I got tagged by Chloe.  She is cool, so I will play along.
 
The Rules:
1. Post the rules
2. Post 11 fun facts about yourself
3. Answer the questions the tagger gave you in their post & then create 11 new questions for the people you tag.
4. Tag 11 people and link them in your post
5. Let them know you've "tagged" them

11 Fun or Random Facts About Me

1.  I am allergic to Robitussin.

2.  I am currently taking classes on how to be a firefighter.

3. Matt and I recently made a new addition to the family... More on this later.

4. Since I've lived in Albuquerque, I have witnessed more criminal activity and vehicle accidents than any other time in my life.

5. I have not had my wisdom teeth out yet.

6. Matt's family is from Kansas.  I have never been there.

7. For my Master's Degree, I basically studied the properties of air bubbles in dirt.

8. I used to sweat a whole bunch when I lived in Vegas, but when I moved to New Mexico, it magically went away.

9. I took ice skating lessons.  For kind of a long time, actually.  But I could never get the concept of rollerblading.  Especially downhill.

10.  I probably love chips and salsa more than a normal person should.

11. If I really like a song, I will listen to it over and over, and get sad when it ends.  And listen to it again.


Questions from Chloe

1. What is your most embarrassing nickname?  In high school, some people called me Maureen the Moron.  It made me sad.
2. What makes you anxious or nervous?  Haha.  Everything.  Driving.  Getting lost.  Not having the right answer.  Most social interactions....
3. What is your biggest fear? Hmm... I don't know. I guess I'm afraid of something bad happening to me while I'm in the field by myself.  Getting bitten by a snake, getting in a vehicle accident, falling into a hole, a rock falling on my head, falling off a cliff, getting accidentally shot by a hunter, being mauled by a bear.  You know, stuff like that.
4. Facebook or Twitter?  Facebook.  I don't even have a twitter thing.
5. Dogs or cats?  Dogs, but I like cats too.
6. What is your favorite recipe?  Pretty much any kind of dessert I can bake.  I like baking more than cooking, generally.
7. What are your resolutions for 2012?  Save money and get out of debt.
8. Books or magazines?  Books.  Everyone at work says that I'm always reading.  I only read at lunch!
9.  What is your favorite color?  Purple.  Obviously.
10. Worst part of the day?  The middle of the day, when I'm at work and really bored but I still have hours to go.
11. Favorite part of the day?  When I get to go home, play on the computer and eat a snack. 

Questions for You
1. What do you like to eat for lunch?
2. What is your favorite part about the place where you live?
3.Your least favorite part?
4. Would you rather clean and fold a large pile of laundry or wash and put away an equally large pile of dishes?
5. Coffee or Tea?
6. What was your coolest injury?
7.  Do you have a favorite pair of socks?
8. What food do you despise with a passion?
9. Would you rather camp or stay at a hotel?
10. What movie do you want to watch right now?
11. If someone said, I will give you a million dollars but you have to move to someplace you hate, would you do it?

I hate tagging people, because I'm always nervous that they'll think I'm dumb for tagging them, but I'll do it anyway.  I will tag:
Pam
Sam
Rachel
Jessica
Camille
Megan
Wildlife Biologist (I don't know your name :)

Do with that what you will...

Wow, lots of questions!  That's cool.  Thanks, everyone!  As it is, I'm splitting it up into several different posts.  This one will be more general questions and the next will be more science related questions.  Then I will write a post about why I became a geologist. 

Have you ever been abroad? Where? (from Chloe)
I have been abroad.  I've been to England for a class in college.  At my school, everyone had to take a senior seminar.  Basically a culminating course usually having to do with some sort of religious aspect.  I decided to take my senior seminar abroad.  It was called "The Sacred and the Profane" and focused on the relationship between traditional English church and folk music.  We went to London, Cambridge, Stratford, Dover...  (I'm totally forgetting all the places we went) I even got a semi-private tour of some Napoleonic caves/forts built into the Dover cliffs.  All of it was amazing, but my absolute favorite place we went was Cambridge.  I loved the college town atmosphere, the farmers market, the buildings, the fact that everyone rode bikes (except for the presence and subsequent arrest of a guy who went around stabbing people on bikes while we were there).  It was the coolest place.  If I were to go back to anywhere in England, it would be there.

in the tunnels

Cambridge market

Why do you blog?
I started keeping a blog in college, as a way to just release my emotions or whatever out into the world.  I liked writing and it seemed like a good outlet for me.  Blogging wasn't really social back then.  It was more just writing and putting it out there.  Then, I got LJ to communicate with a few college friends and kept that through grad school.  It wasn't until I moved onto wordpress that I actively started reading other blogs and writing in mine more regularly.  Now, I blog because it's fun and I like reading about what other people have to say on various topics.  It's entertaining. 

