Thanx, everybody.

Burn, Baby, Burn: The fires have progressed - some are contained, some have merged, winds have shifted. I think the number of evacuees has jumped above 500,000 and at least 1,250 homes have been destroyed. The death toll has risen to 2, and a few new fires started this morning. It's a mess.
    So far, neither my family nor our horses are in any danger. If the fire closest to us progresses far enough and jumps across highway 67, the ranch where our horses are kept will need to be evacuated. Somehow, I'm doubting that it will come to that.
    We had a close call during the Cedar Fires of 2003 - the fire came within about 10 feet of the cluster of suburban track housing that I live in before it was extinguished. I had the cars packed with my family's belongings and we were ready to leave, even though it was not mandatory. But of course, it didn't come to that. And I don't think it will this year either.
    For me personally, Seattle is looking better and better all the time.

Salad Hair: Last night, I did a heavy EVOO treatment under a sleep cap and went to bed early (ie. before midnight!). This morning, I did the usual clarifying routine: clarifying wash, vinegar rinse, 2nd clarifying wash, condition.
    The water was behaving strangely. Pressure has been reduced and the temperature is all out of whack. It's either scalding hot or freezing cold with very little leeway in between, so rinses are either much warmer or colder than I would like. But that's how it has to be for now.
    Hair seems to be ok though. Light, delicate and lifeless, but soft. No leave-in's today as usual for clarifying days - just let it air dry, then braided. Even the short pieces, left over from where I cut a lock (to give to someone who never gave me anything) are soft and seem to be growing in nicely. One of these days, I will have to get a hand mirror and look at them more closely to see just how much they have grown in since...since...oh, when was that??
   
Some Other Thoughts On Hair: I knew it would happen. Somehow, I just knew it. When I severed that lock from the rest of my hair and sent it to that creep in MI, I knew at the time, no matter how vaguely, that I would come to regret it. Now I begin to see myself going through the very motions that I'd predicted. I am seeing someone new and yet a section of my hair is still missing from when I'd sent it to someone else. And now I am kicking myself, thinking, why couldn't I have given it to K instead?! He surely would have appreciated it more!!
    The lock of hair that I severed lies meaningless and forgotten, gathering dust in a closet over 2,000 miles away. And in the keep of a child who could care less. Now I try to devote myself to K with part of my hair missing...a stark reminder of what was...and of what wasn't. It seems rather messed up. But I guess the good thing is that hair grows back. Perhaps one day, I will cut another lock from my hair and actually give it to the right person. Or maybe I'll just realize that there isn't a man on earth who deserves that kind of a sacrifice.

Stuff And Nonsense: More and more, I realize that Wal*Mart is an evil entity indeed. Were it not for my prescription and Suave light conditioners, I wouldn't go there at all. Spit on them!
    Wow, I just took a call from a guy that sounded like Count Dracula. lol
    I think that one of my New Year's resolutions for next year will be to try not to get ripped off so much.   
    Anyway, it's almost time to shut the office down and head home. With any luck, I could try to convince my parents to go to Claim Jumper for dinner tonight, as it will be pretty empty.

Girl, you are freaking awesome. I really don't know what else to say. Your words and your positive outlook have often struck me, but this time they brought tears to my eyes. Bless you. 

It's quite true that the lock of hair isn't mine anymore - I gave it away willingly, whether it was "right" or "wrong" or both or neither. Fortunately, Natura allows us to recover...whether by giving back what we lost over time (hair grows back, thank the gods!), or by giving us something different in its place...or yet by simply allowing us to realize that we are complete without it. It's all change and change is good. 

It's also touching to know that K's greatness can be apparent to someone who has never even met him. A soul has to shine pretty dang brightly for that to happen. I told him about what you said and that I might indeed be the most blessed woman on earth...but he feels that he is the lucky one. Poor man.    lol

Curlgirl: We did! The movie was very cool! Now I can't wait to drag K up to Disneyland so he can see the Haunted Mansion Holiday layover. 

Hair: Whoa. In addition to forgetting my satin pillowcases while housesitting last night, getting Sprite in my hair at the movies, waking up to something of a scary rat's nest this morning and forgetting my shower cap, my hair not only didn't get its usual Friday conditioning treatment, but instead was treated pretty badly. 
    I washed the entire length with Pantene Ice Shine shampoo and then tried to compensate for not having a shower cap/being able to treat by just conditioning the crap out of it.    First, I worked my aunt's TRESemmé Remoisturize conditioner (you listening, Trish?  ) through the length, then brought it up over the back of my head, with the ends spiked down in front of my forehead like Jerry Only from The Misfits.    I tried to keep it like that so it would stay out of the way while I finished the rest of my shower, but...it insisted on falling down at least once.
    Lastly, I conditioned again...and again, and again, and again. Once with Pantene Ice Shine (yay), once with my aunt's Aubrey Organics Revitalizing conditioner (gick!  ), then finally with my Suave Tropical Coconut. The showerheads did such a powerful job of rinsing each conditioner out that even now, my hair feels dry. I will keep it in a braid for the rest of the day and maybe do a heavy EVOO treatment over the weekend...whichever night that I don't see K. Then, I'll absolutely do a conditioning treatment at the first opportunity.

