Do redheads have more fun?

So, lately I've been booking my hair appointments for Friday nights, and it's really great. My appointment is usually around 7ish, so I leave Ken at home with the kids and get my hair cut and colored. The salon I go to does complimentary mini-facials and make-up applications, which is fabulous because I'm totally inept with make-up. Bottom line, I come out of that place looking fabulous, if I don't say so myself. Well, better than I normally do anyways. Inevitably I come home all excited to show off my new look and Ken is always dead asleep. Tonight he didn't even move when I turned on the light. So here I am sitting at my computer in full make-up with brand new RED hair, and no one here to admire it.

P.S.
Truthfully, I'm a little nervous about the red hair. I mean it's REALLY red and we have a silent auction for Jack's preschool tomorrow night. I really hope I don't look like a hooker, because, well, that would be bad. I think there is some sort of law about room moms not looking like hookers. It's probably in the school hand-book. I need opinions people and no one is going to get a glimpse of my new do until tomorrow. This sucks.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

UPDATE:

Umm...so it turns out that the whole thing about having more fun with a haircolor must only apply to blondes. Ouch. Ken hates the hair. I think the word despise was even used at some point. And in the broad light of day it is a little, well, drastic.

And the truth is I've been down this road before. I might not have mentioned this earlier, but I'm a little adventurous when it comes to my hair. The sort of adventurous that tells hairstylists "just do whatever you think will look good." Now this has lead to some great styles in the past and some really not so great styles. In my defense, I totally qualified my statement last night with "as long as it doesn't make me look like a hooker."

I'm still hopeful that it will fade and look absolutely fabulous in a couple weeks, but this is really not a good development for this evening's festivities. Instead of a soccer mom, I'm going to look like Diablo Cody, and probably not in a good way. The worst part is that my in-laws are coming over to babysit, so there is inevitably going to be the "oh, your hair...it's..um..different. Did you do it yourself?" Ugh.

In happier news, I had a dream that Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick) was performing in a concert and totally coming on to me. WITH red hair, I might add. Of course it was not happening at the benefit tonight. Even my subconscious recognizes how unlikely that would be.

30 Rock ROCKS

Ok, you need to know that I'm taking my own life into my hands by even typing this, but I'm here to inform you that Oprah was not the best thing about tonight's episode of 30 Rock.

Now, we all know that Oprah has probably assigned Gayle the regrettable task of monitoring all quasi-negative comments posted about her on-line and arranging for said commenters to be immediately executed via sniper fire. Regardless, this needs to be said. Oprah was fabulous (please don't shoot me! please, I love you and I always love your favorite things!), but the three best moments of tonight's show don't include her.

So, since I'm sure you're all sitting on the edge of your seat, the top three 30 Rock moments of the night are as follows:

3. When Kenneth the Page is looking at the autograph of the faux tether-ball silver medalist and says, "'Believe in the stars,' it's like that doesn't even mean anything anymore."...wait for it...wait for it...ha! I always end up laughing at lines like this 30 seconds too late, but they totally kill me.

2. Liz Lemon decked out in her Princess Leia outfit for jury duty, "I don't think it's fair for me to be on a jury because I can read thoughts." This is right up there with her time spent in bird museums when she studied abroad. Seriously, who thinks of this stuff? They totally deserve an Emmy...oh right, they already got an Emmy. Well, whatever. The show is hilarious.

1. The funniest quote of the night has to go to Kenneth the Page, "I don't believe in hypothetical situations they're like lying to your brain." He goes on to try to convince the lucky folks he's taking on a tour to kill him in an elevator and eventually ends up stealing cable. Good times.

Bottom line: if you're not already watching this show, you really need to start.

Not off to a good start...

It's sort of like the perfect storm of crappy mornings today.

