Let's Talk Hair

Have I lost your attention yet? I hope not! I know we're talking hair here, but please try to bear with me for a moment.

I've been wanting to donate my hair for years! I've been trying to gather the courage to do it since my freshman year of high school. So.... it's been a while. Every time I get ready to go in to cut it, I would be talked out of it. So it never really happened.

Right before we came to school I decided to do it. I didn't want to cut my hair before school started, but I didn't  want to wait forever either. So I came down to ISU, met the BESTEST roommate ever! and get settled. A few weeks into the new semester, I got the overwhelming urge to donate my hair when I got back from church on Sunday. So, before I could change my mind, I called JC Pennys and set an appointment for that Saturday. I had a whole week. And I didn't want to tell anyone! I didn't want to get talked out of it. Of course, when Emily got back, I told her, and a few of my other friends. But no family knew. I think there were about five people that knew what I was up to including Emily.

When Saturday came around, Emily agreed to come out as moral support. I will admit, I could not eat anything I was so nervous! That morning I think I ate one cookie and almost got sick! It was horrible.

The stylist was really sweet. Her name was Natalia and she was from Russia so she had a cool accent. As we sat down in the chair of hair doom, I explained to her that I was donating my hair and expected it to fall to about my shoulders. I had not had my hair so short for about eight years! Of course, she had to ask when style I wanted to go with (huh? Style??) I had definitely NOT thought that far ahead! When I told her I had no idea, she brought me a few HUGE hair style books. As I went through them, I couldn't decide. I couldn't think past the fact that my hair was about to become half its length. She was observant enough to notice my discomfort, and kind enough to take the books away pretty quickly, injecting her opinion on style and making different comments about layers and length.

I felt myself nodding, and she went for it!

Emily was sitting in the salon station right next to me and took a few pictures and provided emotional support. =D I felt the hair pully-upers-things going into my hair (She had to use two to get all of it, so Locks of Love got two polytails of heavy, thick, crazy hair) and then the scissors. I was blessed with the fact that I didn't feel the weight of my hair leave, or I think I would have freaked right there in the middle of JC Pennys. Then she washed my hair, cut it and styled. To be honest, I don't remember most of what happened after we walked into the salon. I know we talked about stuff and I know she cut my hair. And I know Emily took pictures. That's about it.

Well, because no one knew what I was doing when I went in to cut my hair, I decided to give a little heads up to my parents. Walking towards the station before Natalia cut my hair, I texted my mom. "Hey, I'm donating my hair today. Let you know how it goes!" Then my phone went on silent and in my pocket. I looked at it a few times while we were there, and, no lie, it was actually kinda entertaining to receive my parents' reactions. Frantic phone calls, concerned text messages, my mom (who was at work) had called or text my dad and told him to figure out what was going on and he had actually thought I was cutting someone else's hair! (I don't trust myself with scissors, that would've been interesting!)

Because I was enjoying their reactions so much, I had Emily take a picture of the ponytails sitting on the counter and I sent it to them. Mwa ha ha ha ha!

Me and Natalia

Those horrible books and my ponytails

Two long ponytails. (This is what my parents saw in that picture I sent to them. =D)

Needless to say, their reactions were great! Finally, we finished and I left with this:

But I definitely would not have been able to make it out of there without my Emily! Today, about three months later:

I cannot believe how much it has grown! I really don't think I could have made it without my AMAZING roommate! We weren't half as close then as we are now and her willingness to support me and her encouragement throughout the week pushed me to make it that whole week and keep my desire to cut it. I don't know where I'd be without my Emily, but I know I wouldn't be  the same person and my hair would be longer. =) Love you girl!

