I’ve been growing my hair out for the past two years now, with the goal of growing it long enough to cut it and donate it to the Locks of Love organization.  That’s something my aunt inspired me to do a few years ago when she did it herself.  She’s growing her hair out again to donate it again, she says she’ll be able to cut it again next summer if all goes well.  She told me that hair grows about 1/2″ a month.  I don’t know how she knows that, but I think she’s right!  Locks of Love wants ponytails of hair that has NOT been dyed or permed and they want them to be at least 11″ long.  My aunt says that they even accept gray hair.

Anyway today I went to a local cosmetology school and had them put my hair into a ponytail and cut it off and send it to the Locks of Love.  Then I had them style my hair in a cute “do” that will be easy to maintain all winter long.  They only charged me $10 for the hair cut and style, which I think is very reasonable, and they did a good job too!  I feel so good about donating my hair that I think I’ll do it again in two years, and encourage my friends to do it too!

I was reading a story on today.msnbc.msn.com about how pre-teen girls are getting bikini waxes!  The article was talking about how girls as young as six years old are having hair-removal waxing done, from their faces, backs, and bikini areas.  I think that is way too early for something like that!  What kind of body image problem are these girls going to have as they grow up?  How can a mother be so irresponsible as to encourage this type of thing?  Why are we trying to force our kids to grow up so fast?  This is just plain silliness!

I was just thinking about the television news story I saw a couple of days ago about Richard Simmons going to testify in Congress about how important it is to keep phys ed in school.  He was talking about dedicating his life to making sure that kids get exercise, and even suggested that he might run for political office if that’s what it took to keep kids fit.

I was remembering how many times I’ve seen him in his sequined tank top and shorts and his flamboyant personality and trying to picture him sitting in the Senate’s chambers.  What a picture!

I was reading an article on the Reuters website earlier today; a friend sent me the link and told me to read it. The article was talking about how solar energy will be cost competitive with fossil fuels by the year 2013. Well, if that is true, I think that the US government should just stop even talking about drilling for oil off the coast of Florida and in Alaska. I understand that even getting that oil drilled and refined will take at least five to ten years to reach the gas pumps, so what’s the point of spoiling the environment when we will have perfectly good alternative fuels ready by then? Now I understand that solar energy will not be able to run everything that needs gasoline, but there ARE other sources of fuel out there that could be used to replace fossil fuels that will be ready to be on the market by then and will be cost completive too.

My little sister graduated from high school last night.  I was so proud of her, she really did it!  High school is such a tough thing to get through; so many social pressures to do the wrong things.  So many of her friends were getting into trouble so frequently I was afraid that they were going to do something that would end up with ALL of them in jail, with my little sister right beside them just because she happened to be in the car when the rest of them did something stupid.

Well, she has graduated and now she has some vocational training to look forward to in the fall.  She says she wants to be an X-ray technician.  I think that’s a wise choice because the health field is always going to need X-ray technicians. 

I’ve been hearing and reading a lot about the energy crisis, and the global warming crisis.  I just want to say that I’m doing my part!  I don’t even OWN a car (which is a good thing because I couldn’t afford to put gas in it!) because I live near the public transportation that I need to get back and forth to work and to shopping.  I have recently bought some of the CFL bulbs to replace my regular light bulbs when they burn out.  I turn down the heat/turn up the air conditioning as much as I can bear it, and my landlord put in a programmable thermostat so that the heat/cool will change to a lower energy consumption setting when I’m away at work.

So, I’m doing MY part; I hope you are doing YOUR!

My friends have all been pressuring me to get a pet.  I don’t WANT a pet.  Don’t get me wrong; I LOVE animals, but I don’t want the responsibility of taking care of another living creature right now!  First of all, my landlord forbids all pets except fish, and I really don’t want fish.  I’ve had fish before and changing the aquarium water is a chore that I simply hated when I had fish.  And the stupid fish that I had kept jumping out of the tank!  I’d find those things six feet away on the floor, all dried up!  Even though the tank had a lid on it, they would find the little tiny holes that the air hoses go through and escape!

And it is a pain in the neck making sure the water is the perfect PH and the perfect temperature, and to be careful to not overfeed them.

And, when you have pets, you can’t just pick up and leave to go on vacation whenever you want to go on vacation - you have to find someone to care for them.  For now I want to be footloose and fancy free and not worry about anyone or anything but ME!

A few of my friends and I just got back from a vacation at DisneyWorld.  We flew down and took a shuttle from the airport to the condo that we were renting, and then used the condo’s courtesy shuttle to go from the condo to DisneyWorld and back again.  There were lots of restaurants within walking distance of the condo so we never had to rent a car.

What a great trip that was!  I loved walking around and people watching more than anything else; that is something that I seem to enjoy doing a lot. 

I think that the Haunted Mansion was my favorite attraction at the Magic Kingdom.  And at Epcot Center I really liked the boat ride through “The Land” where you ride a boat through some greenhouses and listen to them talk about new ways to grow food.  I thought that was very interesting!  And at MGM I think my favorite attraction was the Backstage tour.  But I really enjoyed watching the parades, and all of the streetside performances.  So much fun!  I would LOVE to live down there and work at DisneyWorld!  Maybe I’ll apply for a job there and IF I get it then I’d move.