Also, the first of November is drawing near (weird, isn't it? This year has gone by so fast), so I must once again try to get in touch with my Scissor Lady for the routine semi-annual trim. I have still not reached BSL, but the dryness and damage are too much to deal with every 6 months that I cannot bear to delay trims. So back to 2 feet I go, it looks like. 

Other: The movie was great. I mentioned that. And at the risk of redundancy, I'll say again that K is amazing. The way he takes care of me just takes me aback sometimes. I often wonder why I wasted so much time on younger guys. 

As for the fires, things are finally beginning to get back to normal. The air is clearing up, temps are dropping, humidity is increasing and people have been returning to their homes...if they still have homes to return to. For those that don't, the relief efforts have already been huge.

My apologies if none of this makes sense. After a sketchy 2 hours of sleep at best, I consider myself lucky if I am able to form complete sentences at the moment. When I get home from work, I'll take a much-needed rest just to restore some of my wits. Then, I'll rise in the evening like the rest of my fellow bats and prepare to take on the weekend...starting with a new blackberry mani-pedi.    Peace!

Kiraela: One more disadvantage for men, I mean boys, is that they mature sooo much slower than we do. And for mature females, that usually means looking outside of their immediate age group. Ironically, I have always been attracted to older men and yet dated younger guys. What's up with that? 

Despite the 8-year age gap, K and I are actually still in the same generation. We are both Gen X...although I am at the tail end of it (actually on the cusp of X and Y) and he is somewhere more toward the middle.

Am I sure that we're not related? Honey, we're all related somehow. Both literally and spiritually. No matter the lineage, we are all God's children. Thus, I look on all of my friends as brothers and sisters. You and I, though, may be cut from a similar cloth indeed. 

Quote:

The...farm?   Good heavens, I know that I live in a slightly more rural area of suburban SoCal, but not quite on a farm. lol
    The ranch where we board our horses is just fine, as is the house that we live in some miles away. The family is fine as well...my father actually helped one of his bandmates evacuate his horses from the ranch where he boards them, farther east from us. In other words, all's well. The fires missed us by miles.

Fires: Are now mostly contained and slowly being extinguished. The air is still heavy with smoke and many people wear breathing masks when they go outside. Consequently, my nightly power walks are still suspended. Not sure whether I'll be able to resume them before it becomes too cold to do so.
    People in the area area beginning to recover. Most are contacting their insurance companies to find out what's covered and what isn't.
    Mother Nature keeps teasing us with rain and it never happens. It's been cloudy and a little humidity has returned, but not enough to make with the rain, which is what we need most. Just one more reason to hate living in SoCal. 

Hair: Wow, I wonder about following the Fire segment with a Hair segment. Fire, Hair...hmmm. Ah well, anywho...refined and elegant eater that I am, I ended up with bruschetta in my hair last night after taking one bite of it at dinner and having it literally explode and fall to pieces on me...and on my plate...and on the table...and on my lap...and on K.    Aside from the obvious humiliation that resulted, my hair was stuck together in one spot for the rest of the night. That's what I get for wearing it down to dinner, I guess.   
    So, this morning required washing all of my hair down to the ends to recover it from the bruschetta bomb (if only my dignity could be restored in one washing, eh?). I did a WCC with Pantene Ice Shine S&C, then Suave Tropical Coconut conditioner.

For the past few days, I've been using Pantene's Detangling conditioning spray as a leave-in without combing it through. I had been wondering what the difference would be if I just worked it through with my hands like I do with oil. The ends are quite dry, even though I concentrate the leave-in spray on them. Combing it through seemed to work better, but I don't know if I can justify pulling a comb through my hair when it's wet anymore.
   
But today, I didn't use any leave-in's at all. Just let my hair air dry as it wished, then used EVOO (as lightly as possible) on the length and braided during my break at work. I don't think that my hair absorbs EVOO very well.

