Kate’s Adventures

On Cinco de Mayo, I wandered into the liquor store in Davis Square, briefly considering whether I should buy a bottle of tequila for the occasion, ignoring the fact that tequila and I do not get along whatsoever.

Once I got there, I realized that I still have a pantry full of Jameson and Bailey’s from St. Paddy’s Day two months ago, so getting tequila wouldn’t be a good idea.  But I did need some beer.  My roommates and I always have plenty of hard alcohol, but we don’t have much for mixers or beer.  It would be nice to have something to offer guests.

I walked around the store.  An older man said hi to me and I smiled without making eye contact.  I then picked up a six-pack of Blue Moon.  I liked that stuff.

“Excuse me,” the man said.  “How would you like me to buy you a six-pack?”

I laughed.  “Well, who’s going to say no to that?”

Turns out he’s the VP of Sales & Marketing for Leinenkugel’s.  He started talking to me about the brand, a beer with which I wasn’t familiar.

It turns out that Leinenkugel’s has a beer similar to Blue Moon called Sunset Wheat.  It has more orange and more coriander in it.  I love my Blue Moon with orange, so that sounded fantastic.

“Wait,” he said.  “Forget one — I’m going to buy you two.”

He started telling me about the Summer Shandy, a lemony beer perfect for the beach or relaxing on a summer evening.

He bought the two six-packs for me and even carried them out to my car for me.  He then gave me his business card and told me to email him and tell him how I liked them.

Well, Dick, here we go:

Leinenkugel’s Sunset Wheat: AMAZING.  It’s like Blue Moon on crack.  It’s just like he said — very similar to Blue Moon, but with much bolder flavor, much more orange and deliciously spicy.  Fantastic.  Just fantastic.

Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy: Delicious, and I would definitely recommend it, but not as much as the Sunset Wheat.  It kind of walked the line for me — it wasn’t enough of a beer; it kind of tasted like a fruity girly drink.

Overall, I enjoyed them both immensely.  (I also brought a few to a party, where they went over well!)

I’ve felt for a while that I need to find *my* beer, a beer that is kind of obscure but delicious and one that I introduce to everyone.  I think that Leinenkugel’s Sunset Wheat could very well be it.

Thanks for the beer, Dick!

I have a few tidbits from my final days at work that I need to share.  They’re hilarious.  But first, a nice picture of me and my friends:

Jackie, Nadine, Esther, me and Michelle in front of our building

I love these girls.

At my *old!* job, I would get work assigned to me from a team of assignors — Workflow.  They’re mostly in our Canadian office, but we email each other so often that I’ve gotten to be friends with several of them.

I sent them out an goodbye email, and I enjoyed the following email chain that ensued, everyone replying to all:

Me: Yo workflow, I’m leaving [the company] today — and I just called a guy with results who now wants me to do a crapload of requests for him, so if you could stop sending me work FOREVER, that would be sweet!  Kate

Joe: LOL……I bet that was fun to say!!!!

John: FOREVER!!!!

Sabrina: lol…awwww, Katelyn!!!!!  best of luck with everything!!!  We will miss you!

Kevin: Rubbing it in a little, ain’tcha?  Sheesh.

Michelle: :-)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kevin: I hit reply-to-all on this one when I shouldn’t have. Katelyn and I have a very good rapport, in case anyone was worried about her taking that the wrong way.

Me: I am rubbing it in and throwing some salt on it for good measure.

Kevin: *gasp*
*jaw hits floor*
*wide eyed shock*
Well, I never! Then again, I don’t get around much.

Hahaha.  Love those guys.

But the best message of all came from my friend Mike, who started at the company on the same day as me, who has almost always sat next to me and is one of my favorite work people.

He left me the following voicemail message yesterday:

“Hi Kate, this is [a really prominent manager] from [the company].  I just wanted to call you and let you know that [an HR person] told us about, uh, your exit interview, and we have some questions, just about your performance and that sort of thing.

