Illogical

Last night as I was brushing my teeth, I looked in the mirror and did an inspection of what I saw.

I noticed the winter paleness was already setting in, perhaps a result of having 3 sunny days in the entire month of October. I made a mental note to use a little blush so I could look human again. I noticed a pimple on my chin and sighed. 40 years old and I'm still getting pimples.

I moved on to my hair. As I said before, I'm a bit vain about my hair. I like it to look good. For a while now, I've been getting red highlights in my hair. I love them. They make me feel like a rebellious teenager at 40. But they don't last. I had them done 3 weeks ago and as I looked in the mirror I saw a blondish, pinkish, orangey mess. Not good. So I don't think I'll be getting them the next time I go in.

Then I looked at my roots. My hair has been colored various shades over the past 20 years and I don't know my real color anymore. I didn't get my roots done last time I went in, so its been over two months and you couldn't tell. So apparently I'm paying money to dye my hair its natural color (well with a little more red but its basically the same).

My inspection was almost over and I was ready to go to bed when I saw it. At first I wasn't sure what I saw. I thought it might be, but no it couldn't really be. Could it? No it definitely was. A grey hair. My first grey hair.

I felt a strange sensation. It wasn't sadness. It wasn't regret at getting older. I am older, its a fact.

It was something much weirder. I was excited. I felt this strange thrill at having my first grey hair.

Why? Well I still feel like this stupid little kid most of the time. I feel like I have no idea what is going on. And maybe, just maybe grey hair will impart some sort of wisdom on me.

Illogical I know. Give me a week and I'm sure I'll hate it.

You Look Like A Big Girl Now

Bunny had her first hair cut today. I had a few issues with her getting it done. It was necessary but I didn't want to do it.

So we started off with her hair looking like this:


Then the haircut started. I was surprised that I didn't start crying. I managed to hold it together and she was such a good sport.



But when it was done, I got a bit misty. She didn't look like a little girl anymore. She looks like a big girl, a girl who was getting ready to go to school with her Kai Lan backpack. (Okay now I'm crying) She looks like an angel:


The women at the salon just loved her. She got a sucker. And she also got, what I consider to be an even bigger treat, a free toe and nail polish:


All in all she thought it was fun. She looked at me, yanked the tootsie pop out of her mouth and said "I have rainbow toes, momma." Yes you do big girl.

Update Time

I'm back from the family reunion. We all had a wonderful time. Pictures and stories will follow at a later date.

A while back I mentioned that I was going in to get my hair done and I was not sure what to do with it. Well I went from this


To this


Pretty cool, right? I love it. Well I should say I loved it because . . .

While we were in Iowa, I decided to get a swim in for my tri training at the hotel pool. I was there with Bunny and didn't bring my swim cap or googles down. I thought it would be no big deal but my pretty red highlights are now a faded bronzy pink (and not in a good way). I had the red for a week. A week! Not happy. My hair dresser said they would fade and I might have to have them re-done with a more permanent dye sooner rather than later. I thought a few weeks not one. Which just shows you how strong chlorine is. So a word to the wise, if you're going to swim with brand new highlights, wear a swim cap.

So that was a low for the training but the rest went pretty well. I ran two miles with out stopping on the treadmill at the hotel. I was impressed with myself. Running on a treadmill is way different than running outside. I'm not sure I could have done it outside but two miles is two miles and that is cool.

I did a full bike workout on Saturday, the full 12 miles that I would do in the race. Then I went on the treadmill to see how it would feel to transition to the run. Um, not good at all. My legs felt like lead, my calves were tight. I had to stop and stretch a lot before I could really start running. I only ran for 10 minutes but it was enough to show me I had some serious work to do.

All in all I feel like I am progressing on the bike and the run but the swim has me worried. I can't swim more than 2 laps without stopping. And I've never even covered a 1/4 mile in my workouts let alone a 1/2 mile. So I've got some serious work to do in the next 11 weeks.

Hair There And Everywhere

Or how to hit a moving target.

I may have mentioned previously that I have some issues with my hair. I cannot decide how to wear it. Should I cut it short? Should I grow it long? Should I keep it blondish? Should I go brunette? Should I dye it pink?

