29 Gifts, Day 21 - Hair Care

I skipped lunch and got a haircut today (the term "haircut" is inclusive of whatever it takes to cover all of the grey hair I'm getting from Norah - more on that later).  Since I usually have about 9 minutes to shower and complete my entire morning routine, I never "do" my hair.  Between the straightening, shortening, coloring, and my new glasses, it was like Extreme Makeover - Librarian Edition.  Our admin told me several times, "Wow!  You look really great!" which means, "You usually look like hell!" but that's ok.  I stopped by the school book fair at Barnes & Noble and several people didn't recognize me.  Then I went out for post-voting drinks with the girls, who luckily all recognized me and didn't tell me that I usually look like hell.  If I had the extra half-hour it takes to not look like hell, I'd probably do something else with the time anyway.  Who cares if I look like hell, really?

UPDATE (the day after the haircut):  This morning after I showered and towel-dried my hair, Adlani said, "Uh, by the way...your hair doesn't look that good.  It used to look really nice but now it looks all tangly."  WHATEVER!!!

So to stick with the theme of *hair*, my gift today was 5 bottles of shampoo and 5 bottles of conditioner for the Pathways Family Shelter.  I called to see what they were in need of and my contact said size 3/4/5 diapers (always), brooms (seems random), and shampoo for African-American hair.  When I asked my awesome hair sorcerer Gina what she would recommend for shampoo, she said that she had a bunch of lotions and potions that she could donate too.  Yay!

And back to Norah...I remember when she was an infant and I frequently commented that she was such an easy baby.  We'd drag her around to everyone else's activities and she just rode along in her infant seat without complaint.  Well, it's payback time.  I think I should stop calling her a monster so I will say that she's a *challenge*.  When I say "challenge," I'm talking Boston Marathon / Mt. Killimanjaro / Rubik's Cube challenge.

Last weekend we took her to the breast cancer benefit and everyone kept saying how cute she was, what a nice young lady she was - HAH!  To the left, you can see a photo of her posing at the mall in her Sunday Best (her idea).  And below you can see the REAL Norah, when we had to put her in the Penalty Box (the breezeway) because she was on a rampage - dumping over the garbage, throwing things, spitting, and basically behaving like she's been raised by wolves.  I don't know how much more fight I've got in me.  Seriously.