New year. New hair journal. New start.  

This morning, I did the usual clarifying routine with Purity shampoo, an ACV rinse, Daily Moisture Renewal and Ice Shine conditioners. Plenty of cool water as well, naturally. All of my hair "stuff" is still Pantene, obviously.

It's been a reasonably good 3-day weekend. My parents spent the time galavanting around Disneyland and the Queen Mary, leaving the rest of us to do as we wished. hehehe While the cats are away...  

My father's homeless friend didn't stick around much. In fact, no one has seen him since yesterday afternoon when my sister dropped him off at the trolley station. We're all relieved that he's gone, though. Even if only temporarily.

Unfortunately for my sister, she had to spend NYE working, just like the night before. She hasn't had much of a "weekend."

As for me, I spent the evening watching '80's movies like Ghostbusters and Moonwalker, and talking to my distant sweetheart on AIM.
   Just before the hour struck, I ran outside and looked around to see if any of the neighbours were lighting fireworks. But the first thing that caught my eye was the magnificence of the sky that night! The moon was very bright and illuminated the edges of the heavy gray clouds that stretched in large patches all across the darkness. Between them, you could see the black sky underneath and a few tiny but gorgeous stars. It was breathtaking.

A couple from the house across the street came out to see if the neighbours were lighting fireworks, just like I had, and we exchanged Happy New Year wishes. At that very moment...fireworks. About 4 or 5 houses set them off. Just small ones, of course, mostly red and green.
   Eventually, the frigid winter air became too much for the 3 of us standing out on the sidewalks and we went back into our respective houses.

As I was making up my resolutions for this year, I also made some hair resolutions:
1.) Stay away from Suave entirely
2.) Take vitamin E every day for 6 months
3.) Take a multivitamin every day for 6 months after that
4.) Determine whether either one of these affects my hair in any way

Is it unnatural that I should have more hair resolutions than otherwise?    My only non-hair-related ones were to eat healthier and get more exercise. I do make it a point to keep my New Year's resolutions realistic and attainable. Much higher success rate that way.  

Anyway, as promised, it is indeed a brand new year. Thankfully, all of the woes from the previous one have been shed and I look to the promise of every new day and welcome the opportunity that it brings. A rebirth. I like the sound of that. A fresh start. A new beginning.

Hope everyone had a great New Year and that 2007 finds everyone happy and well.  

Thank you kindly, Sakina. 

So today was another simple WCC day. The usual wet datangle + oil, then braided when dry. I'm still not very good at braiding my own hair, but whatever. At least it's out of the way.

So, onto the randomly assorted current subjetcs...I started a daily vitamin E regimen on December 30th. As per my resolution, I'll stick with it for 6 months. The bottle should be just about empty by then.
    On Sunday, I ordered 6 new pairs of the "sexy jeans" that I love so much (thanx for the check, grandpa!). Finally, I will be able to replace the black khaki "fat pants" in my closet with something decent. lol
    Also on Sunday, I gave myself a new matching mani-pedi for New Year's, but I'm not thrilled with the colour. It's called Midnight Magic by Cover Girl and is sort of a metallic black, I guess. But the metal flakes appear more of a very dark navy blue or something. Rather odd. It's like...if you're gonna do black, do black already! Don't try to doll it up  and make it trendy by adding some other colour because the masses don't have the guts to actually wear black. Or maybe it's their "creative spin on the traditional black." hehehe Ok, I'm done now. 
    My birthday is in 6 days. Huzzah.
    Looking forward to Valentine's Day, so hurry on, February! And that concludes our assortment of random facts.

On the subject of hair once again, I'm currently at 23" and counting.    This year will find me reaching a few milestones: one being my short-term goal of 2 feet, another being my next short-term goal of BSL. I will also reach Stardust level here at LongLocks. 

Lots of things to look forward to this year.

A new year, a new age. Today is my 27th birthday. Nothing particularly significant about it, unless you count the many people who died at that age. Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain, Jim Morrison, Robert Johnson, Brian Jones...

Anyway, tonight I'll be going to dinner with my immediate family. Not sure where...I originally wanted to go to an awesome local Mexican place called Casa de Pico, but my mother insisted that I choose between Claim Jumper and the Olive Garden. *shrug* Not sure whether my sister will be there or if she's working tonight. So...yeah. But I get to go out just the same.

The real bummer is that "my guy" can't be here to celebrate with me. *He's* always here in spirit, of course, but it would be nice if he could be here for real. But there I go dreaming again... 

