Wonderful

The baby channel is playing in the background. Clearly, my reign of solitude is over.

Tomorrow the niece-girl turns TWO. I can't believe it. As much as I love the west coast (particulary Oregon), I'm glad I'm around to see her grow up. We'll be shoe shopping before you know it! I'm making chocolate hazelnut cake pops that will (hopefully) be in the shape of Minnie & Mickey mouse heads. We'll see. I'll post a picture of the results.

Speaking of results, this is how my hair ended up today after sleeping in pin curls:

Not too curly, is it? *sigh* I don't know what's going on. My hair hates me. It was kinda big and bouncy this morning though, so I guess it wasn't all in vain. Maybe big and bouncy is the way to go.

So it's Easter weekend. Time to remember the sacrifice that Christ made for all of us.

Oh it is wonderful that he would care for me enough to die for me
Oh it is wonderful, wonderful to me.
-I Stand All Amazed

Hi there!

I'm still riding this high called life. I opened my blinds today. I haven't voluntarily done that in years! But when I got home from work today, I was enjoying my empty house with some music and dancing, and just spontaneously opened the blinds! My room looks so different when lit with natural sunlight.

So today there was dancing and nostalgia and the sudden urge to create. Suddenly I want to write the book people tell me I should be writing. I want to submit poetry and prose to hipster lit mags. I want to dance and sing and write and draw and paint all at the same time!

Seriously, I don't remember the last time I felt this great. I just woke up the other day and was happy. Genuinely happy! And a little stir crazy. I want to go out and do something for a change. I'd like to poke my head out and say hello to the world!

In addition to all of that, there was some primping. I put my hair in pin curls.

Please pardon the grainier-than-usual photo. I used the front facing camera on my phone to take the picture and the quality isn't as good. Not that the regular camera is that great.

Anyway, there they are. They're a pain to do but the results are fun. Well, if they take. If they don't, then I wasted an hour and my hair looks terrible, usually resulting in a ponytail.

I'm going to attempt to sleep. Wish me luck. I'm not tired but I have to get up for work, so...yeah. Bedtime.

Night!

Note:  When I was labeling this post, I typed in 'happy' and realized that it hadn't been used yet. I've been blogging for 3 months and never once made a significant enough mention of happiness for it to warrant a label. That's kinda sad.

Feeling Good

Birds flyin' high, you know how I feel
Sun in the sky, you know how I feel
Breeze driftin' on by, you know how I feel
It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life for me.
Yeah, it's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life for me, ooooooooh...
And I'm feelin' good.

Fish in the sea, you know how I feel
River runnin' free, you know how I feel
Blossom on the tree, you know how I feel
It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life for me,
And I'm feelin' good

Dragonfly out in the sun, you know what I mean, don't you know,
Butterflies all havin' fun, you know what I mean.
Sleep in peace when day is done: that's what I mean,
And this old world is a new world and a bold world for me...

Stars when you shine, you know how I feel
Scent of the pine, you know how I feel
Yeah, freedom is mine, and I know how I feel..
It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life for me
And I'm feelin'... good.

-Nina Simone (And Michael Buble...and Muse...oh, how I love Muse...)

It's either the Xanax or the chocolate chip pancakes I had for dinner talking...but I feel great!

I made the pancakes with my dad. It was quite an adventure. A pancake-related meltdown led to the Xanax, which led to the pancakes actually being completed, which led to me being fat and happy.

I felt very "Mad Men"-esque today:

You can't really see it in the picture, but I rolled and pinned the curl on the right side of my forehead. It was my first attempt at doing such a thing and I was fairly pleased with the result. I think tomorrow I shall try a bigger roll. Wish me luck!

Hair and Back Again

I have curly hair. Perhaps you've noticed. Occasionally it looks alright when I leave it down, but most of the time it looks like a perm gone wrong.

My hair is the longest it's been since I was 25. Weeks after my 25th birthday, I chopped it off to about chin length, and it's been up there ever since. Well, until it started growing out because I had no choice. I liked my short hair. I had to straighten it all the time, but I didn't mind because it didn't take long to do, and that was kind of the point. Now that it's long-ish again, I'm faced with a dilemma. Cut it or keep it?

Short hair is so easy to take care of...long hair gives me more variety. But if I don't take advantage of that variety and just let it do its thing, then I get bored and want to cut it off again. It's a vicious cycle!

I haven't been playing around much with my hair lately because of my atrocious split ends. I haven't bothered because when my hair is this wrecked, nothing looks good. I had to do something though, I was going crazy. So last night after my shower, I blow dried and flat ironed my hair straight...and then put it in pin curls. Is that insane? For a curly haired person to straighten her hair just to curl it again? I don't care if it is. I like the results:

If I had a dress like this to wear every day, I might be the happiest girl in the world. I had a black cardigan over top to keep warm, and I have to say, I was quite satisfied with myself. I love, love, LOVE this style of dress. 40s-50s fashion makes me happy. Very, very happy.

But back to hair. This is what it looked like at the end of the day. This morning, the curls were tighter and made the whole style an inch or two shorter. The style is a lot of work, but honestly, I love it. I think I would be sad if I cut it off, especially since I'm just learning how to do fun stuff like this.

Ok. I've made up my mind. I keep it long.

I think.