To dye, or not to dye? That is the question.

You know what's really sad?

When you sacrifice your hair color for your job.

Seriously.

I like my fire-engine red hair! And Superwoman approves. But, to some, it seems unprofessional. And, as I work in public service, perhaps that's not the best thing. So, tomorrow, when I go and get my hair dyed and chopped, but mostly dyed, I'm debating just getting highlights. I know! What happened?! Just highlights?! What has working public service done to you?! I'm asking myself those same questions. And I blame it on the night shift.

Tuesday night night-shifts always somehow turn into a debate. Space Cadet and I always have completely random conversations - you can read all about our sea cow vs. snow leopard debate from last week here: My Life in Closed Captions: I guess I'll go on home, it's late. There'll be to... Today the majority of our conversations revolved around my hair color. She doesn't want me to dye it. "But whyyyy? It's so pretty! Just say no!" And then she pulled the ultimate mom question.

"Why does your hair need to be red?"
"Because it does?"
"But why?"
"Because I like it red."
"Why red?"
...

I had no answer. Had to do some soul-searching. All this from hair-dyeing, I know. Seriously? But it was one of those questions. "I don't know, it's just always been red." Which, again, wasn't really an answer. So I'm trying to think of one now.

I wasn't the most popular kid growing up. Grade school was kind of a disaster area and high school was just interesting. Going away to a dorm school and living with the same people 24/7... there has to be some room for rebellion. I found that in my writings and dyeing my hair. Mom is okay with it because it's temporary, unlike tattoos or piercings. Not that she'd have that problem with me, I see a needle and I pass out. Literally.

And it worked for things like One Act and Drama productions. I dyed my hair so many colors - red, blonde, blue, orange, purple, black and back to the original brown we forgot it was. But I liked red because it was way out there.

Plus I was a Charlie's Angels nut and that was Dylan's hair color. Yes, let's blame my hair diagnosis on Drew Barrymore. It's not like my friends don't already blame her for enough of my habits.

But that was then. Well, the Charlie's Angels stuck, but should the hair color? At the time I liked it being so out there. Loud and obnoxious. I wore my headphones and skater clothes, talked my idiot slang talk, made friends with some interesting characters, picked up some bad habits. But am I really that person anymore? Am I supposed to be? I'm a professional now. Getting my Master's. Working two jobs. Running a kids camp.

I'm over-thinking things. I should just dye it and get it over with. Actually have one thing in my life that's the old me. Instead of the public service me. Which apparently has made me both a social person and semi-morning friendly. And do things like debate highlights vs. hair dye.

Like I said, over-thinking. So, why red? Why does it define me? It's loud and obnoxious. It sticks out in a crowd. It makes me quirky and gives my family plenty of ammo to throw at me.

Aren't you supposed to stick out in public service anyway? The chick that interviews people for OPL says she wouldn't hire anyone who picked "invisible" as their super power. You're supposed to be seen and out there helping people.

And librarians are known for being way out there. With our green tea and literature references. Although my grammar is still atrocious. On purpose mostly. So perhaps red hair would be the right choice.

I guess it'll be up to Donna tomorrow. Maybe she can point me in the right direction. Hmmm...

Quote of the day:
"You text her after hours?"
"She texts me asking if Castle is new!"

Pics of the Week:

fun with faulty equipment. this is what happens when the receipt printer suddenly decides to start working after not working for half an hour.


paparazzi! a picture of taking a picture of taking a picture of taking a picture of... from Sensei's going away party. We rocked the place tonight, the parking lot was packed.


our very own Vanna White


QofA and Space Cadet hard at work

Sensei's party was a blast. More on that tomorrow. Her last official day. I might actually cry. She's fanstastic. And we're going to go insane without her.


what I came home to tonight. *hand over eyes* "geez mom, just dye your hair red already. i know you just want to be as cool as me." yeah, maybe i'll add in a bullseye on the side.

Alright, off to feed my super cool cat and eat some supper myself.

OUT!

take these broken wings and learn to fly...

I love Tuesdays. Broken up day, go in in the morning, work for three hours then run errands, take a nap, clean more of the apartment, go back in to work then come home and crash. I'm diggin' in. Just thought I should mention it.
Tomorrow will be a longer day, 9-5 then a meeting with my boss's boss's boss. Serious stuff. With a few members of my class to talk about our selection policy and its history. Totally gonna look like comic relief. Again. In front of my boss's boss's boss. No pressure. But I get to see my friends at the other branch, who I feel like I haven't seen in forever even though it's only been since like Friday.
Yes, I'm a nerd. Deal.

I feel like I should post this since I'm on a Maroon 5 kick and I love Glee.

Diggin' the whole pounding the table thing. Was stoked to see them do Maroon 5. Is it me or are there different Warblers in every episode? Like I know the council. And that blonde one, I think his name is Ryker or something. And then the dude that does bass. But everyone else looks new to me, and far too similar to Blaine.
And I'm sorry but I totally love Mercedes' "Hell to the No" song. Was totally crackin' up the whole time. "Loser like Me" is cool as well.
And hooray for Pink! I totally screamed...big fan of that song.

And yes it is mandatory that I post this song. Because I love it.

We attempted it in high school but it wasn't as good as Kurt and these guys' version. Yay Beatles.
And all I can think of when I see Kurt in this outfit is Johnny Cash as the Man in Black. I'll spare you the spouting of "Cocaine Blues" lyrics. Probably not appropriate anyway. The benefits of older parents is growing up listening to artists like Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, the Beach Boys, the Beatles, Carole King, Joni Mitchell, etc.

