Back to Work

It looks like I'm headed back to the land of the gainfully employed. I haven't had a paying job since I started school (notice I didn't say I haven't worked...cause cosmetology school is harder than most jobs I've had) but starting tomorrow that's going to change. The major obstacle has always been the fact that Heather works nights and the only hours I would be available to work are nights. But I got a call the other day from one of the beauty supply stores (imagine that, me working in a beauty supply store while going to cosmetology school...it's almost like a Disney channel movie) to come work for them. After discussing it with Heather and securing someone to watch the kids while I'm at work (her parents), I decided to go ahead and say yes. I'm somewhat leery about the hours I'm going to be putting in, considering that I'll be up around 6 each morning and won't step foot inside my home until about 10pm that night, five days a week and at least every other weekend. Once upon a time, 10 years ago or so, I could have done that and never blinked. But now my body just doesn't have the go-juice it once did. So it will be interesting to see how I hold up (add to that the fact that I also starting going back to the gym and it's closer to midnight before I get home). Still, the extra money will be nice and it will let me stockpile some cash to get my haircutting career going once I graduate.

Some wedding photos

I know that my wedding occurred about 2 1/2 years ago, but I was looking over some of the pics last night and thought it would be neat to post them here to give people a chance to see what all the fun was about (especially people who weren't there). I'll try to include commentary.



We got married at the courthouse. Why? 'Cause it was cheap and we were poor at the time (at the time? We're still pretty much poor). Even so, as I keep telling Heather, it doesn't matter where you buy the pony, as long as you don't sell it for dog food later (okay, maybe that wasn't the best analogy, but you get the idea).



Ah, the reception. My mother ponied up the dough for our reception (again, poverty issues) and I must say that it was a pretty decent affair.



What can I say, I like to ham things up. Actually, this was one of the more mild instances of me hamming it up (I made Heather laugh out loud at the wedding when we repeated our vows).



After God knows how many presents we opened, I was starting to feel a bit punchy (it gets a bit draining to summon excitement for yet another completely unnecessary kitchen utensil set). The lady in the picture behind me is Sarah, my hairdresser and the woman who I will be working with once I graduate.



Heather, however, was having a blast...if there were an amusement park where all you did was open presents all day long, I think she would be in heaven.

So there you have it, a microcosm of our wedding.

Blogging

You know, this blogging thing can be hard. I try to come up with new and exciting things to post, things I think people would be interested in, but it's hard sometimes. I always have my camera with me, or try to anyway, in case something happens that I can get a digital snapshot of to post later. But I just don't lead that exciting of a life. I go to class, come home, play with my kids, get them ready for bed then chill out with a book or some 'Net surfing (Heather works mostly at night). Still, even with all of that, I love having this blog. I've slowly increased my readership to somewhere north of a dozen (I'm kidding...I think. I actually have no real idea who reads this blog beyond my family and a few friends). So, if you don't see a new post for a few days, don't stop coming back. I try to post something at least every 3-4 days, if not sooner, even if it is just a little monologue like this one.

A Very Sad Day

As is my usual wont, I surf the 'Net around midnight after everyone has gone to bed, catching up on news and reading other blogs of interest. One of the blogs that I read on a semi-regularly basis is Robert Jordan's blog on www.Dragonmount.com. And so, just a few moments ago, I read of his passing on Sunday afternoon. For those of you who don't know who Robert Jordan was or what he meant to me, a little back story. Robert Jordan (a pen name for James Rigney) was the author of the best-selling "Wheel of Time" series of fantasy fiction. A total of 11 books have been published, each one averaging about 700 pages.

I know that fantasy (and science fiction) is the red-headed step child of literature, but I have always been drawn to the fantastical settings and stories. And Jordan delivered those things (and so much more) in spades. Starting with the first book in the series, "The Eye of the World", Jordan started weaving a tapestry of characters and story lines that was simply head and shoulders above what everyone else was doing. He had a deft hand with characterization, especially his female characters, developing them into real people, with wants, needs, fears, joys, etc. And the story lines and plot ideas flowed like an undulating stream, crossing and churning, rising and falling; never to the extant that they slowed the narrative or became so convoluted as to be impossible understand yet still containing more imagination than a busload of 8 year olds. Simply put, you fell in love with his characters and you couldn't wait to see what they were going to do next.

One of the great things about his books was the idea that not everyone was on the same page, information wise. Most fiction (we'll call it "heroic fiction" to coin a phrase and great a new genre too, I guess) involves characters working together towards a common goal and so by the end of story, each one knew everything the other did and there were no misunderstandings. Jordan tossed in the wrinkle that just because you grew up in the same village you weren't necessarily privy to what your friends knew or their intentions. This worked to enrich the characters, so that two people who might have started out friends became bitter enemies, even while working toward the same goal, simply due to a misunderstanding or lack of information.

