Self Portrait Day

I wore my hair short like this for more than 26 years:



Before that, I wore it very long, almost to my waist at times, and loved it. I had it all cut off the first time when I was pregnant with my oldest daughter, about three days before she was born. I just didn't want to have to fool with hair that long while I was in the hospital, and I thought it would be easier to take care of after the baby was born. However, I hated it short and let it grow out long again.


When I turned 30, I thought that women over 30 shouldn't have such long hair, so I had it cut short, like in the photo above, and wore it short like that until last year. In fact, my husband and a lot of my friends have never seen me with long hair.



While I don't particularly like these photos I took today, they do show somewhat what my hair looks like now. Last year, when I started working for the park service, and having to wear the Smokey the Bear stetson hat:


I discovered that those of us who had short hair had atrocious "hat hair" at the end of the work day. Those of us who had long hair, not so much. So, I decided to grow my hair out long again. It is about half way to where I would like it to be. I know I need a trim, to give it more shape and take care of some loose ends, but it pretty much looks how I expected it to look.




I can't decide if I want to cut bangs or not. I did have some cut back in April, but they are way too long now so I am trying to keep them neatly out of my face until my step-daughter, Becky, gets here to visit next month. She is a hair professional---I hope she will have some scissors with her when she comes. For now, I am trying to use some pretty combs I found at the mall, but my hair is too fine to hold them in.



My goal is to have hair long enough to pull back in a swishy ponytail while I am at work, wearing my hat, and be able to wear in a variety of styles on my off time. What do you think? (Oh, and I already know I need some make-up.)

Flagstaff, Arizona

Yesterday was a beautiful day for a drive, and that is just what we did. It was 143 miles from Cactus Ranch to J & H RV Park in Flagstaff. The trip was pretty much uneventful. The sky was so blue, with puffy white clouds. This is the first view of the San Francisco Peaks in Flagstaff from I-17.




We pulled into J & H RV Park around 1:30 p.m. and set up the trailer. We had forgotten about the higher elevation of the area--it's around 7,000 feet. By the time we got done, we were worn out, huffing and puffing. This is the same park we stayed in last year when we were on our way up to the canyon. We like it because the sites are very level pull-throughs, and it is pretty. However, is is $40 a night. That's us, in the trailer between two motor homes.



The sunset yesterday was beautiful, again. This is looking out toward the San Franciso Peaks:




Today was a busy day. It started out with breakfast at our favorite Flagstaff restaurant, Miz Zips. They serve breakfast all day for a pretty good price, and their coffee is good. I like places that will serve me eggs any time I want them. It's just not right not to. It always seems like a penalty to me for sleeping late when a restaurant closed up the egg carton at 10 a.m. Anyway, Miz Zips is on Route 66, that famous highway. I just like the idea of eating my eggs on Route 66.

After breakfast, I got a haircut, a manicure, and a pedicure. The girl did a good job on my hair. she only took off about a half inch, and cut some bangs. I had wanted to just let it grow all one length, but the front was growing funny, with just a little bit that was too long to be bangs, but too short to stay back with a hair band. So, I went ahead and cut the bangs, "fringe" to my English daughter-in-law. It looks ok. Keep in mind it was a windy day and I let it air dry instead of using a blow dryer on it, and I didn't have a brush in the truck:



After all that was done, we went to the game store for Fabgrandpa, and to Joann Fabrics for me. You know I had to get my fabric fix. I got five coordinating prints in chocolate browns, teal blues and creams, for a project I want to work on. Can't wait to get started on it.

Next, we went to Wal-Mart for a stock up of toiletris, paper goods, and part of the grocery list. It took quite a while, but we did get about half of the planned shopping done today. Then we went home and unloaded the truck and put everything away, ate some lunch, and took a nap. A looonnng nap.


When I woke up, I offered to take FabGrandpa out to dinner, so he suggested the Swadhe Thai Restaurant in the old town part of Flagstaff. Yum! I am ready for thai food anytime. I ordered Woon Sen Soup and Pineapple Shrimp Fried Rice. The soup had those clear bean thread noodles, chicken, and bok choy, and was delish. And what can I say about the fried rice except, if you have never had it, you do need to try it.



