This week’s Friday Five: Give Me a Head with Hair

1. What shampoo do you use?
   I’m phasing out my old Neutrogena basic and going high-class with Aveda Shampure — supposedly good for colored hair and recommended by my stylist Bradley, who says he’s been “on a Shampure kick lately.” (Here’s Brad at his station along with Ron and another H Design client.)
2. Do you use conditioner? What kind?
   Yep, I use conditioner. Like my shampoo, I’m phasing out an old bottle of Back to Basics (of the green tea variety) and moving to Aveda Brilliant.
3. When was the last time you got your hair cut?
   My last hair cut and color was Tuesday, April 30. I typically get my hair cut every four weeks, but I’m a bit ahead of schedule as I’m getting it cut again this Thursday. Good thing, as I’m leaving for a weeklong vacation Saturday to humid Washington, D.C.!
4. What styling products do you use?
   I’ve found that too much product weighs my hair down, so right now, I’m only using two: Aveda Brilliant pomade (the anti-humectant kind) which keeps my hair soft, shiny, smooth and straight, and hairspray (the name escapes me, but it’s in a black and white bottle).
5. What’s your worst hair-related experience?
   I’ve always had short hair, so I can remember a few: the Annie style perms, the mullet cut in the fourth grade, the “roll” of hair at the front of my head in the 80s …. my hair situation dramatically improved in 1998 when I met Bradley! My most recent hair disaster was after my last color …. I asked for a bit of red and it turned out too red, but thanks to all that expensive Aveda product, the red has blended nicely into a color I can live with.

Happy birthday, Eric! And, a one day belated happy birhthday wish to my mom, too.

“You know the feeling you get after reading a book that speaks to you, that touches your life, a feeling that you want to share it with someone else? BookCrossing.com gives you a simple way to share your books with the world, and follow their paths forever more.”

What books would you leave lying around for others to find? I’m so possessive (and obsessive) about my books that whenever I move to a new place, the bookshelves are the first things to get filled — so the thought of giving away my books sort of freaks me out. But why? I never read them again … why not pass them on for others to enjoy?

Fossilized Human Heads Found in South Dakota! (At least they weren’t found in North Dakota).

What is wrong with this picture?

Homer Heche Laffoon?

I had a bit of a close call with the mail this afternoon. The secretary for my office popped her head in my door, holding a brown package. “For you,” she said. “Ooh, how exciting,” I thought, especially since I hadn’t ordered anything — and after all, it IS Valentine’s Day.

So, I’m sitting at my desk looking at a shoe-boxed size package, with my name and address clearly typed on a label, and the return address listed as “Fulfillment America, Inc., One Burlington Ave., Wilmington, MA 01887.” Hmm. An order not placed. A package with an unknown return address. My old name on the label. Images of the Suspicious Mail Alert Poster I scrutinized at the Post Office last week flashed through my head. What was I supposed to do?

So … like an idiot, I slit open the package, holding it away from my face so that when it did explode, shrapnell wouldn’t actually hit me. Turns out it was the latest McSweeney’s, which, according to their web site, was shipped in a brown box last week. Lesson learned: update all subscriptions and read McSweeney’s more often.

The coolest thing about our new house can be summed up in two words: laundry chute.

Last night’s State of the Union address left me feeling a bit patriotic, so I checked out the White House web site this morning. Wow. Vast improvement over the old White House web site. This site actually had …. information on it. I was even impressed with the kids site. Very cool.

The move this past weekend was successful. The weather, once again, was on our side: 50 degrees and sunny in January. Everything went out without a hitch, we were out of the old, into the new and even cleaned the old in just six hours. It’s a good feeling to be out of that bust of an apartment we were living in in Burnsville, which pretty much turned out to be the ghetto. (Or should I just call it “ghetto,” as in “Our apartment was ghetto?” Paula introduced me to the phrase yesterday when we were comparing grocery stores. “Our Cub Foods is ghetto.” Ghetto as an adjective. Who woulda thunk?) We still have a crapload of unpacking to do, but at least we’re sleeping, eating and finding things to wear each day (thank god). And, the HOM Furniture folks just called too … turns out our new furniture may be arriving this Saturday.

My life feels unstable. With the move and everything else going on lately, it feels like the only comforting and normal place anymore is work. Yeah, that’s pretty sad when I look forward to coming to work for the normalcy, because it sure as hell isn’t normal around here lately. The construction continues and we’ve gone without a kitchen for nearly two weeks (I shouldn’t complain, considering the nice space I’m working in — but still, I’m getting grossed out washing my lunch dishes in the bathroom). Hopefully the project will be done soon and we’ll be moved into new offices by the end of February.

So, that’s that. A summary of the past week or so …. more posts later.

The great debate: it’s 5:15 p.m. — stay at work or go home? I haven’t finished packing yet and I’m dreading going home since it means wrapping dishes and wine glasses in newspaper and trying to find boxes for them all. But, they’re doing construction at my office (today, sadly, they tore out the kitchen; I hadn’t realized how much I used the kitchen sink til it was gone), and the whole house/office smells a bit like some sort of cleaning fluid. I’m not sure what it is … maybe the glue that was holding the linoleum down or the cabinets up? Whatever, it’s giving my right eye and nostril a bit of a run and sniffle …. so best go home.