Curl Up and Dye

Hair.  We either have too much of it, not enough of it, it's growing too fast, growing too slow, we're changing the color of it, or we can't control what color it is changing.  Good hair days and bad hair days.  Split ends, roots, and bald spots.  Bumps that won't straighten, hair that won't curl.   Gray hair, black hair, blond hair, and ginger hair.  


This summer, I think I had a bar hair day everyday.  It was too hot out to style, but too humid to let it air dry.   I spent at least ten minutes a day in the bathroom at work trying to do something fun with it other than pinning it back with thirty bobby pins.  Since the weather has changed, my hair is more tamed, but it is not always on its best behavior.


Mullets, "Mom" cuts, the Rachel from Friend's haircut, perm, afros, the reverse mullet (thank you Kate Gosselin), the bob, and the pixie cut.  Out of all the haircuts my parents could have given me, at the age of four my parents gave me a bowl cut with a mullet.  My haircut was probably meant to be a bowl cut but it wasn't the same length all around.  Because of my round face with Asian features, I looked like my brother or just another Asian boy.  The picture below is a picture of me on a pin that my dad still has:

Who likes the turtleneck with corduroy flower overall dress? 

This has left me traumatized.  I will never give any of my children such a wretched haircut.  My parents insisted on me keeping my hair short.  I do not understand how this haircut came to be a trend.  Who thought it was a good idea to give an innocent girl a haircut that resembled a shaggy dog or a man in the 70s who couldn't grow an afro so it just fell straight?  I was so envious of every girl who had long hair.  When it came time for me to make my First Communion, all I wanted was French braids, but could I have them? Nope.  My hair was too short.


I have had my fair share of highlights, experimenting with Sun-in, I used a "Twist a Braid", and wore my hair like every Spice Girl.  I have ironed my hair, curled my hair with every mousse out there, learned every technique with a curling iron, and even got my hair braided with beads when my family traveled to the Dominican Republic.  


Through all of the hair trends, the one thing that has stayed the same is my hairdresser, Leona.  I LOVE HER.  I will not say that I hate change, but why fix something if it isn't broken?  I saw my pediatrician until this past summer until she told me I could not come back anymore.  When my dermatologist retired this year, I asked multiple times if he still could take personal calls from me, and I meant it.  There were only two times I have gotten my haircut by another hairdresser and both times were at school.  The first time the lady tried to straighten my hair while it was wet.  The second time was because I was poor and a hair salon was cutting hair for $10 and the money was going to Haiti.  With my luck, a local news station caught wind of the hair salon running this promotion and came in while I was getting my haircut.  Obviously, the news aired me getting my haircut with my hair slicked back, no make up on, and a double chin.  


Leona works at Curl Up and Dye which is conveniently five minutes away from my house.  Just when you thought I was being crafty with the title of this post, you were wrong.  Ironically, before the owner of Curl Up and Dye took over, this was the hair salon where I got my horrendous bowl cut from Jim.  Even more irony, Jim is also my dad's name, who sometimes still says to me "If you hate your hair so much, you should just cut it short like when you were younger, it looked really nice."  Thanks Dad.  


The number one reason why I love Curl Up and Dye, they are so honest.  With every new hair cut or style I have ever wanted, Leona has always been honest telling me the pros and cons.  Leona knows me well, she knows that I like to work out, I really do not want to spend a lot of time styling my hair, and that I am really too poor to have to dye it every six weeks.  With all of this essential knowledge, when I wanted bangs, highlights again, and extensions, Leona put me in my place.  Sometimes it is important for me to hear the word no.  I appreciate that Leona could make money from me monthly by coloring my hair, but every time I suggest it, she warns me of the upkeep and how unattractive roots are.

Kate G with a reverse mullet and roots, she should fire her hairstylist.

