The Super-Hero Stripe?!
~Friday, December 17, 2021~
Day 551
Another day of luxury. Finally, after months of waiting for a little hair TLC, I was getting a much overdue highlight and cut. The last time was in Colorado Springs, CO back in October 2020. And it was perfect that my mom had a recommendation of her hairdresser, Sarah, at Morgan Taylor Salon, minutes from my mom’s house. But first, a stop at Peet’s coffee just a few doors down to put my gift card to use. I’d never tried their Oat Milk Mocha before, but it was seriously the best mocha I’d ever had.
When I arrived at the salon, I had to wait about 15 minutes, so in the meantime was offered a cup of Aveda tea (did not know they made tea), and skimmed the many shelves of Aveda shampoos, conditioners, oils, etc. I knew their hair and skin care products are amazing, but when I saw a 30 oz. bottle of shampoo for $125, I about had a heart attack. In fact, I may have burst out a little “What?” The most I’ve ever paid for a salon quality shampoo in that size is $35. I seriously cannot see anyone spending that kind of money on shampoo, no matter how good it is. My husband would have divorced me even if I’d considered it.
Sarah, around her mid-20’s was so adorable. Loved her energy and competency in doing hair and we have a lot in common with our enthusiasm for travel, art and animals. Hair is a secondary passion aside from her other talents……painter (mainly water color), sculptor, color expert and textiler. She couldn’t wait to show me her latest projects and boy is she good. Of course doing hair is a form of art, especially with color, and she did a fantastic job! My hair was taking longer than usual to take the color, so what would have been a regular 3-hour appointment turned into 3-½. I also don’t think she was expecting me to have so much hair. What I thought was a curse my entire life, is now a blessing as I’ve aged. But hearing I was 50% “silver” as she called it, set in the reality that I should embrace what I have instead of trying to fight it. My decision was made easier with the fact a lot of women are currently paying good money to have this look. Sarah fondly nicknamed my silver stripe framing my face, “the super-hero stripe” from the X-Man series. Never having watched that, I had no idea what she was talking about. At least now, it would become less obvious with a little more blending of color that will last me another year. As usual, I had photos of cuts that interested me. But, there was only one that would work for my type of hair. For years, I’ve tried putting a square peg in a round hole wanting these cute shoulder length, wispy bobs, only to have a poofy, frizzy mess. My hair is just too coarse and heavy for it. So her suggestion was to take off about 5 inches of damage, still past my shoulders with long bangs to frame my face. In the end, it wasn’t a totally shocking transformation, but a subtle new look. She did a great job. I also learned a lot about various shampoo products, including the one we were currently using. OGX is currently in a lawsuit from a woman who claims that her hair loss is contributed to ingredients in their product line. So it looks like I’ll be returning a few bottles I had recently purchased. Knowing that I wasn’t about to spend $125 on a bottle of Aveda, she had suggestions for alternative products such as Redken and one I had never heard of called “It’s a 10”. She said, if you can afford it, and even if you can’t, NEVER buy your hair products from a drug store. Noted. I was met with a few compliments when I returned to the house, though my husband wished I didn’t cut off 5 inches. What is it about men and long hair??
It was nice to see Jeff reunited with his Miata convertible again. My mom’s been storing this in her garage, unused for the past year,
so Jeff had some hesitancy in starting it again. It started right up with jumper cables and idled fine. However, when he gave it gas, the lights dimmed a bit and sounded a little rough, hoping it’s not the alternator. It would have been nice to take it for a spin, but not worth taking a chance. Since the car will be stored another year, it’s pointless in trying to have it looked at right now. Cutting that project short, he spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning and reorganizing stuff from the trailer. Check that one off the list.
Knowing our arrival time back to California, my mom had coordinated a girl’s night out with good friends Brenda, Sandy and Arlene for a game of Fast Track. We all met at Wally’s Pizza Bar, a bar and grill type of place. It was the perfect spot in terms of atmosphere with our corner booth seating. The last time I saw these girls was before Jeff and I started our trip, while we were living with mom. What a riot they all are.
Our doting, attentive waitress Elizabeth “Beth” always made sure we had what we needed and really made the evening nice. Give her a raise!! We had so much fun eating delicious food, drinking thirst quenching drinks and laughing our “arses” off. Our fearless leader Brenda, led the game with rules in hand. We were all on a quest to beat Arlene who hadn’t lost a game in two years. Since the game can change on a dime, it was hard to tell who the winner would be, but as we neared the end, it really came down to Arlene and I, until I didn’t draw the “8” that I needed, missing a win by one turn. Arlene did it again. I was up for playing another game, but Brenda needed to get back to her pups. So, we called it a night, managing to coerce one of the waiters into taking a photo of us.
The dogs were so excited to see us begging for a little attention and to be fed which couldn’t be fast enough. Soon after we got home, Jeff arrived too to tell us about his evening. He had gone to the nice Regal theatre to see the new Spider Man movie, followed by a little Christmas shopping. He gave the movie an 8.5 out of 10 and the shopping went well too since the Christmas crowd was already dwindling. Anyay, we enjoyed a fun evening watching “Notting Hill” and “Christmas Vacation” with popcorn and a fire. It’s nice to be getting more into the Holiday spirit watching these great movies. What are your favorites and what are your favorite family traditions? We’d love to hear from you…….footprintsonwheels@gmail.com.