Wednesday, April 25, 2012

train wreck happening in the mirror

I got my hair cut last week. Since I knew I wasn't going to like a poufy do like some of the Mexican ladies like here, I asked my aunt a long time ago, "How do you say, 'Just a trim' ?" "Las Puntas, solamente". OK, that wasn't hard.

My hair dresser (who shall remain nameless as I really do wish her the best of luck in her business) speaks English. So I told her I hadn't had my hair cut since Dec. 8th, and that I need a trim of about 2 inches. Same long layers, same bangs, the works will stay the same. She said she understood. Our conversation was in English.

As she enthusiastically cut my hair, I began to realize about half way through, that she was giving me the same hair cut that she had given T when she had come in about Feb. While I greatly admired it on T (she has blonde wavy hair, I have dark brown semi-curley hair), I did not want it. Oy, this was going to be a problem-O.

She started to use a blow drier on it before she finished cutting it. Huh? Ooookaaaay. What was happening to my head. Having cut it extremely short once
(to the point of baldness & freaking out my then boyfriend) I knew that bad hair cuts grow out, so I just observed dispassionately, maybe even bemusedly, in the mirror while she wrestled with my hair (which obviously did NOT want to do what she wanted it to do). She cut, she blew dried it, she cut some more. I even thought to myself at one point, what would happen if I just told her to stop and I got up and walked away? Would it be any worse than what she was trying for? Curious to see what she was aiming for, I let it proceed. And proceed. And proceed.

It finally got to the point where I thought I would scream "STOP for heaven's sake!" when she finally. just. stopped. I had what I can only describe as a much older woman's poufy hair helmut on my head. I thanked her, paid her, tipped her and got out of there as fast as I could. ack. No pictures were taken as I did not need to be reminded of what my hair, with lots of hair product in it and lots of hair drying with lots of painful pulling on it, could look like.

I washed it the next day and was rewarded with such curley hair that you would think that I had gotten a perm (which is saying a lot). With all the wind that we have had, I ended up looking like a poodle with a over-grown puppy cut (look it up if you like).

All I can say is thank goodness for hair clips that are cute and the fact that my husband doesn't seem to bothered by what I look like. Or my kids. Or most of my boating friends who A) know that you can't have a fussy hair cut on a boat, B) since we all need wind to sail, your hair is in the wind all the time and a fussy hair cut just gets the hair in your eyes with the wind and C) knows that an abundance of hair product makes your hair dirtier faster and not fun to have to deal with when your boat does not have a shower in it (thank you, marinas for having really hot and high pressure showers!).


I have now learned my lesson- while cruising, the least fussy hair cut is the straight trim along the bottom-grow your hair out

Monday, April 23, 2012

What the H-E-double hockey sticks do we do in HSing

I have been asked by my non-homeschooling friends what we do when we homeschool, or rather, what is a typical day like for us. The kids are totally fine with me choosing what we do every day so this is how today went -

Me- (looking at clock) It's 9:30, let's do a spelling test. (spelling was words that sound alike, so it was necessary to listen to definitions)  Leo still has to do last week's written test and then we will do a written one on the current list. IF you get everything correct, then you will have tomorrow off of spelling (usually I finish the test by giving them a new spelling list).

Kids were agreeable and we were off.

We then did a lesson that I thought up myself and the kids loved. I wrote a bunch of words down that sounded alike (E.G. sit, sat, sad) and had the kids pick out 10 each. While I looked away, they said the word out loud and I wrote it down (and if I thought that it was one but I heard something else, I wrote that down, too). Then we compared lists. It helped them with diction and helped me to try to train my ear how to differentiate between similar words (something that I find I am losing and need to retrain my ear to hear correctly). Then I had them take different words, I held up my hands to cover their faces so I had to focus on their lips while they said a word and I repeated it. Again, they were working on their diction and I was working on recognizing word shapes and sharpening my lip reading skills. This is a lesson that we will do, again.

Me- (looking at clock, again) It's now 10:45, do a writing lesson while I go online and do some research.

Again, kids were agreeable and did that.

Break from noon to 1:45 PM. Lunch at 1:15 (peanut better and jelly, if you must know). John struggling with engine, trying to get it on board. John leaves boat.

Me- (looking at clock, again) Let's do a Spanish lesson, its 1:45 PM.

Our lesson covers how to get directions to places and common things you need to know while in a restaurant.

We then listened to a "Grammar Girl" (google her if you like grammar podcasts)
 on "all right, alright, all together, altogether, all ways and always" and which one was not a word.

Break from 2:15 to 3:45 for me to blog.

We will read a bit from "The Four Agreements" and discuss and then school will be over. Because we can spread it out, we can get it in without a lot of stress or laziness. Altogether, school lasted about  2 1/2 hrs. before lunch and another 30 min. after lunch and I plan on 20 min. for discussion on "The Four Agreements".

Normally, we do not take such long breaks, but normally, we do not have a cussing father trying to get an engine into an engine compartment. The breaks were to give him some breathing space as well as for me to get online and away from the cussing (in all fairness, I haven't heard a lot of cursing from him today, but that was why I wanted off the boat).

I love our relaxed homeschooling days without tears (like today). When I start Geometry next week, then I will be expecting some interesting reactions.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Life in Mexico on the boat

Life has been slow and wonderful on the boat. We talk about eating. We talk about drinking with friends. We share a lot of story-telling with new and old friends. We meet up with people that I have great curiosity of, and sometimes wonder how we could become friends, as this community is very small. If I don't know them now, I might in the future. Or I know someone who has told me about this person (which makes me realize that I need to really start being much nicer than I am, if my reputation is going to precede me like other's people has to me), or ...

We have someone on another boat that is into photography and into fashion. T is interested in learning what she can from them (reminding me of days when I lived with Marla and we talked about fashion before I even had a bit of interest in it). Again, I am reminded that we have such a diverse community.

While I am not a cat lover, it seems that I am now trying to place a cat with a good person. This is a really nice cat, and I would be remiss if I didn't admit that if circumstances were vastly different, I would be tempted to adopt it. Except for 1) my 65 lb. akita who may or may not eat cats (I definitely don't want to find out), 2) my daughter seems to always sneeze a lot