Alien Brain Disorder

Bullet Journaling is a Cult

I have an insanely bad memory. Just horrible. The kind of bad where if I don't write down every single thing, it will instantly fall out of my head and fly into the cosmos, never to be seen again. This is mostly due to the fact that I am on a lot of medication that affects certain important things like MY BRAIN and my mom did drop my baby head on concrete in the rain once... Anyway, I needed to find a solution and fast because writing things in my phone was not a great option as I was even forgetting to do that.

I honestly couldn't tell you where I first heard of Bullet Journaling (you know, my whole bad memory thing). It could have been Pinterest, Facebook, a coworker in passing... all probable candidates. Wherever it had come from, it felt like the perfect fit for me. I love journals, doodling, making lists, pens/markers... seriously, I was in heaven. So, I did what I normally do when I find a new hobby.

I BOUGHT ALL THE THINGS

My collection of notebooks, markers, and stencils boomed almost overnight. I also joined Facebook communities, learned which pens write best, which journals had the best paper... etc. When I go for something, I truly don't fuck around. I take a lot pride in things that I do. I am also really hard on myself and need to be constantly perfect. Whichever one you want to go with.

Usually for me, these love affairs don't last too long. I don't have a very long attention span, to my great annoyance. I started Bullet Journaling back in March and six months later I am still doing it and am even more stoked about it than before. Six months might not seem that long to some but for me, I usually will get distracted after about a month or two. Personally, Bullet Journaling is more than just a "planner". It's being accountable to yourself. It's a way to stimulate your creativity when life is so crazy busy. It's a way to motivate yourself to do things you normally don't even get around to. It's organization in chaos.

Another thing that I find my BuJo to be excellent for is tracking my physical and mental health. I track my levels of pain everyday and my moods alongside other daily things I do so I can see what could attribute to bad days. I can write down important things to tell my doctors that I normally forget about. One of my favorite things is I make whole page "spreads" about how to deal with obsessive thinking or how to do self care. I definitely will have top make a post soon about all my mental health spreads.

Now, I don't want to sound like a salesman because it isn't even like Bullet Journaling is a product for sale. BUT, if you are struggling to keep up with things and any of this sounds appealing to you I would highly suggest doing some research on Pinterest and Instagram. It is the most helpful tool in at home health care. And pretty much everything else.

September Weekly

Blog Planning Calendar

September Pain Tracker

September Look Ahead

Cover Page for September

Mood, Sleep, Exercise, & Step Tracker for September

Products Featured:

Lemome Dotted A5 Journal

Crayola Super Tips Markers

Zebra Pen Mildliners

Micron 03

I Don't Like Myself Today

Today, I do not like myself. Some days it's just like that. I'm annoyed at how lazy I have been this week, how much I have procrastinated. I am upset that I haven't kept up with routines that I KNOW make me feel better but I have given up for more sleep or for more time to just sit and do nothing. I am irritated that I am not doing what I want to do.
I control myself and I am not liking myself for allowing myself to just pretend like that's not the case. Or just chose the bad options. The options that lead to poor choices.
I know I am unreasonably hard on myself. Sometimes it's really okay to just have a lazy period but I don't feel good about it right now.
Today, I do not like myself.
I don't like the slightly dirty, itchy feeling of my skin because I missed the gym this morning and therefore didn't shower after the gym. I don't like the creeping headache I have from just not taking care of my body right. Nothing feels good today.
I know tomorrow is a new day. I can restart and do everything better tomorrow. I know this feeling is temporary. Tomorrow I can like myself. I can even be thrilled with myself. This is just a bad mood. I woke up on the wrong side of the bed.
I am doing the best I can.

Good Morning

I am obsessed with skin care. I rarely wear make-up but I wear INSANE amounts of skin care products. Tell me about a new serum that helps hormonal acne and makes your skin not a flaky mess, I don't care if it's fifty bucks, I'll buy it on my phone while you're still talking. I am extremely self conscious about my skin, especially the last few months. I had an IUD inserted back in December and, to say the least, it did NOT jive well with my systems. I never had hormonal cystic acne and all of a sudden, the lower half of my face was a battlefield. Now in my mid-twenties I was barely getting break outs at all! Now I am back to high school level bullshit. After three months of pain and war with my face, I had them remove the IUD.

I am still struggling with my face though. It is STILL recovering. I hope I didn't permanently give myself worse acne like a god damn idiot.

Anyway, I now do anything and everything I can to take care of my face. I used to just wash my face at night, now it's a morning and night routine. With at least 5 products, if not more. Right now my obsessions are Dermalogica, Fresh, and Drunk Elephant. (Drunk Elephant is always number one though) I still cherish my old favorites like Glossier and Mario Badescu but I rarely divert from a solid routine once I find something that is working.

Morning Products:

Dermalogica Special Cleansing Gel

Fresh Rose Floral Toner

Drunk Elephant C-Firma Day Serum

Drunk Elephant B-Hydra Intensive Hydration Gel

Drunk Elephant Lala Retro Whipped Cream

Morning Routine

Bathroom sink nightmare

(I was not paid to promote any products in this post. I loved these on my own)

My Black Thumb

I am not good at growing things. I have never in my entire life been good at growing things. My mother has never been good at growing things. I guess the apple didn't fall too far from the tree. What is funny though is that my grandmother is amazing at growing Orchids. She probably has at least twenty at a time, all with little butterfly clips and a specific blooming cycle she has memorized. My mom and I however, we kill everything that comes in our path. Even when I was a kid I was in charge of watering the plants as one of my chores. Those plants were always dead, no matter what I did. I really don't know why my parents kept letting me water those plants.

