Hair - Cut

Hair is a girl thing. Hair care products never left my expense list until I came to USA. I used to pamper my hair with all kinds of hair products to make it shiny, glossy, soft and manageable. My hair is not long and shiny like a shampoo model but it's my hair and I do my best to take care of it like having a trim every month.


Next to personally taking care of your hair - the next best thing for your hair is finding a good hairstylist. I used to go to a lady (in the Philippines) who knows what I like and knows how to cut my hair that will look good on me. Hair cut here in USA is a little bit pricey (15-25 bucks) so when we got a coupon for a $7 hair cut from a neighborhood salon, we brushed our way to a new hair cut.

I explained to the person how I want my hair cut and she snipped, snipped my long hair away - and the final result was, well, so horrible it made me cry!!! She butchered my hair, gave me bangs, I looked like I have a helmet, I felt and looked so horrible I could not even look at my self in the mirror. Overwhelmed with sadness, I asked hubby to set an appointment with his hairstylist (she cut my hair before and I liked it). Even it was out of budget, I still had my 2nd hair cut and Brooke performed a "repair" cut on my hair and thankfully I liked the end result.



Before and After

Mystery Shopper Scam

The other day, a letter from EAST INK FINANCIAL arrived in the mail telling me that I am hired to be a "mystery shopper" in my area. They sent me a whooping check of $3,950.00 with an instruction on where to use the money. They even had a break down of the enclosed check.

3 hours training pay - $300
funds for shopping in walmart, jc penney or home depot - $140
service charge for western union - $170
required funds to be sent - $3340

The whole things seems to be so wonderful. Imagine getting paid for shopping and giving reviews but they said, if a thing is too good to be true, then it is too good to be true.

At first glance, the offered plan seemed so legitimate because they even put an address, a number to call, and other stuff. But I noticed that the company name on the check is different from the name on the letter head. The company on the check is SCHNEIDER LOGISTICS TRANSLOADING & DISTRIBUTION, INC while the letter head is EAST INK FINANCIAL.

I searched online and I found out that this is one of the many scams. MYSTERY SHOPPER SCAM. What they do is send you a fat check with instructions to cash in the check, wire them half of the money, take a portion of the money for yourself as your first payment, then use the rest of the money to shop at certain stores and write down your experience and then send them your report. Sounds easy but the moment you en cash the check, the bank and the police will be hounding you for cashing in a fake check / bounced check etc. The scammers get their money and you alone is left to face the prosecution of the bank . So be cautious and don't be fooled.


Kind Stranger

Kindness is a virtue not everyone has. Too often, we tend to repay kindness only to those who are nice and kind to us but I learned that by showing kindness to those who are mean, we can indeed heap coals on their heads and win them (Prov. 25:21-22).

I went to a college that was a 12 hour bus ride from my hometown, so going home was never frequent and it was always an anticipated break from my busy student life. One night, I decided to go home, it was a warm night, perfect for a long ride back home. It was almost midnight and I was a bit sleepy and drifted off to sleep as soon as I slumped onto my seat on the bus.

My trip to lala-land was cut short when the bus stopped and more people got on the bus. Then a blurry image of a man appeared beside me and I heard him say "is this seat taken?" Honestly I didn't want any seat mate for I planned to sleep on the empty seat, but I said "no the seat is not taken". So the man sat on the next to me and then I realized I made a big mistake! My seat mate talked a lot even I told him I was really sleepy, he still kept on talking and asking me questions which I answered with irritation, sarcasm and a dash of insult.

Hours passed and it was almost dawn when our bus stopped in the middle of nowhere. There was a commotion and I noticed the passengers where leaving the bus with their luggage. Confused, I went out of the bus to see what was happening. Well, our bus was stuck in a kilometer stretch of knee-high mud pile. The bus could not go any further and the only way to get out was to walk and brave the mud to the other bus waiting few kilometers away.

I tried to lift my luggage but it was too heavy. Jut then, someone offered to carry my luggage - it was my seatmate. Even though I was mean to him earlier, he was still kind enough to help me carry my luggage. With shame and gratitude in my heart, I let him carry my stuff and I carried his little back pack and together we walked through the mud pile - this time I was wide awake and was happy to talk.