So if you could give us a call back whenever, see if we could schedule another appointment for another exit meeting and interview you, the number is [617-555-1234].

You know we don’t want to get the police involved, or the FBI, or anything like that, we just want to handle this internally.

So if you could just call me back, again, this is [a really prominent manager], the [manager] of the Boston site, so give me a call.”

Okay.  The ludicrous part:

I totally believed it up until the word FBI.  Not police, FBI.

It didn’t matter that the voice didn’t sound a thing like the manager, or that this call came from MIKE’S CELL PHONE, of all places, but I honestly believed it.

I’m insanely gullible, but this is a new low for me.

I made my roommate listen to it and everything.

Seriously, though, it wouldn’t TOTALLY surprise me if a manager called someone after quitting to talk about his or her exit interview with HR.  I’ve seen stranger things happen.

I tendered my resignation today.  It feels surreal.  I’ve worked at my job for nearly two years, and it was my first job out of college.  My work friends are some of my closest friends, and I have no idea where I would be today without this job.

That being said, I had been planning to leave for a long time.  I am now able to leave because I have a great new job lined up.

To make a long story short, I was offered a job by The Missus, my favorite blogger who isn’t Michael K.  We’ve been reading each other’s writing for several months, and when a job opened up at her company, she thought of me.  A few weeks and interviews later, I secured the job.  Yep, she’s my new boss!

I don’t really want to go into too much detail right now, but I’m very excited about it!  This job is fantastic in so many ways!  It’s a great opportunity for me, and I have high hopes.  I might write about it more as time goes on.

Plus, it has the best parts of my former job — awesome people and casual dress code.

Speaking of the people at my former job, I knew that the hardest part of leaving my job would be saying goodbye to the WONDERFUL, WONDERFUL, WONDERFUL people.  These people have been more than just people with whom I work — they’re many of my best friends.

It breaks my heart that I won’t be able to see them every day, and that I won’t see many of them ever again.

Well, at least I’ve got a work party tomorrow night, a work celebration next weekend and a work gathering the week after that!  I also have Desperate Housewives with Esther and Nadine on Sundays, plus cocktail nights with the work girls on Saturdays!  AND the New Kids on the Block concert with Jackie this fall with awesome floor seats…

Leaving felt surreal today.  It didn’t seem like it was really happening.  I cleaned out my locker, did my exit interview, said goodbye to dozens of my friends.  Still nothing.

It didn’t hit me until I hugged one colleague and great friend in particular — and it took everything I had not to burst into tears.

It will get better.  I had a fantastic goodbye party tonight, during which I hung out with tons of my friends at Lucky’s Lounge, just down the street from my office in the Fort Point area.

You guys…I love you.  You have been amazing.  I will miss you so much.

Oh my God, let me begin by saying that I just got back from a nightmarish commute home from the bar.  I left Hynes at about 12:15 AM and immediately got a Red Line train to Alewife at Park Street.

Between Harvard and Porter, the train just stopped for 15 minutes.  Just stopped.  As I listened to song after song on my iPod, I watched everyone get aggravated, especially since the sound system wasn’t great and we couldn’t decipher any of the announcements.

After that, the train spent several minutes lurching a few inches, then stopping, then lurching a few inches, then stopping.  It felt like we were trying to get over bumps.

They let us off at Porter, telling us that all trains were out of service.  This was one stop away from where I needed to be!

I knew getting a cab would be nearly impossible during this time of night, even on Mass. Ave., so I waited for a bus.  (This is major for me, considering that I have NEVER taken a bus in Boston that wasn’t a temporary shuttle.)  A bus never came.

I hopped into a cab with two other people trying to get to Alewife and I just had the driver drop me off on the corner of my street and Mass. Ave., walking the rest of the way back.  The other passengers were amused when I pointed out where I had seen Owen Wilson earlier today.

But I digress.

I met the WORST PICKUP ARTIST OF MY LIFE tonight.