1. I was up at 6:30 am after a really creepy dream.
2. Then just as I fell back asleep at 6:45ish, I hear "Mommy, mommy, I'm HUNGRY!" Yes, that's right my kids literally wake up begging for food.
3. When I had the audacity to give my 17-month old daughter cheerios directly on the tray of her highchair, she threw a fit, ripped off her bib and threw everything on the floor. Apparently she prefers things in bowls now. Probably to make it more efficient when she wants to throw things on the floor. In a bowl she only has one thing to throw.
4. Once Jack caught Mia throwing her food on the floor he decided to make it a party and dump his entire bowl of cereal with milk on my freshly cleaned floor. Fabulous.
5. And finally, the icing on the cake is that our inbox is still EMPTY. It has been empty for days. No requests. No rejections. Nothing. Well, not exactly nothing, I actually sent myself an e-mail just to see if it was working and that came through just fine. Yes, I've sunk to a whole new low of sending myself e-mail. This is truly a sad state of affairs.
6. Ooh, and this just in while I was busy posting about my crappy morning. I just got an e-mail from work that we're not having a holiday party this year, instead they're doing some type of "fraternity rush" at some dude's house where everyone is supposed to bring a job candidate and we'll all meet later to discuss who gets an offer. I sort of feel like writing back a one word response: "Seriously?" This has the potential to turn out like a particularly hilarious episode of The Office, only excruciatingly awkward.

Is it too early to start drinking at 9:15 am? I mean really with the time change it's actually 10:15, right? RIGHT?

You can all Chuck off

Don't worry dear readers, while my Gossip Girl viewing may have been delayed this week due to election mayhem, I didn't forget my weekly inspiration from Mr. Bass.

This week, Chuck was being propositioned by a 13-year old girl. When the little Lolita suggested Chuck take a ride on her, our favorite piece of Manhattan man-meat responds:

"Looks like you just hooked yourself a bass."

Let's face it, the man never disappoints.

The woman of my dreams, Michelle Obama

Ok, I need to start off by saying that I have a non-sexual crush on Michelle Obama. I mean, I think we can all agree that she's pretty amazing. She's extremely intelligent, a high powered career woman, and an unbelievable mother. And of course it always helps that she's totally gorgeous and has incredible fashion sense. I love that she mixes designer pieces with things off the rack from J.Crew and White House Black Market. It gives hope to those of us without the clothing budget of the GOP.

Anyways, Obama gave one of the most inspirational speeches in modern history, but I couldn't help but sort of hate Michelle's dress. I considered writing about it last night, but it just seemed too soon. While I hate to be some sort of fashion killjoy, after looking at pictures again this morning I can remain silent no longer. I admit that I might have been a little biased against black and red combos as a result of some poor wardrobe decisions I made back in 1989. Bottom line: love the message, love the lady, hate the dress. Call me shallow for caring, it won't be the first time.

We have a new president!!

Watching Obama win the presidency tonight was like watching a live broadcast on the History Channel. It's amazing to live through something you know will be written about for years to come, particularly something as positive and exciting as watching Obama win the presidency. I'm so proud to be an American tonight. I know this is one of those moments that I'll be sharing with my grandchildren someday and I'm trying to memorize every detail.

Election Day Heaven

I have to say (and I hope I'm not tempting fate here) that today has been a fabulous day so far. It all started with a dream that Pacey Whitter (aka Joshua Jackson) was my boyfriend. He was super smart and prickly sort of like every single character he's ever played, turns out my subconscious is not all that creative. Anyways, we had just started dating and were getting in fights all the time, but he kept trying to win me back. It was one of those uber realistic dreams, so I now sort of feel like we have actually dated. Anyways, I'm pleased to report that Pacey is just as gorgeous and funny in real life as he is on TV. Dreamy.

Unfortunately, my dreams were crushed when I was woken up by Jack who was completely naked and required help getting dressed. Talk about a buzzkill. However, he didn't wake up until 7:30 and that's sleeping in around here, so I couldn't be too annoyed.

Next at 9:15 I placed my vote at a local middle school. I didn't have to wait in line, the volunteers were extremely helpful and it was all very easy. It was funny though this is the first time I've ever had a nervous stomach when I was voting. I just want to see Obama win so badly, and I was a little nervous that I'd accidentally vote incorrectly or something. It was a little scary to see my ballot eaten up by the electronic scanner thing, so let's hope Ohio comes through and doesn't screw up the tallying. Our system here is totally antiquated and I'm sure there will be some sort of issue. We'll see...