On the hair front, today was a simple care day. Just a WCC, detangle, oil. After about 100 attempts to pin it up on the sides, it finally worked. I even put little rhinestone hair spins in for fun.

Actually, I managed to go all out with makeup, jewelry and perfume today. Being totally put together is a good feeling. I do wish that I had more time to do that every day.

hahaha One of my favourite Tool songs just came on the radio. I haven't heard it in ages. And yes, I am at work.    So long as the customers and my co-workers can't hear it, I can listen to whatever I want. Now it's The Shins...and my sweetheart is right. They are pretty Beach Boys-ish. But now I'm rambling. 

Aside from drowning in work and the recent addition of a paper cut, there's nothing else to report. In fact, it's almost time for me to shut things down here. Hope everyone is doing well.

Thanx, everybody! 

Maggie: LOL @ "Pringle-boy." That's good. Where he's concerned, he is living in an RV that my father bought him, which is parked on our property. Cleaning it up has kept him busy, but he still takes his meals with us, goes places with us, uses our bathroom, etc. Heaven knows how long it will be before he's really on his own.
    And your "resolutions" sound good to me. 

Birthday Stuff: Dinner was great, despite having to sit next to my father's homeless friend. And having to endure the reek of lingering cigarette smoke as he rode up and back with us in the car. Ahem. But aside from that, it was fun. 
    We did end up going to Casa de Pico as I'd wanted. I had 2 enormous tacos with lots of guacamole and an absolutely amazing drink...I don't remember what all was in it, but it tasted like sour Skittles.    When everything was done, the waitress brought a dessert with a candle in it, which I later learned was a flan, and the mariachi guitar guys came over and sang Happy Birthday to me...in English (for the most part). haha
    As for presents, I got jewelry from my parents and sister, a giftcard from my parents, and my grandfather in WA even sent me a check in the mail. Woohoo!
    I have to admit that I teared up when I saw his card signed with just "Grandpa" rather than "Grandma & Grandpa."    Guess I'll just have to get used to that.

Hair: Yesterday was the usual clarifying routine. 2 Pantene Purity washes, an ACV rinse in between. Daily Moisture Renewal conditioner. Nothing else. I combed it once after it was dry and just left it alone.
    Today, I washed once with Ice Shine shampoo, then treated for an hour...only, I forgot my microfiber towel and shower cap in my room again, so I had to just do things as I used to: squeeze the water out of my hair, load it up with the Deep Fortifying Treatment, then pin it up with my beak clip. When that was done, I rinsed it out and followed with DMR and Ice Shine conditioners. Detangled as usual, and oiled the ends. And typically, I'll comb and braid at 3:00 when I get my break here at the office.

Life: Resolutions are going well, though I have been eating a lot of cheap chocolate lately.    Chalk it up to starvation, availability and, of course, Aunt Flo.    Still taking vitamin E every day. I take one when I wake up every morning, since I store it in the same place as all of my "shower goods" anyway. So it's easy. I'm also looking forward to measuring on the first of February.

The 6 pairs of brand new "sexy jeans" that I ordered arrived a few days ago. Now I will finally be able to replace all of my khaki "fat pants" from years ago with something decent.    Looks like a new size comes with everything else as well. 

On the work front, it's still busy as heck. Every day, a different department brings us stacks of old documents to destroy. I don't mind that. Gives me a good excuse to take out some pent up aggression. hehehe Not really.    We're still going through old Human Resources files, and the phone is insanely busy, which doesn't make either task easy. Such is life.

As for the boy...ugh.    Sore subject once again. In fact, the only reason that I bothered bringing him up at all is because that's the majority of what's been on my mind all day. When your heart's involved, you can't help it. Otherwise, I would, because I'd rather not dwell on it. Any guy that acts the way he does sometimes isn't worth dwelling on. I'll say that much and nothing more. 
    More and more often, I've been wondering whether this will be the year that I finally throw in the towel. It's not what I want, but it may be what I need. Perhaps one of my resolutions for next year will be giving up on guys entirely. They have never brought me anything but misery. *sigh* Confusion...

This, this is our new song
Just like the last one
A total waste of time,
My iron lung
       -Radiohead, My Iron Lung

Hair: Been doing the simple WCC thing for awhile. Detangling with Pantene's leave-in spray conditioner and my broken Rachael Stephens #45 comb. Random thought: if I could get my hands on another RS #45, I'd be happy as a clam. But I can't seem to find them anywhere anymore.
    Anyway, today was the first day in a long while that I haven't oiled the ends. Someone was in my bathroom and I couldn't get to my oil bottle before the ends dried. *sigh* Oh well.

