Secret to a Smoother Life

When I go to Vamp salon and get my hair shampooed by Rachel and blow-dried by Christina, I feel like a new and calmer person. My life will go more smoothly when my hair is smoother, I just know it.

It costs $25 and lasts me for about 3 days unless it curls up from rain, snow or humidity. This is a bargain compared to the blowouts I've occasionally gotten at Frederic Fekkai on Fifth Avenue in New York City. They were impeccable, and I love the locale, but they start at $65 for short hair, and mine's not short.

Christina also told me to put my hair in a ponytail and then slip a shower cap over that when I take a shower, and to always have an umbrella with me in the rain. The ponytail trick works really well.

Powder Nap
Today, I was so exhausted with the stress of being homeless that I fell asleep more than once in Christina's black chair. She had to wake me up, have me lift my head. [Figgy, who has a good sense of humor, is joking that now Montclair High School has a hobo. But State Farm is finding us a place to stay.]

Christina's chair was a safe refuge after hours spent reviewing our damage this morning with the insurance adjusters--two men, Collin [from Missouri] and Brooks [from Iowa]. They started in the basement and worked their way up. When they got to the third floor, where half the roof is gone and things are strewn around and broken, Collin said, "This is where the rubber meets the road. We're going to have to take a break and come back up."

You Win Some, You Lose Some
It was sad to learn that we will lose some old charming details in our home, like maybe the old sunroom windows. The whole room has to be rebuilt. We will be displaced for months, but we will return to a pretty, smooth new sunroom, living room, bedroom, office for H., new hardwood floors on the first floor, new roof, new exterior paint job etc.

My friends Anne, Moey and Elly helped me paint my sunroom office last summer--they did the Herculean part of the job, even meeting to work on it one Friday when I was visiting my friend, nickname Candy, up near Saratoga. The walls are a beautiful Caribbean turquoise. I want the same color again.

Taking it all one baby step at a time. But will have to move on to giant steps pretty fast because we have to "pack out" almost every room in the house with a company that will store everything while the work is done.

Fashion Fairy
I wore the same black skirt and navy top for three days in a row now. Feel like a street person, clinging to my comforts. Too busy, too exhausted to change. Tomorrow, something new!

Feel better since I went back into my bedroom today and retrieved my Vivienne Tam silk chiffon scarf, the one HP sold along with my floral Vivienne Tam designer HP Mini notebook. Might put scarf under my pillow tonight and see if Fashion Fairy visits.

Gotta sleep. Overwrought. Good night.