Finally, on a whim I ran to the store to look for a pair of black riding boots and I found the perfect pair in 10 minutes! I was even home with time to spare for my 11 am conference call. So really, a fantastic day so far. Pacey Whitter, sleeping-in, hassle free voting and a new pair of fabulous boots.

Now I'm just waiting for my cell phone to ring with an enthusiastic agent on the line...

It's a little dusty in here...

Fine, I'll admit it. How I Met Your Mother made me cry a little bit tonight. Whew, I feel better now that I've got that off my chest.

Hey, at least it wasn't Gossip Girl or the Hills. You just can't come back from that.

Election Day

As I was checking out directions to my voting location for tomorrow, I couldn't help but remember one fateful election day back in the late eighties/early nineties. My mom piled my sisters and I into the minivan and explained that she only had to run in. We soon became bored and decided to climb into the very back of the van--can't quite remember what we were doing back there, but I'm sure it was fun. When we heard the driver's door open, we assumed our mom had returned and we would be on our merry way. But upon closer inspection, a strange man had climbed into the car. Sure we were being kidnapped, we sat stone silent. Apparently, instead of our PE teachers encouraging us to create fire escape plans with our parents, they should have covered what to do when a strange man climbs into your mom's minivan while she is voting, because I'm pretty sure, "be quiet as a mouse" wouldn't be a suggested tactic. One of us must have finally blown our cover because the man eventually turned around, checked out our stunned little faces and said, "Oops, wrong car" and climbed on out. A classic election day memory.

The Pollyannas of Publishing

The roller coaster ride that is our quest for publication continues. As you all know, we've been at this for about a month now and it's tough. Laura compares having agents and editors read your book to having a teacher who hates your guts grade one of your papers. It's totally subjective and every person who reads the book has a different opinion. I'd go into the whole thing about opinions and assholes, but I think you get the idea.

One agent thought our concept was great, but the execution was flawed. Another agent loved the writing, but didn't think the concept was marketable. Some agents have requested fulls peppered with phrases like "love it" and lots of exclamation marks. Other agents have sent us pathetic form rejections limited to three words "not for me." One day we're over the moon that an agent requested the full and indicated that they're excited to read it based off the 50 page excerpt they read. The next day we want to cry because we got a form rejection on a query.

The bottom line is this. Writing a book is hard. Finding an agent is even harder. And getting the book published is about as likely as winning the lottery. But here's the thing. We're determined. We know our book is good, and we also know that the right agent or editor can help us make it better. We will work our asses off to make our book the best it can possibly be, so, that's our story and we're sticking to it. You love our concept, but hate the execution? Tell us what the problem is, we'll fix it. You hate the concept, but love our style and voice? Tell us what's marketable and we'll write it.

At this point, there is no edit we won't consider, no concept we won't explore. Our goal is to be successful writers and we'll do whatever it takes to make it happen. Today we decided to be the Pollyannas of the publishing world. The glass is always half full, your thoughts are always welcome and we'll even read your rejections with a smile. The truth is, we love this. Every single part of it. Even the rejections. So bring it on agents and editors. We're ready.

Random thoughts on a Sunday....

* I think I've consumed over 150 pieces of candy in the last 72 hours. Sick and wrong. My only excuse is that I think it's possible that they lace the mini-Kit-Kats with crack.

* I love Obama, but I'm really sick of him calling my house and waking up my kids. Dude, I'm voting for you, but you're killing me with the nap-time calls.

* I miss Mad Men.

* I bought a pair of red shoes today. Hot!

* I also bought the same jeans as my mom. Not hot.

* I'm 99% sure that I'll be woken up at 6 am every day this week by the kids. Damn you daylight savings time. DAMN YOU.

* Am I the only person watching The Lipstick Jungle? It's a terrible show, really. On Friday they had a fashion designer smear red wine and glue gun feathers on her finale dress and then wear it down the runway. Yup, this is the craptastic stuff that I'm proudly watching every week. If I had a Nielson box it would probably implode with shame.

Big week this week. A new president and maybe an agent for us? Dare I hope? Of course I do. Blind optimism or masochism, either way I just can't help myself.