bags and girl bonding

photo by Piotr Myrlak

The weather has been beautiful for the last week, and that has made a huge difference in my day, since I paid for my math class instead of putting a down payment on a car. At the time, I wondered if I would come to regret it but so far I haven't.

In the morning I walk to the end of my street to get on the bus and it drops me off a few feet from the front door, after I finish my homework at college (I cannot do homework here, there is too much activity that directly involves me) I walk out to the bus stop again. I've got the timing down pat and rarely have to wait, and to be honest, the thought of starting a car in the morning, scraping the windshield, paying for a parking pass, and trying to find a spot in the lot have been keeping me from saving the money.

Well, that and the fact that I was dying for a new purse and a haircut, lol.

I saw Carla on Friday, for the first time in almost eight months. Carla is my stylist and has been for almost five years - she's the only one I've ever found that can cut my bangs razor sharp and straight across. She set up a shop in her house last year and charges me $40, and I was really thrilled to see her. She took at least four inches off the bottom, added some layers, and flat ironed it into perfection.

I'm not sure why we hit it off so well but I think it's because we have had so many of the same experiences. She's a plus sized girl but has been losing weight; she's in love with an alcoholic but won't see him very much while he's actively boozing and because of this she experiences a lot of the despair and loneliness, and she lost her dad last year to cancer. He was 47.

She actually made me cry talking about Dale, which hasn't happened in awhile. It's the way she talks about the loss, I think; matter-of-factly and sad. "It never goes away, does it?" she'd asked. "You think it has," I answered, "then you can picture them as clear as day, healthy, with bright blue eyes and you can see how much they loved you and you realize once again what a huge loss it was. Then it hits you like a ton of bricks."

"No shit. I always feel better after talking to you, hon." By the way, Carla is the only person that I allow to call me "hon". Actually, most of the time she calls me Dahling, but I don't mind, which is odd for me.

I have to take a pic of my new purse! It was my gift to myself the day before I quit Winners, and I'm really liking it!

It's the little things.