I must really love you guys a lot. Putting pictures of myself in various states of hair styling on the internet just for you to pursue so you don’t buy a $60 hair dryer in vain. Okay, you got me. Sometimes I do enjoy embarrassing myself and if you have ever shared drinks out with me you know this is a fact. (If you are just joining us I bought one of those crazy Infiniti Hair Dryers as a 23rd birthday present to myself. I talked about it here. This post is me showing how it worked.)

(Oh! On an unrelated note thanks to advice from Schmutzie I added a new Contact Info page to my blog. So people can stalk me a tad easier.)

Let’s begin:

So I got home that day and watched the DVD that came with the dryer. It showed how to use it and I am glad I watched it first or I know here were a lot of things that I would have done wrong. (Though between you and I they could have made the women in the DVD look like their hair was less frizzy after. Isn’t this thing suppose to help with frizz?)

After watching the DVD I began photographing my hair the way it looks naturally when it is down. Which is a wavy, poofy mess. I had also just gotten home from work in those pictures so don’t judge me. I know how I look in the before pictures.

Then it was time to head into the shower. I washed my hair as the instructions said to, but I didn’t condition. I tried the dryer the next day and I did condition that time and it was much more glossy.

After washing my hair I needed to towel dry it and then use the dryer on it’s normal setting to blow dry my hair until damp. Then I had to section off parts of my hair so I could work with it in smaller chunks at a time. Contrary to what it might seem you do need two hands to use this dryer. You need to hold your hair in one hand and pull the dryer through with the other. I sort of had a hard time with this, but that may be less about the dryer itself and more about the fact that my hair skills include putting my hair in a ponytail and clipping back my bangs. So others might have more ease with it. I’m sure that the more I use it the easier it will get.

I also think that this dryer would work better for me if my hair was longer. As it was I had a bit of a hard time maneuvering it through my hair and I did have to go through each section a few times. I think I would also have benefited from a small straightening iron just to smooth it over that last little bit.

Once it was done I used the setting to do a cool setting to finish it and I also put some glossing product in it and I was done!

As you can tell from the picture it could have been a little straighter, but not bad for my first time. The whole process (after the shower) took about 20 minutes so not something I will do daily, but certainly doable for when I’m going out.

I repeated the process the next day and I took my time a little more and also used conditioner as they suggested and I think it came out a lot better. I’m very happy with this purchase and I think it suits what I need well. I’m also excited to see if it works better the longer my hair gets.

Here is a final before/after because I really do seem to like humiliating myself. Enjoy!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

(Completely unrelated (maybe those sidebars aren’t such a bad idea) - Things like this post by Schmutzie are exactly why I want to be a gynecologist. So upsetting. )

I’m back from my weekend trip to Philadelphia! I was actually back yesterday, but you guys should know I rarely get things done in an orderly fashion. I will say that I didn’t eat a single hoagie or cheesesteak and I think my parents upon hearing this wanted to disown me. My dad grew up in the projects of West Chester so to him those foods are sacred.

Anyway am going to recap my wonderful trip and I will add links when I can.

SUNDAY -

We woke up early because neither of us felt tired. (I think we were excited). She had spent the night at my house so we drove to Dunkin’ Donuts and had breakfast. Then we stopped by Wal*Mart to pick up some last minute items we needed. We got back and packed the car, checked our directions and headed on our way. I didn’t realize how close we live to Philadelphia and in what felt like moments we were arriving in the city. Maybe it was just the excitement of the trip, but the two hour drive didn’t feel like two hours at all.

(Oh! We also stopped at a rest stop on the way and there was a little Farmer’s Market going on and it was soooo cute. Seriously. They had all sorts of fresh fruit, vegetables and pies and it was just really sweet looking. I would love to go back to it another time.)

Once we got into the city I could see the Philadelphia Museum of Art right away. I had my camera out and I was trying to take plenty of pictures. We found parking easily and went inside. The museum was huge. On Sunday they have Pay What You Wish as long as you pay something so we paid $5 each.