Also, I haven't been able to get away with more than 1 hair treatment this week. I usually try to cram as many as I possibly can into a week, but not this time. Perhaps I'll do a heavy EVOO overnight treatment tonight to compensate.
    Still anticipating measure day on 2/1. I don't know why. It's not like I'm expecting to see a sudden surge of growth or anything. Maybe I'm just looking forward to yet another new month. Who knows...?

Health: This morning, I jumped on the scale, filled with dread. I was sure it was going to greet me with a 125 or something. But no...119!! I'm in the teens again! And I haven't even been working out! I guess all that power walking in the fall really picked my metabolism back up! I can't wait for the weather to warm up just enough that I can get back out there again. After years of being messed up from harsh steroids, my body is finally responding to exercise.    Maybe that little rock & roll figure of mine will show itself again after all!

Love: *sigh!* Yesterday was the 2nd day this week that he and I didn't speak at all. All of this after he blew up on me at the tail end of Tuesday night, all but destroying our once great connection. I can't help but feel as if he took a seam ripper to our common thread and severed us completely.
    For about a year and a half, he's been my life support. My iron lung. The one who has understood me and kept me going even in the toughest of times. But now I'm beginning to realize not only how volatile and unstable a person he is, and therefore how volatile and unstable our relationship is...but also that it's been a pretty one-sided relationship in general.
    Now that we aren't speaking, I can't help but look back and notice all of the instances, great and small, where I didn't get back what I was giving out. It's been like that for almost as long as we've known each other, and that is certainly not a good omen for the future. Plus, I don't need to go down that road again!
    In short, I don't need this. So I've been weighing my options. 

Life: I never made it to the mountains the other day. But my soul still longs for them. For the air and the quiet emptiness. And of course the shopping.    It's all very therapeutic, and I need new socks anyway.
    Another thing I've been meaning to do is drive out to the shoreline to watch the sun set. Only God remembers the last time I did that. I miss it. I've been missing a lot of things lately that I used to do. The art and music that I used to live for have been neglected for far too long. So perhaps this year will bring yet another rebirth on the creative end. We'll see.

Right now, however, I'm waiting to see what (if anything) transpires with "The Distant One." He's never been so distant as he is now. And without him, I must learn to breathe on my own. I certainly can't wait forever.

Hey! Ho! Let's go!

Another late night, another late morning. Nothing wrong with that in my book as long as it isn't too late. Some mornings, I do need time for hair treatments and such.
    Today, however, was not one of those mornings and I rolled out of bed at 9:30 am, still tired. I keep wishing for just one day where I could do nothing but sleep. Just sleep! My weary bones would be so thankful.
    Part of the problem is that I don't sleep consistently through the night and haven't in a long while. That's also, I surmise, why I never dream anymore...not that I miss it. My unconscious dreams have never been positive. But I don't suppose that I ever sleep deeply enough to dream. Such is life...

In any case, today was a clarifying day, so I didn't need tons of time. The usual Purity shampoo & ACV routine, but this time I left the DMR conditioner in my hair on until the end of my shower. Force of habit, I guess. So I didn't condition twice. My bottle of ACV is now empty, so I'll soon be replacing it with the largest bottle of distilled white vinegar that I can afford. I just prefer it.
    No leave-ins or detangling. I didn't really even separate the strands while they were still wet. Just let them air dry as they were, then finger combed. When my break came at 3:00, it was off to the restroom to comb and braid. Another wonky braid, I may add.    But at least my hair doesn't smell like "burned stuff" today.

Homeless homeboy (can I still technically call him that?) is still living in his RV on the side of our house. He comes in to eat and visit, but aside from that, he keeps to himself. I think that he may be moving to a trailer park eventually...not sure. At least he hasn't been disturbing the peace so much anymore.

20 minutes left here at work and not much else to report. The boy and I are good, things are back to "normal," though I am not about to let things go unchecked. A girlfriend reminded me the other day that love is an action, not just a feeling. So I'm still waiting for *him* to stop procrastinating and produce a little bit more. Minimal effort gets you nowhere fast. Laziness is for suckers. And all that pseudo-motivational jazz. We'll see how things go.

Anyway, tomorrow will probably be a much-needed treatment day. I'll see if I can score some time alone with the bass as well. hehe Later, gaterz!