XRayGirl: Goddess of hair and manual transmission driving lessons

XRayGirl is a miracle worker on so many levels! First my hair...

I am now no longer officially afraid to leave the house for fear of scaring the elderly and children. She took me to her stylist who cleaned the mess up. She said NO WAY to getting a perm because then I would have nasty, ugly, tight, poodle like curls. She trimmed and snipped and well... frankly, I have no idea what she did but she had to trim a little bit and I suddenly was all fixed- AND I look like I have more hair. I have no idea about that trick of the eye but XRayGirl and I couldn't figure it out but we both agreed that I just seemed to have more hair.

She also snipped enough that I have a head full of natural curls and the stylist gave me some tips to use them. She also said, and I quote, "Now that you have a good base cut, don't get it cut anywhere else but me. I know you want to grow it out. Pigtails by the end of the summer." O-KAY! And while I'm a little old for pigtails, the fact it will be long enough to do that by the end of the summer makes me want to dance!

To top it all off, she fixed the straight cut bangs. Instead of taking any more length off, she textured them, and now they look wispy rather than heavy and blunt. The unibrow bangs are gone!

The stylist also said hair grows quicker in the summer than winter and if I want to help it along, I could take pre-natal vitamins or some vitamin called "hair, nails, something" taken three times a day. Sounds like a plan.

My hair is much better! No more mullet! No more Betty Page bangs! No more "lesbian chic"! No more winning the Joan Jett Look Alike contest! And I have a head full of curls. Interesting look. Not one I'm used too, not bad, but much better than where I started out my Thursday!

And as for me learning to drive a stick shift... Well, first and foremost, XRayGirl is an excellent teacher and she's one of the most patient people I've ever met. She gave good instructions and different suggestions. But I think I might have to admit that driving a manual transmission and doing math are not my strong suites.

Also, I learned that there's lots of swearing and laughter involved in learning to drive a stick shift. No matter how many times I killed it or made the gears grind, she never yelled or made me feel embarrassed; we just howled with laughter!

I popped the clutch. I had trouble finding first- it had to be there somewhere. I wasn't sure how to drive with two feet. I was pretty excited when I finally got the car to start and keep going without killing it. And once I could get going, I had no trouble going from 1st to 2nd to 3rd to 4th and 5th! I'm still a little confused on when to clutch and brake verses just clutching or just braking.

There was one incident where I was at a four way stop on a slight incline. I kept rolling backwards and for some reason I would make a funny face which gave us laughing convulsions. At another stop sign, I killed it about 8 times. 8 TIMES!!!! Before I figured out I was accidentally in third. In my defense it was right next to 1st! We never even went into reverse- that's for another lesson.

I guess when I concentrate the tip of my tongue sticks out the corner of my mouth, which add to the laughter.

So I had an hour lesson and we're going to try again over the weekend. She's brave. Maybe I'll never drive a sports car. Maybe I should stick to automatics or take a bus if no automatics are to be found. I could always walk. Or find a hot guy to drive me everywhere I want to go...

Maggie