05 May 2003

My sorority's formal was this Saturday. My last one ever. No sadness here, though. While they're fun and all, I'm not exactly the huge party girl, plus when your boyfriend doesn't like to dance how much fun can they really get?

Last year I got my hair "did" and while it looked nice, I didn't think it looked like anything special, and certaintly wasn't worth the 50 dollars I had to spend to get it. It was my first time I had ever even got my hair made up for a dance...not even in middle school or HS did I ever do anything like that. I guess, sure, your hair looks cute, but it's such a waste of money in my opinion. But, I bought a pretty expensive dress (most I had ever spent) last year so I thought why not go ahead and dress myself up?

So this year I thought it might be fun to get my hair done again, but I figured any old "Saturday's" would work. Well, I was wrong. I have had bad experience after bad experience with these thrifty hair places, so I don't know why I gave it another go. Everytime I go to one I walk out promising myself I will never go back. I just don't get it...but cutting/coloring/styling hair must be a true and talented skill that only the highly trained get, because it seems like even a trim gets messed up at these family hair salons.

My last visit to a generic salon was on campus and it was extremly ghetto, and I wasn't going to risk that again, so I decided I would drive home and give the 'burbs a try. Well, it's not much better. The first one I went in had 40 minute wait and the hairdressers weren't exactly stylin' so I wrote my name down, but left to continue shopping around.

My next visit was to a place I had receieved bad service from before, but I thought I'd give them another chance. After all, I wasn't getting my hair cut in any way, just styled. They must have gone through some training, right?

This place had only a five minute wait, so I stayed. The receptionist was a cute "mom" type, really friendly and nice. She made me feel comfortable, although a quick sweep of my hairdressers wasn't exactly promising. Well, "grandma" is my hair stylist, who admits to me that she has, "better things to do with her time than to do her hair in the morning" which I at first agreed with (I am bare minimum...no styling product, no anything, I try to blow dry and go if possible)....and then I start thinking--

But wait, you work at a salon, shouldn't hair be your passion? Something that always gives you pleasure...something that never gets old/boring/or a waste of time? Apparently, grandma is too old to worry about stuff like that. She continues to say she is that "crazy old woman" with a lot of joy in her life. It's the joy of Christ living through me, she says.

She does seem pleasantly upbeat as she goes to work experimenting with me. First it's half up, and I look like a 12 year-old with grandma curls in the back. I'm horrified, but I just keep smiling. I can't decide what would be best...to let her finish and then run home and wash it out, or to tell her it's not working and to try something else.

The receptionist comes over and agrees with me that it's not working, so they take it down, and then in goes a million products as they try doing some sort of messy/curly look (I have BTW, very straight, fine hair...it does *not* curl...ever, even if you try to do it). This new "look" is also not working. Grandma says she kind of likes it, and all the other hairdressers/receptionist are just laughing with me, as we try to say it's pretty awful.

I'm not sure what to do at this point. I just want her to wash it (not even dry it!) so I can get the hell out of there as fast as possible. I'm not angry or sad...I left enough time to re-do my hair just in case if it was a disaster visit, and I didn't come in there with any instruction or tips, so I wasn't exactly helpful either. I didn't mine paying either, after all I had used her time, and grandma and the gang had been very nice to me, even if it hadn't worked. So I cautiously suggest she just wash it out, and I'd be on my way.

She tells me that I'm not paying for this, and not to worry and we go to wash my hair. After the hair washing, she asks me if I use conditioner (yes) and she squirts a little in her hand and rubs it in my hair...we're not going to wash this out, because I just used a little she tells me.

Uhhh, no. I mean, my hair is so fine, it looks greasy after 4 hours from when I take a shower....if you use product at all it has to be real fine, and you definitly don't LEAVE IN conditioner in it (and this isn't the leave in kind, i'm talking straight from the bottle stuff). Grr, so I'm frustrated, but I feel bad saying anything, so I don't. Then she goes to blow dry it and I ask her just to blow it dry under, which she sort of does...but I think Grandma is getting tired, because this takes forever, and finally she decides she didn't do a good job and busts out the curling iron. (NO!)