I went to Match in the Back Bay with Esther, Lauren and Laura.  The place has a nice atmosphere, though the martinis aren’t strong at all (I had two and I didn’t even feel a buzz) and the prices are a bit high.  They could also stand to spend extra money on the bathrooms.

The bar was really crowded, so I went to get a drink on my own first.  I squeezed in next to a guy who looked like a young Sean Penn with black hair and a goatee.

Guy: “You are so beautiful.”

Me: “Thanks.”

Guy: “I love your eyes.”

Me: “Thank you.”

Guy: “I’m Michael.  What’s your name?”

Me: “Lisa.” [Sorry, Lisa!!  It was the first name I could think of!]

Guy: “I live right here.  Where do you live?”

Me: “You live in this bar?  Funny, I grew up here, but I now live at a watering hole down the street.”

Guy: “I love the shape of your face.” (Starts leaning over and brushes his goatee against my shoulder.  He repeats this twice over the course of our conversation.)

Me: (Nothing.)

Guy: “I love your lips.  Can I talk to you?”

Me: “Well, this is a bar, lots of people, lots to discuss, yay!”

Guy: “Can I see you again, Miss Ulley?” (He had leaned over, reading my partially obscured ID.)

Me: “Listen, as awesome as this conversation is, I’m going back to my friends.”

Guy: “When will I see you again?”

Ugh.

Right after me, Esther went up.

Guy: “You look like my cousin.  My cousin is hot.”

After that, Laura got hers.

Guy: “I love you.”

When Lauren went up, she made sure to stand far, far away.

Ugh.  He could have at least bought us a drink.

I’m really in the mood to go dancing again.  I haven’t been in months.  Maybe next weekend.

I just got my hair cut for the first time in 18 months, due to being traumatized by my haircutting experience.

I was so afraid of another disaster.

Well, there was no disaster — AND I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THE RESULTS!!

I went to Escape Spa in the South End and had it cut by Wendy, after reading so many glowing reviews of her on Yelp.  Well, she definitely lives up to the hype.  Wendy is AWESOME!

I explained to her how my last haircut was traumatizing and told her concerns.  Above all else, I NEED LENGTH.  I love my long, wavy hair and I need to keep it at least a few inches below shoulder-length.  Additionally, I’d like more volume and I’d like a low-maintenance style.

I was also considering experimenting with side-swept bangs, NOT thick or heavy bangs of any kind (because I had those throughout my childhood and hated them).  I’m not a fan of my fivehead and wanted a way to camouflage it better.  I wasn’t sure how to go about it with wavy hair.

Wendy is amazing .  In addition to being HILARIOUS, interesting and so much fun to talk to, she did a wonderful job with my hair.  She didn’t try to make it anything it wasn’t (unlike many stylists).  She just worked with the odd wavy-to-curliness with the occasional straight patches throughout my hair.

She also remarked that she never sees hair in as good condition as mine, in spite of the fact that I hadn’t cut it in so long.  (That’s because I don’t dye it and I don’t blow-dry or heat-style it.)

Wendy cut the bangs long so that I can tuck them behind my ear, and she added layers throughout the front of my hair to give it depth and dimension.  I was a bit ambivalent right away, but as soon as it settled, I saw it: it’s perfect.  I don’t know how she did it.

And here are the pics!  Here we go:

Before:

After (down):

After (up):

I LOVE this up look!  I had no idea I’d be getting anything that good!  And if it’s a special occasion and I need to do a fancier French twist, I can wear the bangs straight and pulled to the side.

I highly recommend seeing Wendy at Escape!  They have no Web site, but you can check them out on Yelp.  Be sure to book ahead — she’s hugely popular and she’s going to be away all summer.  I might see her again for a touch-up before Vegas.

Oh — also, I was just driving up Mass. Ave., just north of Porter, near the Elizabeth Grady, and I SAW OWEN WILSON COMING OUT OF A BLUE TRUCK!!!!  I didn’t think it was him, but I saw the nose!!  He was with a women wearing a scarf over her hair — probably Kate Hudson!  She’s still filming in Boston!

