I have a mantra when it comes to styling tools and products as it relates to my hair - actually, it’s more like an incantation: If it can straighten and smooth my hair, which practically requires a village of stylists to maintain, then I’m a believer. Since my current dryer and Sapphire flat iron are almost a decade old, I was desperate to try something new.

Enter The Sedu Revolution Tourmaline Ionic GREEN TGR 3600 Hair Dryer - the hair dryer that made it possible for me to minimize the wailing in front of my bathroom mirror. Before I get into specifics, I will say, unabashedly, that this is the best dryer I’ve ever used. I sometimes stare at the Sedu in disbelief, and I’ve already emailed my stylist who has expressed interest in testing it out. But back to the matter at hand - the Sedu!

With damp hair, styling products, a towel, and the hair dryer - I was ready for revolution. Immediately, I was surprised by its feather weight (.79lb) - a small detail, yet critical when you’re standing for an hour with a mass of thick, unruly curls thinking your arm might very well fall off. As I blow dry and iron my hair repeatedly in sections, a lightweight dryer not only reduces my styling time, it eases my frustration and exhaustion. To that point, the ergonomically shaped handle combined with compact light weight design offered me additional styling comfort. As I moved through sections, I noticed that the varying speed & heat settings (six) and the efficient motor, reduced my drying time by 40%. After forty minutes, my hair was noticeably frizz & static free (remember: your styling products also play a critical role in frizz reduction and hair health - I used Kerastase’s Oleo Curl line) and incredibly shiny. The Sedu Hair Dryer uses tourmaline technology, which is a essential component in hair health. Sedu explained to me how the tourmaline coated ionic generator is beneficial to my hair:

The Sedu Revolution heat styling tool uses a recently developed process that utilizes nano technology to micronize particles of tourmaline, infusing them directly into the plates of the styling appliance. Tourmaline – a semi-precious gemstone known for its negative ion properties – in this superfine, micronized form, exudes a potent mass of negative ions, enabling the moisture to be sealed directly into the hair’s cuticle. It’s the very best at eliminating static and improving your hair drying and styling time

And for those who are eco-conscious, you’ll revel in the fact that the Sedu is the first professional grade hair dryer in the industry with energy efficiency and environment in mind. Some of the green features include: the Energy Efficient Motor & Energy Conserving Heater. Along with the tourmaline technology, you’re able to save energy without compromising performance!

Click here to purchase the Sedu Revolution Tourmaline Ionic GREEN TGR 3600 Hair Dryer ($139.95 at Folica.com)

“And then I was sick. I ran to the bathroom as fast as I could, a dirty little bathroom in a dirty little bar, and I threw everything up - and is it strange if I say it felt wonderful? I threw up until I felt empty inside. I stood up from the toilet, I must have been in there for ten minutes, twenty minutes, and I looked in the mirror, and this old woman stared back at me. I wondered who she was, and of course she was me. I was an old woman. I knew at that moment that I was no longer a beautiful woman, not even a pretty woman, anymore.

That’s when I noticed the bathroom attendant. She was standing behind me. If I was an old woman, she was ancient. She must have heard me vomiting. She must have thought I was disgusting. But she looked so peaceful and serene and contented - and that’s amazing, if you think about it. This woman lives in a toilet, that’s her life, from morning until night she lives in the toilet and gives out hotel towels and rubs the necks of rich women and listens to them pee and shit and vomit, and I’ve never seen in all my life such a simple, contented, happy face. She had a cross around her neck. And that cross - I stared and stared.

At that moment, I knew that I could have everything I wanted…”

From

After six years of anusara yoga and four-day-a-week workouts, I felt sufficiently smug when invited to sample a class at Physique 57 - that is until I nearly keeled over during the 10 minute warm-up. Forty-seven minutes of toning, stretching, pulsing, squatting began. And trust me when I say that my thighs, backside, abs, and biceps will never be the same. But make no mistake, my friends, this is a good thing. So when you’ve indulged in that third slice of chocolate hazelnut cake (it was homemade I tell you!!), smuggled a third magic bar under the table, and decided that you can indeed rally for cheeseburger and fries the day after Christmas, you’ll feel virtuous and perhaps redemptive after an hour of intense core conditioning.

I have sampled the total-body workout that is Physique 57, whose foundation a ballet-based core-strengthening, and I am an ardent believer.

So what is Physique 57? Simply put, it’s a 57 minute series of exercises that strengthens and stretches every muscle group in the body. Using isometric movements, a ballet barre, and your own body weight for resistance, your muscles will become strong, lean, and limber. If you’re a yoga devotee, you’ll find most of the poses and stretching familiar. The class begins with the aforementioned warm-up and a sequence of upper-body exercises, which includes free weights (3 & 5 pounds for beginners), push-ups, plank positions, and other specific moves that target the bi-cep, tri-cep, shoulder, chest, and back muscles. To keep the class fresh and invigorating, students constantly oscillate from barre (focuses on thigh, seat, and ab muscles) to ball to floor - all sequences followed by isometric stretches which serve to fully tone the muscles after each group of exercises - while listening to hot, lively music from Justin Timberlake to Lil Wayne.
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Believe me when I say that I don’t own jewelry. Friends have had to literally drape necklaces around my neck for events, push rings on my fingers for weddings, all the while I shook my head and said: no, no, no. I like the feel of bare skin. I don’t wear jewelry!

