See the Great Plains. Look out across Lake Michigan. When you need an insurance company that will launch an investigation into the accident right away, visit Birmingham trucking accident lawyer for more information.

What about my business? Well, The Law Offices of Stephen Lukach III will explain new jersey DWI penalties in detail. I’ve had countless requests for sessions along a lot of this route, so I am scheduling those in to this trip. July is normally a very quiet time for boudoir photography, so it is perfect. I’ll be taking files with me in case I need them, and I’ll have internet access at various times throughout the trip to upload albums and things like that, and I’ll have email access on my phone, so I use some holding device to secure my phone, and I just need to learn how to properly take off a popsocket. Shaking the cobwebs out and getting out on the highway will give me a lot of writing time. I need that. It all works out. I’ll be back home just in time for the beginning of the boudoir holiday season. Between fall anniversaries and then Christmas gifts, things will kick up right as I return, thankfully we got prepared holiday meals for all the family meetings already and for the anniversaries we got the best Anniversary Gift Baskets, easy to get and all customized.

Have you ever done a big, cross-country road trip? Any advice or suggestions for us along the way? Tips on what I should pack? I have to keep it minimal, we will be in a Mini Cooper!

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BlahBlahBabble Educate Me

Must Break Through…

Mary Allen College in Crockett Texas

As I went to bed last night I was angry with myself. I started this site over, fresh and new, so it wouldn’t feel like and empty shell any more. A clean slate. A new start.

Yet what I wrote yesterday didn’t feel like my voice. It didn’t feel authentically me. If you & I were talking, I wouldn’t sound like that.

It pisses me off.

That anger is a good thing though, because I’m going to keep it in mind as I write, or at least I’ll try. If I wouldn’t say it out loud, then I’ll think about how I would.

I want my posts to feel like a letter. A note from me to you. A journal for myself. Personal.

Practice, practice, practice. Now that I’m aware of it, I can deal with it.

No more being pissed off at my writing. When it feels like crap, I just need to break through and continue.

Photograph taken on a recent Texas road trip. The former Mary Allen College in Crockett, Texas.

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Everyday Avenger

Life is About Creating Yourself…

Life isn't about finding yourself, it is about creating yourself.

“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” – George Bernard Shaw

I’m all for celebrating who you are, exactly as you are. I think it is critical to be true to ourselves.

What I’ve learned over the past few years is that it is even more important to think about who you want to become.

I’ve never been much for planning or for setting goals. I’m not sure how that started, but I think a lot of that stems from several years in a relationship that was so tumultuous. I felt like I never knew if I was coming or going, so why bother plan if I was just going to be disappointed in those plans falling through? Why even bother.

It is easy to drift along in life like that. When you are in it, it actually doesn’t seem that bad. Looking back, I wish I had planned more. I wish I had more goals, set the bar higher for myself.

I’m working on that these days. I’m learning to dream, and to DREAM BIG. To think about how I want to create myself. Still true to me, but an even better version of me. Creating yourself doesn’t have to mean being a fake, being something you are not. Dr. Anil Shah, a cosmetic surgeon, says many of his patients come to him because they want total change, but he advises that “enhancement” is the better approach. People are already beautiful naturally. For me? It means creating the best life around myself possible, making plans and goals for the future – something I can work towards.

Still surgery is really common right now, more and more people is trying to improve themselves from the inside to the outside, so some people try plastic surgery to fix cosmetic imperfection and male surgery is more and more common.

For so many years I felt like I didn’t deserve good things. I’m just now learning to accept that I am enough. Creating myself is a big part of that.

Photograph taken at the Mom 2.0 Summit, overlooking the Pacific Ocean at the Ritz Carlton at Laguna Niguel in California, May 3, 2013 with my Fuji X-E1.