Perfect 10 (On Vacation) and the Reprobate Greys

Perfect 10 - (While on Vacation)
1. Exercise 6 days a week - Without a doubt. Been doing really good with that, running 2 miles most days.
2. Sit ups 5 days a week - failure!! I've been so busy visiting and having fun that by the time evening comes, I'm exhausted and sleepy so I forget. Yesterday, I did do them in the morning, which worked better. Hopefully that one will be more successful next week!
3. Healthy idea in my kids daily. Working well even on vacation.
4. Current
5. More water - fruits and veggies. Water - yes, fruit - yes, veggies - working on it!!
6. Burn calories rather than binge - yes, really good.
7. Do something with my hair - see story below!!
8. Weekly workout with a buddie - check out the Midnight Moonlight March in the Marsh (posted below)!
9. Biggest Loser Challenge at work - done, but haven't called to hear results yet.
10. Try on clothes - force myself to buy them!! Yes!! I will blog about that next update.

* Something about myself : I have one sister. She's really cool. I'm visiting her now and we've been having a lot of fun together. My childhood nick name for her is "Hyper Diaper". She is a clean and organized neat freak while I am messy and often live in chaos. When we were little kids, she was a straight A, Valedictorian, perfect kid (and narked on me often)! I was the wild, crazy, rebellious kid who moved out at 16 and did things to annoy her on purpose. She met her husband in Bible College, and we all spent considerable time "fasting and praying" over the relationship. I met mine "out cruising" and was pregnant by 17. We are very different, but love each other lots!!

After scheduling and rescheduling hair appointments at the college beauty academy, my sister, Heather and I finally came up with an agreeable date and time. I got up early in the morning at my in laws and drove into the city by myself to meet her there. At first the idea of getting our hair done at a beauty academy by students seemed like a great idea. Lower cost was mainly the inspiration, but as the hour drew nearer it almost seemed foreboding. A whole host of scenes flashed before my eyes as I imagined the horrors that could happen within! It didn't help much that we'd watched some Earnest P Worrell skits where he pretends to be a beautician. Then I went back to my years as a student nurse and I was all the more frightened at the prospect of a student cutting and dying my hair.
My sister was a few minutes late, and they ushered me back into the bowels of the salon without her. I hoped that my sister's absence didn't have anything to do with sinister students, more than likely she was detained dropping off her angels at the sitter. My appointed student arrived on the scene and appeared confident in her abilities. She showed me a book and began comparing my hair with dyed samples. I noticed that most of the students working had varied shades of dyes in their hair, and none of it looked all that natural. I was beginning to imagine a spy movie type escape route when my sister arrived.
My student knew my student. Her prior job had been a waitress where my brother in law works. Heather's student was a young looking partially dyed blond. Both girls reviewed our choices of dye with their instructors. The instructors wrote codes on the mirror. As the students went into the back room to mix their dye concoctions, apprehensively, I hoped for the best. The mixing room reminded me of a hospital pharmacy. This was my last hope of escape. I supposed I shouldn't leave my sister captive there without me, so I decided to stay and risk it. Really, I've been wanting to cover those obstinate greys, but I needed a little push in the right direction. I even made it one of my 10 goals for Perfect 10, but change can be scary.
Our students began painting our hair from bowls of black slop that they'd carefully concocted. The stuff smelled of putrid chemicals and the texture and color reminded me of what I've guiaced from off a GI bleed. I told myself to stop fidgeting and worrying about chemicals. I brought up the time I tried using Henna and my student provided me with a some what rehearsed sounding explanation of why not to use henna. She also promised me that the chemicals used to dye my hair were not harmful. I don't have a very good poker face. Perhaps it was my ghastly expression that caused her to reassure me. My student had to go mix more color and I hoped she could duplicate the first bowl. She'd asked me what I liked in my coffee and when I told her cream and sugar, she returned with black. I feared that this little oversight could be an omen of evils to come.

Some clients had squares of foil stuck to their heads, giving them a robot monster appearance. I was all too glad to escape to the place where large dome dryers lurked. As she covered my head with one, again I began to panic, but tried to distract myself with the ladies getting their nails done. An elderly lady looked excited and I wanted to say something nice about her nails to make her feel good. I examined them as closely as I could from the confines of the drier, but couldn't tell which ones were "done" so I was at a loss at what to say. I began fidgeting as I imagined horrible chemical reactions occurring under the heat. "Is everything o.k.?" my student asked. I told her it was, but kept edging parts of my head out of the dome. She eyed me suspiciously and eventually just took me back to the robot monsters. I asked to go to the bathroom, thinking I might find a new escape route. In the bathroom, I decided that escaping now would not be wise, because she was soon going to be rinsing the dye out. I also imagined that I would look rather odd gallivanting around the city with black slime pasted all over my head. Eventually, my student had rinsed the stuff out and began clipping away to "put in some long layers". I began feeling guilty about my distrust and decided to try and imagine nice things. After all, she was a friend of the family.
The instructor came with a furrowed brow to inspect my students work. She stood me up and began clipping. My student's face turned red. I knew I had to do something drastic as the instructor began showing the student what she did wrong. I reminded the instructor that the student spent a lot of time coloring my hair and had done a good job. She nodded and said "um hummm". Then I told her my student was very confident. I continued on, shooting from the hip as the instructor continued clipping away. Finally, I told the instructor to give my student an "A" and she said "I think that could be arranged". I wasn't sure the instructor was all that convinced, so I said "hooray the grey is gone" and shocked the student by hugging her. Other students smirked. I supposed I'd gone too far, but the instructor was smiling and that was good enough for me. The entire ordeal took about 3 hours all told. My hair was close to my childhood color, as was my sisters. Her hair was gorgeous!! We took some "after shots", but they didn't turn out well with the flash, so I'll put one up later on.
As I exited the salon, I saw a frightening scene flash before my eyes as I walked by a mirror. It was a grey hair popping up from the bed of rich dark browns. A sinking feeling came. As I examined my head closer, I saw a few more. Then it occurred to me that examining the top of my head in the rear view mirror while driving was not an intelligent thing to do. Finally, after looking again and again, I had to make peace with the few remaining reprobate greys. "I guess having a few will make it look more natural" I reasoned with myself. At any rate, I do like the color and the greys are no longer overly obvious. The memory with my sister....priceless!