Casey

Short Stories

Originally, these stories weren't actually short, but they happened so long ago, we have no idea what all actually happened. So we're just summarizing.  =D Hope that's okay. Basically, we're awesome, and that's the sum of all the stories. =D

We do lots of crazy little things. For example. Pillow fights! We had just finished watching a movie and the bed was still down (we pull my bed down to watch movies and shows and things) and neither of us really wanted to go to sleep. I also used to have a habit where I'd throw a pillow at Emily almost every night, so I threw one at her this particular night and she decided it was about time for her to fight back. The next thing we knew, we had a full blown pillow fight going! My glasses were on and she hit me so hard once that my glasses actually smeared my eye liner across my nose! Neither of us actually noticed how fierce we would be in a pillow fight, but it got to be pretty scary!

One of our crazy nights was a movie night. And of course you can't have a movie night without junky food! So we had gone to Albertsons and we were feeling rebellious, so we got SPARKLING CIDER!!!!!! Oh!

And popcorn and M&Ms to go with the popcorn, and Pumpkin choco-chip cookies!

OOOOOh! We bad! ;)

We were crazy, it is true, but it was a VERRRRRY fun night!

We've also gone rock climbing twice. I'd post pictures, but that's just embarrassing! But the story... So the first time we went, we had absolutely NOOOO idea what we were doing. It took us about twenty minutes to get set up and to have everything figured out. How to tie knots, how to belay, how to set the ropes up so we don't accidentally die or something. One thing is for sure though, I would not want to climb with any other person in the world! I trusted her with my life that day! Still not 100% sure why, but I did.

As I neared the top, I could see that there was just one more handhold to reach and I'd be at the top. It was still about four  feet above my head and I couldn't do it. I couldn't get myself to push up that much. It would require putting all my weight on my feet, and attempt to support myself with just one hand. I couldn't do it! So I told Emily I was coming back down and made it to the ground again.

Then it was Emily's turn. And while I question why I trusted her, I really don't know why she trusted me! Geez! She's brave! ;) She went up to the same point. And stopped. For both of us, this was the second time we had gone up the wall, and our muscles were sore and trembling. But, to be honest, I think she just stopped when she did to make me feel better about not making it up the wall either. Emily's sweet like that.

The second time? WE BOTH MADE IT ALL THE WAY!!!!! Whooo hooo! Maybe in a few weeks, we'll go back and I'll get pictures from the top of the wall. Wish me luck! If we do, I'll post them for you, along with Emily's reaction. Muh ha ha ha ha! ;)

So sometimes we have pillow fights, sometimes we have movie nights, sometimes we just sit on our beds and laugh for twenty minutes, sometimes we sit and take lots and lots of pictures! One night I think we took over fifty pictures. I'll post some of my favorites!

I feared for my life!

We're all minions!- except Emily. she doesn't know what's  going on!

We really did try for some good ones! Promise!

Ha ha. Yep! We're awesome!

In fact, we're so awesome, we have guys asking us out at the same time. The same guy. The same time. No names will be mentioned in the telling of this story.

So Emily and I were walking to dinner and I see this guy I know from some of my classes. He's walking towards dinner too and he's all dressed up. Suit and fedora. All dressed up. So we catch up to him because we all happen to be walking in the same direction (surprise right?). When we are level with him, I ask, "So why are you all dressed up?"

"Oh, you know? I'm just hoping to meet a girl at Turner. speaking of which, are either of you two single?"

"Um, we both are."

"Oh. And what were your names?"

I kid you not. He was more interested in knowing if we were single than our names. Um..... Of course he ended up sitting next to us for dinner and there were several times he said stuff that just left us going "Huh? Is this guy for real?" And when we looked at each other.... Well, Emily and I just couldn't do it, because we didn't want to be rude but we couldn't help ourselves from laughing when we made eye contact cuz it was just bizarre! He has since moved on. THANK GOODNESS! But it was THE MOST awkward dinner we have ever experienced! Even if it was kinda entertaining....

More stories later! =D

-Casey

Valentines Day

I don't know if you guys have noticed yet, but Emily and I are crazy! =D So with Valentines just a few days away, Wednesday we decided to have  a plan. We couldn't go out, that would be awkward. We didn't just want to homework the night away, that would be lame (I think Emily actually called it "productive", whatever that is, but I'm paraphrasing)! So we decided to just rock it! At some point we got an idea.

