Mt. Rainier and Lenticular Clouds - Dec. 2008 copyright: JMM

September 2, 2007

Happy New Year....and Oh Shit

Happy New Year.....


It's Labor Day weekend, which, for Brian & I, is observed as New Years. I mean think about it. You started a new year of school in the fall, TV shows were brand new, you shopped for new clothes and school supplies, college football starts, NFL starts....it makes more sense for this to be observed as New Years Day than January 1. The traditional new year is so depressing. It's the doldrums of winter. You are all partied out from the holidays, you've over indulged in eating, drinking and spending. You're tired, shopped out, bloated and feeling the post-Krissmiss let down. There's nothing to look forward to in the next few months at all.

I remember being a kid, and into my teens, just weeping at midnight on New Years Eve. To me it was so sad, the passing of time. I couldn't help it, esp. if I was home alone, which sometimes I was as my parents were off with their friends, for one reason or another my cousins were doing stuff that I was not invited to, and my friends were babysitting. There is nothing more depressing than ringing in the new year, completely alone, listening to the countdown of the year's top 100 songs on the radio and watching Dick Clark's New Years Rockin' Eve. It just seemed like the passing of time mocked me.



In jr. high and high school, I always felt the loneliest and most miserable on New Years Eve. I just wanted to get out of Sandwich so bad and do something....ANYTHING....as long as it was on the west coast. And now we had a new year where I'm stuck languishing on the east coast and I had like zero to look forward to. To my school friends, I think I was seen as outgoing, friendly and funny, if a bit weird, but deep inside I was a very unhappy adolescent. Of course New Years was less depressing when I got older and got to do stuff, esp. when we lived in San Francisco and got to see the last 3 Grateful Dead New Years Eve concerts in 1989, 1990 & 1991. Now we're just too damn tired to make it till midnight.


So that is why we prefer to celebrate the New Year on Labor Day weekend. Because we actually have stuff to look forward to with the new TV season, college and pro football, the foliage and beautiful fall days, snug rainy weekends, the holidays and winter. Even though it feels like I just put the holiday decorations away, and now it's time to drag out the boxes again.


For the record, our fave college football teams are as follows:


Notre Dame - Because of the Irish tradition, and NBC always shows their games every week.

West Virginia - Because Brian spent a good portion of his teen youth partying in Morgantown.

UW Huskies - The local team of course.

Cal Bears - Because we lived in SF, nearly all the attorneys I worked for either did their undergrad or law school at Berkeley, I worked in Berkeley near the Cal campus and my former boss was the lead attorney for the Free Speech Movement in the 60's.

Michigan - Because of the Michigan tradition and my boss went there.

Nebraska - Because of the Huskers tradition.

Boston College - Because I'm from Massachusetts.

...and Oh Shit

Well I coloured my hair today....the colour on the box said "Medium Brown". What I ended up with is, essentially, black. Black hair. I've never had black hair in my life. How in the hell am I supposed to go out in public like this? What the hell happened????? Clearly, I bought the wrong box of colouring.

Black. Man alive, when Brian wakes up I am in for some serious ribbing. I'm surprised I didn't wake him up with my cries of distress from the bathroom, "WHAT THE ????? BLACK! MY HAIR IS BLACK?! DAMMIT! DAMMIT!" Needless to say, I better have a snappy self-deprecating comment ready for when I go to work on Tuesday b/c Steve's too polite to say anything unless I bring it up first. And poor Debby....she has night blindness and since I keep my office so dark, she's never going to be able to see me, esp. if I wear black clothing. I'll look like a floating face to her.

So for today, I had to offset my hair with a brightly coloured rainbow swirl tie dye shirt that says, "Peace, Love and Muddy Paws". It's going to take a few weeks for this to wash out too.


Summer 2007 Summary:

Is it me, or did the summer go by exceedingly fast this year? We literally got nothing done. Squat. Bupkiss. Nada. Nil.


No. of times sat and/or ate dinner on the deck: -0-

No. of times used the grill: 1, on July 4th.

No. of times sat in skychairs: -0- We didn't even put them up. Nor did we put out the summer garden decorations (gazing balls, wind spinners, etc).

No. of times Brian enjoyed a cigar on the deck: -0-

Yardwork completed: -0-, except for cutting the lawn a couple of times.

No. of Tacoma Rainiers baseball games attended: -0- But we're boycotting them b/c they took our mini-plan seats away after the ultimatum of "either buy season tickets for those seats or go sit somewhere else".

No. of times walked the dogs: -0-

No. of rooms in the house I thoroughly cleaned like I'd planned to this spring: -0-

PS Brian just got up and roared with laughter at my hair, "Leave the colouring on a bit long, did we?"

29 comments:

  1. Take it from someone who colors her hair every five weeks w/o fail, you left it on waaayy too long. At this point you either live w/ it or go pay a fortune to have it professionally fixed. Bummer.

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  2. Hey, that's a great idea. I hate New Years Eve, but I love the labor day holiday because it means Fall is just around the corner!

    Sorry about you hair :) I color mine every 3 weeks, but I let a pro do it, I'm to chicken to try it myself.

