Becca Jane St Clair

Pennsylvania REAAAAALY doesn’t want you to vote absentee from abroad, let me tell you. Originally, I just though it was Lancaster County being awkward, but no. It’s the whole state.

As an American abroad, my vote gets counted in the last township I physically voted in before I moved. So in 2008 when I first voted from abroad, that was my mom’s address in Lancaster County. Despite the fact that no one in my family lives at that address or in that township, that’s still where my vote goes as it’s my last address on file in PA with DMV.

As a Pennsylvanian abroad, I am restricted to Federal and State elections only. I tend not to bother with the state elections and only vote in Federal elections and I have voted in 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020 by absentee….OR SO I THOUGHT.

I filled out the forms from Vote From Abroad back in September to request my absentee ballot. A friend of mine in PA said that PA had a delay in preparing the ballots, so I shoudn’t worry….but then my friends who live abroad who are from PA started getting their ballots….but nothing for me.

I contacted Democrats Abroad, who told me ot contact Vote from Abroad, who gave me the contact email for Lancaster County…

Yeah. I was apparently dropped from the roles for NOT VOTING….uhm. But I voted! So there was more back and forth with them where they asked me if I was SURE I voted in 2016 and 2020. Uhm. YES. So then I got told to re-register, except that the form I had filled out said it covered registration as well as an overseas ballot request. In my reply, I said “It really is beginning to sound as though you do not want overseas voters to vote in this election”…and what do you know? I was suddenly registered!

But then….then comes the CRAZY hoops you have to go through as a PA voter to get your online ballot…which still has to be mailed back, but at least I don’t have to wait for anything to arrive in the post here.

Step One….You get an email that contains a PASSWORD for your ballot PDF and instructions on how to access the “encrypted email”
Step Two….You click on the link in the second email that leads you to the encrypted email with PDF attached.
Step Three…You use the password provided in the first email to open the PDF. Only…my PDF is 4 pages long and only contains instructions…no ballot. WHAT THE HELL PA?

Fortunately, they are on the ball with replying to email, so I sent off an email and explained that my PDF contained 4 pages of instructions and a declaration form, but no ballot…..but here’s the HILARIOUS part. They wrote back and PUT MY BALLOT AS A FILE ATTACHMENT WITH NO PASSWORD.

Uhm.

Soooooo loads of emails and instructions and they can just email me the ballot. Nice.

Anyway, I voted.

Posted it on the 16th of October, so it had plenty of time to arrive and I received an email on the 24th stating my ballot has been received.

Now, we cross our fingers.

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Around Mid-August, I noticed my hair was getting dry and brittle. At first, I chalked it up to summer because my hair also had started going blonde since we had so many bright sunny days and when we were on holiday in Austria the temperature never got below 25 during the day. But even using my aloe bar shampoo and conditioner from Foamie with my 2-3 times per week Garnier Papaya Hair Mask and Aussie leave-in conditioner it was still really dry. I went off to Boots with the intention of perusing the hair care aisle to find a product that would help my dried out hair.

Charles Worthington is a brand that I have used in the past – mostly when travelling as their travel sized containers are more like foil packets that can squish as they get empty – so when I saw they had developed a line of products designed for peri- and menopausal hair, I decided to check out the shampoo, conditioner, and hair mask (no link for the mask! Sorry!).

They claim that their products reduce 90% of breakage that occurs during peri- and menopause as the products contain Hyaluronic Acid that will “deeply hydrate and condition hair with a lightweight, non-greasy formula to deliver stronger hair that looks and feels healthy.” So I gave it a go.

On the days that I only used the shampoo and conditioner, my hair definitely felt a little softer and less brittle. I noticed less hair coming out on the hair brush, which I thought was amazing since I have such thin hair to begin with! The mask…not so much. The mask left my hair feeling dryer than just using the conditioner and I also felt that I couldn’t go multiple days between washing my hair like I usually did.

The two bottles plus hair mask lasted 6 weeks, and cost £21 at Boots during a 3 for 2 sale.

Will I buy it again? I’m wavering between probably not and maybe. I think the shampoo and conditioner could be great products to use when my hair is feeling dryer than normal or if perimenopause makes my hair situation even worse. But I won’t buy the mask again, as I think I get better moisture out of the Garnier mask (and it certainly is better value).

I’m writing this in September and saving it for Blogvember content, so I’ll update this post with how my hair feels going back to my bar products!

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Welcome to Blogvember, where I plan on blogging at least every other day in an effort to get blogging again, since I haven’t really blogged since 2020 and WOW a lot has happened in four years!

This post has been pre-written, since at the time of publication, I’m on a train somewhere between Wuppertal and Brussels, on my way home from Dresden, where I participated in the Dresden Marathon (I ran the quarter). I’m sure there will be an entry about that at some point this month.

Anyway, if you’re still around….thanks!! I appreciate the support.

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The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission.

For full Copyright and Disclaimer, please read http://www.blog.beccajanestclair.com/copyright/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blog.beccajanestclair
Twitter: https://twitter.com/annaonthemoon
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/annaonthemoon79
Blog: http://blog.beccajanestclair.com
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