Hair Education and Recipes!

Today was a crazy day for me again. I put in my 8 hour shift at the steel fab shop, came home, had a shower, and then went to the school to shadow the evening class to start learning how to teach. It was so exciting!

I was super nervous at first. It's like starting a new job really, except a little more comfortable because people already look to you for knowledge. It's quite an amazing feeling really! I was introduced to the class and they were told if they had any questions they could feel free to ask me for help. I wasn't quite expecting that for some reason haha. I was more so just expecting to pay attention to what the instructor was doing with the students, as well as how those students were doing with their clients. I was quite impressed actually! There were numerous occasions where I was able to share some information/tricks/colour formulas etc with almost all of the students, and even helped with haircuts.

It's quite nerve wracking to think that just a year and a half ago I had just started hair school and had no idea what a level 2 was, or what developer you mixed with what kind of colour, or even how to get through a haircut without asking for a help... and now I'm at a point where I'm able to actually teach. You truly don't realize just how far you've progressed until you step back into that exact environment and hear those same familiar questions.

It was actually really interesting listening to the instructor ask the students questions about what they should use, how it's mixed, why they're using that, what the application or cutting process will be etc. Also, what is now a simple consultation process (but the most crucial part of the appointment) used to be an incredibly difficult task. Knowing the right questions to ask and how to word them in different ways so you can always try your best to understand what your client wants is actually something that just comes with practice and time.

I can't wait to continue on with this process and see the industry in a totally different light. It was definitely very inspiring tonight and the students blew my mind with how talented they really are at such an early stage of learning. They did beautiful haircuts, great blowouts, some really nice updos, and some great colours. I can't wait to be more of a part of all of this!

So... that being said, after all of that I got home at 10pm tonight after a 17 hour work day and was totally exhausted and starving.

A very sweet and lovely little lady by the name of Julie, who is also my coworker, and my somewhat neighbour (she lives across the street from my boyfriends place,) has been so nice as to cook for me on a few occasions now. Before Julie was a hairdresser she was a makeup artist, and before she was a makeup artist she was a chef. She was the youngest apprentice in Canada I believe as she started at the not-so-ripe-age of 14! It's approximately 10 years later and she is still an amazing cook!

Being that she lives across the stre,et her and I take care of eachothers cats, have very regular visits and hangouts, and are known to have our own personal cooking shows in the kitchen. (Usually hers!) If you know me, you know that I love to cook and I love when people share recipes with me. Julie is really great at just taking whats in her fridge and making a wicked meal out of it in about 20 minutes. This is my ideal kind of cooking because after a 17 hour work day I don't have the energy to slave over a stove for an hour and a half. One of the tricks I'm going to be taking up is precooking meats to use for the week. This is a really great trick for single people with busy schedules so you can have small portions readily available that cuts your cooking time in half. She usually marinades chicken breasts and bakes 5 of them at a time to use for the week.

I literally don't have much for groceries right now, but I do have my basic "must haves" on hand at all times. Whip cream, milk, cream cheese, parmesan, regular cheese, veggies, pasta, pasta sauce. Those are must haves for me because pasta's are the easiest and most filling thing that I like to eat. It's also inexpensive if you're on a budget.

Tonight I started with: (And these are rough measurements...)

2 tbsp olive oil
3 cloves of garlic minced
1 green pepper
1 red pepper
a quarter of a red onion
4 large green mammoth olives with pimmentos
a handful of snap peas
1 vine tomato

(added later: 1cup chicken stock, 1-2tbsp basil [fresh or dry], 1cup heavy whip cream, 1/3 cup cream cheese, a pinch of crushed chilis, 2tsp buffalo wing sauce)

I cut up all of my veggies, put my oil in a pot and started to heat it. I added everything else and minced my garlic into the pot after. I put this over medium heat and let the vegetables start to soften.

Once the vegetables have started to soften I add a little chicken stock. If you don't have chicken stock you can replace this with water. It's at this time that I season my mixture. I usually just season with salt and pepper, but today I added a but load of dry basil. I like to use fresh basil if I have it on hand but I made do with what I had!