But why North Cambridge?  Weird.

Thoughts on the hair? 

Let’s start with a confession.  I’ve been using the same exact eyeshadow — not just the same color, but THE SAME EYESHADOW FROM THE SAME CONTAINER — since high school!

It’s bad.  I know.

I tend to wear the same makeup every day, occasionally changing it up for nights out.  Each day I wear foundation (mixed with a bit of moisturizer), concealer (if I’m breaking out badly), powder, taupe eyeshadow, gray eyeliner, black mascara on both my lashes and brows (more on that later), and either reddish-brown or reddish-purple lip gloss.

The eyeshadow is Maybelline Shadow Trio in Tassled Taupes.  Taupe is a perfect color for me — it’s a great contrast to my blue eyes while picking up the yellow flecks in my irises, and it works well with my olive skin tone (especially during the summer).

I never ran out, despite wearing it almost every day, so I saw no reason to buy a new one (even though you’re supposed to replace powders every 18 months or so).  I didn’t even replace it after the light-colored powder had fallen out and the compact had broken apart.

And then they discontinued the color.

It wasn’t until recently that I told myself that I had to grow up already and buy a new one.

I combed through the huge Sephora at the Pru but couldn’t find anything that matched.  If I couldn’t find anything there, I was doomed, I figured.

Until today.

I was at CVS buying concealer when I found the most perfect eyeshadow: Revlon’s Make a Sheen in 865, Olive it Up.

Check it out:

I tried it on and I LOVE IT!!  It’s even better!  There’s so much depth!

Now, if only I can get myself to throw my old compact away.

No.  I’ve had it since the year 2000 or so.  I can’t bring myself to do it just yet

I’ve finally put together my 90s Slow Jams list.  I’ve moved away from generalizations and have pared it down to the most nostalgic songs of my childhood.

When I was 10 years old and in the fifth grade, it finally occurred to me that I could listen to the radio on my own — and on MY stations, not my parents’ — and I ended up discovering the wonders of Jam’n 94.5.  I fell into hip-hop and listened to no other station.

The first CD I bought on my own was TLC’s CrazySexyCool; the second was Boyz II Men’s II.  To this day, R&B is still my favorite genre of music.

Here is my perfect playlist, plucked from my 1995 boombox that I listened to with my door closed and the bathroom radio that I sang along with for way-too-long shower sessions:

1. Blackstreet — Before I Let You Go
2. TLC — Red Light Special
3. Brandy — I Wanna Be Down
4. Usher — Nice & Slow
5. Shai — If I Ever Fall in Love
6. R. Kelly — You Remind Me of Something
7. Boyz II Men — On Bended Knee
8. Mary J. Blige — Everything
9. Keith Sweat — Nobody
10. Monica — Before You Walk Out of My Life
11. New Edition — Still in Love
12. R. Kelly — Bump ‘n Grind
13. Babyface — Every Time I Close My Eyes
14. Keith Sweat — Twisted
15. TLC — Take Our Time

Hotttttt.

This was on I Can Has Cheezburger today.  Check it out:

Is it a rat?  A chinchilla?  A mongoose?

Who knows?!

I love how Deval Patrick authorized tax cuts for film production companies in the state of Massachusetts.  Because of that, tons (TONS!) of movies have been filming in Boston!

It’s fantastic — not only for the economy, but also because of the celebrity sightings!  Kate Hudson and Owen Wilson went to the Upper Crust in Beacon Hill; my friend ran into Cameron Diaz at the Starbucks by Park Street…

The Surrogates, starring Bruce Willis, is one of the latest.  According to IMDB, Set in a futuristic world where humans live in isolation and interact through surrogate robots, a cop (Willis) is forced to leave his home for the first time in years in order to investigate the murders of others’ surrogates.

I work in the Fort Point Channel area of South Boston.  This is a view of the filming area, as taken from right next to my office:

Heh.  Not that exciting yet.  But it could be…The Departed also filmed in the Fort Point area, and the scene when the body falls off the building was filmed just a few streets away from my office!

