Change of Hair

Well, hello there. I'm getting my hair cut on Saturday afternoon and I can't wait. The last time I got my hair cut was March 7. No trims or anything since then. Ugh. It is way overdue. I'd blame it on being a mom, but let's face it - I haven't been good about regular hair cuts since my mom was making the appointments (and paying for them).

Oh yeah, I'm a mom. My son is about 5.5 months old. Get this - I was having a text-convo with my mom several weeks ago and I mentioned that I saw some cute stuff at BabyGap and she responded with, "next thing I know, you'll be cutting your hair and wearing mom jeans!" Um, thanks.
I don't think she understands Baby Gap. Whatever.

Anyway, I'm tired of looking like Robert Plant. I'm ready for a big change. It's not that I think long curly hair is bad. I think it can be pretty if it is well taken care of and a regular trim schedule is maintained. I haven't been doing that, though, so mine is not healthy, soft, or shiny. The layers are all grown out weird and it just has no life.
 If my hair looked like this when long (with minimal effort), maybe I'd be happy to have it long:


via

One thing I've realized is that it is hard to Google image search for curly hairstyle ideas because there are so few out there that are natural! There are tons of articles and slideshows out there for easy, beachy waves or curly styles to embrace your natural texture but it is obvious that many of them require just as much styling effort (or more) as it would be to just straighten the whole thing out.

I have found some inspiration by way of a new-ish Gap model.

This is the more styled, relaxed curl version

This one is the more natural curl style (although, I'm sure it took some effort). I'm guessing this girl has a different ethnicity than I have and that her hair is, in fact, chemically relaxed. Also, her hair seems coarser and perhaps thicker than mine.

I'll have to discuss it with my stylist, but I hope I come out looking chic and young rather than frumpy and mom-ish. Whatever that means. I always say that there is nothing inherently more feminine or more youthful (or less frumpy) about long hair as opposed to short hair. Long or short hair can look bad. It's all in the care you give it and the cut. If it flatters you, go with it. It bugs me when some women cling to their long hair like a security blanket but it obviously has damaged, scraggly ends.

Whatever happens, I'll be excited to say goodbye to this janky mess:

Some thoughts on Delivery

As I get closer to the baby's due date, a lot of thoughts have come into my mind, covering a full range of highs, lows, poignancy, goofiness, realism, hypothetical, etc etc. 
I was talking to someone at church on Sunday (actually the replacement to my calling, which I'll be released from next week). We talked about a lot of baby/child things (since I'm now a semi-official member of the "club"). This woman is originally from Uzbekistan and has two children.
At some point, I asked her, "Did you get nervous at all for the birth of your first child?". I am always curious to hear how other women approach labor and childbirth and all that. She considered the question for a moment and then responded. "No, not really. I just felt like everything was going to go perfectly and had a lot of confidence because we have such great medical care. I think my mom was a lot more nervous about it for me". Earlier in our conversations, she had told me about a friend of hers in Uzbekistan who, at 24 gave birth to her first child and died. It's a horrible thing to think about but her point in telling me was that in her country, they do not have some of the advances in maternal and neonatal care. Basically, I got the feeling from this woman that she almost couldn't be nervous because she does not take for granted what I suddenly felt like we in America do. We have some of the best doctors and hospitals in the world and she knew that because she could compare her experiences in Uzbekistan with her experiences here, in a modern, industrialized, western nation.

Anyway, it was something I didn't want to forget. How safe someone felt here, with a medical team she truly felt she could trust, even in an unfamiliar, often overwhelming situation. One in which your body is called upon to do things that literally seem to defy the laws of nature (despite the fact that it happens so often in nature and has for so long in history). I don't often think about how other countries handle childbirth but it is something I should probably give more thought to.

Working girl

If anyone didn't know already, my husband and I are expecting our first child in about ... 7 weeks. Yikes. Anyway, now that that news is out of the way, I wanted to talk a little bit about work. Or not working as the case may be.

I left my job at 30 weeks. I wasn't in need of doctor-ordered bed rest or having contractions or anything. I just knew that I didn't want to be there anymore. I loved my job for the two years I did it. I never wanted to be one of those women who work till they head to the hospital. My job required early mornings, all-day standing, and other physical demands that I was ready to say good-bye to. I still have some things I need to be doing at home (ordering supplies, keeping track of narcotics records, etc.) but I feel good about my decision and my boss was supportive of it as well.

There are some things I hope I always remember about my last few weeks and months in offices. I wasn't extraordinarily vocal about my pregnancy but many people found out at some point. As I mentioned, I worked with my boss for two years and as a result, there were people that I got to know fairly well, despite my boss being an independent contractor of sorts with about 15 different offices. I really appreciated some of the things people said to me before I left.

At one office, on a day that we brought in our second round of replacement assistants within a few months, one of the assistants said to me, "They'll never replace you". Nice, right?

At another office, where things tend to go crazy with double booked patients and general stressed out assistants and doctors, one assistant remarked to someone else that she "loves it when Chelsea is here. It's less chaotic" (this was my first time showing up at that office for several months and she was relieved, I guess).

I also had an experience where both an office manager and my boss said they loved having me around.

At the moment, I can't think of any others that stand out. But it has been so nice to have people come out and express their appreciation for my work over the last while. I really did try to do my best most of the time and I grew so much in the position. It's nice to feel like people noticed my efforts.

Hello Hello Again

Hello. Is it me you're looking for?

Well, here I've gone and left another blog by the wayside. Now we are coming fast upon the close of another year. I have all kinds of thoughts in my head and events in my life that I could write about to catch up, but that is just overwhelming and frankly, kind of boring for the reader.

So I'll try to keep this brief and to the point. Thing is, I haven't yet decided what the point of this post is. Or even what the point of this blog is.

I am really excited about Christmas. I never claim it as my favorite holiday, but it secretly might be. It's just kind of nice to see the whole world around me go through some kind of change at this time of year. It can't be ignored. There is festivity in the air, on the internet, at the store, on the radio, at your neighbor's house... Wherever. Today I cut some boughs from the blue spruce in our backyard to "spruce" up our mantel :). They'll probably be dry and sharp as nails in a few days, but they add so much to the indoors, I think.

Welcome.

I am happy about the idea of getting into blogging again. I have let a lot of my life's documentation fall by the wayside.
To begin anew, let me say that 2011 is becoming my favorite year. There's a lot of stuff people complain about but in my own little corner of the world, life is pretty great at this point. I am at a bit of a crossroads. I just turned 25, it's summer (and summer always feels optimistic and full of possibility), and my husband has one remaining year of law school. I have a good job, a great husband, an awesome dog, and I live in one of the best states I've ever lived in. Here's to happy.