My trip to the store

 I saw my friend the European immigrant waiting at my bus stop.  He waved a cheerful hello and told me the bus was due in one minute.  I caught it, got off at the import market, realized they opened at 9 and it wasn't time yet.  

So I went to the grocery store and got some cranberry jelly.  I have a shelf in a pantry with Thanksgiving stuff, a canned ham, a bottle of cloves for the ham, some name brand stuffing (one year I bought generic stuffing and it was TERRIBLE never again), and now the canned cranberry.  

I did not buy any pork products as I was going to a Halal market and that would be beyond rude and disrespectful to bring pork into it.  I went over, a younger (than me) guy was there, he resembled the other family members.  He seemed a little bored and mildly interested.  I put my bag down by the register and went straight for the beauty aisle.  

They were low on henna so I only got 3.  I had been hoping for 5.  I do it every 3 weeks.  I got some other things I covered in the video.  

What I didn't mention I was a gushing fan girl when I got to the register.  I started with "I love your henna... more compliments than I ever had in my life..." he was checking out my hair and nodded, gave me a real smile and said he was happy I liked it.  I gave him several real smiles and sincere thanks, left.  

On the way out of the neighborhood, I saw Oscar, the orange Tom who lives with the Latino neighbors.  I can't neuter him because he is owned and my perception of young Latino men they would never castrate a pet.  Even if it's kinder in the long run.  So the poor guy lives outside, wants to be my cat, tries and tries to come in my house and Biscuit always runs him off.  So I'm stuck.  I spoke to him but he just looked at me sadly.  He wants to be my cat, but he can't.  My cats live the life, he doesn't.  It's sad.  

I went a block and saw something in a porch chair.  It was black, the chair was white.  That's the house that has the small yapper dog and the white male cat.  This kitten was solid black.  I have mad respect for that family as black cats are considered bad luck in Mexican culture.  I spoke to the kitten and went on.  

I saw the kitten on the way home.  I also saw a very familiar chubby calico.  

Two of my neighbors, Asians, were standing by the curb next to a car with the hood up.  She was rubbing against their legs, and the woman reached down absently and petted her, Cleo rubbed up against her again.  I was way at the other end of the block so I started laughing quietly watching my "feral" cat cheat on me with the neighbors, who obviously knew her well.  

If something happens to me, she'll be fine.  I didn't speak to the neighbors they obviously had Big Car Problems.  Besides I don't want to be territorial.  

You could say I have an open relationship with my cats.  I don't care who they love as long as they come home to me.  And I want them to be loved and looked out for.  The more friends they have, the better.  I'm delighted.  

It also showcases the diversity in my neighborhood.  

I came home and put my henna and soap up, put the clove oil in the backpack.  I wanted to start the laundry but Biscuit is sleeping on my dirty clothes.  

I have a very small laundry room with the washer on one side, the door, the dryer.  There's only about 2 feet between the washer and the dryer.  When I've had to have the appliances moved they had a lot of trouble getting them in place.  I am lazy and put the dirty clothes on the floor in front of the washer, I've done that at least since Ron's accident 21 years ago.  

Biscuit likes this nice soft pile of laundry that smells like me, apparently.  So he's sleeping in it.  Normally I keep the door shut to the laundry room but I left it open.  He's having a good time, the laundry can wait a day or two.  I took a photo but underwear is visible in the photo.  I sent it to my aunt but not putting that online.  

I also found some leave in conditioner and put that in my hair.  My hair is a little weird, I wouldn't do this before work but I'm just home today.  It did make my hair nicer, softer, and more body.  Here's a photo

Will I buy more?  No.  I wasn't impressed with the Cantu either.  It did OK getting the henna residue out but I didn't feel like it actually did much for my hair, after.  And when I tried co-washing with it my hair was greasy after a couple of hours.  

Honestly I like my Garnier Whole Blends coconut and cocoa butter conditioner right after a henna and the first couple co-washes after.  Then wash with the Garnier shampoo (same formula) for the first shampoo after.  Then I go to the Suave.  

I like Suave shampoos and conditioners.  I'm currently using the "silk blend" shampoo and the rose conditioner (volume something) every day.  I can't recall a Suave shampoo or conditioner I didn't like to be honest.  And I can afford it on what I make AND I get it at a discount.  

It's drizzling a little bit but not bad.  I think God has been very generous with Houston.  We had a "category 2" style windstorm (the derecho) in May.  That did a considerable amount of damage as you can imagine.  Then we had a cat 1 hurricane a month later, more damage.  It finished off a lot of things that were damaged in the derecho which resulted in more collateral damage than a cat 1 by itself.  

What am I saying?  Roof damage.  A lot of roof damage in my city.   So we had very little rain for months and months after which I think was a blessing from God to prevent more damage.  We're getting some now but not a lot, really.  There are roofing patches on several homes I pass on my way to the bus stop.  

I have a 20 year old roof.  God was very merciful and I only lost a couple of shingles from all the weather we had this year.  Thank you, Lord.  

That's it for now.  I'm going to rot my brain with NCIS reruns and take a nap.