Dark circles can be a sign of dehydration, allergies, fatigue or vitamin deficiencies (or most of the above if you were out drinking last night). There are a lot of ways to live without dark circles around your eyes and avoid medical procedures.

1. Stay Hydrated: dehydration can be culprit of many common aesthetic and health issues, including: cellulite, acne, fatigue, dry skin, redness in skin and dark circles around eyes.  My staple is a 1.5 litter water bottle (or 6 cups per day).  It’s not the recommended 8/day but depending on your weight and activity level you may be able to get away with less. Staying hydrated is a good idea anyway and may knock out the dark circles without any other treatments.
2. Get Plenty of Sleep: this may seem like a given but generally even people who get 7-9 hours of sleep aren’t getting a quality night’s rest.  You may not be sleeping as much as you think because of stress or medical disorders such as asthma, sleep apnea or depression.  If you are often fatigued and feel that you are providing your body with enough water and sleep I suggest that you visit your doctor.
3. Vitamins: sometimes dark circles around the eyes can be a deficiency of vitamin K and/or retinol (vitamin A). Take a multi-vitamin every day and pick up some overnight skin cream containing both K and retinol.  Within a week you should see an improvement  if you circles are vitamin related.
4. Allergies: if you know that you have an allergy or you have tried all of the above remedies and nothing is working it is most likely that you have allergy related circles.  Cats and dogs are only the beginning.  Many people (myself included) are allergic to other daily encounters such as: food, chemicals, plants, dust, etc etc etc.  You can easily do an at home allergy test (this is the first time your dark circles will ever say anything to you besides “makeup!”).  Take a Zyrtec or Claritin D for a few days in a row. If the dark circles mostly go away then you most likely have an allergy.  Visit an allergist to try and PINpoint it (sorry cruel humor), and pray that the culprit isn’t the white raspberry truffle Haagen Dazs in your freezer.
5. Less Common Causes: if nothing else works you should make an appointment with your doctor.  Other causes of dark eye circles include anemia, liver and kidney problems.

LIVING on the 14th of February WITHOUT breaking the bank

Recession Depression is getting to us all.  We wanted to start this off with a little bit of tenderness and include some cheap and fun ways to keep you from being financially depressed this Valentine’s Day.

You and Your Squeeze Ideas:

- A Foreign Affair. “You can kuss kuss over cous cous!” Here’s the scene, you and your love have been dreaming about getting out of the country. You spend countless hours flipping through travel books and IMing each other links of amazing vacation locations. So if you won’t be taking that romantic getaway this Valentine’s season, we suggest that you simulate it.  We know that you weren’t paying attention all 4 years that your DeadHead guidance counselor made you sign up for French, but a good start to a foreign love affair is to learn how to say I love you in a different language (here). Then grab those Gabriel Garcia Marquez library books that have been collecting dust and robbing you in fines for months and take a trip to your library. Return the books you owe them while trying not to look the librarian in the eyes (it’s the worst, like you’ve been caught cheating on a test). Go ahead and head to the cookbook section;  plan a cheap and foreign meal to cook. And don’t forget to perfect those “bizarre” customs (keeping your hands on the table instead of in your lap during dinner). When your sweetheart gets home have a picture of the country tacked on the front door, the food on, and your bad accent perfected. Bonne soirée.

- <3 Scavenger Surprise. Quantity > quality. Make lots of little notes (just an “I love you” or a drawn heart will do) then fold and tuck them in your lover’s bags, back pockets, coffee machine, car, toilet roll, book, phone, cereal box, and wherever else you can think they will find them (and you can manage to get them). Depending on how good you are and how many you make, your love can be pleasantly discovering that you heart them for months to come.

- The Art of Romance. Remember how you met at the school for the arts? Get out that dusty sketchpad, Polaroid camera, or video camera and spend the evening indoors creating something together. It could be a photo shoot or, if you are feeling dedicated, a stop motion animation (One day when your grandkids see it they will be horrified at the archaicness. See found video example of stop motion and instructions for how to make one here). If you and your catch do happen to be the old fashioned types or if you are still overly enchanted by Leo and Kate, then nude drawings are the way to go. You can scan them in later for your folks and believe me if you’ve been out of art school as long as I have they probably won’t be able to tell it’s a person.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMT-pFLhyWg]

Socialism - Gratification for Everyone:

- Charity is a Piece of Cake: “Stressed spelled backwards is desserts. Coincidence? I think not.” There is a Soup Kitchen near my neighborhood (kudos for the heads up Mike D.) that takes volunteers on Wednesdays to bake desserts. This is a great way to help someone else feel loved without the long term commitment of most volunteer work. It’s just one dessert (unless you eat the first one out of greed, and then it’s two desserts). If you live in the NYC area, you can sign up here at Craig’s Kitchen. Around V-day they need people willing to bake Pumpkin Bread or Chocolate Pie . If you don’t live in the NYC area check and see if you’ve got something like this near you.

