Hair yesterday

I took down the ugly pic and replaced it with this one which I like to think is a more accurate rep of the hair.

So tomorrow is the day we have Ryan and his crew teaching a Zumba class for me.  I hope we get 20 people.  I paid for a massage and hot mineral bath soaks for them so sure hope I make back that money.  We won't be able to meet JR because JR is still in the hospital.  His next round of chemo begins April 4.  I do hope he can come home to refresh his soul before then.

Got the video announcements done for churchity church.  They are pleased with them so it makes me very happy to do it.  It's very rewarding.  I love putting them together.

We're doing a new thing at church.  The youth pastor has taken over praise and worship.  I have to say I miss our regular pastor and his songs, but I am loving the new sound and the new feel too.  I believe the group has great potential.  Right now it's all in transition.  Transitions can be bumpy.  Some people fall away and other new people are pulled in.  Some people will always be unhappy with change. Such is life.  I think it's a mistake to get too comfortable because too much comfort contributes to stagnation.  I try to remain dynamic.  Sometimes I even succeed at it.  Haha!  But it's a rush standing in the music.  Being in the sound.  And calling on the Holy Spirit.  There's nothing like it.  It's even better than head banging.  Gotta keep it fresh because there are so many souls out there that are lost.  We must reach them.  Music reaches out.  Like Kathy says, we need to reel them in!

I had a couple weeks after the fundraiser of feeling no energy for learning my new routines.  But then all of a sudden it came back.  Now I have about five songs and routines I am loving and practicing.  It was a little blip on the radar I suppose.

November hair.  Uncombed.  I need to measure.  Will I ever reach 50"?  Will I ever reach knees?

I made a new hair sig.  I worked on it for two hours before dinner and clicked save, but I saved a different image than the one I had open.  I didn't realize it.  So.  I closed the document I was working on and reopened it and...nada.  None of my work was on it.  I had a blank background.  [Silent scream]  I'm out of shape.  So what can you do.  I started over.  Luckily I had saved pieces of it, so it was faster putting it together the second time.  I really want a good hair down photo for the standing photo, but don't have a recent on that I really like.  I used the modified figure 8 pic for the full length photo.  My regular sig is from 2009.  Time flies!

I must have spent two hours today trying to make a good hairstyle for some new photos.  Had my husband all lined up waiting for me.  I couldn't make anything I liked.  Maybe it was because I had just washed it.  My husband asked if I had hair block.  Haha!  Yes, I must have.

My hair today.  I washed it last night and just lay it over the top of my pillow when I sleep.  I have hardly any tangles in the morning.  There have been times when I thought I should cut it because it's not as thick toward the bottom as the top.  I'm glad I didn't.  I like having long hair.

No welts today, but I burnt my hand pretty good on a cookie sheet.  Sheesh.

M for Moxie

I went to see a lawyer once when I was 25.  She said I had moxie.  I thought it was something good because of the way she said it, but I wasn't sure.

My Flexis.  I got them today!  I bought size mini, small, and medium.  I have to order a large.  I thought large would be too big but the medium is too small to hold my hair in a French twist.  Guess I underestimated my hair size.  I am happy with the two smaller ones.   I do like the butterfly on the medium but it doesn't matter what light it's in, my beads are not purple as the ones depicted on the website.  Mine look dark and colorless.  I'm thinking about exchanging it.  Question is, do I want to wrap it, take it to the post office, and spend five bucks for an exchange?  I emailed them and asked if they will make me a size large with a heart, but with bright blue beads substituted for the crystal (white or clear) beads.  I think they'll say yes.

First photo is from the Flexi site and second is of my Flexis.  The mini green one is gorgeous.  I'll use it when I put a very little bit of hair into a half-up, which of course isn't really a half up, but that's the idea.  The size small dragonfly is real pretty to me and it contrasts with my hair nicely enough.  I can use it for a half up with more hair or with a full pony in the back.  My hair barely fits as a pony with the small, but I am able to use either the small or medium for a pony.  I've been wanting to wear a low pony tail to church for the longest time but had nothing to hold my hair.  Now I do. 