Let’s hope there’s another celebrity sighting in 2008.  I haven’t met anyone famous since Vanilla Ice.  Hmm, Matthew McConaughey is currently filming in town…so is Steve Martin…

I experimented a bit with my hair and nails this weekend.  First, I did what I had always wanted to do since I was little (and why I never did, I have no idea!) and painted my toenails two different colors, half and half, a diagonal stripe dividing the colors.

Here is the result:

There is a smudge on my left big toenail, but I’m not really in the mood to fix it.

I’m a lifelong pianist, so I rarely paint my nails.

Last night, my hair was still damp after being in its usual French twist all day, so I decided to see if I could get it extra EXTRA curly.

I don’t own a hair dryer, so I used my space heater, cranked up to 80 degrees.

I scrunched and sprayed with spray gel, then with hairspray, and held my head upside-down in front of the space heater.  It only took about five minutes.

The result:

Huge, giant, crazy disco hair!  I LOVED IT!!!!

It’s not an everyday thing, but for an occasional night out, it’s awesome!

Seeing results like this makes me want to postpone the haircut that I scheduled for next Saturday and keep growing my hair until it reaches my waist!

In Paris, it’s the 8ème arrondissement.  In New York, it’s the Upper East Side.  In London, it’s Knightsbridge; in Miami, it’s South Beach; in Washington, D.C., it’s Georgetown.

In Boston, it’s the Back Bay — the most upscale and luxurious neighborhood in the city.

And I am moving there on September 1!

My sister and I have planned to live together for the ‘08/’09 school year.  This is for two main reasons: first of all, we miss each other so much, even as often as we see each other!  Secondly, this is Sarah’s last year in Boston before moving to Los Angeles.  This is our last chance.

Also, as much as I LOVE my apartment and living in Davis Square, it’s time for me to live downtown.  It takes me about 15 minutes to get to Park Street from Davis, plus a 10-minute walk to the T in the first place, and while that isn’t very long in retrospect, it’s starting to bother me.  I want to be closer.

Sars is a film student at Emerson College, which is in the Theatre District.  Because of this, and because of all of her late nights working on films and projects, she needs to be downtown.  She is currently moving out of her Chinatown apartment just a few blocks away from school.

We were open to living in several different places.  Although the South End was my first choice (I will live there someday!), we were open to living in Beacon Hill, Bay Village, the North End, Fenway, the Longwood Medical Area and even as far as Central Square in Cambridge and Coolidge Corner in Brookline.  (ANYWHERE but Allston/Brighton.)

This place popped up on our radar.  We saw it the first day it went on the market, and when we saw what an amazing deal it was, we immediately pounced on it.

That being said, it’s small.

It’s a two-bed split: that means that there are two bedrooms and no living room.  When you walk in, there’s a hallway running from left to right.  There is a bedroom on the left side (with a bay window!) and a bedroom on the right side.  In the middle are a kitchen (tiny!  Not eat-in!) and a bathroom.

The apartment is in a brownstone near Berklee College of Music, technically in the Back Bay but right by Symphony and Fenway.  When you walk into the building, ours is the apartment immediately on the left, right next to the mailboxes!

And there are TONS of Berklee students there.  The guy living above us plays the drums.  Yikes.  He says he mainly plays at school, though.  It’s almost like dorm life.  Hopefully we’ll have some of the benefits of dorm life, like getting to meet new people all the time.

Yes, living in a place this small will be a challenge, but at least the bedrooms are large.  Besides, since we’re so close, we don’t mind hanging out in each other’s bedrooms, and we aren’t shy to having friends hang out there, either, like some people are.

Also, I will be getting rid of my car.  I’m very nervous about this, but I know it’s ultimately the right decision, considering gas prices, the environment and the deteriorating state of my car.  I won’t visit my parents and friends in Reading and Wakefield as often, but I can always take the orange line to Oak Grove, a 15-minute drive from my mom, or even take the commuter rail.