What is your favorite hobby?
Ummm... I'd have to say blogging.  It's the only thing I do on a regular enough basis.  Although I also enjoy scrapbooking and yoga, and I'd do a lot more kayaking and rappelling if I had the time/water/money. 



Tell us about one of your happiest memories/moments.
Some of my happiest memories are of Las Vegas.  My field trip to California, a boat trip on my 24th birthday, Cinco de Mayo... I could go on forever on how much I love and adore Vegas.  But I think my happiest, proudest moment was the day of my thesis defense when everything I'd worked for just came together perfectly and I was finally able to share it.  And afterward, when my advisor told me I gave a "kickass" presentation.  I was so proud of myself to have accomplished something so big.  The day I handed in the final copy of my thesis and walked away with a Master's Degree was pretty great too.



What are your plans for the next 5 years? (from Chloe) What do you hope for in the next ten years? (from Rachel)
Well, there are some things that I want to do within the next 5-10 years.  I want to go back to school to get a PhD so that I can fulfill my ultimate goal of having a research position.  I want to collect data, and work in a lab and do analyses and write papers and go to scientific meetings.  I'm currently tossing around ideas of what I'd want to get my doctorate in.  I've thought about paleontology/paleoclimate, or just climate studies in general.  I think it would be fun to work in a museum for a while.  Or in a national research lab.  However, I'm not sure this will ever happen since I have this full time job now and I'm not exactly in a position to leave it, and that bums me out a little.

Favorite movie? (From Wildology)
Oh, I can't just pick one favorite movie.  So here are my top five as per Facebook.
Little Miss Sunshine - makes me laugh/cry every time
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson, Vegas, and Johnny Depp... what else could I possibly want?
Frequency - it's just cool
Amelie - made me want to learn French
Finding Nemo - I like the ocean 

1 embarrassing/funny moment/memory?
Ok, this one is kinda bad... So, one day in high school I was walking into the building and the girl who drove my carpool told me I had blood stains on the back of my pants.  I didn't really know what else to do except untuck my shirt to cover it up. (We had a dress code that required us to tuck our shirts in) I got away with it for my first class, but while I was waiting in the hall to get into my second class, the assistant principal noticed and asked me why my shirt wasn't tucked in.  So I'm in his office, explaining to him that the reason I'm not following dress code is because I got my period and it's leaking so I wanted to cover it up.  Suuuuper awkward.  All he could say was "ummmm.... ok, well don't do it again..." and send me on my way.  I don't think I got in trouble after that.  Even when I was late for school three times and walked around without a hall pass.  I was such a rebel.
 
Miracle Whip or Mayo?
Hmmmmm...  they're both pretty gross.  Miracle Whip, I guess.  But only a little.  A very, very thin layer on a sandwich.

If you could click your fingers and be anywhere, doing anything - what would you choose? (from Rachel)
What I'd really like is to have several months of free time to just travel, with no worries about money or time commitments.  If I had that kind of time, I'd go to Europe -- Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Belgium...  I'd stay in hostels and walk or take public transportation everywhere.  I would keep an actual paper journal and write in it every day.  Maybe I'd write a book and become famous like Eat Pray Love.  Haha.  I'd probably do some blogging too.  And I would take a lot of pictures.

That's it for today.  I'll be back later with questions part two.

One of the best things about Albuquerque is that it has a very diverse range of food types and restaurants.  In other ways, it can become a challenge to decide where to eat.  Matt and I often resort to listing them, "Okay, do you want Mexican, Italian, Asian, American, Mediterranean....?" And so forth.  But since I don't have all the time and space in the world to list all of our favorite restaurants, I am limiting it to our top 3 Mexican/New Mexican places, which we recently decided upon one day.  So without further ado...