I finally used my Mastex hot oil cap on Sunday.  I bought that thing about three years ago.  No kidding.  Finally tried it out.  I used olive oil.  It worked!  I want to do it every week now like Lori and Cinnamonhair.  I think they deep condition weekly.  I used Prell to wash it out and though it all came out of the ends, near my scalp there was some residual oil.  It's wasn't too bad, but would have been better if more came out. I did a super de dooper good job applying the oil section by section.  I got oil all over the bathroom counter though.  I cleaned it up with Fantastic.

I sat with the heating cap on for 20 minutes then left the oil on for about three more hours due to laziness.

But the biggest change I'm making is no more hair elastics at the bottom of my hair.  Had an epiphany.  My hair is growing but I have to keep chopping the ends because every six months they look haggard.  A year and a half ago I hit 47".  Got a trim again a couple weeks ago and I'm at 47".  Well, I've been wearing my hair in a single braid a lot to Zumba for over a year.  Those little girl elastics are ruining my ends.  I have to get off of them!   

I saw a good example at the forum that shows how to wet a piece of ribbon, wrap it around the bottom of the braid, then put an elastic over that.  That's what I'm doing from now on.  We'll see if in one year my ends are good enough to keep.

I'm having a hair revival lately I guess.  Next, I hope to get a new comb.  I want a wooden one.  It's supposed to not get static like my broken Madora one does.

This is the ribbon in my hair right now and the pink elastic over it (you can see barely if you look for it).

I was in the bedroom taking about 70 pics of my ribbon and my hair.  All engrossed in myself.  My husband came in to check on me (I guess I was quiet too long like you have to check on kids when they're too quiet for too long) and he saw what I was doing and he came over and kissed me.  I was kind of embarrassed.  Lucky he loves me and doesn't make fun of my self-engrossed-ness.  Here I am holding my braid in a myriad of positions all around the bathroom and bedroom to take a photo of a bow.  Sheesh.

M...is for myriad.  That's serendipity.

H is for Hair

Of course, of course. What else could "H" be for! I've been planning ever since "G" to take a hair picture. Didn't get it done. I took other pictures, but not the hair.

Last night had a big, shall we say, discussion, with son in which I yelled like a banshee. It's not my best look. It's not my best side. Then I watched stupid tv for half an hour with my husband, stewing all the time. Turned off my computer and went to bed. That's why nothing at all got posted last night. I did think about "H" though.

Updated:

My hair laying on the bed.  Olive oil lightly applied last night.  Scalp wash today.

My hair looking forward to wearing brand new Zumba winter jacket!

My favorite things

Summer is here and I like it hot.  We're running the air conditioner 24 hours a day.  It was 100 degrees today.

My favorite thing is to do Zumba from 5:30pm to 6:30pm, come home, eat dinner my wonderful husband prepared, change into horse clothes and go outside and groom Bella at dusk.  Then, lay on the back porch and look at the sky.  The other day a single great blue heron flew overhead.  He was so big.  Tonight I saw a satellite fly by.  Angel the cat was off gallivanting across the countryside somewhere so she didn't lay on my lap or on my tummy tonight.  I missed her.  I called but she didn't come.  She's probably off mousing somewheres.

My hair and nails are doing well.  Tonight at worship practice the ladies all thought my nails were fake.  I ask you, do I remotely look like the type to wear fake nails.  I told them Zumba made them strong.  I'm so proud of my fingernails.  What an accomplishment to have them all the same length.  Wow.  They're blue.  When I break one I'll have to cut them all off so I'm enjoying them while I can.

This is my hair today.  Meh, messy.  It has avocado oil in it from last night. I put it up and went to Zumba after this pic.

Long time

I haven't put up a hair photo for ages so I got one snapped today. It's just a pic, not a pose. Although technically, we hair girls all know hands on waist is totally a pose. It's a straight hem because of my trim yesterday. It was messy before.

My ends are lightened. "See through" as Heidi calls them. I never read any hair posts from Heidi anymore. It's possible that by this time next year I could be near knee length. That would be nice. I have another photo in the kitchen that shows my hair smoother and shinier but it's me bending over opening the oven. My dear husband took that one for me. I want to post the shiny hair but not the behind!

Gasp. I just checked my archive and looked at my November 2009 hair and my hair has grown. I mean, progress is evident. Wow. See? Taking photos for the record in a useful tool! Here I am thinking I've made not much progress. November 2009 I was 45". Two and 3/4 inches looks like more than it sounds to me. Welp. Time for a Snoopy Happy Dance! I gotta to watch O'Reilly on the teebee right now first.