You really have to appreciate an honest citizen.  I just saw Leona on Friday because I was long over due for a trim.  She really does everything I ask her: keep it long, layers for body, side bangs that aren't too short so I can pin them to the side.  I really must be the most annoying client ever, whenever I think I am balding or my hair splits are too much, I stop in, unannounced of course, and talk to her.  Curl Up and Dye is actually on my running route, so there were multiple times this summer I came in sweating, talking at 40 miles an hour, asking for advice.  

All of the other hairdressers are phenomenal too.  They are all funny, honest, and know what they are talking about.  I remember when the Beckham's were wreaking havoc on the United States by moving here.   Their move was so influential that a girl no older then seven wanted her haircut like Victoria Beckham.  This seven year old was cute, with a round shaped face, a little chubby and had gorgeous thick hair.  After all of the hairdressers explained to this girl that a haircut like Victoria was a "grown up" haircut, a lot of work, and worked best for people who had thinner hair then hers; she insisted that she still wanted the cut.  It was apparent that the mother was sick of the girl asking and was just going to let her have the haircut.  The little girl even had multiple pictures of her haircut just to remind her hairdresser.  It only took 30 seconds after blow drying her hair that she realized she had dug her own grave.  The haircut looked great, just not on her.  Everyone knew that the haircut wasn't going to look good on her, so when she started to cry it was no a surprise.  Another hairdresser gave her a lollipop, the mother quickly paid, and the seven year old Posh Spice was gone.   

Curl Up and Dye also does tanning, make up, cuts men's hair,and up dos.  They are reasonably priced too.  My wash, cut, and dry was only $35.  I can honestly say I have not had a bad haircut from here ever and I am one fickle bitch.  Unfortunately, Curl Up and Dye does not have a Facebook page or website, but they are working on it!  Their phone number is 617-296-4034 and they are located at 2275 Dorchester Ave.  If you are brave and willing to leave your old hairdresser, I suggest that you try here.  I referred my friend Mary to Leona and she is now rocking beautiful healthy locks with awesome highlights.

Falling Out of Hate with New York

I need to travel more.  How can I say that Boston is the best city if I do not go anywhere else?  I feel like this could be compared to a color blind person saying black and white are the best colors ever, when clearly they have not experienced all of the beautiful colors in the rainbow.  In college,  I made sure I went on spring break no matter how poor I was.     Montreal, Jacksonville, Daytona, Punta Cana; I was a world class traveler.  Going on Spring Break in Florida actually made me hate Florida.  Everyone is so slow paced.  I actually think I waited over ten minutes for an iced coffee and that was the norm.  I, Elizabeth Marie, will never retire in Florida; but I do want to go to Miami sometime soon.  My grandmother also lives in Florida so I guess I will visit her when she finally invites me.

This past weekend I spent less than 24 hours in New York City for my friend Lori's 23rd birthday.  As a marketing major, I know that I should move to NYC, it is the marketing capital of the world.  Since graduation, I have pretty much talked myself out of why I should not live there: it is expensive, overcrowded, dirty, their sports teams suck, my dogs would be in Boston, etc.  After visiting NYC this weekend, I fell out of hate with it.  While riding the MEGA Bus into town, I stared out the window eating a granola bar I took from my friend Shannon (I'm trying to cap my candy intake).  I was so infatuated with everything I saw because it was unfamiliar.  I am obsessed with the unknown.  I will admit, I am so nosey, my friends must hate it.  I know everything about everyone and if I do not, I will pry until I know.  I am a great detective; you need someone to know something, I can help you.

A couple of things I have noticed about New York:
1. A "New York Minute" makes sense, there is so much traffic, I do not know how anyone could be on time.
2. Cabs are CHEAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
3. The City never actually sleeps, bars, food, convenient stores are ALWAYS open. ALL OF THE TIME.
4. Brunch is the "in" thing to do, but it requires you to sleep in from being up all night.
5. Everything is on a grid, so everyone actually knows where they are going.  You are a complete tourist if you are lost.
6. There is shopping and food everywhere.
7. People are not as friendly in NYC as they are in Boston.
8. The party does not start until midnight.  The big difference is in Boston, I am usually trying to make sure my eyes or my friends' eyes aren't rolling to the back of their heads at midnight.
9. It is not as bad as I had imagined.