After all of that starts to soften and release it's flavours I add in my whip cream and cream cheese. I usually just pour some in and hope I've guessed the right amount and it's usually fine so don't worry if you go over or under.  I stir until the cream cheese is melted and then I add my buffalo wing sauce and crushed chilis. I let all of this simmer until the sauce thickens and voila! Your pasta sauce is done.

I start my pasta before I start my sauce [always! The sauce will be done right around when the pasta is,] and then add my pasta directly to my sauce. Normally I would have chicken in there as well but I'm out at the moment so veggie dinner for moi! Another great substitute if you don't like cream sauces is to substitute the whip cream and cream cheese for a mixture of pesto sauce (costco has some good ones!) and a regular old pasta sauce in a jar. It's so yummy!

So there you have it. Dish it out and top it off with some parmesan cheese and voila! A nice, very easy, toss stuff-in-one-big-pot kind of dinner that could feed 4-6 people, or feed yourself for a couple days. Lets face it, it's nice to have leftovers when you work as much as I do and get home as late as I do! I'm a terrible recipe share-er I know because I like to just toss stuff in a pot and hope for the best but I promise you stuff like this always works out!

That's enough talking for now. It's 12:30 in the morning and I'm one tired cat.

We Can't Drift Apart We Just Move With The Flow

I'm making a promise to myself that over the next few months my blog will be seeing some changes. Not only will my blog start seeing changes but I am starting a hair blog. I think it will be a really interesting project to partake in and will help keep me motivated and focused. It will also give me a place where I can give my clients something to check out in their free time so they can either keep up with what I'm doing, or keep up on the latest trends and product information. I will grow to include things like easy styling tips so even the non-hair-savvy people can learn to manage their locks. It will force me to continue advancing my skills and knowledge but also allows me to have a bit of a portal to share my enthusiasm for something I love so much. Part of this is going to help me learn better ways of explaining and educating. What I haven't indulged in is that I will be partaking in a meeting tomorrow night to start working on becoming an instructor at John Casablancas. I have no idea what this meeting entitles and whether or not I will end up an instructor, but I will be showing up in hopes that I can start working towards being a teacher. I've decided that education is one of my favourite parts of hairdressing and I would eventually like to be on stage and teaching advanced classes.

So back to the rest of my day. Today has been a pretty exciting day for me. My morning started with a phonecall from my new future landlord. That's right. I have found a place and am moving for the first time in 3 and a half years! I've complained about my previous place for the last 2 and a half years so this is a huge relief. The move itself is going to be shitty seeing as how not only am I moving my stuff, but we have Kohlby's apartment to move as well. I do however have more than a month to pack my house so I should be well prepared. Though I am headed home for a week in June for my little brothers graduation so it will be a crazy month. Tie all of that in with a more than full time job, prepping and hopefully getting my shoots done for the contessa's, and late night Wednesdays for classes and I'm sure I'll be a total basket case.

I gave my notice to my roommate today but will be handing in my notice at the end of the month when it is necessary to do so. I'm mainly doing that because I don't like people I don't know in my habitat more than they have to be. Yes, even though I am moving I still consider it my "habitat."

So onto some bigger and better (and definitely more exciting) things.

After sorting out things with my new landlord I went into Burnaby to see my chiropractor and to check my mail. Here's to give you an idea of how little I am home: I have received not one but three letters from Revenue Canada about my 2009 tax revisions that I sent away in March. You know you've been gone awhile when even the government sends you more mail than you can keep up with.

After that I headed back to Vancouver, and then into Kits for a good ol' fashioned crotch wax, full leg wax, eyebrow, mustache, and chin threading. A day of pain apparently. I went to a little place called Dona Lucia Spa at MacDonald and Broadway and I highly recommend it! It was incredibly affordable (some of the most reasonable waxing prices I've seen,) and the service was excellent. My lower half waxing only took about 50 minutes total and was very well done. I saw a woman by the name of Fatima and she was absolutely adorable!

I came home to eat icecream sandwiches and salad. Sadly, even though I loaded up my salad with plenty of veggies, sunflower seeds, mango, feta, jalapeno havarti, and turkey I wasn't full. I'm not sure if I wasn't full or if I just got bored and wanted to eat more. I have got to stop doing that!