The first exhibit we went to was some guy from Wyoming in the 1800s. Not my style at all, but it was really neat to get up close the the painting and see the brush strokes. I would love to be able to paint like that. They were also really well done. But where did a guy in Wyoming get money for all the canvas and paints and how were they so readily available?

Then we went to see these Japanese paintings on cloth from the 1700s done by a man and his wife which I thought was cool. Most were painted using his fingernails which I thought was a little gross. There were some with orchids that I really liked. I enjoy a lot more color, but they were neat to see and there were a lot of them. We were there on the last day the collection would be there so it isn’t on their website anymore.

Then we moved through and saw many of the other exhibits. I enjoyed seeing some of the china and furnature and they also had some really lovely abstracts. I was excited to see some works by Georgia O’Keeffe! There was a section with Pop-Art that Kasey really liked. She also liked some abstracts that we took pictures of. We got in trouble with the guards twice. Once for using flash (oops!) and once for taking a picture in a certain room. They didn’t make me delete the picture though! Ha-HA! I win!! Seriously though I think that guard just wanted to yell at someone because I asked another guard if we could take pictures and she said it was fine.

After looking around for a bit we had lunch in the little cafe. They didn’t have much offered, but we each got salads and they were good. The we went to one of my favorite sections the museum gift shop!!! I love the gift shops in museums. They always have the most interesting things. I saw these little Japanese figurines and I really wanted one, but I figured they were expensive so I was looking at other things to get as a souvenir. Then I figured it wouldn’t hurt to go look at them and they had a whole table with them sitting in little packages. They were only $10.95 each! For a museum that is not only not expensive, it’s cheap! I sort of wish I had purchased two because I like them so much, but perhaps I can start collecting them. They are called Momiji Dolls. I ended up getting Cha Cha Cha and she is so cute! I’m really glad I got her.

By then we were getting a little tired so we decided to go to the hotel and get checked in. We got the car set up in the parking garage and went to the desk. We got our room rather quickly. It was room 716 at the Windsor Hotel. The room was surprisingly large with a long hallway leading to the main bedroom portion. It had lots of storage, I guess because a lot of business people stay there for months at a time. It also had a full kitchen, but we didn’t really bring any food to cook. We had a pretty good view for the 7th floor it faced lots of other buildings so it was neat.

We rested for a bit and then decided to go check out the Reading Terminal Market. It was getting ready to close, but we got to look around and get an idea of where everything was. I really enjoyed it. I think if I lived in Philadelphia I would shop there quite frequently.

After we left the market we walked around the city a bit more and started to walk back to the hotel. We stopped at a Wawa and Kasey picked up some things to eat. Then we walked a little ways to the Swann Memorial Fountain which is surrounded by park benches. We sat there for a while and the sun was setting around us. The sky was pinks and purples and really beautiful. That was also where Kasey started her musical about Philadelphia and that had me cracking up and which continued throughout the trip. It was hilarious.

After a while I let on that I was hungry and just didn’t want anything at Wawa so we stopped at Subway and I picked up a sandwich. We went back to the room and watched some TV, went on the computer and read before going to sleep.

MONDAY -

Monday was going to be our busy day. We woke up at 7:30 am and threw on some regular clothing to go downstairs for the free continental breakfast. It’s nice to get free food whenever you can on vacation. We also stole 2 muffins which should not have left the area, but we so took those back to the room. (Ironically we never ate those muffins and ended up bringing them home with us.) We rested a little more and then started to get ready to go out because we had a big day planned. We didn’t end up leaving the room until around noon and then we were walking for a while and we went to Delilah’s in the Reading Terminal Market.They served Southern cuisine and it was fun eating there though it was very crowded. I tried collard greens for the first time and they were pretty good.