The main reason we like Monroe's is because it has a beautiful patio with a fountain and birds fluttering around here and there, so we usually go when the weather is warmer.  Their food is good, but there isn't that one thing on the menu that really makes it stand out from other Mexican restaurants.  One thing I really like is that they have rotating specials, but they don't post them to their website so it's always a gamble as to what they are, although they're usually good.  The service is kind of interesting.  Waiters aren't assigned to a specific table; instead, they all go around finding out who needs refills, their check, etc.  It's a pretty good system because it means there's usually someone around to help you.  The owner is sometimes around as well.  He's really friendly and it's easy to tell he really cares about his restaurant.  During busy times, you can often find him out in the parking lot directing traffic.  He's cool.  The service is usually pretty consistent, especially when he's around, but sometimes it's slacking a little.  If you order Mexican food (they have some other things too), you get complimentary chips and salsa.  It's usually freshly made, but occasionally we've gotten cold chips and salsa that's close to going bad.  Altogether, though, it's pretty good.  Oh, and there's also a fish tank that we like to look at after we pay our bill.  It's always fun to see if there are any new babies swimming around.


We had a tie for second runner up, the first is La Salita

La Salita is actually more New Mexican than Mexican.  Everything is always covered with cheese and it always tastes good.  We've ordered in and to-go and it is consistently good quality.  Everything on the menu is great, but the two things that stand out most to me are their tacos and chile rellenos.  The taco meat is seasoned perfectly to give it a distinct flavor, the taco shells are always fresh and crispy, and it's covered in delicious shredded cheddar cheese. MMMMM!!!  So good.  The rellenos are authentic New Mexican style and they're the best of their kind that I've had.  The batter is perfectly crispy and the cheese is oozy gooey goodness.  They also give out complimentary chips and salsa.  Their salsa is served warm and is a mixture of their signature red and green chiles.  This is probably the place we go most often, since it's the closest to where we live.  The manager knows our names.  Haha.

The second, second runner up is Los Cuates

Of all the places mentioned so far, Los Cuates has the best green chile, hands down.  What makes it so good is that it is roasted instead of steamed.  It tastes the best this way and is classic New Mexico.  Roasting green chiles is one of the best smells ever.  Their carne adovada is also really good because it is served in chunks rather than shredded, which is how La Salita does it. (However, their tacos have nothing on La Salita)  They are also the only place I know to get a really good Navajo Taco.  The service is pretty spotty, and it takes a long time to get refills, boxes, and the check.  The last couple times I went there, I was with Matt and his sister and they put us on a high top table, which is small and doesn't have much room for three people to spread out.  It's also a little cold in there.  But we really like the food, which is enough incentive for us to keep coming back. 
Number 1

And the winner is....

This one was easy peasy!  My favorite superhero is, and always has been...  du du du du...

Inspector Gadget!

Why?  Because he's awesome.  He has lots of cool gadgets that don't always work right, which makes him even more badass because it never brings him down.  In the end, he still gets the job done, even if it is done so with the help of  his niece, Penny, and his genius dog, Brain.  They're his sidekicks, his partners in crime-fighting, even though he may not always realize it.  I also like that the Chief always has something self-destruct all over him.  And of course, the mysterious Dr. Claw and his cat.

I'll get you, Gadget!  Next time, next time!!!

Funny, entertaining, nostalgic.  What more could you want in a superhero?

Of course, if I did have a runner up, I'd have to pick


Donatello from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

What can I say?  I like the scientist/inventor type.

Hmm, tough one.  I kind of like all the seasons, for different reasons.  I guess since I have to pick one, it would have to be fall.  I know, I know, it's fall right now, so it's a bit biased.  But here's why I like it.

Balloon Fiesta October 2009

Balloon Fiesta October 2010

4th of July Canyon

Rio Grande Bosque, near Alameda

Alameda Bosque

North Bull Basin, Gila National Forest

Hi there.  How are you?  I'm great.  This is a lovely week for me because I am not at work.  I'm in Michigan instead.  Going to the lake, watching movies, stuff like that.  It's grand.

