Let's all be logical here

I really like logic. Logic puzzles have always been some of my favorite things to do. I also tend to be logical  in my views, opinions, and decisions. Recently, it has come to my attention that this is not as normal as I thought. I have decided to share my views on being logical and being illogical. 

I will admit that there are times when being illogical and even unreasonable are exactly what you need to do. I have done this before. I once was freaking out and some of my roommates were telling me things that I already knew. It was really bothering me, since I hate being told things I already know; I find it pointless. I finally told one of my roommates that I wanted to be irrational. She sat down with me and we came up with increasingly more irrational scenarios. I ended up laughing and everything was fine. 

I have come up with a list of reasons I find appropriate for illogical thinking.

1. When you are incredibly stressed and need a break from the world.
2. When you're pregnant or have some other type of hormone craziness going on.
3. When you're brainstorming.
4. When nothing seems to be working and you just need the world to revolve around you for a minute. (Unless you're a pessimist and you never think anything is working. Then you just need to cheer up.)

I have also come up with a list of reasons people tend to be illogical when I don't think it's appropriate.

1. Money issues. I have never understood why people are illogical about money. I completely understand the urge to buy new clothes or a new gadget or whatever your weakness is, but I don't understand why anyone would buy something when they don't have enough money for food or rent. It's completely illogical. It's also illogical to think you have to spend money as soon as you make it. Save up for things. Save up for emergencies! Have emergency funds! Follow a budget. I just don't understand illogical money use.
2. Relationships. I'm talking about all types of relationships, not just romantic ones. If you tell someone not to get you a present, you can't logically get mad when you don't get a present. If being super close friends with someone is causing you more stress than joy, it's only logical to distance yourself from that person. 
3. Cleaning. I just don't understand not being clean. I'm not perfect at keeping my apartment clean. I will never say I am, but I do try to pick up after myself. It's logical to do that. If I borrow something, I pick it up. I don't understand how it makes any sense to use someone else's thing and then expect that person to clean it up. It's only logical to pick things up as soon as you are done with them. 

Logical thinking can relieve a lot of stress. I'm going to share a story where logical thinking helped me make one of the best and hardest decisions of my life. It is about my wonderful fiance! I decided in late October that I wanted to decide once and for all whether I was going to marry Jeremiah or not. I knew that marrying him would not be a bad thing, so I decided to identify exactly what was holding me back. After thinking about it, I was able to identify two distinct reasons why I couldn't decide. The first I quickly resolved by deciding it was a stupid reason. I realize that this might seem weird to many, but there are just some things that we think matter, but, when all things are considered, they just don't. The other reason was a problem I have had my entire life and it's not really a problem. It was my age, but I have always felt too young. I still feel like I'm too young to be living on my own, working, going to school, supporting myself, etc. Really, I'm perfectly capable of it. So that reason was also put in the "doesn't matter" pile. After that, I had absolutely no problem with marrying Jeremiah and all the stress I felt about our relationship vanished. I'm so glad I worked through that, because he is an even better fiance than he was a boyfriend and I have no doubt that he will be an even better husband. 

Logical thinking has also helped me with my money. I'm not rich by any means, and I can't have all of the luxuries I grew up with, but I can live comfortably. It's not because I make tons of money; it's because I think before I spend. I completely understand wanting new things. My weakness is music and clothes. Since I'm currently saving everything for my wedding, I have had to ban myself from music stores. I went in one a few weeks ago and it was incredibly hard to leave one of the books I found. I still feel like I need it, but logic tells me that I will live, so I must not give in and go buy it. While I can find cute clothes and not feel like I need them in my life, I also tend to want new clothes more when I know I can't have them. When I get this feeling, I have to ask myself if I am naked. Since I am not naked, I do not need new clothes. Logic dictates this.

Logic can be used in any situation and a better outcome will come of it. I give a 95 percent guarantee. That 5 percent is only there for those people that just insist that everything is bad all the time and nothing good will ever happen. Logic will help you in school. It will help you in your career. Logic is your friend. It will never abandon you and it will make your life better. 

