Heaven, send me a stylist

There comes a time when a girl has to ask herself serious, life-affecting questions. Probing questions that reach down to the core of my being and expose the deepest, darkest, queries of my soul. Indeed, the time as come where I have to ask myself if it's time to cut my hair.

Inspired by watching "The Search for the Next Doll" and spending a lot of time in dance class tossing my hair about, I was going to try to keep my hair really long. Sure it annoys the heck out of me, especially when I wake up in the middle of the night almost choking from having it twisted around my neck, but there's also something delightfully girly and empowering about having it long and wild. I don't think a mighty gust of wind would be nearly as fun without it. Also, I was hoping to have it really long for Tash & Chris' wedding in September as a kind of insurance in case my back exercises don't pay off like I'm hoping they will.

Thing is, it's April, five months away from their wedding. A no doubt oppressively hot summer is knocking down the door and keeping it from looking like a flat, mangy mess is becoming increasingly labour intensive. It's like I passed the threshold where I got get great hair with modest effort and now it's all work with minimal reward. Unless someone has decided to add an extra hour into the day what I can fill with blow-outs and rollers, there's no way I have the time to put in the work required. It's just too long, too heavy and volume-less.

As much as I'm grousing, I know as soon as I cut it off I'm going to regret it, so I'm not sure what to do. The scary thing for me is that I'm not hugely motivated to do anything about it. I stood in front of the mirror today and thought about ways I could hide my hair in a bun for weeks on end. It's like there are more important things in my life than my hair.

Seriously, what's happening to me if I don't have my vanity.

Today's sing-a-long song: "Makes Me Wonder" by Maroon 5

HRH

Every little thing

I've proven to myself time and time again that when there's an opportunity to become neurotic about something, I will grab that brass ring, hold it tightly in my hand and do it. I'm always thinking about the implications of new things. Almost always assuming that the worst outcomes, planning for contingencies even before a new idea is fully formed. I can be more than a bit of a buzzkill with it.

This ability to imagine all the ways things can go wrong serves me very well professionally. It also means that there are canned goods in the house that we don't use because I'm saving them for the apocalypse.

So the new thing that's making my little brain work over time is facebook. I've been on it for almost six months, and it's actually been 100 per cent positive, but the time I've wasted looking at a person's profile from highschool or university pondering "Will they remember me? Did they even like me? Did I even like them?" and then I just say "Aw, fuck it! Just say 'Hi!' already." and everything is fine.

It's a great social networking tool and I've reconnected with so many people, but it's also been strange because, in some cases, it's brought me back to thinking about things that are long dead. There's also the fact that facebook kind makes all the connections in your world visually explicit, further emphasizing how small the world can be. Even though I know I've tried to keep expanding mine, it seems to be getting smaller. So strange and maybe not bad.

You'd think that after being a blogger for almost five years that I would have already worked through these particular mental gymnastics. Seems I'll take any chance I can get to be overwrought about something.

Today's sing-a-long song: "Hung up" by Madonna

HRH

No, you really can't cut in

Thank goodness for this blog. I swear it is one of the few places on earth where I can communicate without being interrupted by someone else.

I know that time is short. I know that some people just have to say what's on their mind as it occurs to them. I know for some people it just has to be about them all the time. And 363 days of the year, I can cope with it.

It annoys me more than pretty much anything else, but it's part of the territory when you are surrounded by a lot of really smart and exuberant people. I've come to terms with interrupters being the price paid for being around truly interesting minds. I'll even wager, that in the time that I've largely come to terms with interrupters, I've become a bit of one myself.

It's just those few days in the year, when it makes me livid, offended and most significantly, feel invisible. I'm right here. I'm talking right now. It's my turn. I wouldn't be talking if I didn't have something of merit to say. We're all adults. Can it really not wait?

And what to do about it? I could fight to continue what I was saying, but if it was actually that important, people would have been listening to me in the first place. Odds are I'll just do what I always do, keep my mouth shut and maybe write about it all later. Maybe from this point on, I should just communicate electronically.