Quit Facebook Day

Our son told me that yesterday Leo Laporte said Facebook is evil.  I can't believe it!  He's the tech guy on the radio we like to listen to.  But the thing is, it's so me that he said it's evil!  I asked our son, did he use that very word?  Evil?  Because when I think something is evil I say it's evil.  Freaks people out though.  Yes, he did say it, said my boy.

QuitFacebookDay.com coming up May 31, 2010

Only a couple weeks ago our son opted to close down his Facebook page and quit Facebooking altogether.  He's ahead of the curve I think.  I made him use a fake name which some of our friends made fun about.  And I now see, I'm not the only one who felt this way.  I'm not alone!

I asked him, "Why did you quit?" and he said every time he turned on his computer he went to Facebook first.  He said he thought it was a waste of his time and he didn't want to do it anymore.  

When he wanted to try Facebooking I didn't say no because that would only make it more enticing.  So he started up a page and got a few friends.  But I told him straight up from the git-go.  I said if you wanna see Grama, don't you dare go look at her Facebook page and stare at the computer screen, post a sentence or two and tell her to look at your pictures.  My arms were all flailing about and I said, "You pick up the phone and you call your Grama.  You can talk about what you've done lately and ask her how she is.  It will make her happy and she'll tell everyone you called her, and you will feel good that you did it."

I'm so proud of him and his decision-making.  I never once encouraged him to close it down, but he did hear me yammering about deactivating mine and it must have made him think.  He's been calling and texting his ex-Facebookers and I find it's much more personal than Facebook.  The calls have had a positive effect on the relationships - which is important because he's 13 and he's developing his character.  I like that.

Facebook draws in high click rates because once a visitor logs in they go to more and more pages to see pictures of . . . . other people.  It's like monkeys in a mirror.  See me, me, me, see you, you, you, ooooh ooooh, eeee eeee, ah ah ah.  I know I can say that because I was doing it too for awhile.

But the real reason why I dislike Facebook is because the material I post; my photos, my wrrrds, instantly belong to Facebook.  I do not like that.  Moreover, Facebook blatantly uses its Facebookers.  They've even given out to the advertiser the names or info of Facebookers who clicked on the advertisement.   One must be vigilant to the extreme to constantly ensure you block what you don't want to see, and opt out of this, that, and the other.  But your personal data belongs to them.  It's agreed to it in the Terms of Service.

It's an addictive time waster.  And those 1000 Friends are not friends. 

I've heard there's a way to actually delete my Facebook page instead of just deactivate it.  That too, I found curious.  Any place else, I hit delete and I'm deleted.  I can go through channels to get the data back possibly, but generally delete means it's gone.  At Facebook, delete means deactivate.  Everything is still there.

I have a friend who could care less if Facebook is profiting off of him.  I say then go out and buy some shoes and hats and shirts and pants with brand names stamped on them so you can be a walking advertisement 24/7.

I'm not saying it's all debris.  Some of it could be blessing.  Let's say 5%.   It ain't much.

I have a plain picture of my hair from this morning.  I figure one is due because my current pic is six months old.

Don't look at the white legs.

Analysis:  I'm letting the ends go without taking off a couple inches so I can make more progress.  The ends are not that bad.  They're so-so/okay.  That's my new skirt from Target in San Diego.  My new favorite skirt.  Meh.  What can I add about the hair.  It's hair.

I have to work in the front office Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  Memorial Day week-end is coming up, one of the busiest times in the park.  AAAAUUUUGGGHHHH!  I don't know if I will be any good in the front office.  I'm really worried I can't answer all the questions.  AAAUUUUGGGHHH!

Horse grooming braided bun 'do

I have hair photos today.  I'm at 45" again finally.  That's how long it was in March when I got a 3.5" inch trim.  My ends do look better than they did then.  Yay!

First two hair down photos. In the first one my hair is uncombed.  I washed it yesterday.

So I downloaded the photo and said to myself, I've gotta comb it.

Having gotten the hair down pics done, I really wanted to show my new style that I've been wearing to groom the horses. It holds well! I have to bend down quite a lot and it's never fallen down. This is about four hours after I fixed it, but it lasts all day too. Here it is to the left:

Here it is to the right. It shows there are two loops of braid on this side whereas the other side has the end of the braid tucked.  I know I have two hair pins showing, but with a little finesse you can easily hide the pins:

Here's the front. It stands out a bit on the top which I like, but you can situate high or low where ever you like best.

