things i love today.

So I'm actually home sick today.  Guess what that means?  Blog post!

Things I'm loving today.

Four and five were taken by me.

Never said it'd be a super exciting blog post.

update.

See?  Not much posting.  Been really busy.  School 6 days a week is kicking my ass.  Fortunately it's Labor Day weekend so we have Saturday and Monday off.  I'm kind of pissed because that just pushes me back, but a three day weekend will be nice.

Today I did 57 manikin cuts.  I have 11 left.  I now have three scalped manikins.

I'm also at 969.75 hours.  I have 355.25 to go.  45.8 days.  October 25th, technically.  There's two different hair shows coming up.  Both in October.  That'll give me two days.  So October 22nd.  There's another hair show in early September, that'll give me another day.  October 21st.  Contract is October 19th.  It's $15 an hour for every hour you're there past your graduation.  I should be having an exit interview soon...

Hope everything's going well for y'all!

patience.

Don't expect too many updates for a good while.  Like 9 weeks or so.  I'm going to school Monday through Saturday until I graduate sometime around October 19th.  I did Monday through Saturday this past week.  It wasn't so bad but I was really tired and kind of bitchy on Sunday.  Poor Andrew.  I only see it getting worse.  Right now when I do the math I'll be graduating sometime around October 21st and my contract date it October 19th so I'm doing everything I can to get it down.  Saturday I spent 8.5 hours at school, with no lunch.  Today I was there for 8.25, also with no lunch.

Since I had two leaves of absence my graduation date got pushed back.  I know I've talked about it before.  For now I will be spending as much time at school as possible.  And when I'm not at school I'll be sleeping or spending time with Andrew.  And trying to keep some sanity.

I'll be reading and updating when I can!  Wish me luck!

closer.

Ok, school doesn't have me quite so frustrated after today.  I got my cumulative attendance and requirement packets.  As far as hours (including today) I'm at 902.25.  So I have 422.75 hours left.  That part actually is still a little frustrating.  I have 54.5 days left.  November 4th.  Eleven weeks.  My contract date is October 19th.  If I go every Saturday for the rest of the time I'm there I'll graduate October 21st.  Nine weeks.  Which is better.  And I know here and there I'll have 8 hour days, and there is a hair show soon...  Oh well.  But I am closer to being done with my requirements than I thought.  That made me happy.

I'm just trying to find a way to make it work.

bye, heather.

Heather graduated today.  I'm so proud, but I'll miss her.

Typical.

Me, Heather, Alicia.

accent your positive, delete your negative.

You know what I'm tired of?  Everyone at school being so negative.  Well, really it's only one person at school being negative, but most everyone else annoys me somehow.  The Negative Nancy is my friend.  But sometimes I find myself having to restrain myself from punching her in the face.  She always has a problem, and it's always more important than anything else you may be doing.

Sometimes I wonder if I got into the wrong profession.  I'm good it, don't get me wrong.  But as far as the personality...  No.  I'm not loud, I'm not rude, I'm not catty.  I do gossip to Andrew about them when I get home, but I don't gossip at school.  And then looks.  Most of the girls come to school wearing sky high heels, a size 2 short dress, hair teased within an inch of it's life, and tons of make up.  Not that there is anything wrong with that.  There's isn't.  Most of them look fabulous (though some miss the mark), and it is a fashionable industry.  I come into school wearing a size 12 dress, flat shoes (now my new ones!), no make up, hair a mess...  I don't know.  We did a personality thing is class one day with beads.  Everyone else's beads were the same.  Mine were the opposite.  It made me feel weird.  Like I didn't belong there.

And now I'm extra frustrated.  August 20th is on Friday, which was my original graduation date.  In Freshman Phase I was there everyday.  I maybe missed once.  I started missing a lot in Junior.  I've taken two Leaves of Absence which has pushed my date back to October 19th.  First I got married, which I only took a week off for but that turned into a month because I got sick.  Then I took another leave 'cause I got sick and was gone for about a month.  I mean, I knew it would happen but it's so frustrating to watch everyone that started with me graduate... One by one.  When I got back after the last leave there were 6 left.  From 19.  Heather graduates tomorrow.  Ashley D. on Thursday.  Ashley C. and Amy the beginning of next week.  Natalie a few days after.  Then Kayla.  Then Charles mid-September.  Then Erin.  Then me.  October 19th.

I am getting plenty of time to do requirements.  And since I've taken an LOA I qualify to come on Saturdays.  Also, since I'll get more time on the floor with instructors I won't feel so nervous when I do get into a salon.

I feel like it's never going to end.  I'm trying to stay positive, but it's so hard.  All I can do is keep going...

alegria.

I played softball for 14 years, most of the time spring and fall.  My position alternated between third base and catching, but 95% of my time was spent catching.  Guess what that means?  Yup, at 22 I have horrible knees.  Whenever I squat down, they pop.  If I stand for too long they get really stiff and sore.  If I stretch, they strain.  My left ankle is bad from being a stubborn dumbass and catching anyway while it was double rolled.  I'm also a rather chesty girl so my shoulders and back constantly hurt.  And I have bad posture from that.  Constantly I hurt.  Constantly I limp.  Constantly when I move I go "Oooh!  That hurts!"  Constantly I'm identifying with my 85 year old Grammie.  On top of this I managed to pick a career where I will be on my feet for eight or more hours a day. 

So, yesterday I broke down and bought my first pair of comfort shoes.  I know, I know.  But seriously, they're super comfortable.  And you know what?  They're actually kind of cute.

These are mine.

They're called Alegria by PG Lite.  This is the Paloma style, in soft black.  They have several other styles, including sandals, clogs, boots, and a professional line for nurses. 