For the short time we were there, we went to a dive bar called the Watering Hole.  The Watering Hole had kaeroke, which pretty much was the downfall for my friends. A small list of events that happened in a span of three hours:
1. Lori's boyfriend Eric took the microphone from two girls before they started to sing and wished Lori a happy birthday.  The bar went silent, I do not think Eric knew how awkward it was.
2. During the solo of American Girl, I swung the microphone above my head and almost took out a friend, then I got yelled at.
3. Every time Shannon went up to sing, her performances quickly came to and end because the hostess hated her.
4. My three friends sang Janis Joplin "Take Another Piece of My Heart" and everyone hated it.  Who thinks JANIS JOPLIN IS A GOOD SONG TO SING ON A SATURDAY NIGHT? Social suicide at its best.

I will not talk about the awful place that we went to eat for brunch.  The awful experience has been burned in my head forever; they did not have orange juice for mimosas. WTF!?

 I will write about David's Bagels.  I should start off with my relationship with bagels.  I love bagels, just as much as I love candy and orange juice.  Whenever I play "What would I live with if I was stranded on an island?" I always say I would just eat bagels everyday for the rest of my life.  In college, I think my freshmen 15 (+5) came from the unlimited dining hall pass.  While everyone was eating pizza, burgers, french fries, I was piling up on bagels and Powerade.  My favorite bagel is everything with onion and chive cream cheese, but if I am feeling sweet, I will have a cinnamon raisin with strawberry cream cheese.

New York bagels are something else.  Junior year, I gave up bagels for lent.  I thought this was going to be easy, sophomore year I gave up drinking for lent and succeeded!  I was a total bitch during this time and it was a challenge being sober, but I got through it.  Here is a picture of me being sober, just as weird:

I know, I look like such a molester.  We are all super sober too.  Back to the bagels, the first day of lent, Lori comes back from visiting Eric's family in Long Island, with TWO DOZEN BAGELS.  How was I supposed to say no?  Realistically, I had two bagels a day for a week.  I just could not resist.  I just am not perfect.

The catch about New York bagels is that with everything bagels, there is everything ALL OVER THE BAGEL.  Not just the top part of the bagel, but the bottom too.  Making this killer carb delicious all over.  David's bagels are oversized, soft on the inside, crunchy on the outside and they make their own cream cheese too.  I obviously bought a dozen but I swear they are sitting in my freezer.  As I am trying to shrink my  New York bagel sized midsection for the summer, I am allowing myself to half a bagel a day.  It is not easy.
David's Bagels is located in "Sty Town" and on 18th Street.  I suggest anyone and everyone who appreciates bagels like me should go.

Overall, NYC was great.  I really loved it there and I want to go back soon.  Someday, I might even move there.  New York City, I do not hate you anymore, but Boston is still better.

Boots, boots, & boots

Everyone is always talking about the weather.  ALWAYS.  Every time I  go on Facebook, six out of eight people's status talks about the weather (I love making up statistics).  Monday everyone said it was so cold they didn't want to go to work, last week everyone wanted a snow day, but everyone HATED shoveling.  I don't know why people always feel the need to talk about the weather, we all know what is going on out there, we are all living in it.  You know a conversation has really bit the dust when someone brings up the weather; why must we talk about the obvious?  Unless you are Helen Keller locked inside a room that is air controlled, we all know what is going on outside our window.

Once at a Christmas party, my two cousins and I started talking about shoveling and how much we hated it.  In about five minutes, all thirty people were talking about the snow, who shoveled what, rock salt, the traffic, car accidents caused by snow, etc. Sadly, this is probably the most normal topic my mother's side of the family has ever talked about.

