Two and a half years ago I walked into a salon and asked the woman to cut my mid-back length hair off. Well, I asked her to leave about 2 inches, but that was it. She was exuberant - and fantastic. I walked out of there an hour later with two products and a great cut for $50, including the $20 tip. I went back to her every time to get it trimmed. Then I moved to Phoenix. Since then it's been a battle of the barbers. I'm not willing to spend $50 on a haircut every 3 weeks, and I have yet to find anyone who knows what they're doing when I ask them to simply trim my hair. I've had people use buzzers on my head. I almost walked out once with a tail....a tail. I should have known when I walked in with a picture of Halle Berry once and the woman asked "You want your hair THAT short?" Oh dear. But never insult someone with scissors. About 75% of the time I want to run screaming from the chair.
Today was no different. It started off well. I'm trying to grow the top ear length. Cut the back short. No clippers. But then she started cutting. And cutting. And still cutting. She cut it one layer at the ear. Just long enough for one side to curl up. Then she cut it all so that it was all rounded again. How does one length equal out to round? Stop! Please stop! But it goes on. And on. To top it all off, she puts gel in my hair and combs it straight back James Dean style. I know I live 10 miles from Laguna Beach, but come on!
So now I'm running around shirtless dying my hair. No one will notice how ridiculous I look if it's a different color, right? Maybe blue.

 
For those of you who have known me for less than five minutes, I have a natural tendency to be slightly obsessive. I also can't stand clutter, including people. So it seems only natural that I have made it a habit to delete phone numbers from my cell phone as I decide I'm never going to talk to them. Yes, this is a real decisions. First call not returned, I'll call again, and then immediately delete. If they call back, I'll reprogram the number. If not, I don't obsess about whether or not I can call back or whether they will call back because there isn't anything I can do about it any longer.
However, I found myself purging my cell phone today from old AZ numbers that have been changed and I ran across "Dan" with a 714 area code. Who the hell is Dan? I've only gone on dates with three guys out here, none of them were Dan. It's not any of the neighbors or anyone I work with. Not anyone's parents. I want to call the number, but that would be a really odd conversation. So I didn't delete it. But now it's bothering me. Who is Dan?

 
Ok, I did it. I broke down and went Christmas shopping. I swore I wouldn't do it this year. The kids are going to their dads and having three Chirstmas' there. But then I started receiving gifts from people at work. Big gifts. I managed to do all of my Christmas shopping and still have money left over from all of the gift certificates I received. And I received real gifts too. I miss my old friends. None of us ever gave gifts. We just saved our money and gave ourselves what we really wanted. Maybe it's a selfish thought, but we always hung out and truly enjoyed each other's company. This gift giving thing is truly stressful.

 
Hehe! Have you ever noticed that on directories "Adult Life" is listed separately from "Fun and Games"? To make it even funnier - adult life contains things like dating and romance while fun and games lists things like black jack and hiking. Makes you think.

 
twinkle twinle little star.....
Wow, I'm really tired. I guess camping followed by an all night work-a-thon is a bad thing. Follow it up with an all day meeting and a babysitter that doesn't pick up the kids in the rain and a dad who doesn't pay for daycare because it's already been figured into the child support he doesn't pay and you have an all around spectacular 24 hours. But it's only one day. So I really can't complain.

Anyone doing anything fun for New Years? Can I come? I've been lonely single mom for 6 months now and the kids are gone for 2 weeks. Silly me hasn't made any plans yet. Someone please adopt me.

 
When I was a kid, my parents would take me camping with my cousins every year. There were 4 of us girls that would disappear for hours at a time. While I'm not ready for my boys to be that independent, I don't feel the need to keep them within visual range every minute any more. In fact, I found that they were more likely to get themselves into trouble if I was close, because they expected me to rescue them.
I took the boys to Joshua Tree this weekend. It was a weekend of simple pleasures. I found my usually somber 9 year singing random 70's tunes acapella. My timid 7 year old was scrambling around rocks without falling, scaring mommy, but without any mishaps. I spent an entire 4 hours with my grandparents and mother without being asked to change a single thing in my life OR being asked "So, are you seeing anyone?" And then returning home to my electric toothbrush and freshly vacuumed floors. Life is good.