Other: Paid K a surprise visit at his place last night and we ended up going to dinner at an Italian place that stays open really late. That's where the bruschetta bombing happened. And you know, stuff like that happens whenever I'm out with K. I always end up spilling/spraying/shooting/dropping something at the table...most of the time, it ends up in my hair...and by now I'm thinking that K must certainly, erm, question my dining etiquette. lol    It's as if someone up in the Promised Land is trying to play a joke on me. Maybe they're testing K to see how much he can put up with before deciding that I'm a hopeless hot mess and bailing out.    My paternal grandmother always was something of a prankster...perhaps this is her doing. 
    Unfortunately, the happy vibe of the evening was not to last as my stomach did its thing and filled with the usual acidic bubbles and left me in paralyzing pain.    K was wonderful and bought me some Pepto on the way back to his place...and that helped for a little while. But I ended up driving home in the same terrible pain. I probably even have a few bubbles left over. It sux.

Today, K dyed his hair and had it trimmed...but not without first asking me whether he should go for just a little trim or have it all cut short.    I laughed and told him that he already knew my answer.    Bless long hair and bless K.

Hair: Though I was tempted to do a WTC today since I wasn't able to last Friday, I simply woke up too late and had to do a clarifying wash instead. That's typical for Tuesdays, though. Today's pattern was clarifying wash, vinegar rinse, clarifying wash, condition, condition. No leave-in's. Right now, it's just down and untouched.
    The ends are really dry, as I've been noticing lately. I guess 6 months is about as much as my hair can go between trims. How sad. So I will need to get in touch with my Scissor Lady ASAP...November is just days away.

Other: K texted me when I got out of work yesterday and said that he was at my favourite mall, hoping to meet me there. I got a few vegan snacks from Robeks, then got gas and rushed out to where he was waiting for me.
    His hair looked great, btw. The trim was subtle enough that I didn't even notice anything different and the colour was absolutely fabulous! Black is such a difficult colour to do right, but it looks flawless and natural on him. Of course he has dark hair naturally, being of Spanish descent and I imagine that he must have been colouring his hair for many years, so he probably has it down to a science. But still...looks great.      He later told me that the colour is a black and purple combination that he mixed up himself.
    Anyway, he went a little nuts at the Godiva boutique and bought me a tin of dark chocolate covered pretzels, 2 dark chocolate raspberry bars and a dark chocolate raspberry Chocolixir (blended beverage with bits of Godiva chocolate mixed in)...along with some other stuff for himself. A short time later, we were seated in the food court at an isolated table, sharing both chocolaty decadence and vegan goodness simultaneously. Healthy and totally not...the best of both worlds, according to K. hehe
    After a quick stop into the Boudin Bakery (because good sourdough is one of the best things in life), we went back to my house and carved pumpkins with my sister. K's devil face came out looking the best. I did a spider and my sister did Eeyore from Winnie The Pooh. The case of candles that K had given me on our first date came in handy, and we ended up placing 3 candles in each jack-o-lantern. Makes for quite a nice glow. 
    After rinsing the pumpkin guts off of ourselves, K and I retreated to my chamber where...    he gave me 2 of the colour changing ghost candles from Illuminations that I've coveted for years. A big one and a little one. hehe I'll say it again...I love this whole "dating another goth" thing. 

In other news, freaking tomorrow is Halloween. Already! I am so unprepared!    I haven't talked to my aunt & uncle to find out what's going on with their haunted house project and I need to figure out what I'll be wearing for the night. Obviously, I want to goth it up as much as possible.    Pity that K will be working.

My nails need a little touch-up, but I'm really liking the new OPI stuff that I bought. The colour I'm wearing right now is called Lincoln Park After Dark...a very deep plum/eggplant/blackberry. The quality of it is great so far, though. Blows Revlon out of the water. I may yet get spoiled on all of this designer stuff. 

Anyway, that's about it for now. I think I'll comb my hair out and maybe, ya know, get some work done. hehe Peace out.

Man, what the heck is wrong with me (don't answer that  )?! For about 4 days now, I've been wanting to call my Scissor Lady to schedule a trim and just haven't gotten around to it. I have even tried Maggie's little trick of writing a reminder to myself in the webbing of my thumb and index finger, but even that hasn't worked! I just keep getting distracted and forgetting all about it.    We'll see what happens tonight. It's time for a trim, dangit!

So today finished the restoration of myself...at least for the most part. I finally finished, shaving, trimming and plucking, but I'll save the matching mani-pedi for over the weekend. My hair got a WTCC after another heavy EVOO treatment last night. Today's deep conditioning treatment consisted of 1 tsp. EVOO, 1 tsp. aloe vera gel, 1 tsp. honey and 3 tsp. Pantene Nourishing Moisture Replenishing Mask...left on for over an hour.

No leave-in's today. Didn't really have time. I'll just braid when I get a break as usual and forget everything else.

My room still needs a little work before its restoration is complete. There are still dead flower pieces here and there... 

Anyway, I'm zoning out to De/Vision at the moment, so I'll stop typing before I write something totally incoherent. Not that the rest of this isn't...