This is a side view to show some scale.  Look at that glorious bun, will you!  It's the best bun of my life.  Remember, I do not, do not, have thick ends.

If necessary, you can fly in this bun.  Zzzzzooom!

Now then, instructions.  Does anyone desire instructions?

I reiterate, I do not have thick hair.  Oddly enough, in the far distant  past when I used to have my hair cut and styled regularly, I've often had hair stylists tell me I have thick hair (the worst stylist I had complained that it took so long to dry) and yet when I compare my length to other women's it's hardly thick.  It's very slick.  It's extremely straight.  It will not hold a curl.  And when I put up a bun of only my hair people never guess how long it is.  Sad, I know.

Sooooo. . . . I have a bun form in this bun to fill it out!  Suddenly, with this bun form in my bun I feel like I have the most completely womanly bun I've always wanted.  Haha!

1. Pull all hair and hold in a pony at the back of your head a few inches above nape.
2. Hold it in place and braid it - no elastic band at top.  Place elastic band at the end of your braid.
   
3. Get your sock bun.
4. Press it against your head and pull your braid straight up to the ceiling.
5. Spread the sides of the braid across the bun form and use two jumbo hair pins, one on right and one on left side angling down forming an X with pins for better hold.  Takes a wee bit of practice to pin hair only and not the bun form.
   
6. You now have the pretty criss-cross design covering the bun.
7. The rest of your braid is at top of bun.
8. Circle remainder of braid around bun.
9. Pin in place at points you prefer.  Remove band and pin and tuck end securely.  I have used four jumbo pins and one small one.  I use the small one to hold up the long hairs at my nape tightly against my head otherwise I get a bloop out the bottom.  Sometimes I leave the bloop, sometimes I pin it up.

If anyone knows if this style has already been done, will you drop me a line and let me know?  I have read lots of instructions and I think maybe I made this one up.  My husband liked it so I wore it again and again and now it's a frequent style of mine.  With so many styles out there, it's not bloody likely I made up a new creation.  But then, maybe?  Maybe?  Possibly?

Hair

I found instructions for making an Amish style hairdo.  I started out with two braids.  

The top of the braids are a little different than usual.  You start a braid and then make it a strand to start another braid.  You do that three times.  It leaves you loop holes to pull the ends of the braid through.

  

And this is the final.  I've done it three times and the other two times I did it the Amish way and it looked just so-so.  Today I fiddled with the braids and crossed them over (like the beginning of the Amish instructions by MusicLady), but then I did my own thing.  I took the elastics off the end of my braids, tucked them in best I could, and put in two small bobby pins.  'Tis real comfy and when I take it out the braid waves are nice.

Hypno Bun

Hypno Bun?

It's my accomplishment of the day. Well, it is Saturday so I get to do mostly what I want to do today. This is two sides of the same bun. A few hairs escaped staying behind the hair stick, but it's still (I think) a lovely bun. It's so not plain!


The link to the video to create this style by 4ypn0tica which I heard about from Miriam is at The Hypno Bun. She is so talented with the updos. Today I tried multiple times. It kept falling down. But I kept trying till I got it to stay. The design it makes is quite pretty. I was making an extra loop with my extra hair but my son put the kaibosh on it. He didn't like the extra loop. So I'm sticking with Hynotica's instructions. I've had it up for 3 1/2 hours so far and it has stayed!

After pic 41.5"

Alrighty. As a few peeps know, I pulled my pics down yesterday. I, I, I freaked out a little. I'm back to 41.5 and as I blogged yesterday I realized my current after photo reminded me of another photo. So I looked it up in my blog and found one taken in June 2008 that looked just like my hair looks now! A slight mental meltdown immediately ensued and I took down my whole Tuesday post to give myself a chance to think. I don't know what I expected, but I guess I expected to get a trim and still be like maybe 43" or something. A girl has to go with the flow though and have a grip on reality.

I asked for two inches off. The measurement shows he did take off more than I planned but I saw what he intended to cut before he took the scissors to it (he held it up for me to see first) and I approved. Even my son was watching and he gave his okay. I trust Ivan implicitly. I know he would never cut more than necessary.

