It’s Only Hair.

A bad highlight job and I love him more than ever.  I mean, what husband would forego sleep after his night shift at the hospital just to read instructions on a box, mix the "ingredients" and apply streaks to his wife's crowning glory?

Tomorrow, he says he'll fix it.  

Oh, I'm a lucky girl.  

bono, believe it or not.

it's only the third week of january, and already i've abandoned all items on my resolutions list.  have i been exercising?  have i even submitted a single job application?  have i called my dad lately? 

typical.  just typical.  this is why i don't make new year's resolutions and for the life of me, i don't know why i did this year.

in any case, my number one concern right now is my weight.  just by gaining a mere five pounds, my cheeks have puffed out like a goldfish.  my waist has thickened and my tummy, well, let's not even talk about it.  all this i saw under the unforgiving glare of the bathroom light in the hotel we were staying along hollywood boulevard over the weekend.  the husband and i, at the last minute, decided to drive to LA to take part of the universal studios experience.  more for my benefit really, he having gone to universal some years back.  it was my first time there and the cold weather  notwithstanding, it was a fun experience.   

one of the highlights of our weekend trip was seeing bono at the universal city walk.  we were trying to place the beautiful blond woman being followed around by a camera crew, only to realize that it wasn't her they were filming — it was bono! — who was walking just a few paces behind her.  the husband and i were stupefied.  we were rooted to our spot for a few seconds, not believing our luck.  so we followed him around while he was being interviewed by that guy in Dateline NBC, taking pictures of him with people who were brave enough to come up to him (we weren't as brave).

now, back home and breathlessly telling people about our bono sighting, we are met with cynicism.  are you sure it was bono?  maybe it was just a look-alike.  far from trying to convince people it was the real mccoy, i just keep quiet and let them believe what they want to believe.  the important thing is, i know it was real and that nobody could take away that experience from me — the experience of seeing an icon in the flesh and finding out that he is just a regular person too, despite being larger than life with his music and charity work.  

people will always question, will always speculate.  and that's a good thing too.

it’s the same as stealing, but oh well.

i said i wouldn't do it again, but i had no choice.  i was a helpless hostage, what could i do?  apart from waiting around by the concession stand until they finished the second and unpaid-for movie, there was really nothing left for me to do but follow suit.

so after enjoying the pursuit of happyness, we sneaked off to another theater to watch dreamgirls.  B was fearless, sashaying around the hallway deciding whether we should wait a full 35 minutes for deja vu, which her hubby, A, wanted to watch, or watch another movie that was already on its opening credits.  since i wasn't really in the mood for something action-packed and glaringly masculine, i told her that dreamgirls was the way to go.  

now, i should say at the outset that i never liked beyonce, her seeming perfection notwithstanding.  i was there to watch the movie itself, since it has been nominated at the golden globes for best picture, and to see if jennifer hudson, one of my favorite voices in american idol during her time, is worthy of her own golden globe nomination for best supporting actress.  

i love the movie, i love jennifer hudson's voice and acting…  but i never expected i'd love beyonce as well.  she delivers quite a performance here, toned down and soft as deena jones.  jennifer hudson's effie white is the strong character here, but it is exactly beyonce's quiet portrayal (until the end anyway when she frees herself from the clutches of manager/husband curtis taylor jr. played by jamie foxx) that brings her to the fore.  and i won't even go on and on about how perfect her face is, and that body that just won't quit (she lost 20 pounds for this role).  

as for the pursuit of happyness, the crying jag that i expected didn't happen.  somehow, it lacked something…  or maybe that's the way it should be — emotional but not overly dramatic.  there is something to be said about that scanner though:  it figured too many times in the movie i finally got tired of what it represented.  

one thing that piqued my interest was the source itself of the title, the declaration of independence as written by thomas jefferson, recognizing one's right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  the narration in the movie underscores an interesting fact — that while we have the right to life and liberty, we do not have the right to happiness, merely the pursuit of it.  understandably so.  if all of us were granted the unequivocal right to happiness itself, what a chaotic world it would be.  as wikipedia puts it, "thus, nobody can claim their rights are being violated simply because they are unhappy."  imagine how court dockets must look like if those too important words "the pursuit of" were not inserted into the declaration.  

so tell me, what have you done, been doing, to pursue your own happiness? 

random.

last week, while shopping for new year's eve dinner at raley's, a man looked at the contents of my cart and went, "so you like meat huh?"  he was the cute grandfather type and he said it with a mischievous smile so i didn't mind the intrusion into my otherwise "private" cart.  i mean, who does that?  i don't go around perusing other people's purchases.  

so i obliged him and said, "well, yes i do."  

"did you know that they are cloning meat?  it was on the news.  they will soon be selling cloned meat in supermarkets."

"is that right?  did they say when they were gonna start doing that?"

"pretty soon, i guess.  they can clone everything now.  they can even clone you."

"hahaha!  i think it'd be too much for the world to have two or three of me!"

he laughed like how i pictured a cute grandfather would — heartily –  and walked away.

i just love it when people strike up random conversations with me.  

and onward i march.

i refuse to feel bad about the new year. i refuse to look at other people's accomplishments and allow myself to wallow in self-pity:  because it seems i didn't do anything significant with my life in the past year.  

and yet.

despite my resolve, i find that — my cynicism over new year's resolutions notwithstanding — i itch for some kind of to-do list, to make up for last year's utter lack of direction and purpose.  and so, much to my own chagrin, here is a short list of my "goals" for this year:

1.  get (as opposed to find) a job — any job — before february ends

2.  actively cultivate old and new friendships (very very lazy in this area the past year)

3.  smile more, worry less

4.  handle the budget with as tight a fist as i can

5.  call my dad more

6.  sleep early and wake up early (i wasted so many beautiful sunny mornings by doing the opposite)

7.  EXERCISE

i guess seven is a good number.  yeah, let's keep it short.  even now, even as i look at this list, i wonder if i can do all of these to the letter.  

i'm keeping my fingers crossed.