Saturday stuff

As I breathe a sigh of relief and sorrow...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dirk-smiler-killer-sentenced-to-35-years/2011/06/03/AG72IPIH_story.html?fb_ref=NetworkNews&fb_source=home_oneline
Rest well in peace and love, Dirk. You were and are brighter than the sun.

While Adam is at work, I will take a good long walk and appreciate the world. My head still hurts but it's not so bad. Anti-migraine treatments will continue for the rest of today.

I am halfway through Mira Grant's Deadline and it is amazing, just as Feed was amazing (if you didn't know, Mira Grant is a pen name for Seanan McGuire. Seanan writes the "October Daye" urban fantasy series, and Mira Grant wrote the "Newsflesh" trilogy). The walking dead are still a source of panicked nightmares for me, but Seanan writes them in a way that makes me hardly frightened at all.

I may or may not be coming down with a cold. Or it could be allergies. I have that telltale hot prickling in the back of my throat. I will take precautions and treat myself well.

Maple at the Farm, and other errands

I think I just really needed a change.
I went to the King Farm shopping center in Rockville to make a bank deposit and spend some coupons at Safeway. I then realized I had a coupon for Hair Cuttery, so what the hell, why not. I went and got my hair colored. The coupon applied to one of the package deals, so I went for the color, shampoo, conditioning, cut, and blowdry package.
I was wavering between colors like Mocha Java, Maple, Cappucino, Espresso, and Chocolate. The Maple seemed the prettiest. A warm dark golden brown with random highlights, like a shimmer. I always like to go one shade darker than intended, knowing that as the color fades and lightens it will settle in more naturally with my pale skin tone. The fact that I was born with jet black hair that lightened over the years always makes me feel like I can wear dark haircolors easily. The stylist, Nanda, had big strong hands and she was extremely thorough when applying the dye, meticulously thorough, which I complimented her on. When it came time to rinse and condition, she basically gave me a vigorous total head massage. It was great. She trimmed off no more than an inch just like I asked, and the blowdry was as thorough as the coloring. I gave her a good tip. I chose the right color. Maple has a fascinating subtle golden shimmer and is just dark brown enough to make my paleness stand out. I'll be wearing a lot of dark pink and red lipcolors with alternating plum, charcoal, espresso, and bronze eyecolors now.
I spent the rest of my day with a bounce in my step, my head high, and a soft smile on my lips. I went to the Flower Hill shopping center and visited my usual salon for eyebrow waxing. The owner, Linda, is awesome and knows just what I want, and it's very cheap. At Giant, I bought a bottle of Pomegranate Acai Yumberry juice, and came home just as Adam called to say he was leaving work. I told him about my day but I left out the hair thing. He came home as I was boiling the mugwort noodles for the stir-fry. He noticed the hair immediately, hard to miss anyway, and approved, although he thought it was too dark. I told him it would lighten up enough over time, and that was the point. He thought the golden highlights looked strange and random, but I explained that it was supposed to be like that. The color is called Maple, after all.