I think Ivan has a good eye. I think he did cut it to a better hemline even though it's back a little farther than I expected. I picked a different before photo than I had up yesterday because it shows the ends better for comparison purposes.

All day today I've felt great with my new ends. Once a year = new ends! How many times did I comb through my ends last year I wonder. I wonder such deep wonderments. Today I wore a single braid down, a style I don't normally wear, and I keep admiring my braid tail which is now a little stub instead of a wispy whisper of a tail.

On to some self-aggrandizement and edification.

This is the third year Ivan has trimmed my ends. Finally, this year he commented on my hair. It's about time. Thank you very much for throwing me a bone. He was talking to my son who was standing next to us (I think he thinks it too flirty to say it to me) and said, "Your mom has nice hair" and then he followed it up with, "Your mom takes good care of her hair." Well my head about puffed up too big to fit in the barber shop. Those two sentences were worth a three year wait! When he was done I stepped to my husband and swung my hair to the side and declared "What do you think!" And he liked it. I was happy. Altogether happy.

Two more hair incidents have I to blog. When we got home a man across the street walked over with his dog and said, "Wow, I've only seen your hair up. It's so long." I was ebullient. I know, it doesn't take much to give me a good day. And, best of all, today my son told me that one of the park rangers was waxing on in the office about how long my hair is and the superintendent said, "Really? I guess I need to see her hair!" Haha!

So, to sum it up. I wish I had hair like Jen's, so thick. But I don't. But my hair is not too bad. I enjoy it. It's different. It's part of who I am. The ends Ivan cut were woefully wispy and ragged and uneven. It will be ever so interesting to see how it grows back and how it looks at this time next year. And as my son watched me sit here and study and compare my before and after pic, he said, "Mamma. It's still long." Hehe. My son. He reads my thoughts sometimes. It's all relative, isn't it.

Dis

Disappointed. We took some photos but none turned out. Don't enlarge it cause this is as big as it gets. We can't do photos tomorrow because it'll be windy. Meh.

Thems is mah new pants. I happened to have a top that matches almost perfectly.

Son did his history review and unit assessment all on his own today. It's a first. He said he wanted to surprise me but he didn't want to surprise me with a 33%. Heh. He waited till I was home and let me click the Submit button. He got 90%. Bless his lil' heart. And he came home from doing errands with my husband with flowers for me - six pink carnations and six tulips. He was beaming. He bought them with his shoeshine money. They're awful purty and I sure don't deserve it. That son of mine spoils me so. I rushed to the store after dinner and got him two lollies. He'll be surprised tomorrow morn.

A first try Jackie Bun

I played with my hair today. I have been wanting some style so badly lately. The other night I stayed up really late watching this girl's hair videos on YouTube. If I wait till after 1:00am I can download to my heart's content without going over our bandwidth allowance. This gossgirl2 does Apostolic hairstyles. I didn't know they had their own hairstyles, but they are the ones who don't cut their hair according to 1Corinthians 11:15, so they have very long hair. I did what she calls a Jackie Bun and I'm thrilled with the turnout! Actually, when we've been traveling I do think I've seen Apostolic hairstyles, but I didn't know it was Apostolic hairstyles. Some of the styles are a little too staid looking, but others of them I like a lot! I have bangs and Apostolic girls don't. And I have a long face and I don't need any height on top of my head, so I don't do that part. I think they call them "poofs." I find the term "poofs" rather cute and it's so cool to have YouTube where you get to actually be in someone's house watching them do their hair. It's so one and one.

This style is easy! You put all your hair in a pony. When you pull your hair through the second time, pull only a few inches out then fan it and pin it. It will look like a big bloop on the top of your head. Okay, so you have the rest of the pony still handing down. Next take a piece of hair, not too much, and you make what I think is called a barrel roll. You wrap it around two or three fingers then pin it to your head. Do this over and over, making barrel rolls, until you have no more hair hanging down. Voila!

I'm so pleased with it. It's well distributed and feels lightweight on my head. I have no hairs tickling my face. I'm so happy. And I'm amazed that so much hair can be styled into such a small hairdo. It's an optical illusion! Also, it reminds me of my cousin Laurie's hair the way she wore it to her high school prom in 1969. She wore a beautiful blue dress and long gloves to her elbows.

