I walked into the salon just as they were flipping the sign from closed to open. Was welcomed with an “oh hey girl!” as I put up my coat and sat down to hype myself up for the scissors that were about to give me a heart attack as the girls opened up shop. It’s really no news to anyone who knows me how anxious I get about getting my hair cut. Hell, if you tell me you’re going to chop off your hair, I get nervous for you. It’s actually really silly.

But I really do have complete faith in my current stylist and she barely has to ask me what I want done anymore. She GETS long hair. When girls with long hair say they want a “trim”, she knows it means DON’T YOU DARE TAKE OFF ANYMORE THAN YOU HAVE TO. She takes as little off as possible and doesn’t laugh when I say that it’s just getting long again. She completely understands.

After a little shampoo, conditioner and some small talk, she had cleaned my layers up nice, trimmed my bangs, gave me a killer blowout and smoothed out a few pieces of hair with a flat iron. When she pulled off that little cape thing and turned me to face the mirror, I let out an audible sigh of content. She laughed and said, “feels good doesn’t it?”

I’m absolutely convinced there is no better therapy than a good trip to a salon. There is nothing they can’t solve.

Break up? Haircut. Job stressing you out? Color. Big date? Blowout. World peace? HAIRCUTS FOR EVERYONE WITH BONUS MANI/PEDIS!

(You can give me my Nobel now)

Anyway, now that I got my hair cut finally, I can share photos of my gorgeous new headband. Pretty, right?

My friend Tia, of Icing on the Hair fame, made me a special custom headband because she loves me a lot. It’s called the Jamie Lovely and I do believe she might be making them for her Etsy shop in the future. It has a two purple felt rosettes and two black sheerish chiffon (I think?) ones and a couple of tiny rhinestones on either side. It’s adorable and I’m in love.

(I even changed into my pajamas but I’m still wearing it)

So yeah. I have something named after me now and I’m pretty sure that makes me even more awesome than I already am.

And it gives me another reason to obsess over my hair.

(like I really need one!)

(too long bangs. what. up.)

• plaid shirts (picture!)
• the fantastic books I’ve read lately: Rules for Saying Goodbye, I Am Not Myself These Days and This Is Not Chick Lit to name a few
• cleaning out my closet and rediscovering my love for all my old Nike Dunks and Air Maxes
• Kiehl’s lip balm. I was gifted this when I was flown out to Vegas to attend the Swagg party and it is AMAZING.
• Blow Pops
• my new OPI polish: Metro Chic (picture!)
• Amy’s Kitchen frozen dinners. Pesto tortellini and mac and cheese are my faves when I’m too lazy too cook which needless to say is A LOT.
• my hair finally getting long again (picture!)
• DiorShow Iconic. BEST MASCARA EVER.
• music flashbacks: ska, 90s r&b and pop. Holler.

Your turn.

Go.

On Friday when everyone was watching the Olympics Opening Ceremony and twitter was all like OMG YAY TEAM! LOOK AT THEIR OUTFITS! I was rolling my eyes and wanting to be like LOOK OVER THERE! UNICORNS! TEQUILA! DISTRACTIONS! because I just don’t care about the Olympics and wanted shift the conversation to something awesome instead. I mean, it’s not even the summer games and everyone knows those are the good ones.

Maybe it’s just because everything involves snow and ice and I’m completely over winter. I have enough snow and ice outside of my house, I don’t want to watch people play in it. Like they enjoy it or something. That’s just not right.

But I bet some of the snowboarder dudes are hot. Isn’t it like a rule that if you’re a dude who snowboards, you’re hot?

(Same with skateboarders, boys who play guitar and boys who write well. Type? Hi, I have one.)

(Okay, might as well throw in boys with nice tattoos and great hair while I’m at it.)

Confession number two: Despite all my winter hate, I’ve always wanted to learn how to snowboard. And not just because of hot dudes.

I’m kind of uncoordinated though so I’d probably hurt myself and fall a lot. I mean, I’m not expecting to do crazy tricks and jumps. And I’d probably spend a lot more time on my ass than I would being upright on the board but it could be fun, right? If I don’t break my ankle or die because I tumbled down a hill or something.

Okay so I just made a goal to travel somewhere amazing by my birthday next year. Another goal will be learn/attempt to snowboard. Maybe not this winter but for sure next winter.

For the tl;dr crowd: Not interested in the Winter Olympics. Snowboarders are probably hot. I like creative and sporty boys. I want to learn to snowboard but not just because of hot dudes. Will fall a lot while attempting snowboarding. New goal: learn to snowboard and hope I don’t die.

There are too many places I’ve never been.

Growing up my family vacations consisted of fake camping, “vacations” and one hellish road trip to Utah with my uncle and his family all trapped in one van and it took almost a week driving from here to Salt Lake City because because they had to stop in every state and eat at EVERY SINGLE Cracker Barrel we passed.

