My 2-year-old best friend

Like any working mom, I sometimes have to go pick my son up from daycare because he's sick.  There have been other times, however, fortunately few and far between, where I have to go pick my son up from daycare because he's tricked his teacher into thinking he's sick.

Yesterday was one of those days.  I got to his classroom, and he was just sitting on his mat, eyes downcast.  When he saw me he came running over and buried his face in my leg, hugging on for dear life.  I picked him up and he laid his head on my shoulder, whimpering pitifully.

"He's been like that all day!" his teacher exclaimed.  "He hasn't had a fever or upset stomach, but he just keeps crying, and won't nap, and he wouldn't even eat lunch."

My son continued to cling to my neck, face buried in my collarbone, while we walked out of eyesight of his teacher.  By the time we got to the stairwell, he was sitting up in my arms and giggling.  At the top of the stairs, he squirmed down and wanted to open the door for me.

Out in the hall, he started that stream-of-consciousness chattering of which only toddlers and teenage girls with webcams are capable.  As we walked out the door to the parking lot, he shouted, "Let's go!  Let's go take a ride in mama's car!"  (Phonetically, "Go take wide in mama cah!")

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8PP's Guide to Lazy Fashion

As I've mentioned before, I've been someone distressed by my apparent (to me) increasing rate of hair loss.

Since I was tired of wearing my hair in a bun every day, and since it's been almost 2 years since I've had one, I went and got my hair cut yesterday, into a style that stylists call an "inverted bob".  Since it's short in the back and long in front, I call it a "reverse mullet".

It only took me about 50 minutes in the chair and 50,000 assurances to the stylist that, yes, I knew it was going to be very short, it's fine if she wanted to use the clippers, I've had it this short before, no, I'm not going to sue you if you chop all my hair off.

Because I had a coupon, my haircut was only $10.  (I tipped an extra $5.)

Afterwards I dyed it bright red again because, hey, with coupons I can get L'Oreal Feria (the most awesome, well-conditioning brand of color out there) for five bucks.

So, hair-wise at least, I look a bit like Rihanna in the picture above.  Just with blue eyes.  And a lot less make-up.  And melanin.

The best part?  With these trendy little short styles, especially with an unnatural color, it looks like I'm putting all this thought and effort into my appearance, when actually, I just run pomade through it in the morning and then drive to work with my windows down.  It's really hard for most people to tell the difference between "messily stylish" and "just messy".

I also like to pretend that my clothes aren't "things-I've-held-onto-since-middle-school" but "vintage".

Now I just need a good excuse for why my fingernails always look like crap.