Made in Richmond

Ross is out at a bachelor party tonight.  Don’t worry - it’s a good, Christian boy bachelor party.  There’s sure to be just a few drinks and some intense playing of Settlers.  Anyway, while I love spending time with my dear hubs, I was thrilled to find out that I would have a Saturday night to myself.  I need to get caught up on some work, start hashing out the vision statement for our church, and begin work on a top secret project that begins on Monday.  I’ll get to do all of this while watching whatever movie I want and not talking to anyone.  I’m so excited.

The hair is getting cut tomorrow. I can’t stand it anymore. My hair will be short and cute and I will keep it that way for a long time.

I haven’t had long hair since I got married, and then I only grew it out so I could put it up for the wedding. Consequently, the bride in my wedding pictures looks nothing like me.

The way I see it, if you can pull off having short hair, you should have short hair. True, you have to get it cut more often. But, it takes about 3 minutes to get ready in the morning once you’ve got the styling steps down. That’s really the hard part. It’s cake after that.

So, in the spirit of encouragement, I wanted to give some advice/tips to those of you pondering taking the plunge and shearing your heavy (or in my case, completely not-heavy and totally flat and boring) locks. Here goes:

1. When getting your hair cut short (and I mean short, not just to your shoulders-we’re talking to your chin or above) make sure the stylist uses a razor on the ends, if not for the whole cut. Razored edges make the difference between a short style for women and a boy’s haircut.

2. Bring in lots of pictures when you go to get the cut, especially if it’s your first time going short. Your first choice might not be best for you (and if your stylist tells you that, please listen), so you might need to pull a few ideas from different sources of inspiration

3. Use the “cool button” on your hair dryer when styling. Most people don’t use it all (except maybe to dry their nail polish), but it essential to eliminating the poof that often comes with blow-drying. It seems to calm the hair down and set your style. Just a few light blasts at the end of your blow-dry and off you go.

4. Pay attention to how your stylist, well, styles your hair. If you don’t like how she’s done it, tell her and asks her to do it again. A cute cut will do you know good if you don’t know what to do with it.

5. Highlights might be necessary. As we get older, our hair tends to lose those great ribbons of color that came with being outside all of the time. Highlights (just a few) will add depth to your hair and make it look softer.

6. Remember, it’s only hair. If you don’t like it, it will grow back and at least you’ll know that you tried.

Happy shearing, everyone! I’ll be sure to post pictures tomorrow.

Z is fo Zombie: My dear friend Maura’s leap into the wonderful world of the undead.

Literally, A Web Log: A crusade I can get behind. Literally.

Alicia: An addition that is way overdue. Her blog is one of my most favorites ever and she is wonderful.

Daniel: Another overdue addition. He’s married to Alicia and he, too, is wonderful. He is also tall.

Mosey on over there and check them out.

I had Ross order this for me today:

It took a lot of convincing (and by convincing, I mean saying, “Ross. Don’t be a tool.”) because apparently Scott McCloud is the nemesis of Gabe and Tycho over at Penny-Arcade. I didn’t realize *I* was supposed to care about that. Oh wait. Yeah, still don’t.

Anyway, I asked him to get it because David Garfinkle Copywriter Extraordinaire suggested it. He points out that a good comic and good copy need to essentially do the same thing. He says,

“I can finally put the part I suspected into words. Comics use the smallest amount of ink and image space to create a world apart built on wide-spanning imagination, and tell a story in that world.

Does not copy do the same?”

Seems like it should be a pretty good read. And anyway, you’d think Ross would be all about me getting it. It might encourage me to support his X-men habit.

I loved Michael J. Fox when I was little. Well, specifically the Marty McFly version, NOT Alex P. Keaton. The suspenders. The skateboard. The rolled up sleeves. They all sent me into a prepubescent swoon. And a pubescent swoon. And an adolescent swoon. And ok, currently an adult swoon.

When I was little, I planned to marry him. Not wanted. Planned. Our first dance at the wedding would naturally be to “The Power of Love” and I would wear the dress that Leah Thompson wore at the end of the movie when they went to Echantment Under the Sea Dance. We would take the car and go up to the lake for our honeymoon. Then, we would move into his parents house- the one they live in at the end of the movie, not the beginning - and have a baby named Emmett and a puppy named Einstein, Jr. Ahh the dreams of the young.

Click here or the kitty gets it.

I go to Jane’s blog every single day for two reasons: 1. I think she is wonderful and hilarious and I love reading about her life - I will miss working with her for sure… and 2. She has a great blogroll of some amazing knitters.  I mean, I didn’t even know who Crazy Aunt Purl was until I spotted the link on Jane’s list.

While Jane doesn’t update as much as I would like her to (ahem…Jane….yes, let’s get on that), I still go there to spend some time browsing around , kind of (and by kind of I mean totally and completely) drooling over the projects her featured bloggers are working on.  I love knitting, I just haven’t done it in a while.  Nevertheless, I tend to live vicariously through the three fabulous ladies listed below.  I also enjoy seeing what they’re up to…even though I don’t know them.  At all.

Anyway, take a gander at some of these.  You’ll laugh.  You’ll cry.  You’ll craft.  Enjoy:

1.  The aforementioned Crazy Aunt Purl.  A displaced Southerner fresh off a divorce and high on her love for public transportation, smoking, and, yes, knitting.  She seems like a dear, dear lady and I can relate to her utter (and sometimes crippling) awareness of her own awkwardness.

2.  Carrie over at Dogs Steal Yarn.  She has a baby.  She eats organic food.  She hates the heat.  She’s a writer.  BFF’s FOREVER??!?!?!?!!

3.  Stephanie AKA Yarn Harlot.  She is the Tom Cruise of the knitting world.  Except people like her.

Hope you liked them.  Stay tuned for my next shout out when I’ll list my favorite mothers who blog.  I bet Ross is SO excited!

I was chatting it up with my boss today (who repeatedly asks me to not make fun of him on my blog - Hey, Boss!) and he pointed out to me that I say “right” a lot while in conversation. I had absolutely no clue that I do this, but naturally became paralyzingly aware of it after he mentioned it…to the point where he kept laughing at me (in a constructive manner, of course).

I realized that I do this because my former job involved talking to children, some of whom need great amounts of encouragement while talking to adults (I was one of the children, for sure). Apparently, adults don’t need you to do that.

Currently 53% of Richmond City’s children do not graduate from high school. Meanwhile, Richmond City spends 60% more per pupil than the surrounding counties of Chesterfield, Henrico, and Hanover. Granted education is not a business - it’s an animal all unto its own - but it’s hard to ignore those numbers.

Read Mayor Wilder’s most recent Vision Newsletter. While I typically see Wilder as kind of a loose cannon (which is probably exactly how he *wants* me to see him), his insight is worth reading.

It’s Sam’s birthday today! Take a minute to wish our favorite finance-man a good one!