Ariel’s Bad Hair Day

My freshman year of college could very easily been known as “the year of the amateur hairdo”. 

My dorm room was the 18-year-old version of a perpetual beauty shop. 

We were forever cutting and coloring and crimping one another’s hair (If I ever had a male reader it’s safe to assume I just lost him with that sentence).  It was an interesting time, when our new found freedom combined with our frugal spending habits combined to make some of us a little shall-we-say ‘loose’ in our styling standards.  Some of us (read: ME) began to think a little too highly of our styling skills.  I may or may not have believed myself to be the Ken Paves of my dorm hallway.

It all began when my friend Jennifer ask me to cut her hair on a rainy Sunday afternoon.  Her previous cut had grown out and it was time for a change.  I first made her swear that she would not cut me out of her life if I failed and then proceeded to cut her hair.  It turned out I could cut in a semi-straight line and instantly became the Vidal Sassoon of room 315.

Unfortunately, as my client-base increased so did the need for me to have actual hair dressing skills.  Late one Monday night my friend Katy came home from Target with a beautiful box of auburn hair dye.  We all ‘oohed and aaahed’ over how beautiful she was sure to be once her hair was dyed and I began the process of coloring her hair.  We went through all the steps, waited the prescribed amount and then she went to wash it out.  I headed over to her room when I heard the hair-dryer blowing and nothing could have prepared me for what I saw.

Katy’s hair had turned Little Mermaid orange.

It was too late that night to run out and buy more hair dye so Katy was forced to live with it for a day.  Even though she was not to happy with me, she was still speaking to me.  I’ll never forget the hat she was forced to wear for the next day.  It was like a fisherman’s hat, with a brim, so she could show as little hair as possible, and she had two little braided pig tails peeking out from under it.  I’ll also never forget going to our college group later that night and our college minister took one look at Katy’s new magenta locks and said “Who did that to you?!?”.

After we told him that I (the John Frieda wanna-be) had performed the dye job, he asked Katy: “and you’re still speaking to her????”

We went straight to a Target and bought a new bottle of hair color.  Katy even trusted me enough to perform the new dye job (under the watchful eye of our friends).  Although I have rarely been as nervous as I was trying to fix her hair we did end up getting it back to a color found on planet earth, a very pretty brown color.

I am happy to report that Katy still speaks to me.  Even to this day.

Or, at least, she did before she read this friendly little reminder.

Resolute

Happy New Year!

Have you guys made any New Year’s Resolutions?  Because, I have not.

Last year I really did sit down and think it over and set reachable goals.  The reachable part is important for me because most years January 1st rolls around and I say I’m going to jog 30 minutes a day.  I typically fail at my resolution by sometime around 5:30 January 1st.  So, it just seems to make more sense to be as footloose and fancy free as possible!

I don’t have any resolutions, but I’m excited for the new year.  Let’s face facts, anything would be better than the swift kick-in-the-pants 2010 delivered to me.  But, it’s all good- 2011 is gonna be awesome!  Or, more likely- 2011 is gonna have it’s fair share of hurts and sadness, but I’m hoping it’s tempered by some fun and joy and hope.

What about you?  Did you make any resolutions that will inevitably put me to shame?

The Merriest Of Christmases

I’ve been thinking a lot this season about the manger birth of Christ all those years ago.  Obviously, I think about it every year, but some years the sweetness and truth of the story pierces my heart in a new way.  What I can’t get out of my head this year is that the King of Kings was born in a manger.  It is so precious to me that God chose to come into the world in such a lowly manner.  He could have been born in a golden throne room (this, clearly, would have been my choice), but instead He came into the world surrounded by livestock.

Recently, on the news, I heard one of those stories about a baby whose mother gave birth and then left her child in a dumpster.  I think about that sweet innocent baby and wonder how it will ever know how cherished it is- how special and important he or she is in the eyes of God.  This season, it seems to me that Christ came as He did so that none of us can look at Him and think He’s unreachable.  He didn’t come to save someone “better than” or “richer than” you.  He came to save you and me.  And he was born in the lowest imaginable location so even that baby, brought into the world under the saddest of conditions, can know that Christ understands us.  Our fears and sorrows, our joys and weaknesses.  He understands.  One of my favorite lines in the hymn ‘O Holy Night’ says “the King of Kings lay in a lowly manger, in all our trials born to be our friend.  He knows our need, our weakness is no stranger.”  It’s sometimes mind blowing, but I still believe it’s true.

The lowly infant born in the manger truly is the King of Kings.  I hope He’s the King of your life. 

 

And the angel said to them, "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for ALL the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger." Luke 2:10-12 ESV (emphasis- mine)

Shocking AND Embarrassing

That title should be my new nickname.

I absolutely cannot believe I’ve gone almost two whole months without posting.  The problem is I went one week without posting and got really overwhelmed with all of the important things I should have written about and didn’t.  Then one week turned into two and my embarrassment doubled and then it had been a month and then it was December 13th.  Yikes. 

The above paragraph gives you a sad little look into my life.  Being a procrastinator and a perfectionist is really hard on me.  And, apparently, on you my reader(s).

So, I’d now like to very quickly update you on the past two months of my life in a very short list.

1. I took a little trip to visit my friends Sarah and Justin in Longview and got to enjoy some beautiful weather and fun times with friends.  Our friend Miranda also came over and we built a fire, made a craft project and ate some bruschetta that, I think it’s safe to say, changed my life.

I think it’s also safe to say we had ourselves a mighty good time.

