Hair! Mindy! Memorial for a Friend

In a very un-Alana move, I spent several hours alone, getting my hair cut and colored by Jerami, the big haired girl 'tress stylist' at his new salon, (or is it a renamed old salon) Grass Roots. It was a very splurgy move on my part as I am usually a super cheap ass. (excuse the language) But, I was stressed. I was being way too in the heart part of my head and I needed some therapy.

Jerami provides terrific therapy! He can not only bring me out of the Homer Fashion doldrums, but, he can offer spiritual and parenting advice about a certain child of mine. Did you know that Jerami has been trained in Opera? Two hours, a great scalp massage and curly hair later, I felt like I would actually be able to look less frumpy and manage to parent a certain child without that child having to dip too deeply into the therapy fund I established for him a few years ago. I mean, with the economy the way it is right now and all, his therapy dollar will just not stretch that far! Thank you Jerami for a fabulous afternoon.

After hair I rushed around picking up kids and zipped them right over to the movie theater where I was going to have Willie watch them watching the movie Igor. This way I would not have to deal with them at the Memorial of an old friend, Julie C. They would have been welcomed, but their attention spans would have quickly tapped my new found patience reserves, so, walla! Movie time. It was also my lucky day, Mindy decided she would help me and her son Aiden by going to the movies as well.

We walked in the door and went to buy the tickets and sadly, it was foreign film night. The film was something like, Pain and Forgetfulness. Anyway, the kids were super bummed that they wouldn't get to see a movie, so Mindy graciously invited all three of them over to her house for a DVD movie and I bought them popcorn. Everyone was sad, except for me, who was cracking up at the developing line of popcorn desiring adults behind us. Some of these folks were completely astonished that someone would bring such small children to see Pain and Forgetfulness. In fact, one friend in line said, "You know, this really isn't a kids movie." That really made me laugh. I know I can be out to lunch, but not that out to lunch... It was another good reminder that I am not a total looser mom.

And then, with the children under the calm confident command of Ms. Mindy, I rushed off to Julie C's memorial. Tributes such as this are dying in most parts of the country. The gentleman on stage is singing, "She's an Old Hippie", a song about holding onto the past or grabbing onto something new. Sunrise did several lovely readings and songs. The church was packed and the service was Episcopalian with a lot of hippie love thrown in. Very suiting. When it was time to give the communion the pastor called the congregation up around the alter and people shared the wine.

A beautiful soul. Moving on.

I picked up the kids and Mindy, super amazing Mindy, after having worked at Parent Teacher conferences all day, was trying to teach Falcom to play chess. I couldn't believe her tenacity! I was so tired I could barley surf the web while I waited for her to finish. And here she was, having to go so far as to explain taking turns. She is such a great friend!

Thank you Mindy, Thank you Julie, Thank you life!

PS Willie and DeeJay are going to LA by themselves for Thanksgiving break. Thank you Valda for helping us get their tickets.

pss Vince and I spent the ENTIRE DAYtoday at parent teacher conferences. Can you say EXHAUSTING? I can't go into it, but we kept one teacher 15 minutes over, and she was dying when she found out that she had been forced to stay extra and was mad at the office for not announcing that the time was up. We walked out of her room and there were two other parents sitting there, mad that she was leaving, looking at us for hogging so much of that valuable time (20 or so minutes of important info falling on strangely deaf ears...could she not get what I was saying?) Vince and I felt it wise not to be in the parking lot with them alone and so we went to E.S.'s room and hid out. This memory also makes me laugh a little.... Plus, E.S. is so cool!

We also have a lot of new meanings for the school wide acronym F.O.L. *focus on learning* "DeeJay, FOL does not stand for Focus on the Ladies!"

psss Next posts will be from Girl Weekend in Anchorage. I'm splurging again. Oh yea...Oh, well...