I'm sad that I've been a bit behind on posting, reading and commenting.  It's something I enjoy doing very much and helps give me that highly necessary "me time" I require.  But alas, work is work.

So it's good that I have this time off.  It came at just the right time, too.  For a lot of reasons.  And now I can make some more posts about what I've been up to.  I also haven't totally been neglecting the blog, just making a new one.  Mainly because I like trying out new layouts.  It's fun.  And also because I was drunk one night and came up with a whole bunch of really stupid blog names.  I think Matt should use one of them for his blog.  If he makes one.  He says they're stupid but I think he secretly likes them.  Because he's always asking, "are you going to write about this in your blog?" and saying "you should take a picture of this to put in your blog."  He's funny like that.

So I linked the new blog up top.  It's a fail blog of sorts, because those are funny.  I hope this one is funny.  I figure I'll post in there sometimes, when I feel like it.  Kind of like this one, I suppose.  

My last oil change was at Jiffy Lube.  I paid over $100 for their "signature service" and in return received "free" coupons for a bunch of crappy deals I never even used.  This time, I tried a different approach.  I got Matt's dad to do it. 

I had actually been planning on doing this for quite some time now (as in, 2000 miles ago) but just never got around to it because I'm out of town, like, every day.  So finally, yesterday, Matt went to his volunteer thing that he does every other Saturday, and I went to his house to visit his dad.

It's kind of weird going to your boyfriend's house when he is not there or coming with you over there.  Just sort of like, hey, I know he's not home, but ummm... can I get an oil change?  Luckily, his dad agreed.  He actually kind of owes me because I bought him about $50 worth of dried cranberries one time that he hasn't completely paid me back for yet. 

We went over to Auto Zone where they were having a really good deal on Valvoline oil.  $15.99 for 5 liters and a filter.  While I was there, I learned that once you use synthetic oil on your car, you can't go back to the regular kind after that.  So I went with the regular kind, to support my poor friends in the oil industry I suppose.  Ha ha. 

The oil change would have went smoothly except for one minor detail.  About a month ago, in a moment of pure genius, I accidentally kicked the hood release so now it doesn't really work anymore.  We spent a while trying to pry the hood open manually with dowels and screw drivers and things of that nature, but it wasn't really working.  Finally we ended up doing something Matt had suggested in the first place, which was to pull on the cable with pliers.  I tried to suggest this to his dad, but I didn't really understand what cable Matt had meant, and I kind of still don't.  But anyway, it worked, and it was super easy to change after that.  I could probably even do it myself after a couple times of them telling me what to do. 

During this process, I learned a couple things.  1) Plastic produce bags are an incredible invention that serve many purposes, including using them to unscrew the oil nut and filter so you don't get dirty oil all over yourself.  And 2) Jiffy Lube screwed both of these things on only finger tight, so that they could have just fallen off at any moment.  Awesome. 

All in all, it worked out well.  So I guess the moral of the story is, don't pay $100 for something that your boyfriend's dad will do for free.

I know it's not Friday but I thought I'd throw something up here since I haven't posted in a while due to recent circumstances that have not given me a lot of time to myself.  Plus, I feel like it.

1.  One song that always takes me back to my youth is any Girl Scout Camp song.  I still know most of them verbatim.  YEAH Hilltop.

2.  My first concert ever was Professor Marvel and the Fourth Quadrant at Top of the Park.  Does that count?  If not, then Jars of Clay at the Hope College chapel.  Yeah, I know, wow.

3.  If I could create my dream music festival I'd want these bands to be there: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tool, Foo Fighters, ya know... bands that would BRING IT.

4.  The best make-out/"boot knocking" song ever is probably Everlong by the Foo Fighters, Sweet Disposition by Temper Trap, or any sort of jazz instrumental type thing (except Kenny G...Yuck.)

5.  The best concert I've ever been to was Tool.  Hands down.

6.  A memorable music moment for me was when I was taking piano lessons during my elementary school years, we had competitions every once in a while that tested musical theory and technique.  My teachers tried to encourage me not to go, because they thought I sucked (though they didn't say that out loud) but I went anyway and totally kicked butt.  HA!

