I'm back!

hey, blog! remember me?

i've been away for the past couple days on account of graduating from college! wooooooo! 

it hasn't really sunk in yet. oddly enough, i still have to take a few summer classes which might explain why it seems so surreal. you graduated! now, back to school. still, it was a big day. caps and gowns, balloons, bouquets, pomp and circumstance, and lots of tears (mostly from me). also, lots of family.

j & i have both had family in town for the past week.
there's something nice about having a house full of people. it was loud and crazy and just what i needed. i'm already feeling nostalgic for the past  week. there are little reminders all around the apartment of the past few days - bouquets of flowers from family and friends, leftover cake and watermelon in the fridge from different parties, graduation cards sprinkled across our windowsills. i'm not ready for it to be over!

having my mom here was so nice. like mother like daughter, she has been just as busy as me, so by the time her plane landed we were both ready for a little vacation. there was a handful of things we wanted to do while she was here, and we were able to do them all! (except for wine tasting - we took a rain check on that one) sometimes no matter how much you plan, vacations can end up being more stressful than anything else. but luckily for us, this week was pretty perfect. things just fell into place. we took our time, didn't rush, and played things by ear. we went on long walks, enjoyed late breakfasts, watched movies, and even spent an entire day at the spa. it was very luxurious indeed.

as far as pictures go, stay tuned.
if you don't already know, my life is a constant comedy. so to nobody's surprise, my camera died right in the middle of the ceremony. classic me! (who forgets to charge their camera before their own graduation?) thankfully there were plenty of iPhones in the crowd, so my phone has been beeping all day with snapshots from different camera phones.

it's amazing how quickly vacations fly by (and how slowly our work days can drag on). hi ho hi ho, today it's back to work i go. i can't complain, though. this has been a pretty great week.

What have I missed? What have you been up to?

wine with that haircut?

Here's a fun fact: before yesterday, I hadn't gotten a haircut since Christmas.
I always think that if I stop cutting my hair, it'll just grow and grow into long magical Sleeping Beauty locks. But in reality, my hair is thin and stringy and no matter how many products I run through it, it is in fact very un-magical. So after six months of not cutting it, all I was left with were a bunch of split ends. The time had come! 

Have you ever had a bad haircut?
I have. Bad, bad.
If you ask me, there are few worse things than being turned around in one of those fancy swivel haircut chairs at the end of your appointment and hating what you see. No! Wait! I take it back! I didn't want the bangs! Here's another fun fact: before my very first high school dance, I went and got my hair "professionally" styled, thinking I would come out looking like this. Instead I turned around looking a little more like this. It was bad news. Bad, bad news. My mom didn't even pretend to like it. Heh. She was equally as horrified as I was. So there we were in the salon, feeling traumatized. There were 30 minutes left before I was supposed to be all fancy and sparkly for my date. Talk about disaster! We looked at each other, and without having to say a word, we knew what had to be done. After breaking a few traffic laws getting home, I jumped in the shower (after removing roughly 8,000 bobby pins), ran the dryer through my hair, and ran out the door 20 minutes later with very unfancy, unstyled hair. But it was okay.

Anyhow.
Fortunately, yesterday was disaster-free. And even more fortunate was the complementary glass of wine that accompanied my haircut. Now that's what I'm talkin' about.

What are your hair rituals? Do you get your hair cut every couple months, or wait until the very last minute, like me?