Really, I just don't understand being illogical. It's illogical to be illogical. I don't know how the comments about my logic were meant to be taken, but they haven't sounded like compliments. However, I will take them as compliments. I wish the world were logical. I really think everyone would get along so much better if logic was used more often. I've noticed that illogical people are easily offended and are hard to be around (only because it's hard to be logical around illogical people, which makes thinking before you speak more important and twice as hard). I challenge everyone to think logically before making a decision. Decisions made from an illogical state of mind will very rarely end in success. 

Style is the definition of you

I got engaged recently and, like many engaged women, I've been looking at wedding dresses. Even before I got engaged, I knew I'd have a hard time finding a wedding dress. I'm not a huge fan of trains, but I don't think column dresses are so great for a wedding. I rarely like lace, I don't like wedding dress beading, and I am not a fan of shininess on dresses. I will not wear a dress that has bows or flowers on it. I want a long sleeved dress and I want it simple yet stylized. Clearly, I'm not an easy woman to shop for.

Why blog about my laments in regards to wedding dresses? Because I've been thinking about my style. I love my style. It is me and no one else. Sure, I wear things that other women would wear and I may even have some pieces of clothing that aren't particularly unique, but that's not what's important. What's important is what I tell people with my clothes, hair, make up, etc.

It's very important to me that I never look like a slob. I want to show people that I'm well put together and can think for myself. I don't ever want to look matronly but I refuse to show more than I deem appropriate (which isn't very much). I want people to look at me and know that I can get the job done. What job? I don't know, but I want people to think I do and that I can do it. I have anxiety about not dressing appropriately for occasions and I live by the rule that it's better to be over dressed than under dressed.

I think it's very important for everyone to care about their personal style. I don't think everyone needs to be a fashionista or even fashion forward. However, your clothes will say something about you whether you want them to or not. There are two serious style issues that I wish to address.

First, there are people who will never dress their age. I see this a lot in Utah and, as my friends can attest, it drives me nuts! One of the things that bugs me the most about living in Utah is the fashion of mothers and daughters. (Note: This is not every single family, and it's not only in Utah. There's just an unusually large population with this problem in Utah.) It's quite hard to tell the difference between many mothers, daughters, and, sometimes, grandmothers (shudder) from looking at clothes and hair in Utah. If the daughter dresses her age, the mother dresses the daughter's age as well. If the mother dresses her age, the daughter dresses the mother's age. I am a huge fan of age appropriate clothing.

When you are a teenager, you have a fundamental right to dress like a teenager. While it doesn't look very good, you can experiment with layering and wearing sweats with Uggs. Teenage years are a time for you to find your style. Experiment with clothes, figure out what looks good on you, what you like and what you don't like.

Mothers, middle-aged women, grandmothers, male equivelants of these labels, please let the teenagers be the teenagers. You can be stylish and still look like the mature person that you are. High fashion is there for you, if that's what you're interested in! There are plenty of clothing lines directed at you that are fashionable, fresh, beautiful, anything you're looking for in your clothing. You don't need to dress like a teenager to look young.

The other problem is people who refuse to admit that clothes define them. This is a delusional lie. Clothes will always say something about you. Clothes don't have to define you. Notice the title of my post. Style is your definition. Do you see the difference there? You have the control. When you decide that clothes don't matter and just throw on anything, people will see that you don't care. That's a horrible first impression. It's important to understand that style does not mean fashionable. If you, for some reason, are against fashion, then wear classics or something, but don't stop caring. That's a horrible practice. You don't have to be as obsessed with clothes and design as I am, but you should care about what you look like. Don't look like a hobo.

Now about wedding dresses, I want my style to show on my wedding. I may get lucky and find a dress that I love. However, I have planned for this and know how to make patterns. Dress designing, here I come!

I like looking at hair styles

I feel like writing about hair styles today. I suck at hair styles. I can wear my hair messy, in a little, tiny ponytail (this is for when I clean, mostly), or straight. I can do itty bitty braids and big braids, but I can't french braid or do anything fancy in any way with braids. I'm pretty good at figuring out what to do with bangs, though.