The last thing I will say about people talking about the weather: WHY ARE YOU SO SURPRISED BY THE ELEMENTS??? THIS IS THE NORTHEAST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I would be pissed if I lived in Florida and it was snowing; now that is something to talk about!

I said to one of my friends that some days I wake up and know that I am going to be an idiot, like no matter what I say or do, I will screw something up.  Today was one of those days.

I will start here, I am a sales person, so I cannot always say that I am 100% honest (but I am still an angel!), but I am very disappointed with my Marc Jacob boots.  There are TWO rips in them!! One in the rubber lining on the calf and on the baby toe of my left boot.  I have not worn these boots more than 15 times since I have bought them.  When I find some time, I will be writing to Mr. Jacobs himself.  I am now on the prowl for a pair of rain boots, if you can recommend any, please let me know.

So because these purplicous boots are damaged, I did not know what to wear to work.  As much as we all love them, we know Uggs are more of a hassle than help when it snows.  Uggs do not have any traction and get soaked in under five minutes - so you will either fall or lose a toe due to frostbite; it really is your choice.  I decided to randomly put on a pair of boots that were in my back hallway, I did not know who the boots belonged to, but I wore them anyways.  Finders keepers; I needed something to keep me safe and warm on my journey to work!

Here is why I am an idiot, I knew that these boots were a little too big the second I put them on. I really did not care.  It took me about five minutes on the walk to the train to realize A.  I looked like a girl with massive feet B.  I still did not know whose boots I was wearing C.  The shoes were so big I had them on the wrong feet and they still fit comfortably.  When I got to work, my coworkers made fun of me.  I was basically just riding the hot mess express train, and usually I do on a weekly basis.

After work, I waddled over to my sister's basketball game (Go Framingham Ram's!) where my mother met me with a pair of boots that actually fit me.  Here are the evil, size 13 (I am not sure if this is the actual size) boots I thought fit me today:

This picture does not even do them justice,  I made my mom put the boot next to her head to show that they were bigger than her head, but she will not let me put her face on here.  I do not think she understands this could be her big break to becoming the blond super star she always wanted to be.

While I have been trashing boots, I now need to confess that I LOVE BOOTS.  They are warm (when they are made correctly), sexy, look good with just about anything (when worn the right way), and some are comfortable.  Being the compulsive shopper that I am, I stopped by Nine West before work on Monday --yes, when it was -2 degrees.  I have been looking for a pair of flat leather boots that went up to my knees and I have FINALLY found them!!  The boots were only $70 too, Nine West is having a kickass sale.  The name of these boots Sitcom, I do not know why, they do not remind me of a sitcom.  I saw a really cute pair of booties for $35 too.  This cold weather is going to be around for a couple of more months...if you are looking for a new pair of stylish maybe not the warmest boots - go to Nine West.  Here is what these lovely boots look like:

I do not think this picture does these boots justice, but you could wear these with a skirt, dress, leggings, jeans, really anything!  I am in love and highly recommend. http://www.ninewest.com/Sitcom/5518113,default,pd.html?cgid=4216631&itemNum=24&variantSizeClass=&variantColor=BLACKLE

On another note, WELCOME BACK PERKINS!!!  We have really missed you!  Like I have said before, I do not talk sports, but I cannot wait for the rest of the Celtics season with Perkins playing!

Who would mess with him!?

I promise more frequent blog entries :)  Happy Hump Day!

An Ode to Moms & 2011

Happy New Year!  I cannot believe it is 2011, I remember in the year 2000 when my dad secretly made me unplug the computer because he feared an electrical combustion or some other type of life threatening event occuring.

Last year on New Years Eve, I didn't even make it to midnight without puking (fail) and worried the whole time wondering what the 2011 glasses would look like (yes, I am a worry wart).  The 2010 glasses made so much sense 2, the eye was a 0, the other eye was a 1, and then the zero hung off the end.  See below:

I don't know him.

I still don't know how the 2011 glasses looked, someone please send me a picture if you have one.