He ordered Won Ton Soup and Spicy Seafood Fried Rice. The waiter asked him "How spicy do you want your rice?" They have from 1 to 5 on the spicy side, so he ordered "3". It was so hot it made his whole head turn red, and it had squid-y, octopi looking things in it, along with the shrimp and scallops. I told him to never order "seafood" in a Asian or Italian place, you just never know what you are going to get. He ate it though, and said it was good.


Here is the sunset we saw when we walked outside to go home:


Tomorrow, there's more shopping to do. The last time we did a big shopping trip for groceries was on February 27, so it is about time.

And One More Thing I Want To Show You Today

Longer hair, new shades.

Ah, Flagstaff!

And so it came to pass that we left the North Rim and went down to Flagstaff. I had a loose plan of what I wanted to accomplish on our first day there, which included getting my hair cut and getting a pedicure and a manicure. Not such big and impressive plans that they could not be accomplished, right? Wrong.

It could have just been that I was having an incredibly bad day (Or I was just cranky). The trip from the North Rim to Flagstaff is only 200 miles. It only took about five hours, including stopping for breakfast one last time at Jacob Lake, which was quite delicious. But as soon as entered the Flagstaff city limits, everything changed. At least for ME it did, but maybe Flagstaff is just a more laid back kind of town so that it was business as usual for the people there.

We arrived at Greer’s Pine Shadows RV Park, and I went to the office to register, but though the door was open, no one was in the office. I waited. And waited. And waited some more. After about a half an hour the office dude sauntered up with his dog, and said, “Can I help you?”

We finally got checked in and and went to our site to set up the trailer. But right next to where we were to park, they were working on the road with one of those hole digging machines. It was so loud that we could not hear each other talk, which is a detriment to setting up a travel trailer. After about two hours, we finally got things in order and went to town in search of hairdo and nail places.

While FabGrandpa went to Gamestop, I went into the nail shop down the sidewalk. When I walked in, no one said hello, no one said “we’ll be with you in a minute.” I sat down and waited for ten minutes. Then I walked to the back of the shop where the nail people were doing pedicures for other people and said “Excuse me, can you tell me how long it will be?” And they said, about thirty minutes. I said I would come back.

I left and went next door to the hairdo place. When I walked in at least they said hello. The girl behind the counter asked me what I needed, and I said I would like to get a haircut. She said it would be about fifteen minutes. So, I sat down and waited. And waited. And waited some more. Finally, after about thirty minutes, the girl said she was ready to take me back. And THEN, her co-worker said, “Oh, can you rinse my color for me before you take her?”

So, the girl who was supposed to cut my hair tried to rinse that guy’s hair right off his head. I know this because after about ten minutes, she was still rinsing him. And I walked out of the shop. But by that time, I was fuming mad that I had to wait, and I kept seeing THIS in my head, and I decided it would be better to wait until the next day to get a haircut than to risk having that, or worse, happen again.

Yeah, it could have been worse, but I have not had a haircut since July. My days off were Sunday and Monday, and everyone knows that the hairdo shops are closed on Sunday and Monday. I am not a very frou frou kind of girl, but I am a little picky about my hair. I was READY for a haircut. Now, I am thinking I may just let it grow out long. Maybe.

So what DID I accomplish on my first day in Flagstaff? This:

And there was no waiting in line for it.

What a Good Haircut Should Look Like

A few months ago, while we were still in Pennsylvania, I wrote about the horrible haircut I got at a little shop in Gettysburg. I showed you the pictures of that hack job. I couldn't go anywhere without a hat for about a month.

The first thing we did when we got to Georgia was make a beeline for our daughter's hair salon. Becky always makes me feel so special, and she always does a good job on my hair. So, just for the fun of being able to show you what a good haircut looks like, as soon as we got home from her shop last month I had Jim take a couple of pictures. What a wonderful difference!

This is the front:

And this is the back:Thanks, Becky!