HRH

A series of good starts

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that as time passes I keep growing up. It just some days, the growth doesn't seem gradual, it's shocking and apparent. Take this past Friday. I started my first RRSP. Admittedly, this is something I've been intending to do for about eight years but I always talked myself out of doing it. I find all things banking and finance intimidating, but I also have to do all things on my own terms. Sure it may have been more prudent to get it all sorted sooner, but I've done it my way, which means a lot to me. So I'm saving for my future, saving for a house one day, feeling pretty in control of things.

And I'm not the only one in our house experiencing new things. M has started running with me. For those who don't know my husband well, he is one of those loathable people who can eat anything and everything and not gain weight. He just has that kind of metabolism. I just don't. I have to exercise at least 3 times a week and keep the dietary cheating to a minimum just to save off the fatness. I'm supposed to be losing weight right now and just can't stop eating everything I shouldn't be.

While he has the ability to burn calories by thinking big thoughts, I can walk up a flight of stairs and not get winded. And it's one thing to look healthy and an entirely other thing to be healthy. So I was very happy when M took me up on my long standing offer to exercise with him. Just because he hasn't had to exercise, it doesn't mean that he hasn't wanted to, on some level. We started yesterday by doing some running in intervals in the park. He did pretty well except for calling me a "sadist" at one point. Even more impressive than his first effort is the fact that he's going to let me take him out running again!

In the course of two days we've become a married couple that jogs together and has retirement savings. I feel like I should do something reckless and immature just to keep everything in check.

Today's sing-a-long song: "All grown up" by Elvis Costello

HRH

Catching up, keeping cool

M and I have been on vacation since Wednesday. We're in Kingston, taking care of 50 pounds of cat (two 20-pound Norwegian Forest Cats and one 10-pound Zeus) and trying to stay warm. We came here to kitty sit while my parents took off on a nice little spring vacation. Our thinking was that we would take this time away from Toronto to go for walks, take lots of photos and I was going to teach M how to run. We thought since spring would be here, it would be the perfect time to get outside.

Needless to say our plans were seriously derailed by all the snow and wind that passed its way through this part of Canada in the last five days. Bird watching was relegated to looking at all the fowl through the windows, and walking, or even running? Humourous.

The weather has been miserable. However, when you're stuck inside, my parent's house is a great place to be and with the company of my favourite person and my favourite cats, it's been a nice break. The crappy weather has meant that M and I have been able to sleep/nap as much as we need to and watch all kinds of movies, TV and DVDs without feeling like we really should be outside.

I had plans to use this time to become physically renewed for spring, but instead I think I've managed to rest away that napping problem I was developing, at at the same time be entertained by some great movies and TV.

We're almost half way through season two of Twin Peaks, which has been more than a treat to watch, esp. here at my parents house, which is surrounded by trees. To be fair, watching it on a 52" plasma TV with a fantastic 5.1 system doesn't hurt the experience either.

To balance out my David Lynch obsession, we've also been watching a lot of Law & Order for M. When we watch a lot of this show we invariably get talking about what our dream team Law & Order team would be. For me, it would be Arthur Branch (Fred Dalton Thompson) as DA, Jack McCoy (Sam Waterson) as Senior Prosecutor, Abbie Carmichael (Angie Harmon) as ADA, Anita Van Buren (S. Epatha Merkerson) as Lieutenant and Lennie Briscoe (Jerry Orbach) and Ed Green (Jesse L. Martin) as detectives. I almost could have had it if Angie Harmon had stuck around for just one more season. Imagine Jack as the moderate. He he.

Our break ends on Tuesday when we have to return to Toronto and the real world. It's been a nice break. Chris and Tash dropped by on their way to and from Ottawa, enabling us to raise a glass of bubbly in honour of Natasha's birthday last Thursday. Hopefully tomorrow the weather will be nice enough for us to get out for a little day trip and get home in time to watch "24" in HD. I hope there are a lot of explosions this week.

HRH

Ms Vs. The Black Eyed Peas Vs. Alanis

Way back in 2005 I had a bit of an issue with the song and video for My Humps by The Black Eyed Peas. It was and remains a piece of visual and aural crap.

Perusing through my usual gossip sites I came across a link to a spoof of the song done by none other than Alanis Morissette that I feel I must share with everyone.



I haven't decided if it's better or worse than the original. I've only been able to make it through the whole thing once. I leave it to the masses to decide.

HRH