Proof that I was not just BORN with good hair:

Okay so my friend Bree, who I've known since kindergarten, offered to look for my school picture in which I was wearing the dress my aunt sent me from Africa and DUDE, she was SPEEEEDY and THOROUGH because not only did she send me all of these:



...but she also included the notes I'd written on the back of the junior high pictures. They were cringe-worthy though so I'll save myself the horror of posting them on the internet, but they were proof that I did the right thing by throwing away my pre-teen diaries for fear that I'd die and someone would read them and think I was the lamest pre-teen on the planet. (This was before I went to see Mortified and realized that I was not the only melodramatic, angsty and in love pre-teen on the planet, but even still, I think throwing them away was a wise move.)

The specific Africa dress, it turns out, was in my kindergarten class picture...so it's the greenish one with the greenish dots...also identifiable by the word "KINDERGARTEN" written under it, duh.

Observations I'll make so you don't have to:

1. It appears I had boobs in most of these pictures. I don't think I actually did though...I think it was just tubbiness mixed with poor posture and slim fitting sweaters.

2. The all-the-way-buttoned up shirt in 2nd grade was ALWAYS paired with a matching pair of burgandy courderoys and I think also a pair of those moccasin shoes that everyone thought were gone for good but turned out not to be. Fun fact: I had those moccasin shoes in baby pink and maybe also baby blue so...they would not have been a good match for that ensemble, but that's the way we rolled back in the day -- one pair of shoes and maybe one pair of sneakers.

3. The ribbon in my hair in that same picture was a barette made by one of the moms in the tap class I took at the Santa Clara Community Center.

4. 5th grade = The most unfortunate hairstyle of my life. I looked like a boy, but at least that was the year my mom let me get my ears pierced, which made me feel like a girl again. This was also the year we went to Disneyland and I vividly remember wearing a Minnie Mouse sweatshirt ALL THE TIME...possibly also with matching Mickey Mouse earrings.

5. The sweater in the 1st grade picture was itchy.

6. I think I was wearing Flojos in the 7th grade picture. Or possibly white hurraches. Definitely floral print knit shorts though.

Now let's fast forward 20 years to today:



Straight hair! Woo hoo!

Completely Unrelated:

Okay so you've all seen Love Actually, right?

You know that scene with the redhead who has the hots for the Italian guy and then they finally, after like three years, hook up at the office holiday party and she brings him home to her place but then they're interruped by phone calls from her brother in the mental institution?

What should she have done?

A. Ignored or turned off her phone and continued the business with the hot Italian guy and tended to her brother later?

B. Or did she do the right thing by dealing with her brother and blowing off the hot Italian guy?

I ask because I was discussing this movie with my man-friend (!) last night and it turns out we have opposing views on that scene and I told him I was going to ask the internet.

Please, Internet, weigh in.