Halloween Hairstyling Help

Last month I reported that one of my favorite emails was from Lands End, the subject promising to teach me 7 new ways to wear my pants. This month, it's from Real Simple. I'm excited to learn about the 8 Halloween hairstyles that I simply MUST try out. I sure hope the students in my classes tonight will appreciate the Grecian goddess up do with gold comb I'll try out.

The others--"The Cheerleader," "The Maiden," and "The Genie" were rather uninspired. Basically just ponytails.

Can You Speak Up?

I realize that if you go to a coffee shop to do work you're taking some risks in regards to the atmosphere. However, I don't think anyone deserves or should expect the coffee shop experience of this morning.

Two young women (I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and HOPE they were too young to know they were being obnoxious) sat down in a relatively quiet coffee shop where about 5 other people were reading and studying. One woman must have dated the other woman's brother at one time. The woman with the brother had no filter and no inside voice--I know more about her than I know about some of my friends. She has major depression--MAJOR depression, which she discussed at length--but her mom doesn't think it's real and hides her meds. Her mom is (daughter-diagnosed) bi-polar while her dad is (daughter-diagnosed) an alcoholic. Her brother grew up with no "concept of love" and believes that "love is disposable." Her parents have no "sense of parental responsibility" and no "other focus love." Her mom doesn't even know that she won the science fair in middle school!

At one point her mother was dating a guy she nicknamed "Ohio Steve" because she was also dating "Tall Steve" at the same time...in addition to a few others. Her father's girlfriend accused her of being a slut to which she countered with a slew of F bombs and the revelation that she gets tested regularly and the promise that if she gets HIV she'll never knock on her door for help.

She did not shut up for 2 solid hours. People have the right to free speech, they have the right to have personal conversations over coffee in a coffee shop, and they have the right to use whatever language they feel is appropriate. But I think I have the right to drink coffee and read without having to listen to F-bombs and vivid descriptions of a person's sex life.

Procrastination Leads to Extreme Hair

I was SUPPOSE TO read about standard cost variance and variance analysis last night. Instead, I made Chicken Rice a Roni for George Clooney and I and then made him watch Hair Battle Spectacular with me. I think it was worth it.

Hair Battle Spectacular is a show where the BEST extreme hair stylists compete for $100,000. I saw a woman make a 3 foot "bean stalk" on a woman's head to represent Jack and the Beanstalk. A guy turned a woman's hair into Little Red Riding Hood's basket. You don't come by these skills everyday.

But the best part was the final challenge (sorry, I meant Final Hairdown) at the end...the hair battle. Each stylist created either a super hero or a villain. They had to create a hair piece and a COSTUME MADE OF HAIR for their model to wear. So, the superhero who flies around and fights for rights for discriminated people fought against some villain...I don't know...who wore a black hair suit. And when I say they fought...I mean they were escorted to a boxing ring and then were encouraged to fight! These models wearing hair suits and 2-3 feet-high hair pieces were circling each other, spraying each other with hair spray and taking swings at each other. It was beyond a doubt, a very concerning moment for television. This counts as worthy to be put on TV, I guess.

The guy who took home the trophy and won it all was a guy from Omaha, Nebraska! So if any of my Omaha friends need a new look and set of headphones MADE OUT OF HAIR and about the size of an extra large beach ball is what you crave...I know a guy.

I am a Cake Segregist

I'm a cake segregist and I don't care who knows it.

I am NOT a cake racist. I enjoy and love all kinds of cake. White cake, chocolate cake. Carrot, yellow, and marble. Cheese, coconut, and apple. Lemonade cake, pound cake, and 7 UP cake. Pumpkin, tres leches, and blueberry. Cupcakes, cake balls...sheet cakes, bundt cakes, round cakes, and even upside down cakes. And don't forget coffee cake. I looove coffee cake. I could spend all day thinking about all the different kinds of cake I love.

However. I'm a firm believer that when it comes to cake and frosting, white should stick to white and chocolate should stick to chocolate. Whoever got the idea that these two should mix is in my Big Book of Grievances.

I will repeat what I said before: I love all the cakes. And I love all the frostings. (And...in full disclosure...it's not that I'll ever TURN DOWN a piece of chocolate with white frosting or vice versa...I know, I'm a hypocrite)

Here's a quick tutorial:

Excellent!! Yummy!

Oooooo! DELICIOUS!

Pass The Note

Thanks to Eagle-Eyed George Clooney for catching this one at Meijer this week.

You tell 'em Random Person! Get more yogurt!

I might start carrying around little scraps of paper, leaving notes.

"Your friends park in front of my house 3 times a week, leaving me to park
across the street. Could you please tell your friends to ride their
bikes?"

"I come to this Starbucks every Saturday morning and have to ask you for
skim milk. Could you please just start putting a carafe of skim milk on the
little coffee bar thing?"

"You obviously know you have class every Monday and Wednesday at 5:30.
Could you please not eat a loaf of garlic bread (or the equivalent of) at 5:25
and then release silent-but-deadly burps every 5 minutes, directly behind me?"

Thursdays

I've been suffering through some self-doubt about my bloggy blog. I used to post regularly, about every other day. Now I'm lucky to post once a week. I used to post about interesting things I saw or learned and strange encounters I had. Now I sit at my computer and have to really think if anything interesting has happened to me. I don't know for sure what's changed (or if anything has REALLY changed) or how/if my outlook changed. I need a Cher-style slap in the face.

"Snap out of it!!!"

So today is Thursday. Thursdays are probably my favorite day of the week. Some would argue Friday or Saturday are better days and I would agree that Fridays and Saturdays are indeed fantastic days. But there's something about the anticipation of the weekend I feel on Thursdays that really gets me jazzed. Thursday is usually when I make all the big plans for everything I'm going to do over the weekend--fun times, house projects, relaxing, catching up on Bridezillas... On Thursdays I see the entire weekend stretch out ahead of me, as if it could go on and on. I'm filled with ambition to catch up on everything I've let slide over the week. I'm filled with anticipation of comfortable clothes, yoga, and Mad Men on Sunday mornings. I peruse cook books and recipe websites looking for a my next inspiration. (How do you think I found out about the Meat Baby, afterall?)

We're having a wonderful stretch of warm weather in Indiana this week. After a week where it rained every single day and we saw the sun zero times, we're having one glorious, sunny, picture-perfect day after another. I'm sipping coffee, looking at the blue sky, and making my Thursday list of what the weekend will bring.