7.  The song on my iPod that's getting the most play these days is: Oh, I don't know.  I haven't really been listening to my iPod lately.  I've been listening to the radio mostly.  I'm kind of on a Muse kick right now, because I just found out they're coming in October, but I'm not going because SOMEONE doesn't like them.

I used to write almost every day.  It was a part of me.  It was what I was good at.  I wanted to be a journalist, because it was exciting and challenging.  I loved creating a product, something that was mine, and providing it to the community.  But over time, it became a burden.  I was stressed out all the time, and it was because of this "job" I had.  I didn't have the time for many of the other activities I would have liked to participate in.  And because of my anxiety, I was afraid that I would never make it in the cutthroat journalism business.  I felt it had been an enormous waste of time.

When I discovered geology, I became interested and engaged once more.  In studying the Earth, I found something in me that I thought I had lost.  I spent the next several years throwing myself completely into the Earth sciences, and journalism was all but forgotten. 

But I was still writing.  I concluded my graduate student experience with a thesis and two published papers under my belt.  I remember getting the first draft of my thesis back from my advisor, and him telling me it was better written than his first draft as a Master's student.  I was very proud of this compliment.  Naturally, I am not exactly scientist material.  It's just something that happened along the way.  Writing is my true talent.

I love words.  The way they sound, what they mean (especially when they have multiple meanings), the way they can be strung together to make endless sentences.  It's fascinating.  I also like how letters can sound different in different words, depending on where they are placed within a word.  Think about it, it's cool.
 
Let's face it.  I am a huge word nerd, and often fused my love of words with my love of geology, as evidenced by this old post from September 22, 2006.

waiting for the epoxy again
This week was a busy week.  I... learned some things about structure, taught some kids about minerals (and got a good evaluation! yay!), got my soil chemistry book in the mail and was actually kind of excited to read it, got a little better at catching a baseball, and threw one that hurt Caro's hand, was late to a meeting and got my name on the board, learned how to save people's lives, drank a lot of mountain dew, got really excited about mineralogy (and was confused as to why no one else seemed to be), bought some really expensive chai tea, handed in a lot of forms, made some new goals, lost my office mate, said goodbye to Nathan...

I felt very strange this week.  I'm not really sure how to describe it.  Maybe happy?  Productive?  But I'm not really sure if I was productive or not.  But anyway, I dunno, I was thinking about geology words and how they're so grand sounding, especially the way people here say them, like provenance and detrital.  Such good words.  Hmm, that's kinda random, but I like words I guess.  I think I am getting excited about geology again.  Like real geology.  Not just 101 stuff or how to present a paper on some topic or another.  But the actual act of learning new things about the earth.  I feel like the way I did when I first started learning about optical mineralogy, with the oil and becke lines and birefringence and all that stuff.  that was some good smelling oil.

I love this, and I love that I felt that way at least once.  It gives me hope.

I may have mentioned that someone hit my car in the parking lot at work a while back.  Well, after filing a claim with my insurance company, contacting the woman's insurance, getting her to make a statement, and setting up appointments, I was all set to bring my car into the shop this morning.  My appointment was at the Chevy place on Lomas.  Unbeknown to me, there is more than one Chevy place on Lomas.  I went to one, and my appointment was with the other one.  Yet another intelligent moment in my life.  The people at the collision center didn't mind (obviously), and it actually seemed to work out better for me because it used to be the old Saturn dealer until they went out of business, so this place specializes in Saturns.

I waited there for the rental car guy to show up, and then went back to their office, signed some stuff, and got my rental.  A lovely Nissan Versa.

It's okay.  The brakes are weird and the acceleration kinda sucks, but it's kind of fun having a regular sized car instead of an SUV for a change.  There is one thing that bugs me, though.  When I was at the rental office, the guy told me the car would have a full tank of gas, and I was expected to bring it back the same way.  No problem, but when I got it and drove away, I realized the tank was only half full.  I'm wondering if I should mention this, or just fill up the tank halfway when I return it and call it good.

Another problem I'm having?  It's a bit hard to pick out of a crowd.  A bright red Saturn Vue with a scratch down the side stands out.  A gray mid-size sedan?  Not so much.  At work, it wasn't too bad, but a crowded school parking lot is another story.  At least I have a numbered parking spot at my apartment.  Hopefully the apartment managers don't walk around the parking lot and put one of those annoying bright pink stickers on the window tonight...