I may not be the best at hair styles but at least I can tell what will look good. I compensate for my dismal styling skills by getting interesting cuts that compliment my face. I will not do any style that I can't make look well done. Occasionally I will wet my hair several times in the course of an hour because I tried something and it didn't work. I will be going through some styles and sharing my opinion about them.

Ratted hair

I understand that some people like big hair. I get that. Sometimes it's nice to show off your volume. I also understand that straightening thin hair usually makes it go really flat, so you might want to do something to make your hair have life again. Here's my problem with ratted hair. I hate it when girls rat their hair into a square or triangle. It doesn't look good. It looks like you slept in a box.

When you rat your hair, if you rat your hair, control yourself. This isn't the 80's. If you end up with corners on your head, brush it out and start over. If you have a ring around your head but nothing on the top (this is what I identify as triangle-shaped ratting), brush it out and start over. If you can get your hair to rat into the shape of your head, good job.

Alternatives to ratting: Blow dry your hair upside down. When I do this, I end up looking like a lion (I have a lot of hair...), but this can really help with volume if you don't have crazy thick hair and a lot of it. Another thing you can do is blow dry your hair with a brush. Pull your hair up and out while blow drying it and you'll have a little more volume. If you do have thin hair, I suggest not straightening it. I straighten my hair to contain it. When it's not straightened, it can stick up way too high for my liking. However, if you have thin hair, straightening your hair can take the life out of it. If you have thin, curly hair, try blowing it straight. It won't be stick straight (which I think is ok in nearly every instance), but it will have more volume.

Buns

I've seen some interesting buns on campus. My least favorite by far is the bun on the very top of the head, which I've mentioned before. Mostly my problem with this type of bun is that it's become a lazy bun. Lazy buns flop around and having a loop of hair flopping around on the top of your head just isn't cool. Just stop. Put your lazy buns back on the back of your head where they're meant to be. Now, when I say "top of head," I don't mean the crown. I'm talking about the spot where you'd balance a book. The very top of your head.

That's really the only type of bun that I don't like. I'm just going to list some of my favorites that I've seen recently.

I saw a girl yesterday who had made a bow out of her hair. I thought that was amazing. I could never do that...especially to myself. It was very sweet. It's a very casual bun, so I wouldn't suggest it for a formal event, but it complimented her red and mustard gathered, high-waist skirt and mustard cardigan so well. She just looked like a sweet person who is ready to help in any way she can.

I also love what I refer to as "donut buns." I don't know what they are actually called, but they remind me of donuts. They're on the crown of the head and the hair is rolled out into a tube-like shape around the center of what I assume is a ponytail. I have a friend who is very good at these. I think they are very classy.

Last, but not least, I love buns that are at the neck and extend all along the hair line. I've never seen two of the same and most have some type of braid involved. They look very sweet and nice. I love when a girl puts a bow in one. It just adds to the cuteness.

Braids

The last thing I want to mention is braids. I love braids. I always have. When I was little I always loved it when my aunt came over and she would french-braid my hair.

One type of braid that always intrigues me is a fishtail braid. I've watch tutorials and looked at picture instructions and I still can't figure it out. These braids are just so cool! Plus, they're rarely stiff, which is good.

I am also intrigued by braids that go up the back of the head and into buns. I can't figure out how girls can fight gravity to do this. Maybe they braid it with their heads upside down? I don't know. Girls who do this, keep it up. It looks awesome.

I also love any type of braid that doesn't end up super stiff. This could be a ring around the head, braided bangs that are pulled back, french braids of most type. They're just great and I love to look at them.

I do not love stiff braids. Braids that get braided together were cool in elementary school, but now it looks juvenile. Also, I think people should keep braids down to two or under on one head. I've seen two different people who had three french braids. I don't know why they did this, but it seriously looked like their hair was an octopus. I expected them to turn around and have 5 more braids around the rest of their head. I was told once that some girls do this to make their hair wavy. Here's my thought to that. If you are braiding your hair like that to make it wavy, don't venture outside like that. It's the same concept as curlers. You stay inside until your curlers are done, you should stay inside until your weird braids are done.

To all you girls (and boys) that can do cool things with hair, I give you props. You have a talent and a gift. You shouldn't let that go to waste.