Jessica Stalcup.  Not only is she one of our most faithful customers on identity streetwear, she’s a friend we can always count on for a good laugh, an interesting tweet or a facebook post that makes us think a little deeper.  Beautiful inside and out…she shares some thoughts with us and we love her for it…enjoy….

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some things never change…..

Jessica Stalcup

I hate the saying, “You never know what you have until it’s gone.” Because it is true. You also never know what you have until you run around on it, beat it up, and eat its heart out, and you’re both still in love. No, this never was cookie cutter love. But it tastes sweeter than it ever has.

I was at work and a man I was serving told me, “The secret to love and happiness is to marry your best friend.” He couldn’t have told me this at a more beneficial time. No, I’m not getting married, but it’s still relevant. He said, “Marry the one who makes you laugh harder than anyone else, the one who you desire to make laugh, the one you want to see a movie with on a lazy Sunday. The one who you want to run and tell everything to first and the one who looks at you from across the room and still winks on her way back from the restroom.” I looked up and his wife was approaching, doing just that. The next day I found that person. Just as I found her several times before, but this time I approached her with more respect, more appreciation, and more kindness than I ever had before. I laid down on her bed and she joined me. We both released a sigh of relief; after all it had been 6 months since we last laid this close. And like an involuntary action, “The First Day of my Life” by Bright Eyes started playing in my head. The song says, “I know these things take forever, I especially am slow, but I realize that I need you and I wondered if I could come home.” I kept repeating the line because this has been 3 ½ years in the making and finally everything fell into place. I had my best friend back. I thought back to what the man at my table had told me the night before, and I checked off each point he had made. The laughter, the lazy, the look and the love, she had met them all.

I’ve spent so much time denying love, convincing myself and others that I will fail. I’ve spent so much time filled with temporary happiness and replacement after replacement. But my fondest memory, the one that always makes me cry, is a time when she was all I knew, and I needed nothing else. And today, I still think she is just that. So, some things never change, and that’s just alright by me.

Mr. Jaron Ross

Ahhh…. Mr. Jaron Ross.  How I even begin to give him a proper introduction is beyond me.  There are some people that words just cannot do justice for…he is without doubt one of the few.  Jaron and I met in Vegas a few years ago…we were at the Project Show, randomly starting having a conversation and, well….that was that.  We’ve been  attached at the hip ever since.  One thing you must understand about Jaron going into this…he has a way with words…blunt, cynical, cheeky, and utterly amazing.  A smile that will knock your socks off, extremely intelligent, well rounded and mouthy as hell…*sigh* “oh how I love you Jar”.  Ashley had the pleasure of meeting him a few months ago and shares my same sentiment towards him…what choice did she have…he’s impossible to resist. 

Realize how honored we are to have him featured here…he’s taken somewhat of a hiatus from writing on his own blog , Darwinism & Dinner Dates and has informed me this will be his return back into the writing world. (about damn time…life just hasn’t been the same without fresh verbiage from him…check his blog out…I’m SO not joking).  As always, we’ll reveal his Facebook for all you creepers.  Read on.  I promise you will be left like we always are…wanting more.

Thinking with the Right Head

Greetings Without Wax-ers,

Jaim-thanks for making me write.  I figured I’d pose a question to your audience and see if it stirs the pot.

I while ago I believed in fate.  I think I was in college saying to my ex that we would find each other again as fate would bring us back together.  Right now I believe another ex-boyfriend’s male part is currently in and/or around her body, bringing my admittedly skewed perception of fate to a brief halt.  What I realize is that the pragmatic answer in determining most outcomes is self-control.  It is the ultimate decision-maker in all instances.  If I had any at the time, I wouldn’t have been chasing her around in the first place, but I guess it was a matter of the…ahem… “heart,” and not a matter of the head.

Self-control is life’s little edit button: It’s what stops you from doing things like screwing some middle-earth creature at 3 a.m. to abate a lonely night, or telling your girlfriend of 4 months that her daddy issues are affecting your relationship.  Surely one has trouble finding the edit button after a few drinks, but what astounds me is how few of us actually use it on a day-to-day basis.  A lot of things that have happened this year, even this week, exemplify this.  Tiger Woods married a Swedish supermodel and has two kids with more races in them than the Indianapolis Speedway.  Two kids that will not only be gorgeous and gifted, but will be heirs to a fortune someday.  For right now and might now, they have a broken home.  The intimate details of that marriage are their own, but when you live life in the public eye and have so much to lose, how can you blow your physical and mental (and financial!) health on a New York City nightclub host?  The lack of self-control is astonishing, but it has consequences, as the whole world can now see.

But as long as we are “without wax,” I’ll admit that I’ve slept with quite a few sub-par candidates to fill a void. I have made my fair share of utterly inappropriate (yet honest) comments.  I posed a question to my father when I met my (now ex) girlfriend.  I thought I found someone who loved me, and I wanted to stay true to her for all of my years.  My question to him was simple.  I’ll ask you now…

Without wax’ers,  can you master self-control to remain with one partner for the rest of your life?

There. Your dinner is served. Now eat!

Next polymath in the hot seat…Nicole McClain.

We think we juggle a lot around here…(if you don’t think so…keep it to yourself please)…we’re always inspired by people that seem to do it all..Nicole is one of them.  Not only is she the editor and sole author of Notable Styles & More (be sure to check it for everything Notable in fashion & culture)…add writer, publicist, personal shopper, stylist & problem solver to her long list and you’ve got…our next polymath. 