Well lately I've been growing it out. It is at a lovely mushroomy state right now, falling just at the bottom of my ears. In other words it is annoying. Tomorrow is d-day in a way. I have a hair appointment and I have to make a choice where to go from here.

I want to grow it out. I am so close to getting it to the style I want. But I am also close to pulling it all out. So I may be having Terri, my stylist, talk me down from the ledge. But if I can't get it to look exactly the way I want it to look length-wise, it probably means a color change. We will just have to see.

I also have an obsession with my daughter's hair. Because I didn't have long hair when I was growing up, I am keeping her hair as long as possible. Other than her bangs, her hair has never been cut (so she's the exact opposite of me).

But it is approaching an unruly length. I have to put it up every day to keep it out of her face. But she always complains that I pull her hair when I am putting it up so she preferrs it down. Which inevitably leads to her getting food in her hair or hair in her mouth, which she hates.

So this means it is probably time for her to get it cut. She could lose about 3 inches and it would still be below her shoulders, it would still be long. I could do that, I think. But then I think, if I'm going to get it cut why not donate it to Locks of Love and cut it short. Well this leads me to have flashbacks of being mistaken for a boy with my short hair and I can't do that to her.

So I do nothing and it keeps getting longer and more unruly. I can't even make an appointment to get her bangs trimmed for fear that I will make a hasty decision on a cut and traumatize myself (she wouldn't care in the least). Which means I have to trim her bangs at home and now they look all wonky and uneven.

Sigh.

Hair, Long Beautiful Hair

Well at least longer than it is now.

That is right I am going to grow out my hair. As I called back in August when I cut it, I didn't even last a year before I wanted to grow it out again. Call it a short attention span, call it caprice, call it crazy, its just who I am.

But now I have to suffer through the akward stages of growing my hair. Gone are the days where I could just put a little product in my hair, mess it up and go. Its too long for that but it is also to short to tuck behind my ears. So now I have to do my hair. There is curling, teasing, spraying involved every morning just to get it to a presentable state. I just don't have the time for that. But without it, I'm a walking bad hair day.

So I've looked for alternatives, hair accessories. Clips and headbands are my new best friends. I've got your basic black headband and a few stretchy ones. I started out stealing Bunny's hair clips (the little ones with the sparkely flowers) since they don't stay in her hair, I might as well wear them. These get me through those rough days. Not exactly a fashion statement but they will do.

Then the wonderful Kate of The Big Piece of Cake, as she often does, came to my rescue. She introduced me to Andrea's Beau, a fabulous line of hair accessories. Now, with all the imaginary disposable income I have, I can buy these beauties:





Because how awesome would I look in them?

But alas I am short on funds so I am posting this in hopes that someone will take pity on me and buy one for me. Or that I will win Kate's giveaway.

Hair, The Musical

Let's just put it out there - I have good hair. Its the one thing about myself that I am vain about. I used to hate it but give me some good color and a good cut and I love it.

The cut and color are so good right now that I get stopped on the street and complimented about my hair. People have even taken pictures of it to show their hairdresser. It was better than someone complimenting your outfit. Your hair is a part of you, it is who you are. I was the girl with the cute blond(ish) bob.

Which is going to make what I'm about to say sound weird. Yesterday I cut it. I cut it all off.



Why would I do that if I am so vain about my hair? Because I also have a short attention span. I want change. I've changed jobs a lot (since graduating from law school 10 years ago I've had 9 jobs). But the easiest thing to change about yourself is your hair. You can color it, cut it, grow it out and do it all over again.

I was born with blond hair that grew into beautiful little waves. Then when it turned darker, my mom cut it short (boy short). Then I had a Dorothy Hamil and several million perms (what was I thinking). I started leaving it strait and it looked much better. It was short (really short), it was long. I also experimented with color, blonde, red, brown (my natural color, I think) and combinations of all of them. I always wanted pink streaks but never got them, maybe next time.

I discovered my safety zone is a bob with bangs. I had it in college, in law school, when I got married and recently. I know I'll always go back to it. But it doesn't stop me from trying new things.

So yesterday, I cut my hair short. It looks great. Its much easier to do. But I know that within the year I will start to grow it out and start all over again.