As an adult human I reattempted growing a few times, always with terrible results. I would keep the dead plant around far longer than I should have in hopes that maybe it would spontaneously come back to life and be like, "Just kidding Alysa! You are great at this!" but that never happened. I even killed cacti. Pretty quickly too, they didn't even TRY to live. It's as if they didn't want me to succeed.

For Valentines day my dear, sweet husband bought me a succulent pot since he knows I constantly eye succulents, wanting so badly to grow them. So now with a cute little pot I though "Why not? Let's try this again."

So far... I am not murdering them! They seem to be doing pretty well! (I don't want to jinx it though, they could die any second just to spite me) I even bought more pots and more succulents! So far I have four adorable pots and eight succulents. The Golden Girls, King Ghidorah, Rigby, and Mordecai. All still alive. I want so badly to be at least okay at this! I don't have to be a plant goddess but having my cute, little succulents makes me so happy. They bring a tiny bit of brightness to my life. (Oh my god, that's so damn cheesy, calm down Alysa, they are JUST plants.)

Seriously though, I'm really loving them. It's a lot of fun to not murder them.

The Loch Ness Monster Dog

Back in January we did something I have been dying to do for so long.
We adopted a dog!
I am beyond ecstatic about it since it's my absolute, number one dream to eventually live on a big property in the forest up north with many, MANY dogs. And goats. And one brown haired cow. I am an extremely specific person, y'all.
Never in my entire life did I ever expect that we would own a Husky. Growing up there was one that lived across the street from my family and all we ever heard was about how it tore their place to shreds. The second I looked into her eyes at the shelter though it really didn't matter what type of dog she was. It was the same feeling I got when I first saw my other dog, Pickles. I immediately thought "This is my dog."
Sure. She is a handful. SHE IS a Husky. Who is also a year old. BUT, I wouldn't trade her for anything. Even though she has a sensitive stomach, occasionally chews up something irreplaceable, and loves to do zoomies all over the place.
Thing I didn't know about Huskies, they LOVE to cuddle. She is always attempting to crawl up on my lap (Jarrett hates this since he doesn't want her hair all over the couch more than it already is!) and when she cant get up, she puts her paws up and buries her head in you or licks you forever.
We ended up naming her "Nessie" since we are super obsessed with cryptids and one of the most infamous is, of course, The Loch Ness Monster. She is also albino which just adds to how truly special she is.
I am already so attached to this beautiful little polar bear dog. She makes big, dumb smiles and loves to play tug of war with fingers. She murders toys and has weird belly hair. I love her stupid face to the moon and back.
Something I would like to bring up from this experience is the shelters are FULL of Huskies right now. Just like with 101 Dalmatians and Frasier, another breed has become popular due to pop culture and is now being widely abandoned due to people not understanding the responsibilities that come with ownership of a dog. With Game Of Thrones, everyone wants a Husky. When they aren't a puppy anymore and they are chewing everything due to boredom since most people don't have the energy for the breed, they dump them. Nessie was found on the street. This is heart breaking.
If you see an animal on your favorite show and feel inclined to own that animal, do your research. Really consider if you actually WANT to have that animal as a part of your family and if you are willing to dedicate your resources and time. Otherwise, we end up with shelters full of Huskies that just want a family to cuddle and play with.

credit: dlartphoto.com

Who Am I?

Is it okay to be 26 and still be having existential crisises? Because I feel like I've been having them forever and I am not sure they are going to be coming to a stop anytime soon. I think I should have figured this out by now. Maybe I already DO know but I am just doing my thing where I think I suck but everyone else thinks differently. Am I being TOO relatable right now? Ha.
I just look at myself as a whole and feel like I am a bunch of floating pieces instead of a whole person. Like, I don't have a strong identity. I am made up of a ton of different identities smooshed into one. I am a creative that works in a very code heavy job that is obsessed with skin care and makeup but rarely wears makeup and I have a big loving heart but openly despises the world... what is this mess. WHO AM I.
I am contradictory.
I am in love with milkshakes and binge eating candy but obsessed with counting calories.
I am spontaneous and wild but I plan like an INSANE woman.
I wish I could be moving and productive 24/7and FREAK if I am not but want to lay on the couch for hours (and sometimes do).
I want to dress cute and sometimes try but wear my mom's old sweater from the 90's more days than I like to admit.
Maybe this is normal. Maybe you are thinking "Get your shit together you dumb lady"

I don't think it's strange to not know and to be constantly challenging yourself to figure it out. People who are stagnant are boring. I would rather be still freaking out and trying to become something better at 80 than sit in my dusty ol' chair thinking about dying. That's boring and I am bored just thinking about it. Put on my gravestone, "WHO AM I?"

I am happy though right now. I like my job. I like my life. I like my dogs. (You heard right, I got another dog) I like things. Weird.