Plus, my dad loves coming into town whenever he can and has been doing it a LOT since Sarah and I moved here.  (I kind of have the feeling that he might relocate to a condo in Charlestown or Cambridge five years from now.)

And Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s are right in the neighborhood, along with a Shaw’s!  We’ll need to get one of those old lady carts.

I have to say that I have had a FANTASTIC living situation for the past 16 months.  My apartment is terrific, and I have wonderful roommates and landlords.  My roommates have become three of my closest friends, and considering some of the roommate experiences I’ve had in the past, that’s an incredible gift!  I will miss them dearly.

So…if you’re looking for a place to live, I have a great Davis Square apartment that I can offer you, starting September 1 (which is Labor Day).

On a bit of a whim, Lisa and I decided to go to Foxwoods yesterday.  We decided that we needed to do a bit of gambling practice before we go to Vegas in June.

I’ve been practicing Blackjack since seeing 21 (and reading Bringing Down the House, the book that inspired the movie), and I was eager to try it out.

But when we got there, it was so intimidating — we were leered at everywhere we went.  To be frank, we were the best looking people there by FAR, and I say that truthfully.  If you’ve ever been there (and it was my second time — I’ve also been to Mohegan Sun once), you know the crowd — EVERYONE is old, and there are wheelchairs and oxygen tanks everywhere.

It’s quite depressing, actually.

First, we met up with Janelle, who drove up from Sacred Heart, and we grabbed some Panera.  Janelle had to head back after a bit, and Lisa and I headed over to play hih stakes bingo.

It was fun, though not as fun as the first time I went a few years ago, and we ended up leaving after a few hours of highly competitive play and realizing that we couldn’t keep up with the grannies.

We then hit the Blackjack tables.

I was scared, but I had promised myself that I would play Blackjack publicly for the first time ever.  Then a guy beckoned me over to a table.  I joined.

The minimum was $15.00.  I got $45.00 in chips and decided that if I lost that, that would be it.

Hand #1:

• Bet $15.00
• Lost the hand
• Total winnings: $-15.00

Hand #2:

• Bet $15.00
• Won the hand!!
• Total winnings: $0.00

Hand #3:

• Bet $15.00
• GOT BLACKJACK!!!
• Total winnings: $22.50

Hand #4:

• Bet $15.00
• Won the hand!!
• Total winnings: $37.50

Hand #5:

• Bet $15.00
• Won the hand!!
• Total winnings: $52.50

Hand #6:

• Decided to up things and bet $20.00
• Got a 2 and a 9, while the dealer had an 8
• Doubled down — bet $40.00
• Won the hand!!
• Total winnings: $92.50

At that point, I knew it was time to quit.  I was ahead, and I might not have as much money if I kept playing.

So that was that!

Lisa, as we walked away: “Those few minutes were more exciting than the entire time playing bingo.”

And now I cannot WAIT for Vegas!!

I love spontaneous, unexpected adventures.  The one I had on Monday was certainly memorable.

I was doing errands in Davis, finally getting my shoes repaired (they all wear down on the right heel!), when I got a phone call from my friend Esther.

Esther: “What are you up to?”

Me: “Doing errands in Davis.  What about you?”

Esther: “I got VTO [Voluntary Time Off, when you get to leave early without pay or using your accrued time off hours].  I’m at Park Street.  Want to go get some food?”

Me: “Um…OKAY!”

We met in Harvard Square and went to the Border Cafe, one of my all-time favorite places.  I used to go there on my birthday each year, though I rarely go anymore.  We split a quesadilla and each got a strawberry margarita (and let me say that Esther is also a vegetarian, so I love that she doesn’t temp me into eating meat!) and spent the next hour or so girlytalking at a thousand miles an hour.

It was fun.  We then decided that it would be a great idea to congratulate/roast everyone we knew who had recently gotten a promotion of any kind.  Yeah.

