Day 10: Persistent cough is the worst part now. Not being able to breathe in the morning or whenever I lay down probably comes in 2nd. Still recovering verrrry slowly.

Hair: A simple CWC today. New leave in is Pro-V Restoratives Breakage Defense Detangling Leave-In Crème. I bought it last night with a few other "essentials." Yes, it contains hydrogenated castor oil, but for some reason, I'm kind of going back to the idea of using Restoratives again. For the moment, hair is down.

Stupid Boys: So K decided to hit one of the local bars after work last night with a buddy, drink his face off and then drive home.
    I picked up his German Eiswein from FedEx this morning, but needless to say, I find him pretty undeserving of it now! So I've joined forces with Lisabelle and thrown my man in the doghouse.

Otherwise: All's pretty much well. Went to Carols By Candlelight last night and the show itself was pretty decent. Afterwards, I even found a voice to sing Silent Night with...albeit quietly. And I waved to Juice Newton a few times (she didn't see me).
    This morning, my parents and I decorated the Christmas tree. My father consulted me about whether we should hang our very rare and expensive Jack & Sally ornaments, then let me hang them.
    After that, the 4 of us (my sis too) went driving around town running errands and Christmas shopping for our WA relatives. I texted K (who is predictably hung over) while I was out and told him just how unhappy I am with him at the moment. 

Anyway, that's about it for today. I think I'm going to take a nap now.

Day 11: Still slowly but steadily improving. This cough is a nuisance! Last night, I learned that it is essential to eat before taking 12-hour cough syrup. Otherwise...nausea. 

Hair: This morning, I washed twice: once with Sheer Voume shampoo, once with Sheer Voume 2-in-1. Could really have done without the latter! Like any other opaque Pantene shampoo, it coated my hair with greasy wax. Pair that with DMR conditioner and you have a nightmare. It's hard to believe that I was using both DMR 2-in-1 and conditioner at the same time for so long!! WTF was I thinking?!
    So far, hair is down and air drying, which takes a bloody long time on cold, rainy days like today. Depending on how disgusting the roots are when dry, I'll either braid or just pin the sides up with barrettes - my mother gave me a few new pairs, courtesy of an advent calendar.

Life: Almost broke things off with K last night.    So this morning, I am emotionally unstable, suspicious and quite confused. Still have some prying grilling investigative work to do, but I hope and pray that everything will work in our favour on honest terms.
    Last night, I did give K his bottle of Eiswein and he let me have a sip.      It wasn't like the Canadian ice wine that I tried last year at all.    Fortunately, K liked it anyway...or at least said that he did. 

Jerry: Indeed, Juice Newton has cut her hair to just above shoulder length. However, The Voice is still perfectly intact. She sounds just as good now as she did 20 years ago. And yes, I actually saw her offstage. She was at a table selling CD's after the show and I was standing just a few yards away. Awestruck as I was, I was too shy to walk up and say hello. 

Day 13: Yes, tomorrow will mark 2 weeks of this crap. I'm so over it!    Fortunately, all that remains is the cough and the quieter part of my vocal range that's still gone. Aside from those things, I am recovered. But I must stay on my guard as members of my family are still sick and I don't want to relapse!
    Today I am counting my blessings that I will be well enough to go to Disneyland tomorrow. 

Hair: Clarifying day. Today I used Ice Shine conditioner instead of DMR and it seemed to work just fine. After my current bottle of DMR conditioner has been used up, I don't suppose I'll buy DMR anything ever again. It may be that I still harbour resentment for it because of how awful and greasy it made my hair look for my grandmother's funeral last year. But DMR in general is just too heavy and slimy for my spiderweb hair. Next year, I think I will resolve to use only Ice Shine or Restoratives.
    For now, my hair is down and air drying. I'll do the usual comb/braid thing during break.

Life: Didn't see any movies last night. Didn't even see K.    After he got out of work, we were both too tired. Although there was some texting in the wee hours when it started to rain. Um...which reminds me, I have a glass sitting out in the backyard to collect rainwater for a hair rinse. 

Has anyone heard the Manheim Steamroller version of Silent Night? Very pretty, but the violin solo is maddeningly slow and messes up the timing that the rest of the song stays on. >_<  Yeah, that kinda stuff bothers me...I can't listen to it!

So tomorrow's the big day. I'm looking into priority seating for dinner at the Blue Bayou. Hoping for a nice, isolated table for 2 right by the water. 
    For lunch, K has requested that we get vegetarian gumbo in New Orleans Square, which is one of my favourite things to do...I just hope that we're lucky enough to score a vacant table. Perhaps I'll get a pair of mint juleps to go with. hehe This is going to be so much fun!    I hope that K has a good time.

