Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Hair Blog

This is a blog about hair. For all of those with similar experiences, I feel your pain. As for those who let their manes air-dry, don't worry about straightening, mousse, special concocted shampoo, or lots of bad hair days - I do not sympathize.

I love getting my hair cut, which I did last week. Just a little trim to get the dead ends off, ya know, but still, you can always tell that couple of inches is gone when you're shampooing. Your hand grabs for more hair, but it's gone - alright, you get it. I have quite a mane - a curly one at that, but this hasn't always been known. I used to hate my hair - it was wavy, and not the controllable, let-it-air-dry wavy. The wild, ratty, brush-gets-stuck, shampoo-condition-taming spray-blow dry-straighten-curl-hairspray kind of wavy. I found a way to control this craziness I call hair about three to four years ago; expensive shampoo/conditioner, lots of mousse, and the acceptance that I can never have bangs again. This on top of the knowledge that I do not control my hair - it will do as it pleases, it makes the rules. 

Just as a little flashback, I'd like to go over a few of the things my hair has been through - or I should say, my hair has put me through that brought us to this day. Just so we're clear, keep in mind that my hair has won. I am beaten. It has conquered me. I now let it do as it pleases, except for the 4 times a year I straighten it against its will. I'm going to briskly go through the top 3 worst/dumbest things I have done with this hair. I am surprised it stuck around for all of this, but here we go...

#1 Curly hair does not need a perm to realize that it is curly. However, the perm will help bring out its inner-curliness. Back in 7th grade, I begged my mom to let me get a perm. Somehow,  I had not realized that my hair was curly already. The chemicals during that perm really must have ticked those curls off though, because ever since that day, they have stuck around, whether welcomed or not. This was definitely my first hair mistake.

#2 Ah, 8th grade volleyball. We were young, I was into braids, and cornrows sounded like a great idea for volleyball pictures after taking runner-up at state. Never had I attempted more than 2 french braids; I thought I was pretty ghetto, I guess. Of course my best friend at the time had no problem putting 8 little braids in my hair - I threw in a picture for this one - couldn't leave it out.

#3 Christmas time, sometime around freshmen year of high school, seemed like the perfect time to throw some red highlights in my hair. Christmas cheer, maybe? Well, mom would never agree to pay for bright red highlights, and my friend Patty and I figured red kool-aid packets were the perfect substitution. If you've never done this before, it just takes some really hot water and a 10 cent packet of koolaid ground into your hair. Sure, it's a little choppy and white trash looking (especially at your church's Christmas dinner), but it fades within a week or so, and makes for a good story!

And so that concludes my hair blog; I've left out some of the hairy details. (Sorry, I had to.) Happy hair days to all, and to all a good night.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

¡Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

Happy belated Cinco de Mayo! I am going to do a quick recap of my Cinco de Mayo for you. Apparently the popular thing to do was enjoy  99 cent margs at La Pachanga because everyone and their dog was there. The excitement really began as we were frantically trying to decide whether a 40 minute wait was worth it, or if we should try to beat traffic down at the other end of town for La Fuente. In the end we decided Mexican is Mexican, margs are margs, especially in little midwest K-Ville, so we opted for heading north to get our grub on. Of course, everyone (and their dogs, remember) decided to do the same, so after sitting at our table for oh, 20 minutes, the entire place was swarming with DZs starting their bar crawl (from which we stole their reserved table, ha), rando townies, and plenty of other Trumanites ready to go to town on La Fuente's supply of tequila. To make an entirely ridiculous experience come together in a short story...
paper to-go menus being passed out...they ran out of normal menus
margs in massive pepsi glasses (still costing $1, keep in mind)...ran out of margarita glasses
4 waiters serving about 27 tables
a 30-min-wait-wrap-around-the-restaurant line of people waiting to pay (including a girl that tried to cut, so 4th grade)

This of course was topped off on our ride back home, as our good friend read palms and told our fortunes. All in all, I would rate it #1 on my Cinco de Mayo Celebraciones list. 


I proceeded to go out with the roomies to a glorious bar called Wrongdaddy's, where we talked our newly found friend (which we called by first and middle name) into giving us some Corona beads complete with flashing beer bottle, and 'beer ponchos' for our bucket of Coronas. 

Ah, Cinco de Mayo. Cinco de Mayo is a regional holiday in Mexico, primarily celebrated in the state of Puebla, which commemorates the Mexican army's unlikely victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. According to Wikipedia, Cinco de Mayo is not an "obligatory federal holiday" in Mexico, but rather a holiday that can be observed voluntarily. That, I did.

Monday, May 4, 2009

Possibly my first legit blog...ever.

I'm a little caught off guard as to what to write in this blog, as this is my first attempt at the wonderful world of blogging. I guess I'll just tell you what I've been up to today. I intended to have a steady day of working on projects, considering finals week is upon us. Instead, I chose the more hectic route of waking up a couple hours later than planned, flooring it back to school (I was visiting the boyfriend's school for his graduation), and writing my Walmart list on the ride home. 
Visual communications seemed like a glorious major two years ago - the one where you get awesome assignments that are truly fun and worthwhile, you don't have tests, and the people you meet in the major are quirky, but cool. Turns out, the assignments are time consuming, expensive, and in the end seem more ridiculous than a 15 page term paper because half of the projects you've created won't even fit in your room and end up being pushed aside to the point of destruction. I do enjoy the "no tests" part of being a viscomm major, however, sometimes studying a couple hours for a test doesn't sound so bad - like when Liz and I pulled that all nighter to build a house out of 3/16" foam core strips. The good thing about that night was not that we finished our projects in time to make it to our 9:30 class to draw nudes, but that we learned that 5-hour energy does, in fact, work tremendously. Especially when followed by a couple coffees and a red bull - you want to know how fast you can get your heart beating? Try it. As for the friends, well, the major isn't lacking in this department. Where else can you find every different style of clothing, taste in music, and random vocabulary in a group of people? Not to mention those crazy-asses that will continuously pull all-nighters and serenade you  to their shuffled playlist of Cats, Wicked, Rent, and In the Heights - my musical knowledge has increased significantly, not to mention my recent gained ability to pick out Frank Sinatra's voice on the radio and in elevators. I must say due to the variety of tastes in music I have increased my iTunes library by at least 1,347 songs in the past year alone. It is when reflecting on these accomplishments that I realize the true perks to my major. Yes the work is strenuous and tends to have negative effects on my sleep schedule, but in the end, I'm living it up one project at a time. As for tonight, I just finished transforming myself into a sundae. 

Yes, I am 21 years old, expected to graduate in two years, and dressed as a delicious treat - it's fine, it's fine. :) I've got to get going so I can finish High School Musical 3. Yes, those crazy design friends of mine are still at my house as 4AM creeps up on us. And yes, considering we're on #3 of HSM, that does mean we've already watched the first two...and Mamma Mia.