After we ate lunch we went and walked around the market for a while and tried to see everything. We saw a man dressed as Benjamin Franklin buying fish and I really wanted to talk to him as if he was Benjamin Franklin, but I settled for standing near him.

After that it was time for us to head down to Penn’s Landing to get on the Ferry Boat! It would have been hard for me to be more excited about the ferry boats. I was chatting away about Grey’s Anatomy and the ferry boats and how McDreamy has a thing for ferry boats. Kasey was very sweet and looked interested even though I’m sure she could have cared less. (She doesn’t watch Grey’s Anatomy. (I know! I was surprised too! I can’t believe there are still people who don’t watch Grey’s. Shame!)) She said she was really glad that I was so excited about that little part because she didn’t know about me loving ferry boats so it was an added bonus. It was awesome.

The ferry took us across to Camden, NJ where we went to the Adventure Aquarium!! That was awesome. They had really cute hippos, which are what we saw first. Then we went to see the sharks and the hall way is like a shark tunnel where the aquarium goes right over your head! Then they had jellyfish displays, we saw seals and penguins outside. They had all these strange sea animals in one part and that was really interesting, like jellyfish that lay at the bottom of the sea floor upside down and fish that change their sex as need be. There was also a touch section and I touched a Jellyfish, lobster and a shark!! That was really interesting. The jellyfish was the coolest thing to touch though it freaked me out quite a lot. We saw a guy holding a really cute turtle and in one of the tanks there were people swimming with the sharks and there were HUGE sea turtles and stingrays in that tank. We also saw starfish and I took a bunch of pictures of them. They were closed when we were there though to give the starfish a break from being touched. We went to the gift shop, but they didn’t have any starfish stuff to buy, which is usually the case. I always hope to find a really cute stuffed starfish.

After the aquarium we took the ferry boat back to Philadelphia and then we got on the Phlash to go back to the hotel. It was really neat! It was done up like an old-school trolley and it would take you basically anywhere you wanted to go for $1 which was amazing and that dropped us right in front of the hotel.

We went back in and rested for a little while and then it was time to get ready for dinner. I brought 3 dresses to choose from, but I decided on the purple one with my fancy shoes. We went to Buddakan for dinner, which was very fancy. I liked it there a lot. The food was amazing and the atmosphere was really neat. The waitress was very friendly to us, which you always have to be wary of when it’s two women dining out together, but we had no problems at all. A nice couple next to us took our picture and the food was served family style so we could share, but I’m not very bright and forgot that Kasey didn’t like steak even though we had discussed it the day before. So while I could try hers she wasn’t able to try mine. I’ll have to think more next time. We shared this dessert called the Chocolate Bento Box and it was amazing. I had such a good time.

When we left we decided to walk around a bit. We found out where Sisters was and we decided to check it out. They said that Monday nights were low-key and they were not kidding. There were only a few other people there and they were all completely engrossed in the TV. Kasey and I both thought that was really funny. They had 8-10 happy hour and our drinks were SO CHEAP. The first round was a Grey Goose Martini and a vodka and cranberry both for $6 and then the second round was two HUGE SoCo and lime shots for $4!!! Each shot was really the size of two shots and we usually pay $4.50 each around here. So I thought that was amazing and it made the stop there totally worth it. I would be very interested in going there another night when it’s a little more crowded and the dance floor is open.

We walked around more until both our feet couldn’t do it anymore. (I was in heels and her one foot was bothering her.) Then we grabbed a taxi and took it back to the hotel room where we collapsed onto the bed. We both read for a little while, but I must have been so tired because I kept falling asleep while I was trying to read and then at one point I guess I laid my head down because when I opened my eyes Kasey was looking at me and she said I had been out. It was a busy day though. So we both went to bed and I fell asleep again right away.

TUESDAY -

I was sad to be leaving our lovely little room on Tuesday, but I was thrilled that our mini-vacation didn’t feel like it went by too fast. That was what I was most afraid of. We stayed in the room until we absolutely had to leave. Then we got the car and parked it in another lot and went out to see more of the city. We stopped at some more cute little stores and I enjoyed looking around.