-Have a Hearts Party: I haven’t played cards since I was a kid, but a Hearts game night seems like an excellent alternative to Valentine’s movie night. You can still make buttered popcorn with pink food coloring and eat Devil’s food cupcakes (if you prefer cupcakes with a bite I highly recommend theseChocolate Whiskey and Beer Cupcakes from Smitten Kitchen.)

- This is the First Song for Your Mixtape:Everyone, even your friend who refuses to celebrate holidays (especially ones sponsored by Hallmark) loves music. So dust of your dual disc-man rig, your iTunes list, or go to www.playlist.com to make a free online playlist. If you need ideas, flip through existing playlists on the site (other ideas for song combos can be found using iTunes Genius Bar or on Pandora). If you do go the CD route make sure you get blank white CDs that you can customize with a sharpie, or purchase the ones shown to the left on Etsy for $6 (set of 4).

- Rent Yourself Out: Do you know how many parents are desperate for babysitter’s on Valentine’s Day? My guess it’s a lot. So make some money and remind yourself why you have been avoiding marriage and kids. Known Side Effects: depending on the demeaner of the children you may also have a strong urge to get your tubes tied. If side effects occur please contact your OBGYN immediately.

If you Prefer Self Gratification:

- Live Sans Valentine’s Day: Live without Valentine’s day. All in all it really is just another, in this case, Saturday night. Do what you normally do on a Saturday night. If all of your friends are busy, a book and some hot tea make for a relaxing evening. Or if you can’t stand the thought of staying indoors, go to a concert or a movie.  If this all sounds too mundane, I know a great bar where you can reincarnate your middle school self and play Magic the Gathering, just a thought. ]]> http://livesans.com/?feed=rss2&p=6 http://livesans.com/?p=3 http://livesans.com/?p=3#comments Thu, 11 Jun 2009 17:15:49 +0000 LaurenCarol http://livesans.com/?p=3

Forget the rain forests; this is localized American laziness in it’s raw form. I am talking about the amount of energy I spend just hauling bags full of trash (and ughm ..recycling) down four flights of stairs. At six pieces of junk mail per day, I probably fill up at least one large garbage bag of useless advertisements per month.

So I readied myself at my computer (paper free) and asked it how to get rid of the most annoying type of paper . Dear Google, How does one get rid of the mailbox baggage?

As it turns out living without junk mail is not instantaneous. Even if you sign up with the proper authorities it takes 3-6 months for the garbage to quit coming. It’s like rehabilitation for your mailbox, so let’s check ourselves into I Live In A PreWar Apartment Building and My Mailbox Isn’t Big Enough to House All Of This Extra Crap Rehabilitation Center.

Photo Courtesy of Mary @ Flick

The DMA: The Direct Marketing Association or the Damn Mail Auctioneers manage your address with 80% of the companies that are sending you advertising. Registering to stop the junk at their website is free and keeps their mail away for 5 years (after that you need to remind them that you still don’t want their litter in your mail box). WARNING: they make you register an email address, so plan to provide them with a separate one. Otherwise, you risk being bombarded with SPAM. I highly recommend BurnDMA@gmail.com or WeAbhorYourWorthlessMail@gmail.com both of which are currently available.

Unfortunately, the DMA doesn’t control all of the mail so you are going to have to contact a few more people. In fact, to get rid of any or all credit card advertisements you need to contact:

Opt Out: Did you sign up for your free credit report this year? Well you probably, unbeknownst to you, also signed yourself up to be pre-screened for credit cards. I can see your gears turning as you picture all of those “Your Approved” ads that came in the mail this week. Aren’t you ashamed? Don’t be. It only takes a phone call to remedy these endless offers. Call 1-888-5-OPT-OUT or go to www.optoutprescreen.com. Beware, they are going to request your SS#, but hey, on the bright side you already gave it to them when you requested your credit report. Go Safety!

USPS: If you continue to get junk mail, make a list of the companies that are sending it to you. This may be a big step for you, but fill out this form 1500 from the USPS. It allows you to deem any mail that you receive as being sexually explicit. You don’t have to have a Victoria’s Secret catalog in hand to deem it inappropriate. The USPS will make sure any company you deem (sexually) inappropriate stops sending you mail, no questions asked.

Current Resident Pieces: If the majority of your mail is addressed To Current Resident then you will need to contact the company directly to remove your address from their list. This can be done in most cases by calling their customer service line.

HOW TO REUSE YOUR JUNK MAIL

So you’ve done it. Hopefully within 3-6 months you will be pretty much junk free. Until then, use this tutorial to make some really cute inverted envelopes from those ever present response envelopes.

1.) Take existing junk mail return envelopes and open them up to expose what is usually a patterned interior. To get the envelope open, find the seams and either huff on them (like you are trying to fog a window) or tack them up over your pasta pot while you are cooking dinner. Then gently pull apart the seams trying not to tear any edges.

2.) Invert the paper and put it back together with a bit of tape or glue. ( I enjoy the way the tape looks).

3.) That’s It. Write a letter and mail it off (DayQuil not included).

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