Bang!

I'm a real freak when it comes to my hair. 

I think it all started in the fifth grade. My mom, who was maybe just pretending like she knew what she was doing, tried to give me a cute chin-length bob haircut. It didn't work out. We decided that we needed to have a professional fix it, and so we ventured out to Great Clips, or somewhere equally high-end. I brought with me, as haircut inspiration, this book: 

I loved the new Mary Anne. That's for sure.

I'm not sure if it was because my hair isn't as thick as Mary Anne's, or if it was because the picture is just an illustration, but my hair didn't turn out like that at all. Instead, I looked like a boy. A boy who wore oversized panda sweaters with hot pink leggings. It was a horrific haircut, and it honestly took a long time to recover from such a scarring event. 

Since then, with only one exception, I've always grown my hair out long. The exception was over 8 years ago, during my freshman year of college, when the chin-length bob turned out to be a success. (Mom and I left that one to the professionals.) So lately, whenever my hair stylist/BFF Ashley cuts my hair, she knows exactly what I want: only a couple of inches trimmed off, long layers, and simple low-maintenance hair. 

And that's what I thought I was getting today. I went in to Bang Salon to be Ashley's hair model for her class. Truth be told, she did listen to what I wanted. And, no, I don't have a chin-length bob. But something else did happen: Ashley's teacher came to look at my haircut and mentioned something about bangs, then Ashley said something about bangs, and then I said, "Oh. I've been thinking about bangs." All of which lead to this:

Goodbye hair! I love you! 

I've had bangs before, but these are different. My past bangs have been whispy, swoopy, and far less committal. These bangs are something completely new for me. So that is why this counts as completing my scariest goal of all: #50 - Get a haircut that's out of my comfort zone. I thought I'd have to work up to this one, or that I'd at least put it off for awhile, but then, all of a sudden, it happened! I know my hair is still long, but I assure you this is definitely out of my comfort zone.

Ashley is taking appointments for haircuts.
She'll only give you bangs if you want them.

It's going to take some getting used to, but I know it's good for me to have a change. Plus, it really makes me want to start wearing red lipstick. New goal?

At least now I can part my hair in the middle. 

Did my heart love till now?

Forswear it, sight! For I never saw true beauty till this night.

That's the line from Romeo and Juliet that was running through my head most of yesterday, while I watched this: 

I fulfilled goal #26: See a ballet. I was especially excited to see this particular ballet because it was Romeo and Juliet - a story I know and love. 

Mostly because of this guy. 

My sweet mother agreed to go with me to the ballet, even though she honestly wasn't all too excited about it. So to thank her, I made us a lovely lunch beforehand. 

We went to the Ellie Caulkins Opera House to see the final show of Romeo and Juliet, which happened to also be the final show of the Colorado Ballet's 50th Anniversary Season, as well as the final show for Igor Vassine - a principal dancer with the Colorado Ballet for 20 years. I even got a little emotional when they were honoring Igor, not that I had ever heard of him before. But it felt very special to be in the audience for that particular show, and I liked thinking about how much it all meant to the dancers.

All in all, it was a beautiful way to accomplish a goal.

Not a bad view for $26! 

On a side note: when did I become a vampire? So pale! 

One Down, One Hundred to Go...

I have a deep abiding love for bookstores. While I don't enjoy shopping for clothes or shoes, I could spend hours perusing book shelves, reading titles and blurbs, and admiring cover art. Give me Barnes and Noble or give me a small used book store - I'm not picky. I love the smell, the ambiance, the excitement of finding a new story in which to lose myself. 


Maybe it's because of this love that I always forget about libraries. When I want a new book to read, I head to the bookstore to indulge myself in some retail therapy, and thereby end up spending way too much money. Why in the world would I do that when there are these magical places where you can take and read books for free?? That's why I made goal #55: walk to the library by my house, get a library card, and check out a book. It's something I always think about doing, and maybe even talk about doing, but, let's be honest, would I ever get around to it? Not likely.


Well, today I did. It was an easy goal to complete, and now I can say that I've actually started making a dent in my list. So I walked three blocks to the Woodbury Branch Library. 

Let me tell you, the Woodbury Branch is less than impressive. It's quite small. I came hoping to check out, as per recommendation of three friends, Rebecca by Daphe du Maurier as my first of five classic books to read (goal #11). Woodbury did not have it. In fact their whole "Classics" section was comprised of four half-full shelves - maybe a few dozen books. So instead I checked out a book that has both A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations by Charles Dickens in it. I've never finished a Dickens book, so that feels like a worthy endeavor. I'm starting with A Tale of Two Cities, and then we'll see what happens after that. 

Hopefully my new library card will remind me to go borrow books more frequently, though I think I'll start looking for some larger branches. 

Truth takes time

What the title should really say is "Goals take time." "Truth takes time" is a recurring phrase from Alias, used in a very emotionally gripping story line... so I couldn't help myself.


Anyway... goals do take time. I keep feeling disappointed that I haven't accomplished any goals to post about yet, but I have been working on some of my long-term goals. For one, I have been reading through the Bible. I'm reading one of those chronological bibles that is broken down to read one section each day to finish in a year. I'm on February 12th (oops!), but I'll catch up. To be honest, it's a little hard to stay motivated when I'm reading about God's instructions on how to build the Tabernacle, and how to make the priests' robes. But I'll just keep powering through.


I've also been working on learning French. I have the Rosetta Stone, and I'm slowly working my way through it. I'm only on Unit 2 of French 1 so far. Technically, I could have a conversation in French already. Anyone want to talk about whether or not the cat is on the table? How about if the dog is under the bed? I've got that down.


The biggest time consuming goal right now, though, is to get a full time teaching job. I've been working on my resume and cover letter, renewing my Colorado teaching license, and searching for private schools in the area since public schools will no longer receive any funding. (I almost went on a political tirade right here, but that would be obnoxious.) This will be a long process, but definitely worth it if I can get a job.


And tonight I'm going to make and write my first of 33 "just because" cards to send out. I don't want to say too much more about that so the recipient can be pleasantly surprised by mail in a few days. I was pleasantly surprised by mail tonight, and I think it was the best thing to happen to me all day. (Thanks Julie!)


Hopefully I can get one of my smaller goals accomplished this weekend. The last two weekends were filled with the Oscars (I had to see four movies in two days!) and Snow Camp. Too bad I didn't make goals about spending all day in a movie theater or hanging out with hundreds of high schoolers. Maybe next time.