We went to the most amazing soap store duross & langel. I wanted to buy some fancy soaps, but I didn’t want to use all of my money on that stuff so I settled on a business card and the nice man working there gave us some soap samples. After looking the shop up online too I found out that they have soap making workshops and the store is owned by a gay couple. That thrills me! I love The Body Shop, but I have been weary of them ever since they sold to L’orreal. So I am really interested in eventually switching brands and it seems like it would be such a cool idea to start buying all my body products from an independent company. So I am pretty excited about it. The next workshop I would want to go to is in September so I’ll keep you posted about that.

We walked around for a while more and then we started to get hungry so we stopped at the Metropolitan Cafe (I think that was the name) and had some lunch. Then I wanted to go to this chain sex-toy store (The Pleasure Chest) which was supposed to be like Babeland. So we walked forever to get there and it ended up being very small and dumpy with a lot of crazy S&M stuff. So that was a bust, but we walked through the shopping district to get there so that was neat. Then we walked back another way and I saw a Gap Outlet so we stopped and I got a really cute red polo with adorable sleeves. I wish I had gotten it in other colors. After that we stopped to get some ice cream and mainly rest our feet.

After that we stopped at Borders and they were sold out of Harry Potter except for one copy. We picked it up and Kalani had been trying to read it on vacation so I thought it would be nice to stay there for a while and read in the cafe. We ended up staying for about 2 hours! Kasey finished Harry Potter (which she deemed amazing and non-stop action) and I nearly finished my Anita Blake novel. By that point it was starting to get later and we didn’t want to get home too late so we decided to head back to where the car was parked. We left the city around 6:30 and we had barely any traffic at all. We got home early and Kasey came over to my house for a bit we ate dinner and then she went home. I was a little sad to see her go, but it was one of the most amazing weekends I have ever had and it was an insane 23rd birthday present.

After she left I stayed up a little while and finished my novel. I went to sleep and then woke up at 7:00am Wednesday morning to have breakfast with my parents. Then Wednesday night my cousin and I drove to Barnes & Noble so I could return a book I bought the wrong version of and I bought four more books in the Anita Blake series. I have a ton of reading to do. I finished book #3 and book #1 and now I am reading book #2. After this I will be reading books 4 through 14 in order. We’ll see how long it takes me.

This summer has been such a roller coaster for me. I wonder what August will bring.

Title: “Off To See The World” by The Chipmunks

Hey everyone. Just a quick note to say that I am in Philadelphia on a special surprise trip for my birthday! I am having a great time, but I will tell you more about it later. Yay!!

So I did use that hair-dryer and I have things to say about it, but I took pictures to document the whole thing and I can’t find the cable to connect my camera to my computer so I’m holding out until I find it. I think it’s just in my room so it should not be long. Hopefully I will get it up by Monday at the latest.

Last night I actually went out and it was pretty fun. I had never met two of the girls before so that always makes me a little nervous, but I had an enjoyable time. We went to three different bars, but it was Wednesday so they were all pretty low-key. I only had one Cosmo to drink and ½ of both a Smirnoff Pomegranate and a Smirnoff Raw Tea Green Tea. In case you were curious both the Smirnoff’s were delicious, but the Cosmo was made pretty strong. It was also neat being out right when it turned midnight and it was officially my birthday. That was kind of cool. All four of us stayed over at Kasey’s house and I got up early this morning to make the trip to work.

When I got to work this morning my aunt had left a tiara on my desk that says “Birthday Princess” with a note that said, “Happy Birthday to you! Love, Aunt Kim”. She also called to sing to me so I was happy about that.

I’m having a little party at my parent’s house tonight complete with one of these amazing birthday cakes. Then I might be going to see Harry Potter later on tonight, but I’m not sure if that will happen.

