The Return Of The Redhead

I grew up with hair that was titian red and I hated it. I mean, I despised it. I hated being teased for it, I hated that it made me different, I hated everything about it. I wished almost every day that it was different.

Then, I grew up and got over it. Then I grew up some more and decided I liked it.  Then I grew up all the way and it became a treasured part of my identity.

That is until I had kids at which point it got duller with each passing year. Instead of going gray I'm simply going dull and boring.  What was once unmistakably red is now headed straight for a dazzling shade of mud.  And each passing year I hate that it's happening more and more.

I finally gave in and made an appointment to have my hair colored - something I swore I would never do until I was gray.  I didn't feel like myself and I was tired of people looking at me and saying "Where did Jamie get his red hair?" and being confused when I said "Me."

Today was D-Day (Dye Day) and I was really keyed up and nervous this morning. I trust my hair dresser very much and he has never steered me wrong but still - this was a big deal!  Also, I was going to have him chop 3 inches off my hair in an attempt to tame its increasingly unruly nature.

I couldn't be happier with the results.

Before

After

Huzzah! I'm me again!!

Sometimes There's Nothing Like A Girls Night Out

Or IN, in this case.

Last night I met up at a friend's house with two other ladies from Twitter for an evening of wine, fun, pie-making and hilarity.

It was heavy on the hilarity, short on the pie-making, and late on the hours.  I got home at 2:30 am.  And it was W-O-N-D-E-R-F-U-L. I haven't laughed that hard in I don't know how long and I haven't stayed up that late voluntarily in years.

It was exactly what I needed.

So, ladies, you know who are, thanks for a wonderful night. I can't wait to do it again!

Suddenly, I Have A Social Life

I'm sure those of you that read this blog know that I don't get out much.  I have reasons for this - mostly in the category of "too much effort" in terms of figuring out who can watch the kids.  Also, as sad as it is to admit it, I didn't really want to go out in public looking overweight and gross.  It was much more comfortable to sit at home in jammy pants and watch ridiculous reality TV.

This week I suddenly have a social calendar to worry about.  Who knew?  Not me, that's for sure.

Yesterday, my father-in-law called me to see if I wanted to go see a production of Les Miserables with him. One of the local high schools is doing it and he had a couple of tickets.  Did I want one?  Yes.  So, tonight, he's picking me up and we're going off to see it.  I've seen professional productions of the show twice but it's been years so this should be fun.  I'll help Scot get Jamie's bed time mostly taken care of and then I'm off for an evening with Frenchman in revolt.

Tomorrow night Scot and I have a date.  Yay date!  Phipps Conservatory is holding a Members night to see the new Spring Flower Show.  We signed up to go and the grandparents are watching our spawn. They're even taking the kids early enough so that we can go out to dinner first.  We've done this once in the past and had silly good fun so I'm really looking forward to it.  Plus, it will give me a chance to play around with my new camera some more.

The next stop on our social agenda is getting together with good friends who recently came home with their new daughter, adopted from China.  We're ridiculously excited for them and can't wait to meet their sweet daughter who is a few months older than Jamie.  I have a feeling the two of them will get along famously as they both appear to love getting into anything and everything.  We're still working on setting up a get together but I'm excited!

And, of course, I'm still planning to flit off to Texas sometime in the next couple of months to go visit my bestie.  Again, we're still working out all the details on this one.  But, you know what?  We could meet up on the moon and I wouldn't care just as long as we got to hang out, laugh, drink wine, and catch up.

I kind of knew that once I finally got off square one with the dieting that I would feel differently about a lot of things.  But it's still a bit shocking to me that I'm less than I week into this thing and I feel so much better about myself that I'm Little Miss Social Butterfly all of the sudden.  Sometimes the smallest changes make the biggest difference.