Things really have been crazy this weekend, just like I thought they would. I’ve been meaning to write a blog for a few days, but things kept getting in the way. But here I am now, ready to report on the day’s activities. 🙂 I’ll just skip over the past weekend because, frankly, that�s a lot of ‘Ow, my stomach hurts.’ I always feel that gets repetitive, so I�m not going to report any of it for right now.
Today. I had to wake up early to go see a new doctor for my stomach (I only said I wasn’t going to report that it hurt, not the big important news about it.) I was up late again last night for both fun and painful reasons, but I was up nonetheless – until around three in the morning. I was extremely tired as we drove out to the doctor, a drive which should have taken twenty-five minutes. Thanks to another pummeling of snow, that drive took nearly two hours. Needless to say, I was late for my appointment. Thankfully the people at the office were very nice about it. I didn’t even have to wait long at all to see the doctor.
And *this* time, I have good news to report! According to my new doctor, the pictures taken during my last colonoscopy do *not* show signs of ulcerative colitis in his opinion. He says that what the other doctors thought were ulcers might have just been minor irritation caused by some really nasty stuff I had to drink for three days before the procedure. Also, he says that none of my systems really match up with ulcerative colitis.
That’s good news with a tiny hint of bad news. The good: if I don’t have ulcerative colitis that is a HUGE load off my mind! That’s a very dangerous thing to be fooling around with. It can lead to serious internal bleeding, colon cancer, and all number of really nasty complications. The little sprinkling of bad news: this means I have to start all over again trying to diagnose what’s wrong with me. Colitis or no colitis, my stomach is still bothering me immensely. There has to be something wrong in there somewhere. But, I can handle that if it means I might not have ulcers.
I have to go in for yet another colonoscopy, which will just be loads and loads of fun. I know you’re all jealous and want to start having one every Saturday night because it’s just so entertaining. I also get to have a CT scan of my abdomen, but that won’t be too bad.
After the appointment I realized that I was really close to a posh shopping area. I’ve been dying to get my hair cut because I’ve been told way too many times the past two weeks that I look like I’m 14. I’m blaming the hair. It was all flat on top, way too long, and all that weight pulled the curls out. I was sick of it. But, I was also a little worried about getting my hair cut. I’ve never had a hair cut in my life that was actually something I liked. I’m not picky, honest. It’s just that every salon I’ve ever been to never had any proper experience cutting naturally curly hair. They always gave me pyramid-head, or made my hair explode after over-enthusiastic layering.
I wandered through the mall without a clue where I was going. Mom convinced me to stop at Nordstrom and ask if they had a salon. A nice guy in the shoe department said, ‘No, we don’t, but there’s one right there.’ Right outside the door of Nordstrom, in the mall, was a place called Elie Elie. It was nicely decorated, looked all modern, so I decided to give it a go. I walked in and asked a very nice receptionist girl if anyone there had experience cutting curly hair. She laughed a little, then said, ‘You really did walk into the right place.’
Turns out Elie Elie is a premiere specialist in curly hair. The owner, Elie, was trained by a woman in New York named Ouidad. Ouidad, someone with incredibly curly hair herself, got tired of having the same problems that I was. She developed a special way to cut hair like mine, trademarked it, and became so popular that she literally had a waiting list that spanned 9 months. She eventually trained her staff in the hope that it might cut down on the wait, but the clients kept coming from all over the world. So, she decided to license certain hairstylists, training them to care for and cut curly hair. Elie was one of her first pupils and he’s apparently one of the best. People fly all the way across the country to have this man cut their hair, and I just happened to walk in when he had an opening. Because of all the snow that fell today, none of their other hair stylists were there. Only Elie. And barely any of their other customers were there. Only me.
It was really strange, the way he cut my hair. But I trusted him. He was really nice, kind of quiet, and had a thick accent from I don�t even know where. Before they washed my hair, he analyzed it and told me all about it. I had no idea there was a science to curly hair. After the shampoo and conditioning, he started clipping away at about the speed of Edward Scissorhands. The things he did are impossible to describe. There was one point where he grabbed a bunch of hair and just started running the scissors down my hair, slicing it. I was a little worried at that point, but the end result is just amazing. It’s everything I wanted in the perfect haircut. The curls are bouncy, my hair is so soft I still can�t believe it, and it feels so much lighter. Plus, it isn’t that much harder to maintain than my usual routine.
Granted, this was the most expensive haircut I’ve ever had in my life, but it’s worth it. It was worth every penny of it. Plus, Elie’s just cool. After my hair was all done and I was walking out, I asked him if I could give him a tip right then. He started to laugh, muttered something I couldn’t understand, then just grabbed my face and gave me one of those cute European cheek kisses.
Next time you happen to be in the Northern Virginia area, go see Elie to get your haircut. He does truly amazing work. Trust me, I’ve been to several posh salons around here and in Arizona. Nobody even comes close! (There’s a picture on the site I linked to up there. I had my hair cut in the third chair from the far end.) 🙂
After I saw Elie, Mom and I were really hungry so we ran over to P.F. Chang’s for lunch. Mmmm… lettuce wraps. 🙂 We split a plate of Mongolian beef and by the time we were done, we were extremely happy (and thankfully Mom had at least temporarily forgotten how much she just shelled out for my haircut. Tee hee. She says I’m turning into a high maintenance woman, but honestly, is a nice haircut so much to ask?) 🙂
Final bit of exciting news for the day: My proposal is finally ready to send to Richard Branson. 🙂 It’s not quite the coffee table book I intended to create, but I don’t care. I sat down this weekend and wrote the introductory letter to him and everything just came spilling out. I was able to explain the basics of the plan in a quirky, non-stuck-up manner, which was quite a breakthrough after struggling so hard with writer’s block. I decided it would be criminal to slice up what I wrote just for the sake of adding pretty pictures. Instead, I printed out the logo I created, and a few pages with examples of real estate complete with cost estimates. Also, I added a lovely map of the globe, complete with red lines tracing the students’ path from city to city. As I added the lines I realized something quite funny – as they travel from Sydney all the way to California, and everything in between, their tracks create a large ‘V U’ trace across the globe. How coincidentally funny is that?
Okay, my writing skills are deteriorating, time for this to end. I think I’m seeing the effects of too many nights staying awake until three or four in the morning. 🙂
UPDATE DEC 18 2004: I take back everything I said about Elie. For more info, check out this blog entry.