As a result, I’m not very well traveled. I’ve seen a few states sprinkled around the country and of course, the surrounding states but that’s about it. I’ve hit Orlando, Las Vegas, a bit of San Francisco and spent less than a day in New York.

I’ve never been out of the country. This is one of the things that haunts me because there is so much out there and I’ve seen absolutely none of it. I’ve always had big dreams of being a seasoned traveler. A passport full of stamps from different countries and stories to go along with each. Always on the cusp of the next trip. That’s what I thought I would be like right now.

But I’m not.

I suppose it’s because I haven’t done things a traditional way. I never took a year off after high school or taken a semester abroad. No spring breaking in Cancun. I haven’t done the 9-5 thing or finished college in one straight shot.

If you haven’t noticed by now, I tend to do things a little backwards.

But now?

Now it’s time to play catch up. To see the places I’ve never been. To start thinking about my first trip outside of the states. Should it be Peru? Maybe Guatemala? Rome or Paris? Spain! Or how about Costa Rica? London! Or maybe Ireland?

I’m making a promise to myself, that either for Christmas this year or my birthday next year, I’ll send myself somewhere amazing and break in a passport finally. I need a little adventure in my life.

Because really, what am I waiting for?

Every year come November, I start dreading the winter. When February hits, I wonder why in the world am I still living in Chicago. That’s where I am at right now. I’m dreaming of California. Even by late March birthday? Still a chance for snow. Come May, we should be all clear. Then summer hits and I fall in love with my city all over and decide I never want to leave. Until winter hits again.

Repeat. Year. After. Year.

Right now I’m in full on hibernation mode.

I hate leaving the house unless I absolutely have to because it’s way too cold to want to do anything. I’d much rather sit at home in comfy clothes watching Mad Men and wondering how exactly do I make an old fashioned. I have all the necessities for Project Waiting for Spring: a fridge full of wine. A puppy. A shelf full of books and tv shows on dvd. Gchat open for talks with friends. If I had a boy too, someone would probably have to physically drag me kick and screaming from here. I definitely wouldn’t emerge until late spring.

It takes a hell of a lot to get me out these days. Saturday it was lunch at DMK Burger Bar with some of my favorite Chicago girls and it was totally worth it. This coming weekend I have a movie! Valentine’s Day movie on Valentine’s Day weekend.Basically, I go out maybe once every two weeks, if that. I promise you’ll see more of me out and about when it gets nicer out.

Maybe I’m boring, lazy or lame but until you’ve been through a Chicago/Midwest winter, you have no idea. It sucks. A lot.

AND.

Rumor has it, we’re suppose to get hit with 10 inches of snow all in 24 hours.

So now you know where to find me.

Let’s cuddle.

I have this weird thing where earbuds hurt my ears super bad. Maybe I have exceptionally small ears or earbuds are abnormally huge. Whatever, they hurt and I complain a lot about it. Last week I finally decided to do something about it and did a search for “cute, pink headphones”.

No, I’m not kidding. See?

(I got new glasses too!)

They are metallic-y hot pink over the ear Skullcandy headphones that are slightly obnoxious if worn in public but sometimes I just might want to be slightly obnoxious and make everyone jealous that I have cooler headphones than them. Plus the sound is amazing.

But for days when I want to be slightly less obnoxious, I got a pair of earbuds (also Skullcandy) that have 3 different gel bud thingys in different sizes for a better fit which means they won’t hurt my freakish ears.

So instead of just showing off all the super cool stuff I bought, I figured I’d share some albums I’ve been listening to lately as well.

Fun – Aim and Ignite: Jessica Maria turned me on to this band. Currently loving this album. It reminds me a bit of Queen and I love that.
Elliott – False Cathedrals: one of my favorite albums of all time. It’s just pretty and perfect. Trust.
The Get Up Kids - Something to Write Home About: They issued a 10th anniversary edition of this. Can I just say how old that makes me feel? But for the record, this album is fantastic.
The Stills – Logic Will Break Your Heart: I love these Canadians. This album reminds me of summer time.
Since by Man – We Sing The Body Electric: Milwaukee hardcore. Don’t click on that unless you’re up for some screamy, heavy shit. I’ve seen them live more times than I can count. They broke up a couple years ago but dude, they are still awesome.
Fight From Above – L.A. Kids: I just heard about these dudes from Sean tonight. I liked them so much I bought the album from iTunes. That says a lot from a serial downloader.

I linked to each bands Myspace because they have music players. But if you’re nice and think you might like to hear more, email me and I’ll break into my collection and see what I can do for you.

I’m still successful at keeping my bad habit at bay. No nail biting for this girl! Only pretty polished nails here. But I think I may have picked up another bad habit along the way though.

Hi, my name is Jamie and I’m a nail polish addict.

I’ve been changing polish at least once a week, if not more. I have to hit the beauty aisle at every store I’m in to see if there is any polish I need to add to my collection. I’m running out of polish remover at an alarming rate. (You would think I’d be better at neatly painting my own nails though).