Hair: Today and yesterday were both CWC/leave-in crème/air dry/braid routines. The usual. Yesterday, I calculated that since my hair is now 25" long and grows at a rate of 4" per year, the ends of my hair are 6 years and 3 months old! That would be all the way back to September of 2001, and my hair has been through a lot since then. No wonder the latter half is damaged!
    That also means that I am carrying no less than 6 guys around in my hair...or at least the effects of their influence: all of the stresses, drama and happiness that our involvement, however significant or not, entailed. 4 out of the 6 have been referenced in my hair journals: my former husband, my drug-addicted ex-boyfriend, "The Distant One," and the illustrious K. Of the 2 not mentioned: one was a friend whose help was essential when my marriage collapsed. The other doesn't even deserve mentioning.
    After so many unsuccessful...um, opportunities, one might begin to wonder why I bother trying anymore.    But anyway, lots of emotional baggage and wasted energy lingering heavily in my spiderweb strands. My hope is to one day carry only one romantic energy throughout my entire hair - a positive one - from someone who can keep me happy forever. Will that person be K? Only he can decide...

Health: Finally, I am well enough to stop counting. Not fully recovered, but well enough to pass for "well" I suppose. I'll just say that my illness lasted 2 weeks.

Life: Disneyland was ok. K had a good time and that's all that matters.

Yesterday, I realized that I don't care for OPI's Light My Sapphire and offered it up to K. Of course, my nails are still coated with it for another week. I even added a sparsely-glittered topcoat and the colour still doesn't impress me.

Weather keeps getting colder, especially at night. Thank heavens for my electric blanket! I turned it all the way up to level 3 last night and it even kept my feet warm.
    Today it's both cold and sunny outside. I am becoming more and more fed up with SoCal as time goes by. It's just not the right environment for me. I'm an arctic animal at heart - I need to be in the dark, the cold and the rain all the time and a place that I could actually afford to live in. SoCal is none of those things.

Anyway, enough random musings for today. There are 13 days until Christmas and only 18 days left in the year. It's time to gather the hair notes that I've been working on all year and figure out what my resolutions, plans, goals, etc. for next year will be.

LD: Seattle is my favourite city on earth. How'd you guess? 

Hair: Has had the royal treatment of late. Last night, I did a heavy EVOO before bed and actually got 8½ hours of sleep, only waking up once during the night!    That never happens!
    This morning, I mixed up a conditioning treatment of 1 tsp. EVOO, 1 tsp. honey, 1 tsp. aloe vera gel, 4 tsp. Pro-V Deep Fortifying treatment and jumped into the shower. Washed entire length once with Sheer Volume shampoo, applied the treatment (from ears down, of course) and left it on under a shower cap for an hour. Then rinsed and chased with Ice Shine conditioner. Once out of the shower, I worked Restoratives leave-in crème through the length and let it air dry as usual. Now it's braided.
    Lately, I've been wondering just how close I am to BSL and whether I will get ¼" or ½" of growth this month. As of 12/1/07, my hair was 25" long. BSL is at about 25½" for me, so if I get ½" more in December, I could reach BSL as early as 1/1/08. My ticker is set for 2/1/08 just in case.

Now, I shall list a few hair-related things that I have learned this year:

• Shower caps should be replaced once a month.
• Pantene Daily Moisture Renewal conditioner is too heavy & slimy for my hair.
• Pantene Ice Shine and Restoratives S&C's work best (this was actually established last year, but for some reason, I ignored it  ).
• Vitamin E does not seem to help with hair growth, but it may help with hair health.
• Generic multivitamins do nothing for growth and their effects on overall health have not been proven.
• The longest that my hair should go between trims is 6 months. No more.
• My hair grows slower than average: about 4" per year.
• Shampoo should never be diluted.

Life: And now a few things that I have learned (or rather, reaffirmed) this year that are not hair-related:

• Love is an action, not just a feeling.
• Don't waste your efforts on someone who isn't willing to waste theirs on you. Love is a two-way street.

Well, this year is ending horribly on the financial side. Bills are piling up with no hope of getting paid, God knows how much I owe my parents for insurance by now, my poor little bank account is critically overdrawn and I still have 3 people to buy presents for.    Merry Christmas, Angel!
    Next year, I must resolve to save every last little penny that I can, because this is just <bleep>ing ridiculous.
    And as long as I'm on negative subjects anyway, I might as well say that I'm not very happy with K right now. He makes me feel pretty darn terrible sometimes.    Why oh why must all men be such jerks?

Work: Has been pretty crazy. The automatic distribution on the phones is broken, so I've had to transfer each and every call to individual extensions and people are not always there to pick up, so the calls end up coming back to me. Oy! They are fixing it tomorrow, but it has made today kind of a nightmare (if anyone hasn't already figured it out, I am a switchboard operator). Of course, there are only about 20 minutes left here and then I won't have to worry about it.

So yeah...have a good weekend, all.