I need a little silly in my life right now:

Sookie made this JibJab and posted it on Facebook this week. It made me giggle:

Starring some of the Friend’s Vacation crew: C as Dr. Frankenstein, my daughter Starr as Frankenstein’s monster and Skye as Dracula.

A hair dryer is a hair dryer. Right? Sometime early in my recent (still) illness, my hair dryer quit on me. I thought I would shower, blow out my hair and try to feel like a human being for the day, but it just blew cold air. Just what I needed.

Starr and I had a spare that I used to blow out her hair with when she was in high school. With her curly hair, twice a week we would sit down in front of a movie and I would methodically straighten her hair. The flat iron didn’t leave her hair shiny and movable like the blow dryer and round brush did, so this was our method of choice.

The spare hair dryer was fairly expensive, but didn’t have much guts. Which was perfect for our blow out sessions,  but not for my thick head of hair. We picked out a gentle dryer on purpose because one day when Starr was in 10th grade, she wasn’t happy about the way her bangs were looking. She was stressed and was using my hair dryer and round brush to try and “fix” them. I was in the living room when I heard the blood curdling scream. I ran. She was hysterical. Not injured, but she no longer HAD bangs! The smell of burnt hair filled the room. Gah. There were tears, lots of tears. You can’t just fix that! We made an emergency trip to the salon to salvage what we could…she was very late to school, it took forever for her hair to grow back the way she wanted, Sunny and Skye started calling her “singey”…poor thing! Anyway, I pulled the spare dryer out of the junk closet and tried to use it, but found that it just wasn’t going to work for me. At all. I spent the next few weeks looking pretty darn feral with my natural hair, too sick to go shopping for a replacement.

Finally, last week, I was able to go shopping. A little overwhelmed at the choices, I was always a “they just blow hot air, right?” kind of girl. Do ions, ceramic, nano-silver and tourmaline really make a difference? Some dryers had one element, others had another, some had none, what worked best? When did it get so complicated? So I picked a dryer that claimed to have all of it: tool science, Nano-Silver Ionic-Ceramic Professional Hair Dryer and just hoped that it blew hot air.

I saved my receipt and tried to carefully unpack the dryer from it’s packaging just in case I needed to return it. Unpacking this dryer without destroying the packaging is apparently a skill that I don’t have. Thankfully it doesn’t matter, because I love this dryer. My hair dries faster and is softer and smoother. Starr could see the difference in my hair right away. Then she tried it on her own hair. It might have been the hair dryer, or just a good hair day, but she received several compliments on her hair that day.

Now she wants one.

Are there better dryers out there? Probably, but I am very happy with this one and felt the need to share.

**This is not a compensated review, I just liked the hair dryer…a lot!

Yay!

We had a great time at the 5k and things went smoothly…mostly. The weather was just about perfect and we were just 20 people short of doubling last years attendance, so we were very pleased! We are all excited about next year!

Skye and Starr—feeling relieved!

I hope to have a few more pics to share in a few days.

Saturday afternoon, I tagged along with a couple friends to a small art fair where their Afro-Brazilian drumming group had it’s first gig. It was a lot of fun, I loved their energy! It looked like they had a blast performing! Their smiles were worth the trip alone. If I had any sort of rhythm I would love to join them.

Today I enter all of the newly registered runners into the database, forward the race results, prepare the deposits, return the road blockades, create thank yous and mail prizes to the winners! Good times!

Before I get busy, here is one more picture that made me smile:

Sookie and friend “stretching” and preparing for the race

First things first! I had the pleasure of meeting and having a drink with Jenn of Juggling Life this afternoon as she landed in Fort Collins for a moment to visit her MVP on her way to Chicago! What a treat! I like her even more than I did before! I approve of my blog life crossing with my “real” life…it’s all good!! As an introvert, I am always worried, was I too introverted?! Did I carry my fair share of the conversation…did I speak English? Hmm…we’ll see.

I learned that road blockade signs are much larger than I anticipated and while it was generous of the traffic control company to give us a price break if we “do it ourselves” remind me next year that we need a REALLY big truck and good quality tie downs!! And possibly some men to help us. We felt mighty puny this afternoon! But we got it done!