I also recently started reading the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series by Laurell K. Hamilton. I started with book #3 and now I am reading book #1. Hopefully I will read the rest of them in order. There are 14 books in the series so I should be busy reading these for a while.

Now I ask you some questions! What kind of music do you guys listen to? What is a song you are in love with? What is your favorite band/artist at the moment? I’m just curious as I am always looking for new music to love.

UPDATE @ 2:28 pm - It looks like Dooce is having a better birthday than me.

This morning I took a trip out to Wal-Mart (I know I hate it too, but it’s the closest store around here) and bought myself an early birthday present. It’s something I have wanted since well before Christmas, but at $60 just too much to spend on what it is and that is…a hairdryer. Yes people. I spent $60 on a hairdryer this morning.

It’s not the most expensive birthday present I ever bought myself so far that is the Tiffany Starfish necklace complete with a diamond* that I got for my 21st birthday, but still it is a considerable chunk of change and I admit that.

Hear me out though. I keep my hair up 98.5% of the time. I keep the unfortunate bangs twisted up in a clip the same amount of time that my hair is up. You can see an example of this hair style here. (It’s a link to Flickr. Woo!) I have a regular hairdryer that I “borrowed”, but I have the sort of hair that poufs and I don’t see volume as my friend. This hair of mine, it poufs and it is oddly wavy and I just don’t think it looks flattering on me at all when it is down. Don’t believe me? What about this!

About three times in the past three years I have borrowed someone’s hair straightener and spent about 30 minutes doing my hair and those times it has looked pretty presentable.

However, I myself do not own a hair straightener nor am I the sort of person who is willing to spend 30 minutes doing her hair. I’m just not and I really don’t want to be that sort of person. (Not that there is anything wrong with that, but Christ. I would rather be sleeping, reading, putting lotion on my legs…you know all those fun morning things.)

Then they released this product called the INFINITI hair designer by CONAIR. (It says it just like that on the package.) It is a hair dryer that also straightens your hair and makes it shiny. This excited me greatly. Here are some specifics from the box: Triple Action Styling System, Tourmaline Ceramic Technology – Ion output helps smooth the cuticle layer creating silky, shiny hair. Ionic Technology – for less frizz and more manageability, Stainless Steel Design. Doesn’t that sound exciting?

I’m not one of those people who say that commercials and advertising don’t affect them. Of they affect me plenty. Though I am sure not in the way they affect most people. I mean if you are trying to sell me yogurt by showing me an emaciated white girl trying to fit into a bikini you can bet your ass I’m not going to buy that yogurt. However if you show me an add in say Oprah magazine for Skinny Cow peanut butter and chocolate ice cream sandwiches with a picture of a cow smiling I may think about those sandwiches for a few months and then buy them. (Delicious, by the way)

So while I agree the notations made about the product on the box are a bit ridiculous I still really wanted it. I haven’t used it yet, but I did take it out of the box. It’s a little formidable looking. I can just picture myself getting stuck to the thing and having to have all my hair cut off to get me free. I wonder if that has happened to anyone yet.

It did come with a diagram of the product on the side saying what everything does, a styling guide AND an instructional DVD. Oh boy! Guess what I am going to be watching at work in between episodes of the Kathy Griffin show? You got it! (On a side note I also noticed that they now sell episodes of Little People, Big World on iTunes. I must resist not buying them. I used to have a secret obsession with this show and now I don’t care who knows. I love them!)

So tomorrow will be test day on my hair and you better believe there will be pictures. I may just be bald by tomorrow night. You never know. I won’t pull a Britney either and cover that shit up. I will rock the bald and blame my divorce as my reasoning for doing so. Only you guys will know the truth!

I was going to end the post here, but then I began to read the guide I mentioned earlier. Here are some highlights from the warnings section:

• Do not use while bathing or in the shower.
• Never use while sleeping. (My personal favorite)
• While using this appliance, keep your hair out of it. Keep your hair away from any of the air inlets.
• Do not place in, or drop into, water or other liquid.