Don't ask where this came from. Most of our ideas are spur of the moment kind of things where they just happen. But we decided to do our hair, dress up fancy, and do a photo shoot, then watch a movie. Because we're cool though, we didn't want to do nice hair. People that go out on dates or something do nice hair on Valentines day. Forget that! We were going to go big, as big as possible, and we were going to revel in the great bigness of our hair as we dressed in fancy clothes and took pictures! Oh yes! And we even had a red carpet! We were kinda just a little excited. =D

By the time Valentines Day came around, we were mostly ready. I had rented Les Miserables from the library where I work and were set to go with that. At dinner, a friend of ours, Rachel, sat with us. She was going to homework it all night! Seriously!? Forget that! So we dragged her out with us. Well, we dragged her out to our dorm. Same thing right? :)

When we got there, we pulled together our hair things. Each of us were clueless. We don't do hair! Ha! I hardly bother with mine. Hair is just soooo time consuming and mine is ridiculously thick! When it was longer, it took almost an hour just to straighten. So not worth the effort. So we stood there, trying to figure out the best way to make this work.

Well, once upon a time ago in a far, strange land, I heard of this thing called mousse. Styling moose. I had no idea had to use it really and none of us had any. But it might work. Off to Albertsons we went! We got lucky. There were no couples... and we got style gel AND mousse! What could have been better?!

When we got back, I was volunteered to go first. The instructions on the back of the bottles talked about damp hair, so, of course, I drenched mine,  absolutely soaked. Then I stuck gel and moose in it. Emily dried it. Because my hair is so thick, it took her a good 10-15 minutes and she kept telling my how thick my hair is and how  her would have been done forever ago. I think she just secretly wanted to go first and she didn't know how to express her excitement. ;)

Rachel set to work on my hair. And let me tell you it got big!

Yes, I meant to make that face! - Me and Emily and she dries. Tell me: Don't we just look so EXCITED?! =D

Me and Rachel in the process.

Once they finished, Rachel was off. Then Emily. Neither of them got process pictures because it took both of the remaining people to do the hair. Mine took forty minutes and we were trying to cut down on time. These are some pictures from the fashion show though! =D

Told you Emily was excited! ;)

Yep, we're crazy!

I think I was meant to be a model! =D

We're so silly! heehee

Emily won

The three of us together

Friends forevvvvvver!!!!!!! =D

When we were done with hair and pictures, we took showers and got the stuff out of our hair. We put a lot of hairspray in our hair (I attacked mine with hairspray!!!!) and I can't stand the feeling of hairspray so we were all pretty eager to de-knot our hair and get all the random products out. That done, MOVIE TIME!!!!

When Emily and I do movie nights or watch shows together, we pull down my bed and sit on that with the laptop at the foot of the bed. Then we usually pull out the popcorn, chocolate, or pretzel bread, whatever we have and snack. With three of us, it was a little harder, but we made it work. Very well, with our skill. (Emily sat on the floor). We had brownies and popcorn and watched Les Mis. None of us had seen it before. I know I for one was not expecting it to be a musical! Seeing Russel Crowe and Hugh Jackman sing was so strange! (Emily hasn't seen Jackman in Wolverine, so she will forever see him as a nice old man with an amazing singing voice. He will always be Wolverine to me, but I was very much impressed with his performance! AMAZING!) And I was also the only one that cried at the end. Just a little though. It's okay.

We didn't get to bed until almost three (cuz we're crazy!) and we brought Rachel back home (I think she needed a break from our craziness) =D, but it was great and definitely worth it! Definitely a better night than those crazy people that went out or something. So cliche. ;)

                                                                                                             -Casey <3 =D

P.S. Sorry we haven't posted for a while. I got sick, and then we had finals, then we had Christmas break, and the start of the new semester... We'll try to update on our adventures as time goes on! =D