Archive for July, 2010
Men love to give off the aura that they don’t care about fashion, but trust me, they aren’t really that good at fooling women. The more they say “I don’t know what I’m wearing and I don’t care what you think” the more I’m on to them. Face it: you care, and, furthermore, you care enough to try and over establish how much you don’t care.
I’ll give you this story for example. My friend is a male nurse who makes very good money in his profession. He always tries to come off like “Oh, I don’t care what I have to wear, I just wear it.” That is until one day where he came clean to me: he had done three days worth of research into which types of mens scrubs to purchase. “This is nothing to be embarrassed about”, I told him, but I could see in his eyes that he still felt a little ashamed about his confession.
When I got home from seeing my friend, I decided to do a little research of my own into medical scrubs, and what I found made his endeavor seem more than justified. Scrubs aren’t just run of the mill uniforms, they are specialized pieces of equipment (yes, I said equipment) that are designed to help a doctor, nurse, or other medical professional through his or her daily life at work. A scrub must combine comfort with practability, as well as style with reliability. And with a price tag that is a bit higher than you would expect, the idea of spending a few days looking comparing different styles and companies seems more than justified, it seems absolutely necessary.
One of the biggest selling points about different types of scrubs is how well it will keep the wearer both cool and clean. Let me explain: doctors and nurses are on their feet all day, and well, they have a lot of liquids and fluids come their way during an average workday. One of the important functions of a scrub is to make sure these fluids, may it be sweat or, umm, various, off the skin. This is done by fabrics that move moisture away from skin, something that is vital in keeping the body cool and clean. Most scrubs are also made with fibers that help keep the fabrics smelling, and feeling, fresh and clean, even when introduced to these liquids, and also allow stains and sweat to be easily washed out in the washing machine. After learning all of this I’ll called my friend again to tell him that there was nothing to be ashamed of, though I still don’t think he believed me.
Kim Green knows men love their mens scrubs as much as women love theirs.
When people think of uniforms, most typically think of people who work as policeman, firefighters, pilots and stewardesses. If you think about it, though, almost everyone who works a job wears some type of uniform, may they be shorts and a t-shirt or a suit and tie. Next time you walk into a store, take a look at what the workers are wearing. While they might not be official uniforms, typically their cloths are at least synchronized by color or style.
Doctors, nurses, dentists and other medical professionals have their own uniforms: scrubs. While you might have noticed scrubs during your last trip to the doctors, what you probably don’t know is that not all scrubs created equal. Besides the difference between basic men’s and women’s scrubs, there are a variety of different styles and materials on the market that make these medical field necessities stand out from other uniforms on the market.
So what makes scrubs so versatile, anyway? Think of scrubs as more of a tool then a just a piece of clothing. Since a doctor or nurse is always on the move during their 10-12 hour shifts, their scrubs must perform along with them. Scrubs are typically made from specialized fabrics that not only breath, but also repel stains and fluids that are daily occurrences in the medical profession.
Unless you wear one of these scrubs regularly, it’s hard to understand the importance of having breathable fabric. Medical professionals spend a lot of time on their feet in high pressure situations that don’t exactly lend themselves to comfort. Because of this you want to wear something that feels light and airy and will allow you to stay cool in situations where sweat typically occurs. In addition to keeping you cool, many of the scrubs on the market are made with materials which draw the sweat away from skin, which means that you won’t find yourself feeling dirty after a high pressure situation. In addition, a high quality scrub is made with fabrics that are designed to stay fresh and clean smelling throughout a long day. Those are definite pluses after an overnight shift.
In addition to being able to stand up to messy situations, the cut and design of scrubs can also be very important, and not just in a fashion sense. While looking good is a plus, a bigger deal is staying comfortable, which means that you want material that won’t clump or shift during an exam or emergency situation. Add in a good set of pockets which can hold pads, paper and even a stethoscope, and you have everything that a professional could ask for.
Author Kimberly Green has friends who need comfortable women’s scrubs in order to function properly.
There is a point in the preparation of any wedding where you want to throw your arms up in the air and just scream “That’s it, I’m done.” It’s the first time in the six or seven months leading up to the wedding where the idea of just running off to Vegas seems like anything but a joke. This is typically around the time where you’re debating whether to get a mustard sauce or a honey mustard sauce for your appetizers, and trying to decide whether a titanium ring will clash with cufflinks that the groomsman is going to wear. The thing is that this is an important moment in any wedding: this is the moment where you take a deep breath and realize that a wedding is for the bride and the groom and everyone else, no matter how much they want to input, can just butt out of the equation.