 

2. I helped with our children’s choir’s Stomp performance.  If I never have to hear another bucket being thumped on with a wooden stick it’ll be too soon for my sanity’s sake.  I also sang with the adult choir in a Christmas performance.  It’s been fun to sing in a choir again after all these years.

3. My BFF Chelsea and I and our families attended our alma mater’s playoff football game.  It was fascinating.  Our team lost but it was really fun to have a family outing.

4. I got my craft on.  Hard core.  I made three wreaths this year for Christmas and a “Gratitude Tree” for Thanksgiving.  My poor little fingers have never recovered from all the hot glue.  I made an ornament wreath, a coffee filter wreath and a lima bean wreath.  And I got to lose all the feeling in my index fingers.

The Lima Bean Wreath in the middle of production

5. I had a birthday.  It was actually a pretty fun day.  A bunch of my students sang happy birthday to me and I had a great dinner with my family, plus we got to drive around and look at the Christmas lights.  Not a bad way to spend a birthday.

I probably would have included even more anecdotes if I had remembered to write for the past few months.  I’m feeling like I need to have a goal for my next post, so I’ve decided that I’m taking requests.  Let me know if you have any questions or would like to hear a retelling of a specific story and I’ll get right on top of that.  And I promise that by “right on top of it” I don’t mean two months later.

 

I’ve missed you, internets.  -C

The Fairest Of Them All

Last Saturday Chelsea and I went to the State Fair of Texas.  I am only slightly embarrassed to reveal to you that it was my second time to visit the fair.  That week.  I don’t really know how to defend myself, other than to say that when you love something with your whole heart, as I love the Texas State Fair, you make it a priority in your life.  Anyway, Chels and I had a great day.  We managed to check all of our “Must-Do” items off of our list.

We visited the petting zoo:

And discovered that alpacas may just be the cutest animal I ever did see:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I caught up with Big Tex:

We tried some Texan delicacies (and by ‘delicacies’ I mean anything that would stay still long enough to be deep fried):

Deep Fried Frozen Margarita

 

Fried Bacon

And, since I know the questions are inevitable, I will give you my opinion on all the fried foods I partook of.  In my personal experience fried foods are exciting and delicious.  IN THEORY.  In reality?  The first three bites are usually pretty good… but then you start to think about what exactly it is your eating and it’s all downhill from there.  But, I continue to eat them because fried food hope springs eternal.  The fried margarita could have been good, except they poured strait margarita juice (or whatever that would be called) over the fried part, which made it pretty gross.  The bacon was ok, except every time you took a bite all the fried stuff would fall off, so in the end you were just eating bacon.  And I don’t know about you, but I prefer not to pay $8 for my bacon.

After eating our way across the fair Chels and I headed to visit my friend Cortnee.  While there we watched a little MLB Smackdown:

I may be momentarily obsessed with the Rangers.  And I’m ok with that.  Especially when they’re winning.

After we left Cortnee’s Chelsea needed to run by her office (at 8:00. On a Saturday night. Nerd Alert!) so she headed over to do that and I went home.  After I’d been home for a few minutes Chels called and asked if my Dad and I could come jump her car since it was dead.  When we got there I realized that Chelsea had been holding out on me:

I had no idea she was this prepared.  She has her own traffic emergency sign.  We’ve been best friends for over 10 years and I would never have expected her to have a spare tire, much less a traffic sign.  In my defense, she did have a flashlight, but no batteries.

All said and done the Fair definitely lived up to its hype this year, and now I am counting down the days until next year.  Just 365 days left to prepare my arteries for the deep fried butter.

I Blame ‘Twilight’

Last week at school all the kids wrote out their dreams and some goals for how they could achieve their dreams.

Lots of children wrote about wanting to become a football player or a veterinarian and some wanted to work at their parents’ car shops or become rock stars.

As they were writing out their dreams I was walking around the room and one young man stopped me and asked me how to spell “ologist”.

I said, “like biologist?”

He said “yes, but just the ologist part”

I told him how to spell it and said “Do you want to be a biologist when you grow up?”

“No.” he said, “I want to be a werewolfologist.”

Behold, the youth of tomorrow.

I Have Some Thoughts About Some Things

I’ll write my thoughts in list form, so that I am not required to think too hard and so that you read this post with the lowest possible expectations.

1.  This weekend I watched Dirty Dancing for the first time in a long, long while.  I love that movie.  All summer long I wanted to bring a watermelon to a party just so I could say “I carried a watermelon”.  I never did it.  But I know it would have been cool if I did.

2.  I attended a Fall Festival on Saturday and enjoyed a funnel cake.  Funnel cake may not scream fall, but it does scream my name any time I see it.

3.  I am LIVING for the State Fair of Texas.  LIVING.  Living.  The fair has always been a big deal to my family.  We would always go and work our way from the car show, across to the craft pavilion, take in a show and spend a few hours gawking at whatever farm animal has been immortalized in butter that year.  Not to mention the food.  Oh, the food.  There is something oh so magical about fair food.

4.  I really have to hold myself back from spending my whole paycheck on buying new clothes.  Boots and sweaters are my friends.

5.  I can’t believe I haven’t blogged about this before now, but I recently became involved in a relationship.  I’m in a love affair with a little TV show called Friday Night Lights.  And it’s serious.  I am so embarrassed that it took me 4 years to jump on board (you can count on me to be on the cutting edge of the trends) but now I am all in.  I just wanna have a “Matt Chat” and be Tim Riggins’ AA sponsor and go to church with Smash Williams and hang out with Eric and Tammy Taylor (or, as I like to call her: Mrs. Coach).  You can see that I’m in love.  Mainly in love with Matt Saracen but also in love with Friday Night Lights.