Ever since my mother hocked my birthday gold studs when I was twelve (a cocaine addiction will do that to you), and I lost my ruby crucifix in college, I said: forget it. Basta (as the Italians say)! And I haven’t purchased a single piece of jewelry until this year. I feared losing it, I feared buying foul pieces, I feared falling into silly trends. I’ve also been an impatient person so the idea of complimenting one more item in my wardrobe was enough to make me shriek, but like with everything this year, I’m starting to just be OPEN. To not rely on who I used to be, what I used to like, what I’ve always been accustomed to. Lately, I’ve been very unlike me. I’ve been very play it as it lays.

Anyway, during my trip to Italy, a few pieces of Venetian glass caught my eye — I couldn’t resist. These pieces were not only birthday and sobriety gifts (2 years come February), but they were wholly original and not outrageously expensive.

Note: The ring & ribbon necklace were purchased from Galleria Pompeii, a factory renowned for its coral and cameo manufacturing, and the gold necklace was acquired from Antica Murrina.

My flight home from Rome was chaotic, and that’s putting it mildly. There was a near riot at both the Cairo and Casablanca counters, while Alitalia reps were sipping cappuccinos at the bar. As my flight suffered one delay after another, and no information was delivered to us poor passengers, I was trying to keep my calm amidst Alitalia reps who were downright rude to passengers who had been waiting in the airport for over 25 hours to fly out.

I paced the airport, unable to find a decent wireless connection or an outlet. So I settled on piles of Italian fashion magazines and a near stockpile of food. Because buying a Prada bag, duty-free, would have been a step towards obvious insanity. Anyway, I found these delish candy bars, which are chocolate covered and filled with hazelnut cream. AMAZING. Why can’t we have bars like this in the U.S.

To note, the sweets I’ve had in Italy have markedly LESS sugar than in the U.S. My new friend, an ex-pat film exec now living in Rome, revealed that Nutella shipped to the U.S. has a great deal more sugar than the version in Italy. And after sampling it, I can definitely concur.

I was the girl who watched The Shining when she was five, dragged her best friend at the time to the London Dungeon of torture in 1994, and will never shy away from watch vivisections, dissections and the like. Suffice to say, I like the innards. I revel in the macabre. I don’t question it anymore; it’s just who I am. So during my visit to the ruins of Pompeii, I observed scores of bodies who had been preserved by plaster, so instead of skeletons and corpses, you had an idea of just how horrific the impact of Mt. Vesuvius’ eruption was.

That evening, I wrote my friend Kira, a poet and writer, and I told her that I thought of her that day, possibly because she had written a poem about Pompeii that just simply lingered. A town in a permanent frieze? A written picture of someone suffering? Immediately, she wrote back and asked there was such a poem! But was it all true? Were there indeed petrified bodies? To which I responded:

Pompeii is fascinating. I will have to explain it, and the bodies, in person. The great irony is that the ashes from Mt. Vesuvius are what killed and preserved the town & the people. Did you know that the second time Pompeii was destroyed (79 A.D.) was during lunchtime? It was said that bread was left burning. The townspeople still hadn’t completely rebuilt the town from the first ruin - due to the earthquake in 63 A.D.

And the bodies! I saw quite a few. They poured plaster into the decomposing flesh, and the body was actually preserved (the skeleton is underneath the plaster). You actually see the shape of how someone died - it’s horrifying, really. But to me, as I like this sort of thing, was magical.

And still 22 miles of the city is still underground. The Italians are fearful of climate change (it’s very green here), and the excavations are slow-going. They want to preserve the city for future, more responsible, generations. Very unlike Americans. Maybe that’s why I like Italy.

This is what I told my friend, and she was kind (because she is that sort) enough to send me the poem I had published - perhaps her darkest: “The Exiled Sasquatch.” I hope you will love it just as much as I have, and continue to.

The Exiled Sasquatch
-Kira Henehan

I have sometimes
as if likeminded we might
with all that we have
to hate - nothing.
I have cold

here are gray lemon trees and here is where the leaves

Only sometimes it’s like
in Pompeii frozen
for so long it becomes habit
to ghosted pour back
into ash and still

the roads all unpaved what was described
like a posture like gesture

I have sometimes
eyes sometimes lashed
away blind-sided from
also a high plane of cheek
also lip. Only sometimes

here are hats in fur our hands are chapels
and here is the door

Who kept pretending to be
me. Oh - and pardon me
my country
lessness an apology
also my absent ruins

and here is the steeple and here is where leaves

Like in Pompeii where frozen
becomes habit where habit
becomes me I have
sometimes an almost
am almost irredeemable

And did I mention her most austere and beautiful novel debuts come fall?!

Note: Because the rotten airline that is Alitalia (I will be on the ALITALIA: NEVER AGAIN TOUR 2008), I arrived hours, HOURS, later than I had expected, and I’m beyond jet-lagged. Posts and email replies will inevitably be slowed or filled with ramblings.

Typically, photographs and videotaping with flash are absolutely verboten in The Sistine Chapel, however, I queried the guard, showed him my camera, and explained that no flash would appear. He approved the use (although that didn’t stop rotten people blatantly taking flash photography), and here is a brief, albeit crappy, video from the Sistine Chapel.

Check out my snaps from , which included: St. Peter’s Square, St. Peter’s Basilica (exterior/interior), and The Vatican Museum (interior/gardens/Sistine Chapel).

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