Yesterday at Sephora I bought three new colors. Sephora by OPI has the BEST colors and even BETTER names. I mean I can’t turn down a silvery grey that is also called The Queen of Everything. It was practically MADE FOR ME with that name. Or the pretty burgundy chocolately color, Caffeine Fix. Or glittery black called Never Enough Shoes. Because really, a girl can’t have enough shoes. PREACH, OPI.

Before I knew it, I was walking out the door after spending near $30 on nail polish alone.

(Let’s not do the math when you add in my new foundation, eyeliner or the Diorshow Iconic mascara I got which is AMAZING)

(All were incredibly necessary purchases so GET OFF ME)

But a nail polish habit is better than like a crack habit so that’s good, right? Unless they make crack flavored nail polish that is really pretty and has a great name because then I’d be fucked.

Being pretty and girly is expensive, dude.

P.S. Stay tuned for the post where I finally learn how to put on eyeliner unless my sister kills me first because I keep freaking out that I’m going to stab myself in the eye and she really DOES stab me in the eye to prove a point.

I know another one, right? Well it’s just that awesome and now you have even more chances to win a copy of your own and trust me you want one.

We’ve all had our moments where we have to wake up and check our outbox to see what exactly happened last night. I may or may not have had one of those nights after my whirlwind 26 hour Vegas trip…

But that is besides the point.

Texts From Last Night is probably one of the best and most hilarious ideas ever. Bored? Bummed? Has it been way too long of a day? Need a pick me up to send a friend? Texts From Last Night: All The Texts No One Remembers Sending will be your best friend. Not to mention when you are spending way too long doing your hair and someone is waiting for and pretty close to leaving without you, this right here can be the perfect coffee table book that distracts them!

If that hasn’t convinced you that this book is awesome here are a few of my favorites from the book that I got to preview:

(510): The party tonight has no theme but I’ve decided to go as a home wrecker.

(410): my mouth tastes like poor choices

(917): I’m once again drinking at eight am on a Sunday in my tutu. This garment is literally my best purchase ever.

(206): how the fuck does easy mac keep making itself at 3am when i’m wasted? what is this phenomenon?

Right? RIGHT?!

Okay, so right about now I’m sure you’re wishing you had a copy of your own and luckily for you, I’m giving a copy away to one reader!

To enter:

• Go to textsfromlastnight.com and pick one of your favorite texts.
• Comment back here with it.
• Tweet or blog about this contest for extra entries and comment again with the link.
• Do this by Monday February 1st and you’re in!

You know those people who are all “omg I unplugged from the world this weekend and it was amazing!!!!!” Well I’m here to tell you my thoughts on that…

THEY ARE ALL FUCKING LIARS.

It’s not awesome or amazing or even slightly cool. It sucks a lot.

For almost a whole month I’ve been without internet at home. Our internet company sucks so it barely worked half the time. Then we couldn’t decide if we were going stick with said company or switch to another who isn’t that great either so that took awhile. And then finally deciding to switch companies and then them not being able to come until February 1st.

One month. Without internet. #incrediblystabby

Let’s talk about how I dealt with it. Read books. Watched bad Lifetime movies about Pregnancy Pacts (HILARIOUS). Painted my nails a pretty color. Repainted my nails a pretty color. 500 Days of Summer. Hacked my iPhone to turn it into a modem.

Yeah, you read that right.

I hacked my iPhone to turn it into a modem for my laptop. (Guys, you should be incredibly turned on right now. Hell, even you girls should be.) And that worked really well most of the time. I mean, I did have issues, got kicked off a lot and issued many an apology via gchat because I missed the rest of what they were saying and can you please resend that last im?

But then gmail and reader decided to no longer work for me which is a huge pain the ass. Especially since I have to email out resumes to get people to realize exactly how awesome I am and to just HIRE ME NOW DAMMIT (interview tomorrow. holler!). Then the connection became even less reliable making it hard take care of other things I need to do like be managing editor for NextGen Chicagonista (adding new writers soon!). Posting pretty things to OHL Shops (award winning blog!). Post things here. Gchat with favorites. READ BLOGS.

Basically my life was in shambles. And still is for a few more days.

It led me to where I am now. At the library. Interneting it up with the unwashed masses. Trying not to stab teenagers in the face for giggling and trying to get boys attention by “whispering”, HEY COME HERE JOHN! Dealing with creepers lurking in the stacks. The occasional person from high school. It’s a mess but it’s five minutes away from my house.

And then, THEN my headphones busted but I still have them in my ears WITH NO MUSIC PLAYING to stop creepers and people I went to high school with from approaching me and it also helps drown out some of the sound from the teenage girls who I might stab.

So yeah, I’m still here and will be as long as I don’t get arrested for shanking someone or spontaneously combusting from Lack of Internet. But I will say, when I get said job and am finally able to get the eff out of the south side, a nearby bar with internet access will be high on my priority list for new apartment. Because it’s a proven fact that creepers are far more pleasant when drunk.

The things I do for the internets…