Here is how I feel about every "new" year; it is a time to look back on the past year with all of the good times and laughs that happened with your family and friends.  Last New Years day, my friends and I all woke up with our clothes on from the night before, ate rock hard bagels (thank you Mary), too hungover for mimosas, talking about what our last semester of college would be like, and then laid around all day eating junk food, wearing goggles, and watching sappy love movies.  January 1st marks a new year, but also means a time for new opportunities, a time to grow a little wiser, and a whole new year to live a life with the people you love most. 

I don't usually like to talk about resolutions; for me they are a little too personal (although I am close to perfect) and I think the idea of the "New Year" resolution paralyzes you.  If you only make change ONCE a year, you are simply only giving yourself one time to change out of 365 days which ends up being .002% for growth (I know this percentage is semi irrelevant).  I think when you find something that you need to improve, you should start right away.  I don't usually quote things but I think Third Eye Blind says it best: "Every moment of your life is a chance to get it right".

Props to everyone making resolutions, I hope you stick with them!  One goal that I want to achieve this year is to run a half marathon by the summer, wish me luck.  On a side note: I loved 2010 and everything about it; I truly would not change a single thing about it.  I am excited to see what 2011 brings along :)

I know I have been slacking on updating the blog.  The retail and restaurant industry in December is disasterous, I am not sure how I am actually alive to write this right now.  I vow to explore and write more; I appreciate all of the email, texts, and facebook posts reminding me I was slacking.

Today was the perfect rainy day to do some exploring with one of my best friends, her (my) sister, and her (my) child.  After doing some shopping, we decided to go to the South End Buttery for brunch.  One thing about me is that I always wake up really early; so by 11 AM today I had worked out, showered, cleaned my room, did some laundry, and ate breakfast.  So while Sadie, Camille and Francis ordered breakfast, I annoyingly ordered lunch but with a mimosa -- it is called brunch for a reason right?  Both Sadie and Camille ordered eggs benedict and Francis had pancakes.  I ordered a grilled cheese and parmesan garlic french fries (I swear I am working on eating healthy when I go out to eat).

Cam enjoying her Irish tea.

Obviously, the grilled cheese was amazing and the french fries were mind blowing.  The fries were so good that I could have eaten them without ketchup.  Both Sadie and Cam loved their breakfast but it was Francis and his pancakes that won over the heart of everyone.  The pancakes were light and fluffy but filling.  Sadie the true baker she is whispered multiple times "I wonder what their recipe is".  I will also note that the pancakes were so good that they did not need syrup (I am huge on condiments).

Squizz waiting for his next bite of pancakes.

He successfully ate both pancakes.  Besides the food, we had a phenomenal waitress and the seating area is beautiful.

The South End Buttery also has an amazing bakery.  We all took desserts home and I shared my vanilla cupcake with vanilla frosting with my mom.  My mom does not usually rant or rave about how good dessert is but she told me that these cupcakes were better than Kickass Cupcakes....I think they were both delicious for their own reasons, but you should check them out. The Buttery is located on Shawmut Ave. This picture is for you Nicole since you live a block down:

Here is their website and facebook page: http://www.southendbuttery.com/site/, http://www.facebook.com/butteryse

I realize that every post I write is all over the map with no direction.  I titled this post "An Ode to Moms and 2011" because while we were out to eat, I noticed that right when we got our food, Camille and I dug into our food while Sadie patiently cut up Francis' pancakes.  She made sure they weren't too hot, that they tasted good (success), and that he was happy before she even looked at her own food.  I know that this is everyday business for mothers but for me it was something that was so selfless. Call me morbidly obese, but I cannot remember the last time I considered someone else while I was eating my food.  I hope I inherit these motherly mannerisms or my children will be hungry.  Take some time to reflect and  thank your mom, dad, and everyone else in your life that selflessly commits small acts of kindness for you on a daily basis.

If there are any places that you would like me to check out, please let me know!

Best wishes for an amazing 2011.