Remiss in my duties and Birthday antics!

I've been a bit remiss in my blogging duties probably because work is wiping me out and my hair was back in a ponytail or 100 bobby pin updos because I couldn't do anything with it. It's still a big fat mess from my bleaching fiasco and the roots were beginning to grow out, giving me a very unattractive tri-color stripe as the roots at the time of the bleaching kept the red tinge of the repigmentation we went through and the rest of the hair took on the blonde color I was going for.

Since I finally have a job again (hallelujah!) and have money again (Amen and a hallelujah!), I decided it was time to do a demi-permanent Paul Mitchell PM Shines treatment as a personal birthday present to myself. So I went to the beauty supply store and bought some stuff for a friend and a guy I work with and ended up blowing $150 in the store. Yeah...that's right. $150. I bought my demi-permanent dye in nutmeg (A light brown color with slight red undertones), the developer that goes with it (PM Shines has it's own special developer since it's a deposit only hair dye), found Hempz brand face wash and moisturizer, then I found the tanning lotions. So I bought two of those! Then I went home and found 3 bottle of tanning lotion staring back at me on the shelf. I think I have enough now!

I colored my hair last night and ended up with brown hair. Not light brown with slight red undertones. Like brunette. Silly me...I didn't account for my hair's extremely porous state since the bleach and it absorbed the color and went much darker than it should have.

So today, for my birthday, I treated myself to a haircut so I will stop wearing my hair in a pony tail and actually try to look attractive at work. The girl was fantastic and I'm definitely going to her again. She wanted to try to style my hair curly, but it just isn't curling again yet. I still have yet to cut off all the damage on the length. The back has almost all the bleached portion chopped off (thanks to a very layered stacked graduation in the back) and I'm not the proud owner of bangs (or fringe if you're in the hair business)! I haven't had bangs for probably 15 years.

I'm extremely happy with the haircut. I feel attractive again (always a bonus when you leave the salon feeling hot!) and even put on makeup to go to my nephew Bryson's birthday party. I even got a special cake because it was my birthday (I had to share space with one of my sister-in-law's sisters, but I like her, so it's cool). I told my nephew that since his party was on my birthday, he had to share half of his presents with me (He's turning 8, btw). He said he wouldn't share his presents because I had my own cake. I Guess that's considered a fair trade in his mind! We had good mexican food and I ate Carne Asada to my heart's content!

Earlier in the day, my dad asked for assistance in setting up his new "toy," a canopy. Don't worry, because the destructions were cryptic at best and we don't do destructions as a rule, so we were trying to figure out how things worked. I am proud to say that I figured it out! I am also proud to say that my dad was a smidge frustrated because I figured out the mechanics of what we were doing before he did. He's the visionary and if that fails, then logic trips in to save him. I'm the logic before visionary. I can't stand illogical people, they drive me batty!

My dad was also super sweet by taking myself and my mom out to "breakfast" (At 11:30 am, btw) at a local old-timer restaurant. I had 2 eggs, hashbrowns, 1/4 lb sausage patty and a scone. I ate everything but the scone. It was heavenly! That was my birthday present from my dad. His love language is by doing things for people. It's his way of showing he cares and it's so sweet to see. We talked about his side of the family and I realized that I come from the most jacked up, disfunctional family lineage ever!

So I'm now exhausted from my not super-busy but not planned on day. I was expecting to crash out and sleep the day away, my preferred method for spending my birthday (I hate my birthdays).

Oh! I can't forget...I also cut my mom's hair today. It looks great. I'm quite proud of myself. And while I was cutting my mom's hair, I got a call from my brother Kim. We're probably the closest siblings and he lives down in Texas. My phone was in my room and I was cutting my mom's hair, so it went to voicemail. On my voicemail was a message from my nephew Conner (I don't ever spell his name right, so it's probably wrong...sorry Conner!) Saying "Happy Birthday, Keri! I love you!" Of course, my brother was prompting in the background, but soooo sweet. Then my brother called my parents line and I talked to him. That was great. He's in the hospital with their younger boy. They thought he was doing better, but his heart stopped beating today, so if you're reading this novel...keep him in your thoughts and prayers. Another long stay in the hospital for the Texas Beams! At least they know everybody and are part of the "family" there. I wish they were closer!

All in all, a good birthday full of love and well wishes. I also received (right on time, of course) a birthday card covered with frogs from my loverly cousin Ashlee wishing me a happy birthday. Made my day! It's going in my cubicle at work!

First Day of Work

Yesterday was my first day at my new job. We'll be training until the end of next week. I woke up so nauseated from anxiety I thought I might not be able to make it, but new I had to. So I took some Dramamine 24-hour (great for nausea people, Bonine is the same thing), an anxiety pill and lay in bed until I started to feel marginally better.

I had planned on showering, but dealing with the anxiety was my first priority and my hair wasn't greasy. So after laying in bed (luckily, I didn't have to be to work until 9:30 that day) until I felt somewhat better, I got up, washed with a washcloth and got dressed. I brushed my hair, which was still up in bobby pins from the zoo the day before and I left it that way. My makeup was still on from the day before, too (technically, I wear mineral makeup so I didn't wash my face the night before after an exhausting day at the zoo and then dinner at Golden Corral with about 30+ family members), so I just went to work.

I must say, I'm a little overwhelmed and woke up again this morning with nausea and anxiety, though not as bad. I was gonna shower again, but dealt instead with my nausea and anxiety first, then washed with a washcloth (makeup still working after 3 days!) and got dressed. Now, I'm off to put my hair up (still not greasy) and off to work!

I think I'll enjoy the job, though it's a little overwhelming right now. It's basically data entry, but there are so many rules and regulations to learn, it's a challenge. But hey...I did Financial Aid. If you can figure out the Federal Education Loan guidelines, you can learn anything, I say! I think this will be an excellent position for me and I'm liking it so far!