I didn’t mean for that last sentence to sound so mean, but having multiple people making decisions on a wedding day will only lead to a lot of drama and even more hurt feelings. Most wedding’s run into difficulties when advice is taken by other parties. How do I know this? Because I’ve gone through it. When I got married to my husband we were young and naïve and decided that we needed the help of our parents to plan our dream wedding. Well, after a few months, we realized that our dream wedding had turned into their dream wedding, with more issues arising from the fact that each parent had a different idea of what exactly a dream wedding should consist of.
There came a point where we found that we needed to make a decision: either take it over ourselves or just be miserable at our own wedding. It’s not that the ideas that our parents had were bad, it’s just that there were too many of them. We found ourselves having to combine all the ideas into a wedding that began to look increasingly unattractive to us. So with about four months to go until the wedding we decided to take back control and do our own wedding. We hurt a few egos and had to make some tough phone calls, but in the end we were able to put together a wedding that we wanted.
So when you hit that point where you feel like your wedding is skidding away from you, the best decision you can make is to take a step back and look at what you really want in your wedding and what others are making you do. It’s one of the smartest things you can do.
Kimberly Green loves the fact her husband chose one of the new titanium rings for their wedding.
So here’s a question for you: is it easier now for a plus sized woman then it has ever been before? I mean, is it more acceptable to have a little junk in the trunk then it was, say, ten years ago? With companies centered around plus sized clothing and plus size swimwear, are women able to find ways to look good without having to fit into previously defined ideas of beauty?
I know, I know, pretty heady stuff for a fluff piece, right? But I started thinking about this the other day when I was looking for swimsuits for the upcoming summer season. Now, I’m not really a plus-sized woman by definition, but I’m also not what you would call stick thin. Because of this, I have always had a little bit of a body image problem. I come from the age when women in magazine ads were rail thin. You know, the Twiggy era. The thing that I always found interested about that age is that I never met a single man who was into that look. Men don’t like rails, they like women with some meat, at least the ones I’ve known. Because of that, I always found it weird that women are set to this standard that men really don’t set them too themselves.
Because of this disconnect between men and women, we have a tendency to become our own worst critics. There is nothing more terrifying than having to pick out a new bathing suit for the summer, even though the only opinion we are really using is our own. Answer me this: when we are trying on different bathing suits do we ever ask our husband’s opinion? Not typically, because we feel too embarrassed to do so. Wouldn’t it make it so much easier to have someone else’s opinion when it comes to what bathing suit looks best on us? Yes, but we do don’t because ultimately we have decided that we are the best judges of how we look, even though we have a bad self body image. That’s a little weird isn’t it?
Unfortunately with that thought in mind I can’t really end this piece by saying “We just have to break through the barrier and feel better about ourselves” can I? We really have no one to blame but ourselves, even though we are really not to blame ourselves, if that makes sense. I’ll say this though, next time you’re trying on your bathing suits, ask your man, or woman, for their opinion. Chances are, they will be much nicer then you’d imagine… or that you would be on yourself.
Author Kim Green knows her husband loves her no matter if she wears plus size swimwear or not.
It’s weird to think that something as mundane at roofing shingles can be the newest member to the whole green movement of recycling and reuse, but alas, here we are. That’s right folks, you can now add shingle recycling to the list of ways that you can help save the world. If you think about it makes sense that someone came up with a way to recycle shingles. Heck, you can recycle just about anything now-a-days. The truly amazing thing to me is not that it can be recycled, but that someone actually came up with the idea of making a money-making enterprise off of it. In a strange way, I find it almost inspiring that someone took a look a shingles and went “Hey, there has to be a way to make money off of all those used ones.”
Let me clarify something though: we aren’t talking about just reusing the old shingles, we are talking about grinding them up and then reforming them into a useable mulch. Think of it as making brand new shingles and other materials out of old shingle mulch, kind of like what happens with wood in particle board. Besides the fact that you’re being green by reusing old material, one of the best things about shingle recycling is that it clears up some much needed room in the landfills, which is always good news considering how much of our land has been dedicated to our trash in the last century.
It seems like, as a society, we have become blind to the idea that landfills still exist. What used to be places that were in public view where we would drop off our own garbage has now become a place where we can’t even find with the help of a map. Do you have any idea where a landfill is around you? Frankly I have no clue, which is sad considering that my trash will be there for years to come. That is why the idea of recycling is so important. Not so much because of the green movement, or because of how trendy it has become, but because the concept of the landfill has become so unnecessary now that we have the technology to reuse almost everything that buy or consume.
That’s what is so amazing about stuff like shingle recycling: we’ve now gotten to the point where we can literally recycle everything. As long as people can make money they will find new ways to recycle old products, which, if you about, is something that everyone can get behind: capitalism and the environment.
Author Kim Green hopes people adopt the practice of shingle recycling to help preserve natural resources.
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