Let's Play It Out Safe 'Cause I'm Starting To Choke

It's been a bit of a weird week. My phone is officially cut off, because I keep forgetting to pay my phonebill. Now it's added up to like 400 bucks so I'm just going to wait until the end of the month to pay it I think. That's a lot to fork out at once. Perhaps I should start remembering to pay my phonebill! I'm a little pissed off at Rogers though right now because my phonebills have been about 130+ bucks a month and it's not like I have a fucking iphone or blackberry or anything. I don't know why my bills are so much these days but for the past 6 months they've been through the roof. Time to get to the bottom of things I suppose. It's actually nice not having my phone right now. I need a bit of disconnection from the outside world, but at the same time, I miss it dearly. I feel a little bit like dropping off the planet for some reason. I have a lot going on that I want to focus on and everything going on around me can become very distracting at times.

What do I mean by that? Well, there has been about 5 birthdays all in one week, dates, friends bands playing little shows, work, invitations to things left right and center. I love having a social life, but every once in awhile I get to the point now where I'm like "Okay I'm just going to disappear for a week or two to get some shit accomplished."

My birthday is next week and I actually don't have any plans. I'm a little tired of doing double birthdays, and my friends all beat me to the punch this year on birthday weekends. Not to mention I have to work 9+ hours on the day of my birthday and won't be off until at least 7, and for all I know there might end up being a class after work that day. Exciting right? I actually don't think I'll end up doing anything this year.

Yesterday I worked at our Sinclair location. I sometimes get frustrated moving from salon to salon but I know that once I get my clients built up and booking regularly then I will stop moving around. The Pender location is a friggen shark tank. It's mostly junior stylists down there and sometimes things can get a little discouraging. It's not our busiest location and we get a lot of tourists, which is great because it keeps us busy for the time being, but they're not returning clients so it makes it tough to build.

I am incredibly passionate about what I do and I think it's the only thing that saves me sometimes. There are days where I feel incredibly inspired, and some days where I really have to remind myself that I'm doing this because I love it. Then there are days where I meet the most incredibly inspiring and interesting people and I couldn't possibly love my job anymore.

Yesterday I had a 97 year old woman come in for a blow dry. She was amazingly feisty, hilarious, sweet as can be, and undeniably full of life. When she told me her age I was floored. This woman did not look 97, she looked like someone who was perhaps in their early 70's. When I mentioned she didn't look to be her age, she commented with, "until I take my bra off and my boobs hang down to my knees!" I laughed so hard.

She was unreal to speak to. Her life story was incredible and I couldn't help but ask more and more questions. If you've never had the opportunity to sit down with a nearly 100 year old stranger and talk to them about the things they have seen in their lifetime, I recommend it! She was born a tiny nearly 2lbs baby. She was 2 months premature and wasn't expected to live through the night. Now, nearly 100 years later she's still here and she was in Vancouver accepting an award on her sisters behalf. Her sister was the first woman to ever manage an olympic team and started a huge Woman's Rights movement throughout Canada. She was being honoured at Canada Place this evening, but since she passed away many years ago, my client was going to stand up there for her and do a small speech.

We talked about The Great Depression, the wars, the ongoing war (she now lives in the States,) healthcare, her family (both of her children and her husband have now passed on,) her leukemia (she has had it for years but has never required chemo, she just takes a few pills a day to keep it under control.) ... It was unreal. After one hour with her I was just amazed. I can't imagine the changes you would see in that amount of time.

I'm in the process of getting a photoshoot set up. There's a person I found on craigslist that's looking to set up a photoshoot, the problem is they're new in the business. That's not so much a bad thing but I don't think they've ever done a photoshoot for hair, and they want to start at 9am one week from today. It's not easy finding a few models on a weeks notice, let alone a make up artist, and then starting at 9am? Yeah friggen right. It would have to be an afternoon/evening shoot because I would need the day to do hair prep. Needless to say I think I will be saying no to that one and finding someone else. I would really like to find a good team to work with. A familiar photographer, as well as a make-up artist and fashion designer. Make a good little family that understands eachother and see's eye to eye on our ideas. That way collaborating would be much easier.

Le sigh. So much to do. So little time. In other news, my chances of going to Paris in November are incredibly high. Of the 30ish stylists that work at our salon, only 3 of us ended up submitting commercials for a contest. The winner gets a fully paid for 4 day trip to Paris in November to go to the Wella Trend Vision Awards. I'm hoping I'll get to go! It would be so inspiring.

I'm off to bed now though. It's early to rise tomorrow so that I can go get tortured, I mean fixed, by my chiropractor. Really, he could do anything to me and I'd let him cause he's so damn hot. He's going to give me so much shit when he sees my back though. I already know it. Right now it's so tense it's not even funny. He'll have to massage me for half an hour before he can even get started... perhaps that was my plan all along? haha. Kidding.