And the conspiracy theories! Major (and minor) characters would die, only Jordan would sometimes not tip his hat as to who killed them. Or a new character would be introduced, with some striking similarities to a previously killed (or thought to be killed) character and Jordan would simply give us enough information to keep whetting our appetite (the first and foremost goal of any writer worth his salt). There are literally hundreds of websites and message boards devoted to some of these conspiracy theories. Jordan didn't just create a readership, he inspired them.

I have been reading his works for the last 13 years now. I have read, and re-read, the "Wheel of Time" series more times that I care to count. Every time I decide to start reading the series again, invariably someone will ask me what I'm reading, is it good, etc. After I start with a VERY abbreviated outline of the series (complex isn't even in it), I always let slip that I've read this particular book at least a dozen times. The incredulous stares that I get after confiding that information always makes me laugh. Jordan has that effect. His dialogue and turns of phrase are better than anything else I've read, period. Better than Doyle, better than Heinlein, better than Tolkien.

Jordan is always compared to Tolkien whenever a discussion of the books comes about. While Jordan himself never considered his work to be on par with The Lord of the Rings, he always acknowledged that Tolkien (among others) paved the way for him to write his stories, even alluding to this fact in a very oblique way in his books. I've always used this analogy: Tolkien might have drawn the map and the major roads, but Jordan filled in large gaps in the terrain, even establishing a colony or two off the beaten path.

I've considered myself a writer since the 8th grade, when I saw the effect a story I had written for class had on my fellow classmates. In the intervening time, I've emulated various authors whose work I've enjoyed. But Jordan was the first writer to inspire me to write beyond his influence. For example, after I started reading Sherlock Holmes, the vast majority of my stories were mysteries, usually with a very smart and intellectual protagonist. The same with Heinlein, Tolkien, and others. After read their works, I always tried to emulate their writing style or plot style, with varying degrees of success. I've never tried to emulate Jordan's style of writing or plotting. It's beyond me to try and do so. Oh, I possess the technical skill, I'm sure, but it goes beyond mere technique. I can catch and throw a football, but I'm no Jerry Rice or John Elway. I can write a pretty good yarn and make it exciting, adding layers of characterization and plot details, but I'm no Jordan. No, what Jordan did was inspire me to take what I loved, writing, and make it my own. That my ideas were good enough to put pen to paper (or, rather, fingers to a keyboard) and simply write. Everytime I would get down on myself as not being good enough or feeling frustrated over a story, I would re-read a Jordan book and my resolve would firm and I'd take another stab at whatever I was working on. This is the mark of a good writer. They don't just give you a good story, they inspire you to write your own.

Jordan was diagnosed some time ago with a disease called Amyloidosis, specifically AL amyloid (if you want more info, check it out on wikipedia.org. It's far to complex to go into here). There are no known cures for this disease but that didn't stop him from fighting and even continuing his writing (indeed, TOR (his publisher)was still due to publish the final book in the series, "A Memory of Light" once he finished writing it). Through his blog, readers were given an insight into his thoughts and fears and most of all, his strength in the face of such an insurmountable situation. But he never gave up, never felt sorry for himself, never once asked people to simply let him be. I'm sure that in the future I will delve into another long fantasy series and be completely blown away by the author's skill and technique. But I sincerely doubt that I will ever read another work of literature as captivating, breathtaking and inspiring as Robert Jordan's series. There is a line in his books about a particular people's eulogy upon their death. I figure it's about as good a send off as I'm going to come up with and somehow fitting that it comes from Jordan himself:

"May you shelter in the palm of the Creator's hand, and may the last embrace of the mother welcome you home."

Cavities

I went to the dentist this morning (7 am this morning! yeah, I know) to have a cavity filled. I've only had one other cavity and that was when I was around 6 or so. The procedure itself was fairly easy and I made my usual jokes (I was there last week for a check up and the dentist & his assistants marveled at my soul patch, having no clue that there was actually a name for it. There was a new assistant this time and one of the first things he mentioned was my soul patch. Even though he's older than my mother, he's actually pretty cool). The fun started after I was finished. I went back home to pick up a few things and noticed that the anesthesia was kicking in big time. It went from numbing my right cheek to progressing across my mouth, so much so that I was literally re-enacting a Bill Cosby sketch (you know, water dribbling out the mouth and being unable to speak properly). I was a bit worried at first, but a call to the dentist assured me that it would fade shortly (although they did say to come back in if it didn't fade in about an hour...not exactly reassuring). I went to school and started in with what I hoped would be a good day. Hoped was the operative word. Even though the numbness had lessened, I still had to be cautious when I drank something or it dribbled out of my mouth. Add to that the fact that now that the anesthesia was wearing off, I was starting to FEEL my filling. And it HURT. Another call to the dentist calmed my fears (that and some Ibuprofen) but it didn't help me eat food (I have to chew on the left side of my mouth or it hurts) or drink anything with ice (I have to swallow carefully or the cold liquid hurts...don't even get me started on the instance of a stray piece of ice being crunched by the filling). And according to my dentist, I have another week or two before I'll be back to normal. Next time, I'll just have them pull the damn tooth.

