Seismic hair waves prompt big shifts in the atmosphere....

It's funny, today I read a few blog posts from people who just did what I did--got sick of their hair and whacked it off. What, is there a full moon or something? Some earthly pull that drives a woman to consider walking blindly into a salon and letting some stylist have their way with her tresses?

I knew it was time to cut my locks when my stylist, who normally says, "I really prefer long hair" switched to saying, "Sure! What are you thinking about?" and then enthusiastically whacked away at what took me years upon years to grow out. Sigh.

Here is the back of it, and the end result. Not bad. It is definitely going to be easier to manage, I think. The front is pretty much the same with a little tapered side bang that is almost as long as the back, but not quite.

I know it looks incredibly plain in this shot, but you have to imagine its state before to understand my joy with this. I'd attempted to grow the long layered/long bangs look and it ended up looking more like a bad/fried 80s hairdo than it did what I wanted. Picture Farah, only over-processed and aging Farah. Or perhaps the guy from A Flock of Seagulls once the sides finally grew out/

The verdict was pretty good from those I asked:

Me--liked it instantly

Hubs--said he liked it instantly

Son--said "What did you do to your hair? It is too short. I don't like it." (leave it to kids...sigh...)

Daughter--said nothing until I pointed it out and then said she liked it.

Evil Neighbor--said it looked great (note to self, don't trust this one...)

So, I'm sporting a new 'do and now feel energized about getting back into losing weight and a healthier lifestyle. I made the grilled cheese sandwiches with innards mixed with pureed sweet potato tonight and my son proclaimed it perfect. Score for MomCat! The REALLY miraculous thing will be if I wake up tomorrow and am able to recreate this hairdo, actually.

This last link is something that absolutely horrified and disgusted me. Have you all heard of this doctor and what he and a little girl's parents did to her? It is absolutely unbelievable and unethical and it doesn't surprise me that he couldn't continue on after doing something like that. Modern medicine can be such an amazing and great thing, but it is cases like this that show it's dark and ugly side...

How You Know You've Entered the Gates of Mommy Hell...

I despise kids haircutting chains. And, yet, I find myself there regularly with my children gritting my teeth and just hoping to get it over with quickly.

Until this past year, when my husband discovered a tiny little shop near our home where two Asian sisters cut hair for ultra-cheap (under $10, people!) They are sweet ladies trying to make their business a success and so I often bring the kids there. I have never had to wait more than 10 minutes and there is only two of them with no receptionist.

Today, if I could have telepathically transported myself and my children to their small salon, I most certainly would have done it. Because, today, I was stuck in pure Mommy hell.

When we walked in the "chain," it seemed a little crowded, but not ridiculously so. There were three ladies doing hair, and it seemed things were moving. I added my kids names to the list and made mental plans of the errands we would run afterwards, since my husband was called into to work all day. It looked like there were just 3 names ahead of us so I planned for a 15-20 minute wait, tops.

An hour-and-a-half later, we finally left. My blood sugar was near my ankles and I had a daze to my stare that only comes from spending too much time listening to little girls cry about getting their hair cut, overly-particular mothers pointing out each hair the stylist missed, and kids arguing over the Thomas the train set.

My advice for anyone who sets foot in one of these establishments is this--don't trust the list. As I learned, people who called in to make an appointment, even if they had called in 45 minutes AFTER I signed the list, were put ahead of us because they had an appointment. I deduced after the fact that I could have walked outside, called from my cell phone and we probably would have gotten in for our haircut 30 minutes earlier. Ridiculous!

At one point, I began mentally willing a small boy who was ahead of us in line to wet his pants. His mother kept asking him to go, and the child obviously had little-boy-bathroom-syndrome. He was not willing to leave the Legos for even a second to pee-pee, no matter what. And, I thought....hmmm...if he pees all over this floor, his mother will be mortified and ticked-off. Chances are, she wouldn't stick around with him in urine-soaked pants. And, hmm...then we'd move up a place in line.

That's when I knew I'd been there too long, my friends. My other clue was when my son actually grew tired of playing Tony Hawk's Pro Skate and started watching Dora with his sister.

The kids finally got in after about an hour and 15 minutes and got their cuts. We all left in bad moods that were not made better by a trip to a funky new car wash on the way home. Damn those haircutting chains!

No $6 off coupon will lure me in again, I tell you! It is just SO NOT WORTH IT.