Update

I have temporarily extracted myself from cyberspace, and will be AWOL for a few more days, but I wanted to let you all know that I'm still alive and kicking.

1) Got the awesome hair treatment done, and I LOVE it! If you have hair like mine, I highly recommend the Global Keratin treatment (as well as Erin at Rocstar Hair in Chicago).

2) Drove back from Chicago in nasty, horrible snow. I was a little traumatized from the drive, but arrived home safe and in one piece. I have no desire to do any driving for a while, though.

3) My husband, my mother, and I are flying to Phoenix today to visit my in-laws for the holidays. I'm really looking forward to the break and time to eat cookies and work on writing.

4) Future blog posts will include a review of The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors by Michele Young-Stone (which I started in October and finally finished this week), and a review of Scrivener, which I got to use for NaNo. Preview: I loved both. Stay tuned.

5) Upcoming reading for me includes: No Place for Heroes by Laura Restrepo, Junction 2020 by Carol Riggs, The Hating Game by Talli Roland, and finishing On Writing by Stephen King. I'll post reviews of these, too, as I finish them.

What are you reading right now?

Happy Thursday, folks! :)

In Which I Have a Girlie Moment

It's Wednesday, December 8. Today I will turn in my final portfolio for my writing class and take my German exam, thus closing out this semester. By 8:30pm EST tonight, I will be FREE of academic obligations for almost a month.

So what am I doing to celebrate, you might ask? I'm going to Chicago to hang out with my old college roommates, reconnect with a high school friend I haven't seen since, well, high school, and get my hair done with the most amazing hairdresser. Hence, the girlie.

I am a woman cursed (or blessed—the grass is always greener, yada yada) with thick, curly, frizzy hair. I hate dealing with my hair because it can be such a tangled mess. When I do my hair—i.e., blow dry and straighten to defrizz—it can take at least 30 minutes. And for Thanksgiving, when I was fixing my hair, I fried the circuit in half the house by having the flat iron, hair dryer, and a space heater all on at the same time.

How excited am I to go to Chicago? Oh so very! In August I put up pictures from my college roomie's wedding. Said amazing hairdresser came from Chicago to Wisconsin to do the hair of everyone in the wedding party, and while she cut my hair on the loading dock of a building at Beloit College, she told me she was getting certified in a new type of hair treatment to straighten hair. This weekend, I will have this done. It's organic and relatively chemical-free. And it's supposed to be so amazing that I can walk straight out of the shower and let my hair air dry with little to no fuss.

I'll let you know how it goes, but hopefully the girl in the picture above will never have such horrid hair again!