On my list of things I will NEVER do again

#1: Get my hair done at training salon.

How was the hair appointment at the training salon, you ask? Well....for starters, I'm blond. No, that isn't what I went for. I asked them to "add some dimension" to my mousy brown hair with light brown highlights so I don't look so bland. I specifically told them that I didn't want blond, even after the girl made me look through 2 magazines to find the "right blond". We even agreed on a picture of Penelope Cruz's dark hair with a few wispy highlights. I kept telling her, "no, I don't want blond, and I don't want my hair to look much lighter overall, just some brown that's lighter than what I already have." All I wanted was to add a second tone of brown.....BROWN. B-R-O-W-N!!!!!! And they seemed to get it, the instructor even said,  "I know right, people ask for highlights and then they don't get highlights, the base colour of their hair is completely changed to look way lighter....they go WAY too light and put in WAY too many foils." So I thought to myself, good, she understands.

It wasn't until I noticed how many foils the girl was putting in my hair that I realized it wasn't going to end well. The worst part though was when they came to check on me after the foils had sat in my hair for 10 minutes.

Instructor: "Ohhh...holy crap....uhhhhh....your hair lifts REALLY fast."
Trainee: "Ohhhh......."
Instructor: "Uhhh....."

AWKWARD SILENCE and LOOK OF TERROR ON MY FACE

Instructor: "OK...take her out from under the dryer and let her cool for 10 minutes then rinse....."

At this point I knew that it had gone terribly wrong. When I saw myself in the mirror though, it wasn't as bad as I had anticipated. And then I arrived home, with dry hair and proper lighting...and there it was: Blond Kristen. They did EXACTLY what I didn't want and exactly what they said they wouldn't do: WAYYYY too many foils and WAYYYY too light. I am steaming mad. I spent so long growing out my hair with its natural colour, I go in for some "dimension", some "light brown accents", some NOT BLOND....and what the hell happens?

All I can say is....at least I did this 10 months prior to my wedding and not 10 days. Screw budgeting, I'm going back to my regular guy, even if I have to eat Mr. Noodles for a month.

Never a dull moment

A lot has happened lately - our car was broken into, I finished a huge project at school, our landlord spilled ABS cleaner all over our kitchen floor and now it has two giant fluorescent purple spots, I finally got back into a gym routine, 

AND.......

I'm going wedding dress shopping today - for the second time! The first round was quick and the store didn't have much selection, but it was still really fun. Today, all of my bridesmaids are coming along and we're going to a store that also carries bridesmaid dresses. I was going to post my favourite dress on here, but just in case it turns out to be "the one", I don't think I should....Luc reads my blog and I'm a big fan of not letting the groom see the bride in her dress. Or see what the dress looks like!

We also went to a couple of concerts in the past month - Pearl Jam at GM Place, Collective Soul at the Commodore Ballroom (my favourite venue and one of my favourite bands) and U2 at BC Place.

Despite my earlier predictions, we weren't sitting around TOO many weirdos at the Pearl Jam concert. There was one guy who danced the same way to every song; slow, fast, medium paced, or Eddie Vedder talking to the crowd....he just kept dancing away. The Collective Soul and the U2 concert were both a different story....amazing shows, lots of amazingly weird events and people....

The money saving tactic that may go horribly wrong

Because of the associated costs of being a student, I'm making compromises in other areas of my life. Rather than buy coffee at school, I make it myself each morning...pretty standard, I think most people do that regardless of their financial situation.

Instead of buying a new, expensive jacket, I found an XL that was on sale at a huge discount and had it tailored for just over $10 - turned out pretty well. I got a compliment on it the other day from a charming old lady on the bus.

Now that my natural hair colour has grown out, I need to do something to liven it up so that I don't look quite so mousy for our wedding. Here's the thing that may just blow up in my face and end up costing me more money in the end: I'm forgoing my regular stylist (who knows how to handle my ravenous mane of thick curls - I straighten it - and who knows the deal with my hair colour situation) for a student salon that I've never been to before....where a student will cut and dye my hair....on Friday the 13th....possibly causing irreversible damage....

Am I crazy?

Mind blowing

This post on Joanna Goddard's blog is remarkable - with one 20 minute helicopter ride over New York, this artist drew the entire skyline....to scale.....perfectly....

Check it out here

The Farmer's Almanac told me so

According to my obsessive bridal research, there has been ZERO RAIN on September 5th (our wedding date) for the past 10 years.

Monthly Photo - November 2009

Flowers on Lombard Street, SFO

The last hurrah!

We decided to go all out this year for Halloween. According to one of my best friends, "the next time Halloween falls on a weekend, we're going to have KIDS!!!" This alarming fact meant that Luc and I, and Kate and her fiance had to party like we were 18 and dress up like we were 8. Done and done. We won a costume contest and got a private booth and free bottle service at a club, so at least the effort that went into making the costumes was rewarded.

By the end of the night our go-karts were a little bit trashed, but that was to be expected. We crashed into each other, we crashed into other people, we crashed into cars on the street....we crashed into each other some more. Among the many unsolved mysteries from the night are the toy gun I found in the pocket of my vest, and my thumbs, which are both stained green. Nobody knows how this happened.

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