Not bad for a first try and I think I can do it nicer with practice. I took the big step of buying hairspray and I sprayed my hair. I'm going to try it next time without spray to see if it'll work. I don't think mine will stay in place without spray, but I will experiment. I've tried aloe and I get no hold from aloe. Lastly, on the down side, normally I avoid pony tail holders like grim death, but I have to give a little to get a Jackie Bun. That's the way it goes.

Video link: Jackie Bun

Such a ditz

I need a new shampoo. I'm out of Giovanni. Today my son and I went to Walmart. I need him with me because he knows where everything is and also my eyes get so dry there for some reason. I spent maybe an hour in one aisle, the shampoo aisle. I do hate shopping for shampoos. They're all so alike. Finally I picked one. It was purple. That's the best I can remember about it. It was purple and I liked the smell. Maybe it was Suave Orchid. It had sulfates in it and I couldn't find a shampoo that didn't. So next I decided I needed hairspray because I want to try a hairstyle tomorrow. I spent an hour last night looking at this Apostolic girl's hairstyle videos. Some of her styles were a bit on the strange side, but a couple were kind of funky cool and I thought I'd play around and try to follow her instructions. She makes a lot of what she called, I think, barrel rolls. I bought Rave hairspray because I thought it smelled good and the Apostolic girl used hairspray so I need some. I haven't touched hairspray in years. I thought it smelled good in the store but who knows, on my hair it may smell altogether different. So next I bought a travel size of super hair gel. What the hey. Maybe it'll give me sleek sides when I wear a bun. The wind has been so strong and I look like like a crazy science professor when I come in from the wind sometimes.

All the time I spent pacing the shampoo aisle and reading tiny ingredients, and. . . .

And I somehow left the bottle on the shelf. I didn't put it in my basket. I checked my receipt and I didn't buy any shampoo. Serenity NOW! I ended up using the Herbal Essence shampoo I bought last week that left me unimpressed.

I also bought a travel size of spray perfume. One spritz on my wrist and I was coughing for ten minutes. It wasn't my most successful shopping trip.

44"

I'm doing my January 1st post today. I hit 44" and this here is probably my whole month's growth. I don't think it'll grow much beyond 44" between now and January 1st, 2009. Today I washed it with my husband's supercilious cheapy-deep shampoo that contains all the ingredients I normally avoid like the plague, but I really wanted my hair to smell nice so that's why I used it. Then I blow dried it. Yes, indeedy, in a couple cycles of five to ten minutes each. And I applied a smidgen of Kara's leave-in to the length. And wonder of wonders, then it was quite amenable to being photographed. Here is me fretting in my shaky, small voice saying, "Ooooh, does my hair looks okay."

And here's one from the front. When I stand real straight with my arms straight down I'm pretty sure I'm barely fingertip length.

My knees sure look far away.

Finally, a scarf I like

I've been wanting a scarf for my hair for the longest time. I found one! It's long and thin and purple. I put my hair in a pony and wove the scarf in a braid as one of three strands, put in about three bobby pins, and voila! It's stays and feels secure and has a nice shape. I haven't done a new hairstyle in a billion years. It's tricky getting the large bobby pins in without damaging the scarf. Takes a few tries sometimes, but I've had success with it.

Audible exhalation

An audible exhalation can contain many emotions. For example, the sigh can be a sound expressing resignation or resentment, it can be a whine, it can be gleeful or joy filled. I need a "sigh" that contains all four.

Firstly, I am over my bout of hair hate. On Sunday I had an, um, hair incident. I fixed my hair in bee butt buns, four of them, so that when I'd take the buns down I'd have glorious waves throughout my hair especially for church. I had done two buns earlier in the week and happily discovered such a lovely, wavy effect they had on my tresses so I decided to do it a second time only improve on my method. Did I hear an "uh oh" out there. Yeah well. My improvement means I made four buns instead of two, I coiled them as tightly as humanly possible, and I made the buns on Friday afternoon and left them in until Sunday morning rather than just overnight.

Guess what. I couldn't get my hair unraveled. It was brutal. I almost needed to dial 911. I tried to uncoil the hair on the ends and move upwards but it would make a big rat. I tried to uncoil from the top and move downwards but it turned into another rat. I had rats on the top and the bottom with a coil in the middle. The top of my hair by my face was a giant fuzzball on one side. I was really upset! My heart was racing. I thought of the girl who tried flour and water as a hair treatment and how her dad spent hours with her with her uber long hair in the bath tub trying to peel and wash it out. Flour and water are like glue when it dries, ya know. She didn't know.

