getting snippy

operation 'grow hair out'
suffered a little setback this week.
hairdressers have a hard time stopping, i think.
at one point i could tell my hair was about
as trimmed as i wanted it to be
but chunks of hair just kept falling to the ground.
sigh.
if i were bolder i would have squeaked out, "enough!...please."
but i just sat there and watched
my happily grown-out hair disappear.
i like my haircut i guess but, gosh.
i want my hair back.

p.s. at this moment i am listening to a few songs
from mandy moore's upcoming album that are on her website.
i kept reading things about this record all over the place
so i had to see what all the fuss was about.
'kay. i just had to get that out.
-nicole

hand me the sunscreen please

i donned my swimsuit for the first time this summer
and went to a water park today.
this water park had a really intense wave pool
that literally was too much for me.
i couldn't even progress forward to the deeper
end of the pool because the waves were so strong
that i kept getting thrown backwards.
the pool was crammed full of bodies
and each time a ginormous wave came through
we'd all get slammed into each other.
it was pretty funny.
the waves really made me want to see the ocean again
but it's just so far away.

oh, i also had dippin' dots for the first time
in over a decade.
it's weird how they stick to the inside
of your mouth in much the same way
as metal does in winter.
now, why do i stick metal in my mouth in winter?
i don't really remember.
i probably do things like put my keys in my mouth
so i can put on my mittens.
all i know is i DO NOT lick flagpoles
'cause we all know that's dumb.

-nicole

hard hat area

i think i'm going to start volunteering with
'habitat for humanity.'
i attended an orientation session this evening
and i was really impressed with what i've learned
so far about habitat.

they have a relatively small number of paid employees
but rely very heavily on volunteers in every part
of the process of providing homes.
as a volunteer you can build houses on site,
work in the office, be on the 'family selection committee',
help plan events and fundraisers,
help plan home dedications and on the list goes.
it's an extremely volunteer-based organization.

hopefully i'll soon spend my mondays
building houses with other volunteers
and habitat families. awesome.

-nicole

it looks like rain for all of us

i went shopping for a vintage dress after work today (success!)
even though rain was imminent.
the deluge began shortly before i needed to hop
back on my bike and ride the dozen blocks home.
the gal at the store, herself a fellow biker, helped me
make a raincoat out of a garbage bag and off i went.

i've biked in sprinkling rain a number of times this spring,
which i love, but i realized during my ride home
that i hadn't biked in the pouring rain
since i was in scotland two years ago.

in our hostel in the port town of oban, on scotland's western coast,
my friend jennifer and i met two boys
who had been studying abroad in edinburgh.
they were from florida and australia,
school was over and they were doing some traveling
before returning home.
they invited us to bike with them the next day
on the isle of mull, a ferry ride to the west.

the day began with glorious sunshine but before long
the rain started falling and it didn't really stop.
scotland in mid-april is not warm,
especially when it's raining
and it was always raining.

i was wearing gloves, my down vest
and of course my raincoat
but i was still miserably cold.
poor jennifer didn't have a raincoat
and was soggy and freezing.
but we were determined to have a good time
and refused to give up and go back.
meeting other travelers had thus far proved
harder than we expected
and we didn't want to spend the day
wandering around drizzly little oban by ourselves,
although jenn did look at me once with
a glimpse of despair in her eyes and said,
"i don't know if i can do this."
but on we pressed and eventually
the rain became a sprinkle and
the sun found holes in the clouds
and peeked through to warm our chilly faces.

i stopped keeping a travel journal two weeks
into my five-week trip and i keep thinking
i need to sit down and write as much as i can still remember.
i've surely lost a few memories already
and i don't want to lose any more.

-nicole