 **UPDATED With Pictures!**

If you had told me a week ago that I would be attending a heavy metal concert featuring a band called Fear Factory, I would have said, yeah right, buddy.  So when Matt and I were driving around last weekend and an ad for the concert came over the radio and Matt expressed interest, I was more than a little skeptical.

I wanted to hear what they sounded like so when we got to my house, we listened to some clips on the internet.  It wasn't exactly my type of music, but I did like some things about it, especially their more technical stuff because it's kind of like drum & bass, which Matt also introduced me to.

So on Tuesday night we headed over to the theater for the concert.  The last time we went to the Sunshine Theater was for the Static X concert and it was PACKED.  We were lucky to get a spot on the topmost rank of the balcony.  This time, the balcony wasn't even open.  There weren't many people at all.  There were maybe about 50 people all crowded up by the stage, and that was it.  We opted to stand a little behind that group in case they got rowdy and tripped or something, but we were pretty much front and center.

There were three bands performing before Fear Factory.  The first was Periphery.  They were all right.  They had four guitars, which was probably overkill (one guitar player was really hot though) and the singer wasn't that great when he actually sang.  He seemed really off pitch.  And I know this.  It was one of the few things I was good at when I played piano.

Hot guitarist

The second band was Dirge something.  They were probably the best of the three opening bands.  The singer was pretty good, but kind of weird looking, and he was all about starting a mosh pit.  The audience didn't seem all that into it, though, so I figured I was safe.  One minute, everyone was just standing around listening to the music, and then someone ran through the crowd (more people had shown up by this point and the floor was pretty much full) and I was pushed down as more people joined in and I was in the middle of the dang mosh pit.  My reflex was to grab onto Matt and we went over to the side of the stage.  My shoe had fallen off partially so I was hobbling around trying to get it back on.  Luckily I had my purse tucked under my coat, so I didn't drop anything, but it was definitely interesting.

Weird, kinda emo looking singer dude

On the side where we opted to stand, we encountered the most interesting of all the concert-goers.  A middle aged man wearing his business clothes.  No joke.  He was just hanging out and head-banging with the rest of them.  At one point, he left for a while and I was able to make it to the front of the room, right in front of the stage.  That was kinda cool, except I was pretty much next to the speaker during the performance of my least favorite of the bands.  The instruments were all right, but the singer's style was that sort of deep evil groan that my old high school Theology teacher would have said sounded like someone put a microphone in hell and broadcast it over the speakers.  And he kept promoting all his CD's and crap after every song.  Kind of annoying.

Annoying, scary sounding singer

When the main band came out, I was pushed out of the front area a little but not before I got a couple pictures.  I took them with my phone so they probably turned out really crappy, but it's ok.  I'm still bummed about not getting any pictures of Tool at all, so I wanted to get at least a couple of these guys.

Anyway, the first thing I thought about Fear Factory were that the guitar and bass players were very much overweight and not attractive at all to look at. Yes, I know this is super shallow, but it's not my fault they looked like nasty unwashed fat slobs, and probably stunk like B.O. 

One of those guys

The singer was much better looking so I tried to focus on him the most. I liked that he actually had a decent singing voice, as well as a heavy metal voice, and enjoyed the songs when he actually sang the most.  To be honest, it took me a while to get into it, but I started liking it a lot better when they began playing songs from what Matt told me was their best album.

Lead singer of Fear Factory

Plus everyone else was getting into it and that's always fun to watch.  It's a very interesting demographic of heavy metal fans here in New Mexico.  They are a very pushy lot.  The guy in front of us was definitely on something and kept falling backwards.  And there was a random blond chick (possibly the only one there) who was totally into the music.

So, yep, all in all it was a pretty good time.  I probably wouldn't want to see them again, but it was a good experience for me, and it made Matt really happy, which was the best part.

Recently, one of my favorite bloggers, Sam from Off Black, passed this award on to me.  For those of you who are like me and have an idea of what the word 'prolific' means but don't go around using it in everyday chit-chat, it is synonymous with words like fruitful, abundant, and productive.