I tried to be patient. I told myself all I needed to do was stay calm and work it through, but the more I worked it the worse it got. I wet my hair. It didn't help. Yikes, I worried to myself. I could NOT get the coils undone. I wound it too tiiiight! I looked like Medusa. I couldn't go to church lookin' like Medusa. I wet it again and this time slathered conditioner all over hoping it would help, dipped my head in the tub, and magically, it swooshed apart with the conditioner. Never have I been so relieved. By then it was a half an hour after church started. I didn't make it to church at all. My son told our friends I missed church because of my hairdo which I imagine caused a few expressions of puzzlement. My husband took him to church while I struggled with my hair. Our son hates missing church.

So that's my story on there. I tore some of my hair in the one front section and I could hear it, like a plant screaming, for days. They say plants scream when they're killed.

But I've been having a time with the blahs of late. It's not a big case of the blahs, but just a little wheedling case. I love to do Advent and I'm doing a fair job there, but not with much else. I haven't wanted to sew or quilt or photograph or knit or bead or do anything. So what's my problem? What my major malfunction as they say. Without a tad bit of introspection these things can have a snowball effect, so the only way around it is straight through.

I'm not in a ballet or modern dance class and I wish I was. This town is so small that the woman who got the divorce was pushed out of her business - money troubles - and she's not teaching at all now. I wish I was in a general educational class like Helen - a university level course with quality teaching with human persons in attendance sitting in real desks having real discussions. And another person just today told me I'm so funny I should publish my writing. I told her, as we all know, I'm not really funny. Let's see, what else am I dissatisfied with? My prayer life. I am especially drawn to intercessory prayer, but I'm getting so many for people in such need that I feel sad. I feel heartbroken. I think I must be weak. I keep praying because I'm driven to, but shouldn't I be stronger. Why do I feel worn when I'm praying in the name of the Lord. That's all the self-disappointments I can think of for now.

On the up side I'm doing well on my big memorization project and it's given me a small dash of confidence. I've almost got two pages memorized which will be 50% done. I like belting it out. I belted it out today at the Senior Center because no one was there except me. I got on the stage and the acoustics in the building are great, like an empty library, and my voice reverberated. I was very impressed with myself. Hahaha! It's good to yell sometimes, especially good for quiet people.

With my new found memorization confidence I decided to watch a choreography on YouTube and learn it. To do that, first I had to figure out how to download YouTube videos then convert them to .wmv or iPod format. It took me a couple days, but I finally figgered it out. I found a couple new songs I like and I downloaded two dances and think I'll blend steps from the two. On one dance she's giving step-by-step instructions, but on the second video the guy and girl are just dancing and it's harder to break down. I don't have a wide hip-hop vocabulary so the second vid is harder to decipher too.

My best news is I finally received my boombox, the one I ordered on November 1 and had to return due to speaker rattle. It's an IM7 by Altec Lansing. I don't know why, but the price on it has gone up fully $100.00 since I purchased it. I paid $146.00 and it's $250.00 now. Incredible. I wonder if the price will fall as quickly as it went up. I don't understand why it's more expensive instead of less expensive. As I opened it and put it all together (which took a good ten minutes) my hands were perspiring. I was so afraid I'd get another bum unit and have to send it back. Well, it's not a bum unit. It's a bumping good portable audio system. It's has two four inch side firing sub-woofers and that's what makes it so bumping. I love bass and I also love saying "two four inch side firing sub-woofers." I feel very masculine when I say that. Rawr!

I just have to remember that I am doing what God intended for me to do in this season of my life. Homeschooling is my center and in only seven years when the young 'un is 18 I'll be starting a new chapter whether I like it or not. I should know by now that I shouldn't rush a chapter yet here I am pining for something I haven't got when everything is mighty fine as it is. It's the human condition I suppose.

Oh, one last thing. When my hair was a wreck and I was in a tizzy on Sunday about what to do, my husband offered, offered, to take a picture of my hair. Is there an emoticon for me?

I missed church

BECAUSE OF MY HAIR!