So she kind of curls one side, and I'm telling her, it's alright, and I'll just go. Whew, and finally she lets me go. She's real cute and gives me a hug and tells me to have a good time, and off I go.

Ahhh! Haha, so half my hair is curled, the other is pretty flat. I rush to my parent's house which is only five minutes away from there and re-do my hair. I was in the salon for over an hour, and I didn't even get anything accomplished! So I do a rush job of my hair, but at this point I don't care. I just want it clean (conditioner free, please) and smooth and sleek, which I think I do an okay job of.

I have once again promised myself i will never do that again, and hopefully I have learned my lesson. I'm thinking at this point either you don't get the hair done/cut or you suck it up and pay the price to get it done by a professional. It's hard to make myself pay the high price though. I mean, when I get my hair cut/highlighted it cost me around $120 dollars. Sure they do a nice job, but the whole time I'm thinking no way should this cost that much.

Maybe when I have an actual job that won't seem so bad to me, but right now I can only afford to get my hair done every three months or so, and every time it's a killer to pay. I look much better as a blond though, and I've tried the color out of box thing, and that will definitly not work!

The formal was okay. I got pretty drunk before we even got on the bus to go, which was a feat in itself, because it's hard to get myself to drink, but I was definitly drunk and everyone's best friend at the party before hand. By the time we got to the place I was still doing fine, but once dinner was over this horrible headache set in. I don't know if I sobered up that quick and I had a hangover already, or what, but I felt terrible. Strangely, so did Jeff.

I don't even know if he was ever drunk, but I was in a lot of pain. We danced for a little bit, but to be honest I just wanted to take some tylenol and cut my head off...or at least go to sleep or something, anything to make the pain go away. Jeff was joking that it felt like he had drank all night and through the morning, and then he had just woke up. I don't know what happened, I mean we didn't really drink that much, and I shouldn't have had a headache like that, especially so fast.

The next three hours were long and terrible, but finally we could go home. We had talked about calling a cab, but it would have been pretty pricy from where we were. We rode home on the bus with all the young girls...they probably wondered who I was, because I doubt even half of them knew who I was (I knew I couldn't name half of them!).

On the ride home I felt sickly. Perhaps I was still drunk, even though I drank water at the place not more alcohol. Finally we got home and tried to fall asleep.

The good news??

Somewhere in my drunken state during dinner the issue of marriage was brought up. The rumor at formal was that there were to be two candle passings. A candle passing occurs when one of the girl's relationships have progressed to some level of commitment. Either a fraternity guy gives you his letters, pin or it could mean someone was getting engaged. My table thought jeff and I had gotten engaged.

We've all given up on Jeff giving me his letters, because his fraternity is very against it. So that got us talking, and I don't remember the conversation exactly but he said something along the lines of, "Sure, I would love to say it was me, but how would that look if I said, 'hey mr. aglaia's father, may I take your daughter's hand in marriage? Yes, that's correct I am in debt, have no money, nor a job.'" Not yet, he told me.

Not yet. Ahhh, isn't that exciting? The fact that he'd be willing to even say something like that I thought was pretty great. Sure that doesn't get me off the hook from actually sitting down with Jeff to figure out what's going to really happen to us when we graduate, but it's nice to know that he's at least thought about it. I've known since last summer that I wanted to marry Jeff. It doesn't have to be right away, but it would be amazing for us to be able to casually discuss it. Then it wouldn't be a question of "maybe" but only a question of "when."

We'll see.

I just finished reading this book called "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America" by Barbara Ehrenreich. It's an interesting look on what it is like to live off of a minimum waged job. It makes you sick as you read it. I felt really defeated and frustrated with our government and just the systems that keep people from ever getting out and getting into a better life.

I also read the book "The Invisible Heart: Econmics and Family Vaules" by Nancy Folbre. I really recommend that book to anyone. It gives you this look into how our government defines family values, what's really going on with economics in the US and how things are affecting everyone. You definitly leave with a different opinion about the welfare system than you typically hear about it.