Our Morning Ritual

Emery, unlike either Heather or I, is an early riser. How early? He comes into our bedroom between 5:30 and 6:00 AM EVERY MORNING to wake me up (and its almost always me, not Heather) to request A) juice and B) Spongebob Squarepants. The dialogue goes something like this: "Daddy, I want juice." "It's early, buddy." "Daddy, I watch Spongebob." "Okay, go to the living room and Daddy will get some juice and turn on Spongebob."

Every day, 7 days a week. Regardless of how early or late he goes to bed, it's the same scenario. Still, it's fun in an odd sort of way. Kind of like our own bonding time. He will sit and watch Spongebob while I check my email and read the day's news. Now Emma has gotten in on the act too. So, Emery gets juice, Emma gets a bottle and Daddy gets bags under his eyes as we all get up before the sun is up to watch Spongebob.

New Camera

I got a new digital camera yesterday. Why did I get a new digital camera? 'Cause I...misplaced...our other camera (it's a long story involving disintegrating trashbags, high winds and my backpack...don't ask). Anyhoo, I went with an HP again (my first camera was an HP m415) because I really enjoyed the first one (a Christmas gift from Heather's parents). I was going to get a Nikon Coolpix but they were out of the model I wanted, plus the HP was on sale. So far, it's been fun to play with. My only gripe is since there is no viewfinder, the thing DEVOURS batteries. You have to turn it off between pics if you want to conserve battery power. But since it's becoming increasingly hard to find a camera with a viewfinder (unless you want to shell out serious change for an SLR digital camera) I figure it will be something I'll have to deal with.

A Day at the Zoo

The company my mother-in-law, Lisa, works for had an annual employee picnic type thing at the OKC zoo. Since the kids have never been to the zoo, we made a family outing of it. I haven't been to the zoo in YEARS (I think the last time I went, my mother still had her natural hair color) so it was fun for me too. Emery had an absolute blast, pointing to all the animals and repeating each animal's name as it was said to him. Even though he was pooped after lunch, he still enjoyed himself in the aquarium (by far his favorite part of the zoo...every time he saw a fish, he would say, "NEMO!") Emma didn't enjoy herself quite so much. She started fussing about 30 minutes before we got there and kept the dial on cranky for most of the time. I didn't include any pics of the animals (unless you count the one with Tim) because I'm sure you've all seen an elephant (the one's with Emery and the bronze animals were quite humorous...after the first one, every time we saw one, he would jump out of his stroller, run to it and pose for the camera). I'm thinking we might make this an annual event.

Movin' on up, to the east side...

The school is moving (well, not the actual building). Sometime before the end of the year, we will be in our new digs. As you can see from the pictures, there is still a lot of work to be done (they are installing new duct work at the moment) but this new location will be HUGE compared to our current building (which has been home to the school since the 60's). We got to take a break from school this morning to tour the facilities and even in a unfinished state they are impressive. The coolest part? The new building is about 5 minutes from where I live. So now when I wake up at 8am, I can make it to class on time.

The Rookies

A new class started Tuesday. It's interesting to see that deer-in-the-headlights look on some of their faces and think that I once looked like that (when I'm challenged with a particularly difficult haircut, I still look like that). I snapped off a few pics of them working on braiding techniques. The cheeseball to the right is Amy, who, interestingly enough, I went to high school with. The girl in the middle teaching techniques is Liz, who threatened to inflict massive amounts of pain on my person if I posted this pic (let's hope she doesn't read my blog).

So I went to the dentist yesterday. This marks the first time I've been to the dentist since I passed my driving test in high school. And surprisingly, I got high marks for my teeth (I say surprisingly because A: my whole family has very poor genetics when it comes to teeth and B: I pay more attention to my toenails than I do my teeth). I did have a cavity, however, which will be filled week after next. But all in all, it wasn't a bad experience (unless you count that horrid fluoride wash)

My First Day

There aren't any pictures to share, which is just as well, 'cause I'd prolly get sued. Today was my first day on the floor flying solo cutting hair (well, not really as there is always an instructor within earshot in case I get in over my head). I was scheduled to do a perm this morning, but that got bumped so I could make up some things we didn't get to during my "class" period. So I got a haircut this afternoon. A simple little haircut...if I had foresight, I would never have crawled out of bed.

