So starting with the small hair event that got me started on this thought train, here is my before and after. Joe loves long hair so I've been growing it out for a couple years now, but every time it gets to a certain length, it just stops growing. And it looks nasty. It always gets to a point where it looks like I put the ends into a toaster and fried it. I would love to have long luscious locks but without any curls or natural character, it just ends up looking like a dog chewed on it. Here is me on Wednesday, the last day of the long hair.
I don't think I can get any mousier looking than that. I got brave and for the first time ever went into the salon and said 'you can do whatever you want!' I think the stylist got pretty excited. My only requirements were she take at least 4 inches off and leave it long enough to pull back. So here is the new style. I definitely like it and have gotten a lot of compliments on both the cut and color.
Not the greatest picture to show it off, but she went a little darker and put in a lot of layers. I'm definitely relieved to have that mop chopped off. If you'll notice our plant in the background is growing out of control. It's like that plant from Little Shop of Horrors where it eats people. That tall leaf is growing like one blind per day. It'll be to the ceiling by the end of the year.
Moving on to a much bigger and more important topic, last weekend was the 9 year anniversary of 9/11. I pretty much got stuck on the History channel that day. Every time I watch documentaries about that day I learn something new or remember something I forgot about. It's amazing how many stories there are out there because of how many people witnessed it first-hand. I watched about five different shows, the last one being a new documentary for the year that was a collection of amateur video called 102 Minutes That Changed America. From the beginning to the end was people's recordings from their apartment windows, on the streets, from tops of buildings, from inside the towers, etc. It was very moving and made it all feel much more real. The morning of 9/11 I was a sophomore at Indiana University. I was actually still sleeping when the first plane hit, but my boyfriend at the time called to wake me and tell me to turn on the TV. I sat there dumbfounded in my single dorm room by myself watching my 13-inch TV in disbelief. The entire day was quiet, people walking around like zombies, going to class and not able to pay attention. Student union, dorm lobbies, and the like all had TVs on surrounded by crowds of college students. It was so early in the school year that I hadn't had a chance to get to know everyone on my floor very well, but there was a girl at the other end of the hallway who I had briefly met who lost her dad in the towers. They actually lived in Ohio, but he was in NYC on a business trip in which he had a meeting in one of the towers that morning. If I recall correctly he was possibly on one of the floors that the first plane hit so I can only hope it went fast for him. I couldn't believe that on a campus of 45,000 students, where 2 of them lost a parent in the attacks, one of them actually slept a few yards from me. She took the rest of that semester off to be with her family, but I remember a few of us threw her a little going away farewell in our hall's lobby and she was the strongest one there. Here is a 19-year old girl who just lost her dad unexpectedly in one of history's most horrific events and she was the only one in that room not crying, telling all of us that things were going to be okay, that her family is going to get through it, and for all of us to have a great semester. I don't remember her name, but she will always be a part of my memory of that event.
Because that has played such a huge role in the aftermath of everything, it's hard to imagine what life would be like had that not happened. Vicitms would still be in people's lives, security wouldn't be so strict, the twin towers would still show up in movies of the past decade, every little accident that happens wouldn't be looked at as a possible terrorist attack. I hate when I hear about something fairly small happening and the government's first instinct is a terrorist attack, therefore it gets plastered all over the news that way, only to find out it was an accident or malfunction of something. The attack has forever changed how this country lives.
Recently I have chosen to do a couple things that only have a before at this point. The after is yet to come. I have always wanted to learn how to play guitar, but didn't want to spend a lot of money on one. Conveniently, a coworker recently sent out an email that he was trying to sell a lot of stuff cause he's moving into a smaller place and one of the items listed was "a random guitar." I jumped on the opportunity and found out it was a 6-string acoustic which is what I wanted. It even came with the case, so I got my old, used, cheap guitar to start practicing on. I think it's from Brazil and is about 40 years old, but the sound is good. Just need to dust it off and have it re-stringed. I don't even know if that's the correct term, that's how little I know about guitars. I even downloaded a free app on my iphone that gives a few lessons and has the chords listed out with charts of what strings and frets to play. I'll be a pro by next year. HA! Doubt it.
I also thought of a really good storyline idea a few months ago and thought about trying to write a book. I sat down back then and wrote a couple pages, but the hardest part is always the beginning and I don't know if I like how it starts. It's totally a story that could be a movie and the other day I was thinking to myself why am I trying to write a novel when I know so little about books, yet watch movies like it's a necessity? I even have practice writing scripts from college courses, so I've decided to write a screenplay with my idea instead of a book. Look for it in 2017. ;-) Yet again, an idea is born. You have to wait for the after.