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  3. I'm just too cheap to let a pro do it and this is the first time in 3+ years I've mucked it up. I'll just have to live with it, or never leave the house for 2 weeks till it starts to wash out!

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  4. JoJo-you are so funny, bet Brian did give you the old one two about the black dye. If you get some hydrogen peroxide and add shampoo, then wash your hair it will tone it down.

    I think having New Years for Labor Day is a fine idea, works for me!!! I had 3 older brothers so was never really alone as you were, so we had nice celebrations.
    Jean

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  5. Anonymous11:17 PM

    Hey, black hair could be fun. Just renew it for Halloween. You can be goth princess witch or something. Practice, practice, practice!

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  6. Yup, me too. DESPISE New Years every single year. Now its just another year. New Years always reminds me of...well, another episode of my hells...

    LOL!! I think you'd look good with black hair, Jojo, why not post a piccie???
    I put Henna in parts of my hair to make it dark purple. When it washes out, it becomes a stunning black!!

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  7. Anonymous9:36 AM

    momta2girls said...

    Love the New Year's at Labor Day comparison. Never thought of it that way. I may have a bottle of wine to celebrate. :o)

    About the hair...my colorist (and I now have a colorist because I've been in your shoes)says that "over the counter" color usually turns out darker than what the box shows. I'd try the peroxide in the shampoo trick if it's something you can't live with. Let us be the judge...Show us a picture, already!!!

    Gay

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  8. hey, i colored my hair last week, too. instead of mousey brown streaked with gray, it is now a glorious auburn. i sorta look like bozo the clown, now. LOL
    and i love your idea for labor day, as i absolutely LOATHE, HATE AND DESPISE new year's ever. i make sure that i have a box of kleenex and some chocolate beside me. i have NEVER welcomed in the new year with a significant other and while i've reconciled myself that i probably never will, it just all seems to spill over on the new year. so here's to labor day...i'm going to take myself for chinese food and a chocolate martini! happy "new" labor day to you and brian!

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  9. You could always stand under the shower for hours on end washing and rewashing your hair till it tones down.

    As for "where did summer go", my targets met are pretty similar to yours. I achieved NOTHING!

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  10. Anonymous2:09 PM

    As the nights close in, and the weather gets that autumnal 'nip' in the air, the Brits are STILL waiting for summer to begin.....!

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  11. You have my sympathy with the hair colour...mine ended up black once,but it made the rest of me look yellow..I spent a lot of time washing my hair that weekend until it just looked dark brown....red is most definitely more my colour :-)

    As for summer..what summer?? I've done bugger all in the garden,mostly because it's so damp it's not fun

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  12. You're right about this summer, it went by so fast, come to think about it, this entire year has flown away way too fast. And I look at myself and I just have the feeling I've missed most of it. Damn! :-(

    About your hair, trust me, black is better than orange! I had to go out having that thing on my head for over a month. The funny thing was that everybody seemed to like it. LOL :-D

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  13. Anonymous7:48 PM

    julie.

    Happy New Year to you. Oh, the hair. Hair is a pain in the arse.

    Great post. You really made me laugh.

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  14. Okay, that's enough hair talk. How are all your boobs doing?

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  15. Anonymous9:05 PM

    julie..

    but Mark. We must talk this thru. My areolas are covered in black hair.

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  16. Lucky for me the hair dye didn't get down that far!

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  17. Anonymous9:08 PM

    julie.

    maybe if it did then you consider yourself accessorized.

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  18. Thanks but I don't need to accessorize my nipples.

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  19. Anonymous9:10 PM

    julie.

    why not? more to twirl.

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  20. See what happens when you drink and blog?

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  21. Anonymous9:14 PM

    julie...

    or when you drink and tweak...

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  22. luv your new year idea!

    a floating head! that is hilarious! can't wait to hear what kind of ribbing you've gotten!

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  23. I dated an Italian girl for a while that had hairy nipples.

    Nice try ladies.

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  24. Mark, you wanna know how they're doing...come see!

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  25. Is that "come to your blog and see" or "come halfway around the world and see"?

    I went to your sites and saw zilch.

    Yeah, I'm that easy!

    LOL

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  26. The latter, Mark...You gotta work for it. And why are you complaining? There's plenty pussy on my blog today! Hahaha!!!

    Just scroll down a bit on my blog and at least you'll see some cleavage.....for what its worth...LOL!

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  27. Anonymous12:08 PM

    Easier and less potentially hazardous than peroxide- wash it with baby shampoo a couple times and the colour will come out and tone down really quickly. Staright from the hairdresser when I told her about Kathleen's red turning out purple. Baby shampoo strips colour she said.

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  28. my tally for the summer of 2007:
    # of times i went to chicago.....0

    # of times i went to windsor.....0

    # of times i went berry and/or cherry picking...................0

    # of times i visited friends up in traverse city, grand rapids and lansing..........................0

    # of times i got laid............0

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  29. Same here, Fen!
    Now I understand the penis debate of SF you and Jojo are on about. Hee-hee!!

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