NO MORE HAIRCUTS

Dear Ashley,
I know you love short hair, but listen to me for a minute - YOU NEED TO STOP GETTING YOUR HAIR CUT.

This doesn't look good

Every year you cut your hair short, thinking it will make you happy, and it doesn't. You leave the stylist temporarily pacified, but within two days you're always longing for the ability to throw it in a ponytail. Your hair is too thick, too heavy and too coarse to be cut into a cute spiky style. Not to mention it does grow quickly, so very frequent trims become necessary in order to maintain it.

Here's the problem: once you decide to grow out your hair, you stop getting your hair cut regularly. You grow it out until the ends are split, and it looks heavy and lifeless. Next time, instead of drastically chopping it all off, get a style. Have it trimmed and shaped, and I PROMISE you will end up much happier.

Sincerely,
Ashley

Shut The Front Door

Guys. GUYS!

I've been so busy and so swamped. But I have topics I want to discuss with you, and they may or may not include:

1) Ex Boyfriend boxes - OMG, I went through one (it was hidden in the back of my closet) this weekend and it was a doozy!

2) Things I love. I've been making this list for a while.

3) My hair. I know, I know. I CAN'T STOP TALKING ABOUT IT. I'm planning to write an open letter to myself, for the next time I'm thinking of cutting it all off.

4) Where I live. I want to take you on a photographic tour of where I live. This will probably have to wait until after we're moved/settled. I like sharing, and you guys sharing with me. It's REAL nice. I do wish we could all have dinner sometime, yes?

5) I want to dabble in the realm of a mini-vlog. I don't quite know if I have the courage to look right into the camera and speak, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

6) THIS INSANE DREAM I HAD. Do you guys ever dream about tornadoes? I do, realatively often, and a quick Google search let me know that tornadoes are usually dream-manifestations of upheaval, or disruption - which is right on target. BUT, in this particular dream, there was a Jim Halpert/Mike hybrid who was with me and wanted to marry me. It was very bizzare. I had wedding rings on both hands and we were trying to get away from the tornado. This isn't my first Jim Halpert love dream.
I think it might have to do with this picture I found yesterday:

(Image from weheartit.com)

7) weheartit.com Have you been here? Have you seen it? Friend me. This website blows my mother trucking mind.

8) I'm trying to stop swearing. Son of a Biscuit. Mother trucker. Shut the Front Door. I need to adopt these.

8) OMGwecloseonthehousetomorrowWTF?!? It's been horrible. Which is why I haven't been around blogging or commenting. We were approved for our loan...with conditions. So we had to scramble all this week to provide proof that Mike was a student for all of 2007, and that a credit card that was flagged as an Identity Theft Risk was closed. It was really hard to get all that in a DAY, but we did it, and we're still on track to close TOMORROW.

Summer 2009 Recap

It's clearly Fall now. Very clearly. Overnight we plunged headlong into coat-wearing weather, and, dude, I don't know where my coat is. I'm ushering in the advent of a new season, with my new (and muuuuuuch talked about - sorry about that) haircut.



Don't judge this picture - it's not styled, and I was ready to go to bed. But I figured out that if I DON'T take any time to do anything with it, then I can easily end up looking like Mary Martin in Peter Pan



Now that fall is here, I'm like, "Whoa. Where did summer go? What did I do with it?"
Let's recap:

- I got married. Though, technically not in the summer (May 30th), but it was close enough.

- I changed my name. This originally caused a lot of internal turmoil, but I think I'm OK now, as long as I remember to sign my new name.

- I started to exercise...then promptly stopped. It lasted all of 5 days. Whatever. Don't look at me like that. I had good intentions!

- I went on more outings this summer than the last two combined
>> Arlington Racetrack
>> Museum of Science and Industry, and I got to see the Harry Potter exhibit and movie.
>> Bristol Renaissance Fair
>> camping at Starved Rock
>> Galena (twice!)
>> volunteered at the Sunset Festival
I'm pretty proud that I managed to get out and interact with the world, like a person.

- We put an offer on a house, they accepted it, and we gracefully (ha. ha.) dealt with all the drama that's gone along with it. It's going to pay off in about a week and a half (excuse me while I lose my shit: OMGWTFSqueeee...I really need to get out of my parents')

- Made some serious progress on my 101 things in 1001 days list. I've got 7 things in progress and 8 completed. Nice job.

- I totally got a promotion. And a raise. And an awesome boss. My commute is still gross, but my circumstances are a bajillion times better.

- I went to Atlanta, GA for the first time (for business), and I got to see Olympic Park. While I was there I also got to have dinner with one of my nearest and dearest. It was an awesome coincidence that he was passing through Atlanta on his way to Army Ranger School.

It's been a good summer, a productive summer, and a summer for hardcore transitions. We've really managed to pack it in, which is pretty cool. I'm really glad I put all my main summer activities into this one post - so I can see them all. It was nice to reflect on what I've been up to and figure out where the last 4 months went.

What did you do this summer??

New hair, new outlook

A couple exciting things for the day.

If you're curious our wedding pictures are up. I posed the link on twitter, but I'll post it here too.

I found a new layout via shabbyblogs.com. They're free, and I'm not much for designing my own nonsense yet.

I'm making the plunge tonight - I've scheduled a haircut for tonight at 6pm. Chopping it all off. Though I keep waffling back and forth about whether I really want to do it. By 3pm today, I'll be convinced because my longish hair will have annoyed me.

BelleRenee's most recent post has me thinking about what I really want to do with my life. We close on the house on the 8th, and once we're in the house, it's time for me to start buckling down and making some changes, and the biggest change is figuring out a career, or a passion, or a degree - and figuring out how to make that happen.

Not much to report, and I've got even less time to report it in.

I suck at exercising restraint

So I totally know that I said that getting a haircut was in the far off distance, but that was before I picked up the most recent issue of Real Simple, and they had THIS haircut in there:

(image from Real Simple)

Strike me where I stand, because that is the most fabulous hairstyle I've ever encountered in my short life.

They even included three ways to wear it!

(image from Real Simple)

How can I even pretend to resist that?
I need to quit lamenting my hair (but, Boy Howdy - it looks ridiculous today), but this cut makes me want to change my life. It makes me want to run a marathon, study philosophy, stop swearing, save the rainforest, and wear fancy shoes.

On a totally unrelated note: How about Kayne West last night? Way to act really classy.
Jumping on stage, grabbing the microphine and stealing glory from Taylor Swift, a 19 year old, first time VMA winner. Awesome.

Haircut?

I do this every. single. year.
When my hair gets to a ponytail-able length, I get antsy to cut it.

Last October I cut it like this:


Before that, it looked like this:


Personally I think I look like this when my hair is long:


But the thing is, it's never been longer than the 2nd picture - so I'm curious about how it would be to have loooong floooowing hair.
How curious? Obviously not curious enough. I wasn't curious enough to grow it out for the wedding...so why bother now?

In reality - as long as I can pull it back, I will. My hair is SUPER thick and takes forever to blow dry. So styling it in the morning isn't a realistic option (I already get up at 5am-ish). And to be perfectly honest, I'm weird about my hair, and if it doesn't look nice, then I feel like a total schlub.

I think I'm trying to talk myself into it.
To talk myself into this haircut:

I've always love this haircut. I've never had super-super short hair.
Maybe I want a new haircut to go with my new house, new last name and new job?
I'll wear lots of earrings!

Any thoughts? What looks better? I can't judge for myself.