Speaking of childhood music, here's a favorite:

1983 John Anderson's "Swingin'" was kind of a family song. Ask the older sisters. Pretty sure we have some interesting/embarrassing/blackmail material recordings from them... "phone.....pie.....fry.....garden hose...."

I got a tiger, I got a tiger, I got a tiger hey! hey! hey! hey!

Don't worry, it's stuffed. And tiny. And cute. And sat on my dashboard today but I felt guilty leaving him in the cold so I brought him in for the night. Carter stared at it for a while then got bored and laid somewhere else. Now he's playing with the strap on my bag. Yes, he's brilliant.
Anyway, it was a present from my coworker since I'm a tiger now. Missouri's mascot. I've been a lion then a knight then a bulldog - really, a bulldog? why? - and now I'm a tiger. Major progress. Or a personality disorder, depending on how you look at it.
woops, forgot.
Time: 9:15
Music: "I can't lie" - Maroon 5
Location: Couch
Attitude: Amused

Today was split shift, shelving in the morning, desk work at night. Mom came between shifts so I didn't get any chores done. Other than paying for class, and sort of cleaning my apartment. Organizing. We'll go with that. Since I had to bring back my cat and all that he entails when I came back from Christmas I didn't want to have to carry all my presents and stuff in too so Mom brought them today. Half of my stuff was kitchen stuff so I put all that away today - it's like spatula overload. I have 6 in all different sizes and colors. What exactly is the purpose of a spatula anyway? It's not like the thing you flip pancakes with it's the thing that you mix batter with. That's a spatula, right? If not I don't know what it's called. But I have 6 of them.
BTW - Do you know how much freaking work it is to carve a grapefruit?! Dude. And how do you know when you're doing it right cause it just ended up a big pile of mess anyway. There's no sophisticated way to eat a grapefruit, no matter how you slice it. Literally. So I covered it in sugar and attacked it with a fork. It was good.

Tonight was fun. Me and Space Cadet totally rocked it. We agreed she's the senior space cadet, I'm only the tag along space cadet. I have to earn my rank. She made me do the closing announcement. Apparently my voice carries. Then she changed it to it's more commanding. Then she changed that to I project well. Which I guess is true. You learn to project well when you're in charge of a kid's camp, especially in the drama department. Which reminds me, I gotta start work on forms for registration soon. Ugh, already. That flew by fast. That means coming up with a theme with the rest of the leaders, finding a bible passage to match said theme, finding graphics, re-writing all of the forms from scratch because of changes from last year, then either writing or finding 8+ skits depending on how many kids I get. Blah. Will have to text partner tomorrow afternoon to see if he knows anything about the theme.

Tomorrow means larger branch, which I haven't been to since Thursday. I have a feeling I forgot to sign my timesheet before it was collected. Which means I lose points. And I like my 118 so that would suck. I'm hoping that by some weird miracle I finished it Thursday and signed it. Like had a psychic moment that I was gonna be sick the next day and not be back until tomorrow. But that's highly doubtful. Right? Especially since I don't remember having a psychic moment. And that's something you would remember. Right?
Tomorrow also means I'm wearing my Firefly shirt just to see how many people get the reference. Yes, it's official, I've turned into one of those too. Add that to the list of geeks I already am.

And I'm out. Gonna write some more Sketch and Edit's and then crash.
Have a good night.

Do cats get cold?

So, I've been busy - that's my lame excuse for not posting for a few days. I met up with my grad rep at this Mexican restaurant (I swear I always spell that word wrong and have to google it to make sure I don't look like an idiot, why couldn't they have made it simpler?) along with my aunt and mom. We had far too many jalapeno margaritas (which if you haven't tried one I highly recommend) while we watched the Huskers lose to A&M. It was sad and pathetic. And I love our coach, but he's a bit over dramatic about some things. But I guess that's just me as an outsider. If I were down there I would probably yell and throw things too.

I'm working on registration stuff and figuring which classes to take and how long it's going to take to get the degree. I'm thinking maybe three or four years, depending on how many classes I want to take while still working. To get back into the groove of classes and homework I'm only starting out with one. We meet one Friday a month and go to libraries across the state that people don't even know exist.

Besides all that I've been looking for a new car. Well, a new used car, since mine has 180,000 miles on it, not kidding. But I love it so it's going to be difficult. Tomorrow we're going to see a red 2008 Chevy Cobalt that looks promising. My brother went in today to talk to the dealer and they worked out pricing. But I get to judge when I get there. Gotta love big brothers. He's been very helpful.

I love Tuesdays though. I work in the morning then go back at night so I have the whole afternoon off which I spent intending to clean but ended up watching Dr. Who and taking a nap. It's a weird show but filled with constant surprises. I literally don't know what's going to come next because it's so off the wall. I think I like it, I mean it's not something I'd buy to watch over and over but I did get seasons one and two from the library so I'll go through those pretty quickly.

But after tomorrow I'm off until Saturday. So I'll go home and clean our my closets - ha, like that will actually happen - plus I'm taking my cat with me cause it's too long for him to stay alone. He loves the farm so he'll be happy to go back. It's the car ride with the constant meowing that I'm dreading. Speaking of Carter, do cats get cold? Should I actually turn on my heat so he doesn't like freeze? I mean, it's not freezing in here but do they get cold?

All for now. Gonna sleep, then work, then eat out with a friend, then farm house, then car shopping, then back to farm house, then sleep some more. Should be fun.