Meeting of the Curlies

Yes, that's right. We had a meeting of the curlies! There are roughly 3 curlies involved in the Naturally Curly Forums that live in Utah. And lo and behold, we got a private message from another curly (who has personally been very helpful in my journey with curly hair) who was coming to visit Utah and wanted to meet up to have lunch! We're always psyched up when we meet up to go to lunch and swap products like the true junkies we are, so we were super psyched to be able to meet another one from out of town!

We dithered back and forth about where to eat to give Laurabeth33 the best Utah food experience and were having a hard time coming up with something that is intrinsically Utah. We finally agreed on a local but very famous (with musicians mostly, they have a wall full of musicians and celebrities that have been there that have signed the wall and left pictures). The restaurant is called The Red Iguana and it has pretty authentico Mexican, which I appreciate highly thanks to the many family parties at my brother's house whose wife is from Mexico. I looooooove authentic Mexican food, particularly Carne Asada. Yum. But I digress.

I was late (not usual for me, but I decided to take side streets instead of the freeway because my car has expired registration and has since December) and everybody was already seated by the time I got there. I was pooh-poohed because I had worn my hair straight, then I reminded them that my hair won't curl because of all the damage I did to it about 2 months ago, then they were very sympathetic.

Two husbands ended up coming along because of the place we were going and it was sooooo much fun! I love going out with friends and just being able to talk about anything! We exchanged products like the junkies we are. Laurabeth, who is a product tester came with so many trial sizes I felt guilty that she didn't end up getting anything else from us because she couldn't take it on the flight home!

Overall, good times were had and it was a great time for me to get out and about! I loved it! Thanks guys for getting me out of the house and into some good food and company! It was a blast!

Celebration Time!

After almost a year of being unemployed, I've been hired by someone! It's through a temp agency, temp-to-hire, but I'm so excited about it! The company seems like an amazing company to work for and in a field I've never thought of. It's hard to explain what they do, but they're a liaison between vendors and industrial companies to make sure they have all the certification needed to work.

I went to the interview and left psyched, thinking they were pretty impressed with me in the interview. I waited until I got home to call the temp agency and let them know how the interview went and by then, the company had already called and said they wanted me to be one of the people to start on Wednesday. The bummer is that I'm going to miss out on some of the time with the Texas Beams when they're here, but I've got a job again finally! Woot! I'm so excited for this!

This makes a really rough week so much better!

Dogs are Stupid

Okay, not really. Ours is really smart. He can pull a pork chop off a service dish without leaving evidence. No joke. Lately, my parents have been out of town, so the dog sleeps me with me. He has to touch you. For those of you who know m, in general I don't like to be touched for long periods of time. And I'm a restless sleeper. Apprarently, when I shifted position, Kujo didn't like it and kicked me. Numorous times throughougt the next few nights this happened until I kicked him out of my bed because I was mad. And to compound the fact, he's a wanderer in the night and likes to sleep under the covers, so he had to wake you up to let him under the covers. It's a good thing this freaking monster sleeps with my parents because this wouldn't go on for long!

And did it help that every time he went on his nighttime ventures, he stepped on my injured foot which wasn't splinted because doesn't need to be fore night. I learned early on to put an ACE bandange on it. Stupid Dog.

THEN, to top it off, today my dad calls and they're having an open house at his work. This has happened 3 times in my life and he's pretty much worked there my entire life. They do top secret work and are sworn to not reveal anything even if they see it on the sci-fi channel. Cool, huh? So I get to go! Then we realize there is only my car available with keys because my sister hid the keys to my parents car so I wouldn't drive it under the influence. Did I mention I accidentally hit a parked car? Good think it was a Kia with a rubber bumber, so we just have some black skids on our car. And yes...I did leave a note. We were expecting a shipment from Seattle (The parental road trip) to help finish packing up my Grandma's house that was a framed painting my brother brought back from Korea. It arrived. Kujo doesn't like strangers. I tried to grab him by the collar and he lunged to the side. Wanna guess which side? THE WRONG SIDE! So now I'm icing my foot again and sincerely wishing for a couple percocet's to knock me out. But I can't take anything because evidently even Aleve makes me slur like I'm drunk and my family thinks I have a substance abuse problem. I could only wish. I'm too excited to go see my dad's work, so I'll power through the pain, people! Just for love of DAD!

IT NEVER FAILS!

Whenever my father goes out of town, the swamp cooler breaks. I'm afraid of heights and it really hasn't been too hot the past few days, so I've just been sucking it up, but today totally bites it. Especially with that totally fashionable air cast on my right foot! I'M HOT, PEOPLE, HOT!

Good News and Bad News!

The good news is that the foot isn't broken! The bad news is that it's a level 2 strain in two different areas, which isn't good. I get the privilege of wearing an air walking cast for the next 3-6 weeks. I must say mine is cooler looking than the picture I found.



I get the luxury of wearing this wonderful cast for the next 6 weeks with tennis shoes. Anytime I have a "load bearing" situation, I have to put this cast on with tennis shoes. What a pain in the tush because I usually walk about the house in bare feet. Guess I'll have to adjust.

Can I just say this doctor was the ultimate best. He explained that was going on, felt for where the pain was and laughed with me when I lauched off the exam table at an unexpected momen of pain. He then went and relooked at the x-rays and told me the good news was that I hadn't broken my foot. Hallelujah! I love good doctors, they're the best and hard and all get out to find! Too bad he's a sports medicine doctor or I would totally change to him! He was so cute because he was so country...even wore a bolo tie. Awwwww!

I asked him about a massage and he advised against it because the foot needs time to heal before a massage. Bummer. I need to go find some Arnica. Anybody know where I can find this stuff?