I suppose my blog has been fairly productive as of late.  I try to post at least a couple times a week.  However, I would like it to be a little more fruitful in the sense that I write about things that would be of interest to many people.

It's kind of like this: At my parents' house in Michigan, we have two apple trees.  Neither of them are very big despite being nearly 20 years old, and the bigger one leans significantly to the right.  For many years, hardly any apples would grow on either one, and if they did, they would not be edible.  Then one year my dad got it into his head that maybe we should fertilize the heck out of them.  So now we get the fertilizer spray guys to come over once or twice a year, and in the fall we get LOTS of apples.  My mom thinks they might number in the thousands.  Everyone in the neighborhood and all our relatives get several grocery bags full, and there are always still plenty left over to last us beyond Christmas time.  The apples are still very small and not great for eating just plain.  But they are fantastic for apple sauce, apple pie, apple crisp... pretty much any apple recipe you can think of.

So that's an idea of what I think a good blog (or any good writing) is, and what I strive to do with my writing.  It doesn't need to be perfect, because like with the apples, there is beauty in the imperfections.  It just needs a little fertilizer to get it going and some creativity to make it into something even more special.

I believe I am supposed to pass this award onto someone else, and there is one person who I think epitomizes the idea of prolific blogger for me.  And that person is the Barista from Your Barista Revealed.  She is prolific in the sense that she writes a lot, but also in that what she writes is always good and interesting.  It's like a good book that you can't put down.  It's prolific.



And you know what, now that I think about it, I'd also like to give this award to Jen from Sprite's Keeper because she does an awesome job hosting the spin cycle every week. That's a lot more commitment than I could ever have.

Sometimes, I wonder what makes the fancy, expensive salons so special.  Are they really any better than the $10 haircut down the street?  Are the skills of their stylists that much more superior?

Last weekend, I went to solve this mystery for myself.  With my discount gift certificate in hand, I showed up for my second appointment at the spa.  This time, for a haircut, and... shocker... some color.

Ok, so I didn't dye my hair.  Well, not completely anyway.  For one thing, it's REALLY expensive.  The lady next to me was fixing her all-over highlights and that alone cost $85!  Plus I'm just not ready to take that step yet.  Maybe eventually, but not now.  But I did get some highlights.  Mainly because I've never done it before and wanted to try it, for fun. 

I wasn't really sure what color to get and the stylist told me most people get blonde.  I just thought... blonde?  no way.  That would look stupid.  I suggested red because I thought that would look good but she talked me out of it.  She told me she'd have to bleach my hair and then put the color in (this kind of makes me think she was just lazy and didn't want to spend the time on a discount coupon customer) and that it would be dry and also fade faster than other colors.  So I figured all right, whatever, but I still didn't want blonde.  So she suggested a caramel color instead.  This I could live with.

I think it turned out pretty nice.  Matt really likes it as well, and in the end, it's really mainly for him to look at, so if he's happy I'm happy.

The haircut itself was ok.  It was definitely not my worst haircut, by a long shot.  But I do wish she would have gone a little shorter.  And as far as haircuts go, it really wasn't anything spectacular that the less expensive salons wouldn't do.  At the place I used to go to in Ann Arbor, the ladies/girls would always ask me what I thought.  This lady did not do that.  She just finished what she was doing and then ran off to mix up the color.  The only times she really talked to me was to tell me about this or that product she was using at the moment.

Is it just me, or does every trip to the hairstylist seem more like an infomercial than a haircut?  From the moment I sat down in the chair, I was inundated in product placement.  I truly believe that in addition to all their beauty courses, hairstylists/cosmetologists are also trained in the fine art of advertising and marketing. They know what they're doing.  It's really hard to turn someone down when they're the ones holding the scissors.

In the end, out of all the 50 million products she showed me, I ended up being suckered into one.  It's a shampoo called Be Curly.  Supposedly it makes curly hair seem less dry.  As she explained it to me, people with curly hair think it is more dry than it actually is because the oils and stuff have to spend a lot of time moving down the curls.  I guess this shampoo does something to fix that, so I figured I'd give it a try.  I'm not really sure I notice a difference but  when I told Matt about it, he said he thought my hair did actually look less dry.  So maybe it's working.