The shoes have a Mild Rocker Outsole (Sketchers tried to do this with the ShapeUp) that roll with you in a natural walking motion.  The Rocker helps with your posture, and reduces stress on your muscles, joints, and back.  The foot bed is called a Perfect Fit Footbed, and is anatomically correct and molds to your foot, giving you a customized fit.  They also have their Color Therapy, giving you a color for every mood, and lots of patterns.  They firmly believe that shoes should make you happy.  They're a little pricey, but worth it.  And they're coming out with a 'Mini Rocker' for Fall 2010.  You better believe I'm gonna be all over those, I'm tall enough at 5'7" and the ones I have make me 5'8".  They come in lots of pretty colors and fun patterns.  The shoes are in European sizes.  Mine are a size 38 European, which is 8 - 8.5 American.

If you're anything like me, you won't wear it unless it's comfortable.  And I don't mean you feel comfortable wearing it, 'cause there is a difference.  I won't wear things that are uncomfortable.  This is why I wear dresses, and like loose clothing.  This is why I almost never wear heels, and when I do they are wedges, only an inch and a half tall.  I can't do heels.  Years of running around barefoot (I am from Georgia, after all) made me hate wearing shoes.  So when I had to wear closed shoes I wore those super flat Target ballet flats (y'all know what I'm talking about).  And I have a lot of them.  And I do wear them.  And they are comfortable when I'm not running around everywhere and standing a lot.  However, wearing something with no support is not a good idea for me spending 8 hours on my feet at school.  The days that I was really in severe pain were the days I wore those shoes.

Andrew told me I needed to get some comfort shoes, and I balked at the idea.  Lets face it, most comfort shoes are not cute.  At 22 I still care about looking cute, and I'm in a fashionable industry to boot.  I was content to wear my purple mocs because they were the only flats I had that had any kind of real sole to it.  However, last Friday I did a full highlight and my back and knees hurt so bad when I came home it was painful to move.  At all.  Andrew was right, but I didn't know where to begin.  I've watched my Mom get frustrated for years trying to find cute comfort shoes.  I had noticed a few girls around school wearing these shoes, and my favorite instructor wears them all the time.  I finally asked my instructor about them.  She gave them a glowing review and told me she loved them so much she had quite a collection.  Then she told me where to find them.

Here are a few of my other favorites.

Paloma Eden.

Paloma Purple Tortoise.

Paloma Fantasy Tattoo.

Paloma Leopard.

Paloma Floral.

That is just a taste of the colors and patterns they have. 

Seriously, I love mine.  Obviously, seeing as this post has gotten rather long.  Wether you're a hair stylist, nurse, teacher, whatever, if you have a cereer where you're on your feet a lot, I highly recommend these shoes.  Even if you're just looking for comfortable shoes, I recommend these.  I even told my Mom about them.  If you're in Gwinnett County GA, they can be found at The Foot Traveler at the Mall of GA (there are directions on the site).  To anyone else go to the Alegria site and they can help you.

back to school.

So having this girl come in was a little crazy.  I haven't seen her since we graduated from high school in '06.  It was nice to see her.  We talked about people we went to school with and what we've been doing. 

So about her hair...  She came in almost all over level 9 blonde on top from highlights.  She's trying to grow her hair out and trying to get it back to her natural, which is dark at a level 3.  She also doesn't want it to be damaged, which lets face it, decolor is damaging.  It sucks the melanin (what gives hair color) out of your cortex, in the process damaging your cuticle (outer layer of hair) over time.  So we did a ratio of one highlight to two lowlights.  I used Blonde Dimensions for the hightlight, and just retouched whatever was in the foil instead of running it through because I wanted her hair to stay on her head.  I used Shades for the lowlights since we were just depositing color and her hair was already damaged.  Then after a conditioning treatment, a trim, and a blow dry, this was the result.  Unfortunately the lighting in my school sucks for pictures, so they never turn out very well...  But it looked really pretty and she was happy.

On to other things.  A few months back Andrew and I were looking to buy bedroom furniture.  I think what we've basically decided to do it get stuff from Ikea.  Just the basics, bedroom stuff, couch, one maybe two chairs, coffee table, two side tables...  Just so that when we do have a house/apartment we have stuff to put in it so it's not empty.  We were thinking about just sucking it up and getting an apartment for the first year or two (he'd be sucking it up, not me).  Ikea is affordable.  I know, I know, there's Goodwill and stuff but I just do not have the patience to scavenge Goodwills across Gwinnett County looking for stuff that matches, or at least coordinates.  Plus, I just don't have the kind of skill to take things that don't really match and make them look good. 

We already have a kitchen table and chairs.  The table is an 1800's Irish pub table, in awesome condition.  The chairs are also old, though I don't know how old, and are from Brazil.  I'll get pictures of those up sometime.

What I was going to do is use the bedroom furniture for a few years, then when we do get a house or something with a second bedroom (and we're making more money) we could put it in the guest room.  And at least if I could get a couch and then look for tables and whatnot at Goodwill.  Everyone I know that got a couch from Goodwill ended up with a couch infested with something.  Not cool.  And I found the cutest couch.  Andrew said it made him think of Super Mario Brothers.

And I see why.  But it's cute!  And I like Mario...

stircrazy.

I think getting out of Georgia this past weekend has made me restless.  I'm not sure what my problem is.  I need to do something!

silence.

Sorry for the silence.  Kim and Tom were out of town last week so I was doing laundry and cleaning and such.  And it was Shark Week.  And I went back to school.  And then Andrew and I went to Kentucky Friday evening.  We got back yesterday.  And I had school today.

So, normal posting will resume sometime this week.

Have a great day!