And Now for Something New!

Well, Friday was an exciting day in the vaNILLA world. I went to work, of course. That part wasn't the exciting part. Oh, except I discovered this horrible mistake I'd made the previous day while cataloging some books, so my supervisor and I had to pull all the books I'd cataloged on Thursday so I could fix that. After work, though, the fun began!

I met Jeni at some Chinese place. I think it was Swen's or something like that. It was actually very good. I ordered Garlic Chicken, and that came with soup (both Jeni and I got the hot and sour soup), an egg roll, and fried rice. Jeni got Mongolian Beef and it came with the same stuff. The food was delicious and it was a heap of food! And the company was great too. Jeni and I had a lot of fun talking and visiting.
And the fortune cookies were great. Jeni didn't like her fortune. Mine rocked. Mine says that I will always get what I want through my charm and personality. So, in other words, I can be lazy and get what I want through my awesome self and Jeni has to work at what she gets. Yep, that about sums me up ;). I am full of that vaNILLA charm. And personality. Not to mention the vaNILLA beauty :). Haha, I'm so full of it. Afterwards, I followed Jeni back to her house so her husband David could go to work. We took the kids to the park (Ethan and Sara Katherine who is almost 1) and visited there until it was time to head over to my hair appointment! Well, first let me show you the before shot. Now, of course you have seen many of these throughout the course of this blog.... But here I am in my cube at work, before the big cut-off.Now, here's another Lesson from the Nilla life (104, if you're counting). That hair "style" is Nilla. It's the only "style" I've ever had. Prior to Friday, there had been only two other times I'd been to have my hair styled and both of them were wedding-related. Once for my bridal sitting pictures, and once for my wedding day. But neither of those occasions found me getting any hair cut off! Other than that, I never had my hair styled. I never really styled it myself. I would, when going out for a celebratory dinner, curl it sometimes. But beyond that, I usually wore it up in a clip, in a ponytail, or down like in this picture. With the part down the middle (because that's how my hair always dried). Oh, and I always let it drip dry after a shower. And now you know.

So, Jeni and I get to the hair salon and CJ (the hairdresser) is running behind. So, Jeni and I entertain the kids for about 20 minutes before it's my turn to go back. And thanks to Jeni, this wonderful experience has been photographed! I was very brave. Aside from telling CJ I'd like to keep some length (at least to my shoulders), I gave her free reign. Here she is, taking a look and feel at my hair:

And since I was essentially going whole-hog, I even had the washing done too.I do believe CJ is the first person since my mother to wash my hair. Isn't she priveleged :). Haha. Okay, so I got in trouble. I was berated for not owning a hair dryer. I was also told I was no longer allowed to purchase my shampoo and conditioner based on how they smell. And then the cutting began. And by the time it was over, this is how I looked:Jeni was impressed. She loved it. Kept telling me I look more sophisticated. CJ said I look younger, and then Julie made that comment earlier. Hey, I'll take all the help I can get in that arena, although with my side part, you can really see a lot of gray hair! Jeni gave me her extra hair dryer so I wouldn't have to buy one. Even so, I still had to go by Wal-Mart and buy hair spray. But here's a good shot of Jeni and me (oh, and I'm supposed to say that Jeni was at the park with the kids before this picture and she DIDN'T have her hair done that day... Like that even matters. She always looks great):And then here are a couple more shots I took on my own trying to get different angles. I took a ton, and most of them I look like I have a fat nose or something. But these two aren't as bad.

Oh, and since you can see it in the background... I might as well give you how to be a Nilla 105... Why make the bed? You're just going to mess it up again tonight when you get back into it ;).

Yeah, so I also decided to go to WinnDixie and get Edy's Thin Mint Cookie ice cream. It's only out during Girl Scout Cookie time. And I came home and watched a romantic comedy. I sent pictures to Julie and she was really shocked at the difference in my hair. She loves it. She said CJ did a really great job. Stefanie really raved about it too.

Here's the thing, though... it's so different! It doesn't even look like me! Every time I would see my reflection, I would think I should be someone else! Haha. Sounds weird, I know. I told my sister that and she said, "Hila, you've had the same freakin' hair your whole life! It was time for a change!" Leave it to Christina to put it in words that can't be mistaken ;).

Anyway, I do have to say, though, that I have since washed my hair and tried to style it that way. I even blow-dried it. But I can't make it look like that. So, today I look more Nilla-like. Oh well. I guess one day of different was fun while it lasted ;). I'm still doing the side-part thing. Mostly because I like to have my gray hairs on display ;). But, I look more like myself than I did when I left the salon yesterday!

Okay, so there you go. I did something very unlike me and chopped off a lot of my hair! And hopefully every once in a while I'll be able to make my hair somewhat resemble the way it looked when I left the salon yesterday....