Tomorrow is the date of the 5k. We hope that we are ready. I keep going over the lists in my head, again and again. We are ahead of last years registrations, so we are hopeful that people are coming tomorrow and that things go off without a hitch…or at least without a MAJOR hitch! Last year Starr forgot to mark the route. A winding, complicated, “needs to stay within the city block” route. Minutes before the race was to start, she called me “do you have a map of the route?” I was still at home waiting for her father to come give me a ride. “Shit. Yes, but I don’t have a way of getting it to you”…so I texted her the details. “Turn right on so and so, then left on…etc.” It was ridiculous!  She and a group of girls hopped in a truck and started marking the route. Despite (or because) of the frantic-ness of the moment they had a memorable blast jumping in and out of the back of the truck placing signs and cones along the route.

They delayed the race as long as they could, but the first couple of finishers beat Starr and crew to the finish line. They didn’t complain and thought it was funny, so we SMILE! But we won’t be repeating that mistake!

Here are a couple pics from last year’s cold and rainy, but wonderful event…pics from tomorrow hopefully coming soon!

Finally, here is a song that I just heard for the first time tonight that would totally be on my playlist if I were running the race tomorrow…but I’m not…because I am NEEDED behind the scenes. Needed I tell you!!

“Let’s Go Surfing” – The Drums

* I actually went to the store today. Sam’s Club AND the grocery store!! This is big! I’ve been sick for over two weeks now. My voice is still gone, but I really think I am getting better.

* Starr says that I keep saying that I’m getting better, but from her perspective it sounds just like hope. “I hope I’m getting better!”

* I’ve had this song in my head for the last four days. I’m not singing it, but it is playing in the background of my day-to-day. When I wake up, when I do the dishes, when brushing my teeth. It doesn’t make much sense…

mp3: “Technicolor” – Nurses
Buy: Apple’s Acre
Nurses MySpace

* Helping Starr and Skye with the 5k has stirred up the pain of losing Sunny. I feel like I am on the verge of tears constantly. Succumbing often. Despite my weepiness, we are excited for the race…but are we ready?! I keep thinking of things we need to remember. It might help if I started writing things down!

* I love the smell of freshly laundered sheets and briefly considered washing them every day this afternoon. That’s not very green of me is it? Green or not, I am just too lazy for that!

* My parents spent the night here last night on their way home from California. Dad is done with the proton bombardment of his prostate cancer, they have been in California since May. I asked when they will scan him to see if the treatment worked. The answer was “they aren’t”, in 3 months he will get blood work done to check his PSA levels. Until then they are just assuming that this has fixed things. I am not sure I like that attitude.

* I randomly thought of this photo earlier tonight. Starr and Sunny were bored…they talked poor Tony into coming over. He didn’t have a chance! It’s a good thing that he was a good sport. They all made lasting memories that night!! I just wish I could find a better photo:

Starr, Tony and Sunny

* I looked at the calendar three times while creating this post to make sure that today was really Wednesday. Yes, I’ve been that disconnected!

We are less than a week from Starr and Skye’s 2nd big fundraising 5k event. There are tons of last minute details to attend to and they are both starting classes this week! I anticipate that I will be busy in my supporting role. I am excited for them and keep hoping that we aren’t forgetting anything!!

I’ve pulled a few pictures from the big Friends Vacation 2009 photo albums to share today–it was so hard to pick just a few!!:

Sookie, C, Skye and Starr

Starr at the Vietnam Memorial
She is taking a rubbing of Martha’s (The Daily Grind) brother, Robin B. Miller’s name.

Starr at the Air and Space Museum with my dad’s uniform

Skye, Starr, Sookie and C on the train to PA

Their Pennsylvania hosts lived on a beautiful property that includes this lovely stream. They had so much fun walking in it!

So many of their pictures made me laugh out loud!!

Like this one…which was part of a series. They could make just about anything fun!

Oh yeah!

Oops!

After taking a wrong turn, Sookie took some ribbing. C enjoyed his moment of gloating.

Still sick.

I celebrated my 45th birthday yesterday uncomfortable and coughing. I don’t know why, but I have never had really good birthdays, but usually they are just a little boring. I would pay for boring this week! Boring sounds good.