The woman who came in was an older lady who kept her hair fairly short, for lack of a better term, somewhat "mannish". She had tried to cut her hair herself (a definite no no) and miscalculated badly. So she came in to have it fixed. It started out well enough, with a shampoo and some conditioner. Then everything went downhill. For some reason that I'm still unable to fathom, I went into a total brain lock. This woman was telling me all the things that she wanted done and I kept combing her hair back, thinking "what in the hell am I supposed to do first?" (calling an instructor over before I even cut one strand of hair would have been a definite faux pas). Finally, I had foot dragged enough so I went to work. Backwards. Have you ever seen someone try put on their clothes in the reverse order? Y'know, like pants first, then underwear? That was me. I was cutting things first that I should have done last, totally flying by the seat of my pants. After about 15 minutes, my brain came out of whatever fugue state it was in and I realized what I was doing. Fortunately, I hadn't done permanent damage, at least anything that wasn't fixable. Still, even though when I was finished this woman had a really good haircut, she wasn't happy because the hair in the back of her head was too long. Now, she told me to leave it longer because she had a cow lick and she didn't want it to stand up in the back and even after she got a good look at it in the mirror and saw that it was fine, she was still miffed.

Chrystal, who sits beside me, told me afterward that I was trembling just a bit while I was cutting her hair. Brandi commented that she can now tell when I'm nervous because I talk really fast and ramble quite a bit (and that is very true...when I'm uncomfortable, I tend to get verbose...the higher the discomfort, the more words spill out of my mouth...get me so nervous I could pee and I'll give you a discourse on Stephen Hawking's quantum physics theories complete with digressions on black holes and anti-matter). I do have to say that while the experience was just a bit on the nerve wracking side, I'm glad it's over so I can move on. Which I did about 20 minutes later...

The second haircut of the day proved to be much less stressful. The woman complained that her hair stood out below her cap ("sprouted wings" was her phrase) and since she wears a hat quite a bit, she wanted something done to fix it. She had actually used some clippers on her hair earlier in the day to try and correct the problem but it only made things worse (PEOPLE, PLEASE!!! Don't try this at home!). Fortunately, I was much more relaxed this go-round and she was pleased with her result, so much so that I got a tip! Yay, drinks are on me! (as long as it's happy hour and the prices are like $0.05 a glass...due to scheduling with watching the kids and Heather's job, I'm not working while I'm in school so we're a bit poor at the moment). I've got a perm scheduled first thing out of the gate tomorrow so we'll see how that goes (perms can be deadly as far as hair is concerned...all those tales of people losing their hair after a perm are not just urban legends).

Hair it is

It's late and she didn't want to take the time to jazz it up, but here is the finished product. There are both blond and red brown highlights in this but the red brown is hard to see because of the color deposit (in technical terms, it's Color Sync 4G...which means it's a shade lighter than black). She's quibbling over a few minor things, but overall she really likes it. Which is good, 'cause if she bitched about it I was going to shave her head while she slept.

A New Day is Hair

It was extreme makeover day and boy was it long! I have "graduated", as it were, to the floor, which means that I am now free to inflict all kinds of havoc on a real human being and their hair. The school lets us have a "free day", where we are allowed to give someone (or my case, two someones) a full range of services at no charge so that we can gain some practical time on the floor. Originally Heather was to be in class until after lunch so I offered my friend Anna some time in the morning for a haircut. However, Heather's schedule freed her up after 10:30 so she came along to watch (this would prove to be somewhat ominous for me...you'll see) Anna's haircut went off without a hitch, just an average haircut, adding some layering. Heather wanted to do something drastic, however, so I had looked over several styling books last week to come up with a good design and color scheme. All of that went for naught as Heather and my instructor Brandi threw out my color palette and decided on a whole new scheme. The cut that we had decided on stayed pretty much the same, an A-line cut (pretty much an updated version of the classic "bob cut"). I was itching to do an A-line as it's one of the more popular cuts today as well as one of the more technical. So, with Brandi watching over my shoulder, I started to work. If I only knew what I was getting into, I would have just trimmed her ends and cut some bangs. Your stylist might make cutting hair look easy, but there is A LOT that goes into it. Angles, hair growth patterns, overdirection cutting and razor cutting techniques are only a small part of the equation. However, it was worth it in the end as I got some much needed experience and Heather got her radical change. I'm posting some of the pictures taken during the process (mostly the coloring process as I was so engaged in getting the cut right that I didn't even think about having someone snap some pics until it was almost over). I'll post a final pic of the haircut later as she wanted a chance to properly style her hair.

You talkin' ta me?

You really do not want to come between this girl and her mac & cheese dinners.

Say Cheese

The previous post goes with this one (call it a technical error). The kids got dressed up to go to Great Grandma's for lunch and I thought I would snap off a few quick pics. Unfortunately, Emery is a bit of a camera hog so he kept trying to push Emma out of the way.