You can follow her on Twitter, creep her on Facebook or Myspace and (as we love to do) read all she has to say about everything you should know at Notable Styles & More…read on for just a little taste

Nicole McClain

We all for some reason, want to obtain our ideal level of perfection , right? The right physical, mental and spiritual balance. The right color nail polish and the perfect shoe. The perfect gift for your loved one and the right package to present it in. The perfect significant other, who comes along with the perfect background. But, if everyone’s idea of perfection is different, is there such a thing as perfection? If I think perfect is size 6 and someone else thinks the perfect size is a 9, my perfect does not equal their perfect and that equals, differences. Therefore, differences equal imperfections and imperfections must be the “new” perfect. Aiming for perfection that  is individually defined is called walking on dead mans cliff (in my opinion), but trying to be respectful and presentable, I think is a concept more people could agree on. Is showing your underwear in public, respectful?                                   

I have the pleasure of knowing Jaimie Rae, one of the co-owners of this site and I think she is just a doll. She has an extreme sense of fashion and a business savvy that some people would pay to acquire. Now, as I often read the thoughts of randomness that she spews, via facebook or twitter, she made one comment recently that struck home with me. I believe it went something like this, “please, please, please, no displaying of the panty lines ladies…” (don’t quote me on the particulars) but hopefully you get the point. And I thought to myself, wow! I need to make that commitment a New Year’s Resolution. Is Jaimie Rae, asking for too much? I doubt it. I mean clearly, you don’t want passer bys to know where your “unmentionables” start and stop. They are called “unmentionables” for a reason. And hey, I’ll expand the topic to address guys and gals and brazier straps. No Fruit of the Looms or Vicky Secrets in public people and no it doesn’t matter if your undies are Clavin Klein, Prada, LaPerla, Agent Provacateur, or any other brand, just don’t show them!

Showing your undergarments is a touchy subject for some as you can see, the public is in OUTRAGE about it, (laugh out loud) But hey, readers, seriously, I went to a Nordstrom interview in 2007. And I swear, that I aced it. I knew my fashion jargon, expressed drive and have experience, and you know what else…..I also had a panty line showing when I walked out (BOOOOOO) and in my mind, that did it, the reason why I did not get the job! WOW! I know, is it that deep? Yes, it is. So from here on out, let’s stand together in an Alliance Against Public Displays of Underwear A.A.P.D.U, Let’s GO!!

Allow us to introduce you to our first guest blogger, aka: our first featured polymath, Leslie Bailey.

Not only is Ms. Lesalina one of our posse, we have the honor of having her bust our threesome cherry…blazing a path to many more fabulous collaborations.  You can find documantation of her absurdly interesting life at THE ADVENTURES OF LESALINA and creep her on FACEBOOK.  Enjoy.

Ms. Lesalina

Do you ever feel like someone is trying to tell you something? I mean reeeeeeally tell you something. Like hit you over the head with a two-by-four-until-you-understand tell you something. If you haven’t, then take my word you are not paying enough attention.  

I thought I would re-familiarize myself with lifewithoutwax.com before I began this blog. My idea was to explain what ‘without wax’ means to me. Keep in mind, this website is a bookmark, a favorite and saved in the browsing history on my computer. Shouldn’t be that hard to find, si? No. Somehow I end up at www.lifewithoutlimbs.org.  I shook my head at this silly mistake and repeated my mantra of the last twelve hours – ‘this just isn’t my day’.  Disgruntled, I closed the browser and – BACKUP. This man has NO LIMBS. And I’m having a bad day. Are you silently shunning me? Don’t. Because we’ve all done it. And plus – it gets worse.

First, I had to sit with my annoying dentist who relentlessly reminisced about his experience timing and scoring for the Indy 500 in 1972 while he clearly held me captive by chain bib around my neck.

Next, I discovered two pimples that were trying to eat my face alive resulting in scheduling of an emergency appointment for demolition via injection.

This was followed by an argument with Beau because, well, naturally he is wrong and I am right. 

To end the day, I had to walk a mile across campus from class back to my car, which I couldn’t find for ten minutes.

And that, to me, was a bad day.

REALITY CHECK.

My dentist is a lonely man who loves sharing his passion for all things racing.

The guy sitting next to me while I was on the phone scheduling pimple injection intervention had the most severe case of acne I have ever seen.

Beau had in fact strategically left me surprises to find when I arrived home. This included a signed copy of my favorite book in the world.

The girl in front of me, while I walked to my car bitching up a storm, was in a wheelchair.

BOTTOM LINE.

When I first decided to write what ‘without wax’ meant to me, I thought about character flaws and imperfections and all the things we don’t want others to know about or see. Here are mine, not quite as I had originally expected them to be. There are times when I can be oblivious, high maintenance, stubborn, irritable and insensitive. Those are my cracks. (Ok, not all breaking news).

To have cracks means to be human. It means to have the occasional pity party if we have a bad day or to feel just a little insecure every now and then. If to fill these cracks means to give way to excuses, compensative behavior, or insincere pleasantries, then I’m okay without the wax. Because I know what the rest of me is made of…sometimes it just takes a two-by-four to remind me.

A polymath (Greek polymathēs, πολυμαθής, “having learned much”)^[1] is a person whose expertise fills a significant number of subject areas. In less formal terms, a polymath (or polymathic person) may simply refer to someone who is very knowledgeable. Most ancient scientists were polymaths by today’s standards.^[2]

Guest Bloggers coming soon…