Since Starr was busy with sorority stuff all day yesterday, she brought us take out tonight for my birthday! It isn’t as nice as going out, but I am not up to that anyway. Fresh fried calamari with Italian aioli,  warm bread with basil butter and chicken parmigiana. Yum. Thanks sweetie!

We have been busy putting the final details into place and taking registrations for Starr and Skye’s 2nd annual 5k run. They started a charitable foundation in Sunny’s memory about 18 months ago and are raising money for children’s charities. This year the proceeds will be split between Children’s Safe Drinking Water and Teach For America. There are so many charities out there that Sunny would have loved and supported and which fit her ideals, it is hard to choose. Eventually, inspired by the movie WarDance, Starr would like to see the money going to and making a difference in music education in impoverished communities. Music is so important to young minds and music was a big part of Sunny, Starr and Skye’s lives.

It looks like we are on track for a bigger turn out than last year. *crosses fingers* I hope it all works out! Things aren’t as frantic or as urgent as they were last year. I am hoping that we just learned from our experiences last year, and aren’t forgetting something big!

I wanted to share this video today just because it made me smile and feel a fraction better for a moment this afternoon:

500 Days of Summer Dance Sequence
Hall and Oates “You Make My Dreams”

I am suffering from a summer cold! My voice is shot. I should be sleeping. Ugh! I am medicated and irritated!!

The good news is that Starr, Skye and Sookie have all posted their pictures from their trip. I have been enjoying looking through them…all 418 of them!

While I take it easy for a day or so, I thought I would pass along this video that my cousin posted earlier tonight on Facebook:

Ukraine’s Got Talent

A random Saturday post:

1. I’m working on doing a little catch up. Catching up reading my favorite blogs, catching up with the laundry, catching up with Facebook, catching up with the dishes and general house cleaning. I have yet to go grocery shopping. I am tired.

We have been very busy moving Starr to her new apartment over the past few days. This is one of those times I wish that my little family was bigger, that there were more than two of us and that some of these new family members were men…with big trucks!

I’m sore and punchy, but I managed all those trips up all of those stairs better than I thought I could…I’m still here!! We are 85/90% done and it feels good!

2. Sookie invited us over to a “parents brunch” this morning for the families of the kids who went to DC and Pennsylvania. She was the planner for the group and also put together a really fun video of the trip for us to watch. I have requested a copy, she did a wonderful job! It was nice to take a break to relax, smile and laugh for an hour or so.

For the record, the DC/Pennsylvania trip was a success. They followed their itinerary with ease, seeing all of the things they wanted too with little to no stress. I will have to hire Sookie to plan my next trip! I don’t have any pictures to share yet, as the kids were keeping them from us until the brunch and the video reveal!

3. Starr babysat for a friend of mine last Thursday night. Rosemary has two boys ages 5 and 3. Starr really enjoyed them, she’s been telling me very cute stories for the past two days. I am really not sure how the three of them fit all of that stuff into one evening, but I have been enjoying hearing about all of it! If I can gather my thoughts in a day or so, I might try to share a story or two.

4. In the meantime I will share this song which has been stuck in my head for the past few days, fortunately not in an annoying way…yet:

mp3: “Dominos” – The Big Pink
A Brief History of Love
The Big Pink-MySpace

Starr’s little sister, Sissy, came to visit this weekend!

We absolutely loved the following email from Sissy’s mom:

Woohoo!  You just won a 14yr old for a day!  Lucky You!  Here’s the time to pick her up! I’m sure you’ll have fun with your very own kid for a day!  …free of charge!  : )
Please feel free to enter for the 10 year old for a day contest as well! …coming soon!!!!!

We have already submitted our entries for the “win a 10 year old” contest. We hope to get a chance to visit with Starr’s little brother very soon!

We enjoyed having her here and wish that it happened a lot more often! The weekend consisted of live music, Skye, chocolate chip cookies, movies, gelato, home cooked meals, laughter, the “zoo” (pictured below),  and driving around town singing along with the radio.

I carried my camera with me, but failed to take pictures until we stopped at a local tourist spot:

Sissy. Making noise!

Starr. Joining the band.