In other news, if you haven't heard yet Dub FX is playing at Club Five Sixty on July 8th. If you like talented artists/DJs/beat boxers then I suggest you go! This very handsome Australian man is quite the talent. I've been obsessed with him lately. I've never been one to listen to techno/house/dubstep kind of music but I can appreciate talent no matter what genre and I find his music so interesting.

Check him out, and while you're at it, check this out too. Also another song I'm vibing that's out of the norm for me!

Late Night Rambles

Well hello there neglected blog that I only post to once a month now. I'd like to preface this by saying it's apparent that my life no longer allows for time spent on this blog. It actually makes me sad when I think about it. It's quite nice to look back and read old posts. There really are so many things you forget about.

So what has been new in life? There's the obvious stuff like work, the Royal wedding, and the lack of summer approaching. Osama Bin Ladin has been killed, the Canucks are still in the playoffs leading a 3-2 second series, and my mom and Wendy just finished their annual Spring visit this past weekend.

Even I, who can talk more than the average person on steroids, am actually sick of talking about the Royal Wedding. Why you ask? Try having the same conversation up to 8 times a day, for a month or two straight; all with different people. I remember when I first embarked on my hairdressing career at a little shop on Main street... One of the stylists there would always talk about the same things over and over and over. It finally dawned on me, "How much shit can one possibly do in the 4-6 week span between client visits?" ... it turns out, not much!

I'm currently cat sitting right now for one of the girls I work with being that she lives right across the street from ze boyfriends place. Shortly after she fucked off to San Francisco to get drunk for three weeks, Kohlby also skipped town to go work on the Island for a month. Awesome. That leaves me... with three cats... split amongst two places. Apparently this is what my life has come to.

My mom and Wendy were just here for a visit last weekend. If you have me on facebook you might have noticed my embarrassing "Marlee has been checked in at ... with Stacey and Wendy" posts on my profile. You might also have noticed that the sequence of those check in's is basically: pub, pub, mall, pub, bar, mall, pub... I think you get it. For the first time in a year and a half (with the exception of Christmas holidays) I took a full weekend off to spend with the cougs. Needless to say we were drinking palm bay by 10 in the morning and were fairly shitfaced by night. A weekend off well spent I would say. You have no idea how nice it is to just be able to go out and get drunk on a Friday or Saturday night without having to worry about whether or not you'll be too hungover to properly perform haircutting services.

Aside from the usual drinking and shopping, we did go to a few places to eat. The new Nicli Antica Pizzeria in Gastown was obviously a must. I'm sure you've all heard raves about it before so I'll leave it be at: holy fucking balls that was the best pizza I've ever had and man do they make good drinks!

So other news? Well... I just got my half sleeve started on Thursday. Yep that's right, I officially have a great big cock on my arm. It was time. I finally had my rose tattoo covered up. Not that I hated it or anything but this tattoo is just so much better... and bigger haha. I know how much my parents will love this one. NAHT. I'll go in to get the rest coloured and the background shaded on the 26th. I can barely wait! You can still see part of my rose right now but once some colour gets packed in there it'll be completely hidden! Yay! :)

I'm also in the midst of finding a new place. Kohlby and I have discussed it and we've decided to move in together. We basically already live together being that I never go home anymore except to do laundry to bring back here. So, once he returns from Victoria we'll hopefully find a new place together to get settled into. It's quite exciting actually. One) I've never lived with a boyfriend before, and Two) he's pretty awesome. He's honestly one of the sweetest people I've ever met. I quite often tell him that I believe he was a lesbian in a past life since he remembers so many little details about us/me. He really is quite good to me.

It's now taken me two evenings to write a post that rambles on about nothing in particular. For the record I really hate buses. I also really dislike old people that come on the bus smelling like they just shit their pants. No, I don't mean that as a casual expression used when someone smells really bad... I mean that literally. A woman sat next to me yesterday and I swear she was wearing a diaper and had shit in it. I particularly loved the looks I kept getting once she got off the bus and the smell lingered in my general area. Thanks old lady... thanks.

My tattoo is driving me absolutely crazy right now. It is SO itchy!

I never take pictures anymore, so all you get are three pictures. Yep... that is all! I'm going back to watching my National Geographic show about babies. This shit is blowing my mind!