blue artichoke

I never know what I'm in for when I go get a haircut. In high school, I always felt like crying when I left the hair salon. After so many bad haircuts, I don't know why I kept going back to the same place... Of course, those were the days when I styled my hair by hanging my head out the window to dry my hair on the way to school. Or, I fixed bad hair days with a curling iron and a can of hair spray. I'm still a low-maintenance hair care kind of girl (now I style my hair by letting it dry overnight while I sleep). Anyway, since it had been almost eight months since my last hair cut, I decided that it was my patriotic duty to get a haircut on the 4th of July. I headed to the mall, where there are several salons that take walk-ins. I sort of cringed as my hair got shorter, but I ended up with an actual hairstyle. It wasn't what I wanted going in, but I like it so far. Layers. And, finally, almost all of the green from last summer's henna debacle has been cut out of my hair.

After the patriotic haircut, I went to the first of two patriotic cookouts. The first was a true cookout, with burgers and dogs on the grill, potato salad, grilled corn, guacamole and chips. We played badminton in the back yard and basketball in the front, then retired to the air-conditioned living room to play dominoes and watch fake sports (hotdog eating contest, darts competition). The second cookout was light finger foods, bocce ball in the backyard and fireworks in the front. This cookout was out in the country, and several neighbors set off fireworks too. Quite a show. I like any holiday that is celebrated by firing up the grill and blowing up things .