a funny thing happened on the way to the library

So there I was on a Thursday evening. Baby girl was tucked in bed, dreaming sweet baby dreams of one day being able to shove mom's phone into her mouth without being discovered. Jason was sprawled on the living room floor, doing a German poster for school (Wo ist Madsen?). Sam was taking a pre-bedtime nap.

I slipped out to run some errands. First, I dropped off half a box of too-small diapers to a friend in the ward with a new baby. Second, I went to the library to pick up my books on hold. Incidentally, those books are Unbroken and Rose Under Fire, because apparently I make my days merry and bright by reading two heavy-hearted books about World War II??

And then, pulling into the library parking lot, it happened.

Taylor Swift came on the radio.

Specifically, "Blank Space."

I thought of Taylor Swift's fantastic haircut in that music video. That's not an opinion, by the way. That's a universal truth. Her haircut was perfect in that video. And then I thought of a few of my blog friends and my downstairs neighbor who had recently gotten that same haircut, and how gorgeous they looked. And then I thought about postpartum hair loss -

I have to interrupt this story to bring you a public service announcement about postpartum hair loss. It can strike when you least expect it! I was totally fine for the first four months after I had my baby, and then all of a sudden, right when I had been lulled into a false sense of hair-retention security - WHAM-O! - my hair was practically falling out by the chunk and clogging the shower drain (ew gross, she talked about the shower drain on her blog) and my hairline is all wispy now. So beware, mothers everywhere. You never know when it's coming for you. End of public service announcement.

So anyway, I decided right then and there to get a fairly drastic haircut. If you've been reading this blog for a long time, you know this is monumental. Last time I cut my hair, it took literally months of deliberation before I got up the guts to donate it to Locks of Love.

I called my favorite salon before I chickened out and I said "Do you have any appointments open for tonight?" And they said "Tonight?" and I said "Tonight!" and they said "Wait, yes we do! How about 8:00? Can you be here in twenty-five minutes?" and I said "I'll be there!"

And then I ran in to the library to get my books and then I drove to the salon. An hour later, I was walking out sans six inches of my hair. And now my hair feels like a head full of hair, and not a head partially full of long, dead hair. Hooray!

Plus, I had a great conversation with the sweet girl who cut my hair. You know how usually you end up chatting about things like cute pea coats with your hairdresser? Well, pea coats are great, but my hair dresser is getting a Business Administration degree so she can open her own salon, so we talked about business plans and education and other cool things the whole time. She was fantastic.

And that is the story of the funny thing that happened on the way to the library. Das ende.

P.S. These pictures are basically one big misadventure in self-timer. Sheesh. It's harder than it looks when you don't have a remote or a tripod!