Very amusing.

* When I bought the necklace it was $295. The price has gone up quite a bit since then. I didn’t go that crazy.

Title: “Let Your Hair Down” by Corinne Bailey Rae

Last night was interesting. I began a new project with my magazines where I tear out the articles, pictures, recipes, etc…that I want to keep and then I am going to organize them into binders. I will be doing this until I die. Anyway it’s good because it’s going to take up a lot of my time when I am home alone and I am all for things to occupy my mind so I don’t have to think.

Well last night the whole getting my mind on other things failed abysmally. I had a notebook in my room and I was listening to music and getting ready to go to sleep and I decided to write a little in my notebook. Well a little turned into a lot and I started to remember things and feel bad and cry. So there I am in bed with a notebook and tissues, writing and crying. Then I decide to (against all advice) call Kimberly. I am sort of summing this up as an emotional version of a drunk dial. Of course she didn’t pick up and I guess I though, “Who doesn’t love emotional phone messages from their exes that they don’t even like anymore?” Hooray for having excellent decision making skills! That was sometime after midnight and I haven’t heard back. I doubt I will. Which is okay and completely understandable. I really just said that I hope she is doing okay because I haven’t heard from her in a while.

Perhaps this is why I haven’t been updating. I spend most of my time thinking about other things and doing other things and avoiding this. Then when I take a moment to think about it or write or anything I just break down. I don’t know how people do it. How people go through multiple breakups or how people split up after being with each other for decades. I just don’t know how people do it.

In other (happier) news I just found out my friend Kyle is in town from Boston, MA. That is exciting and he has promised to stop by my office tomorrow to see me. Woo! I haven’t seen him in a long time so it will be nice.

I also decided to add at the bottom where I got the title for my post from. In case you care. It’s another project I though would take sometime because I want to go back and add it to my old entries.

I think this is all I can handle for today. I love you guys.

Title: “Shades Of Blue” by Nick Lachey

I’m back. More specifically I am back to blogging. I’m not quite sure how it is going to go as I don’t really feel comfortable with everyone knowing about my personal life and I still feel a little under fire after the last month. However there are few things I love more than having this website and being able to get my thoughts out and after having a few breakdowns the past few days I think I am in dire need of a place to dump out my thoughts. I also love that I said I would be trying to update more. I did not intend for that to be a joke. There was no wireless in the villa we stayed in at Myrtle Beach and furthermore I didn’t even bring my computer.

I had a fantastic time, but I took barely any pictures. I’m a terrible photographer. I spend my time really taking things in and I inevitably forget to pull out the camera and take a picture. Kasey, the person whom I went on the trip with, did take pictures, but I haven’t gotten them yet. She is going to burn them on a disk for me and then I will put them up on Flickr.

I am still single. The first month actually wasn’t so bad. I think I kept myself busy enough that I wasn’t able to think about it. I also had so much anger about things and it was just a release of all that. I also had that trip I went on that really made me forget everything even existed. This month has been a lot harder. I’m really getting used to living alone. Sleeping alone is the hardest of all. I had no idea I was so used to having someone in bed with me. Things are generally just a bit lonely. It’s no one else’s fault but mine. I am just used to going out to see other people with Kimberly there. I’m not really good at talking on the phone and I would not know how to go about calling someone first to talk and I don’t know what I would say about it. I’m sure it will pass.

I get asked a lot of we’re still friends or if I have talked to her recently. I don’t know if we’re still friends or not. I guess it’s going to take time. We have not talked in a while and I have been told not to contact her so I am just letting things be. I guess that is all I can do.

I wanted to get this post out of the way so that I can update more normally tomorrow. So we’ll talk then.

Thank you so much for the comments and all the emails. I really really appreciate it.

Title: “Like This” by Kelly Rowland feat. Eve