Esther used to work at the Charles Hotel, which is one of the nicest hotels in Boston.  We dropped by to say hi to her friends, and then, after taking a break and getting some food with one of her old work friends, we headed back in and he beckoned for us to join him in the elevator.

We rode to the top of the building.

To the Presidential Suite.

Bill Clinton has stayed there.  So has Al Gore.  And Will Smith.  And countless other politicians and celebrities.

I have never been in the best suite in a luxury hotel before, so I found it very cool.  I have to admit that I giggled like crazy at the seemingly precious painting that zips up into the wall to reveal a flat-screen TV.  It’s the best of both worlds!  I think I’d like that in my dream home someday.

The view was great, too — you could see the skyline across the Charles (river, not hotel).

After crashing the suite, Esther and I hung out in the square for a while, then went back to the Charles.  To use the bathrooms.  (They were really nice.)

Special thanks to our lovely guide for sneaking us up there!

Today, I was sitting at Flour Bakery (incredible) with my friend Esther and enjoying a quiche and salad when I suddenly realized that I had hit a milestone.

“Your hair is getting so long,” Esther remarked.

“Yeah, it’s getting kind of crazy,” I replied.  “I need to — WAIT!  Is today the 18th?”

“Yeah, it is.”

I realized that I had reached the eighteen-month anniversary of my ill-fated haircut that, at the time, I deemed “the biggest mistake of my life.”  I cut it off impulsively, thinking I could rock a short, dark (dyed black?), curly look.

I should have known better.  I always hate short hair, and I’ve dyed my hair twice with semi-permanent haircolor and I’ve gotten highlights twice.  Those four instances were all during high school.  I’ve had long, dark, wavy hair since the beginning of college.

When I was young, I viewed long hair as a status symbol.  When I was in the fourth grade, I was neck-in-neck with another girl for the honor of having the longest hair in the class.  When she cut hers off, I felt like I had achieved something fantastic.

As a result, I’ve only had about three short haircuts, ever.  The rest of the time, it’s been shoulder length or longer.

I was so upset when I cut it off in October 2006 that I actually calculated how many millimeters it grew each day.  I wore it up every single day for a few months.  Traumatized, I resolved not to cut my hair again for a long, long time.

It grew, and it grew quickly.  I never blow dry my hair, so my hair is in pretty good condition.  I never get split ends — but after eighteen months, I’ve got some splits to repair!

Here is my hair right after I got the haircut:

And here is how my hair looks today:

I usually let it get curly from sleeping on it wet, but it went kind of straight today.  I never know how it’s going to look on any given day — it’s quite tempermental.

(And YES, that is the amazing SILF shirt from BustedTees.  I LOVE THIS SHIRT!!)

I think I’ve gone long enough.

It’s time for a haircut.

Not even REMOTELY above the shoulders, though!

I need to find a new stylist, but that will be a new entry altogether.

My sister, Sars, is a sophomore film major at Emerson College.  She is hilarious and deep, and her films are great — but whenever she needs music in a pinch, she gives me a call to play piano for her.

I write scores for her the way Clint Eastwood does for films like Million Dollar Baby — I just sit at the piano and play whatever comes to mind.  At least I did that in high school.

We just ended up playing whatever pop songs immediately came to mind and recorded them.  Here is the very odd playlist:

• The Beatles, “Something”
• Damien Rice, “The Blower’s Daughter”
• Marvin Gaye (and MANY others), “If This World Were Mine”
• Britney Spears, “Gimme More”
• Smashing Pumpkins, “For Martha”
• The Beatles, “Across the Universe”
• Ray J, “Sexy Can I”
• Jon Brion, “Row” and “Peer Pressure” (from Eternal Sunshine)
• Ryuchi Sakamoto, “Bibo No Aozora / 04″ (from Babel)
• “What Sweeter Music” (FU Glee Club!)
• David Bowie, “Life on Mars?”
• David Bowie, “Space Oddity”
• Ferras, “Hollywood’s Not America”

It will make an interesting soundtrack, indeed.