Heptadecagon

In early October of last year, I colored my hair black. (For all of you regular readers, I know you know this story already.) And when I say black, I mean all over black. I had, for all intents and purposes, a head of darkness, worthy of any villain you could imagine. (I'm including the picture to remind you of what it looked like, and for contrast with the second picture.)   At the time I placed the black into my hair, I was convinced that 28 washes and I'd be done with the new change. But apparently, my hair holds onto color the way Melina latched onto my nipple: with a fierce grip. By March of this year, I had tired of looking like Snow White or Bella Swan and asked for red highlights. They helped, but not nearly enough. I still felt like something wasn't quite right with respect to my hair. So yesterday, I sought the help of Chrissy once again, and in true miracle worker style, look what she managed to do. She lightened my hair more than I thought she would,...

The powers that be say you should never start a story with the character waking up . I can't remember why. Maybe it's been overdone. Suzanne Collins did it and look at her...she got a three book deal and a four movie deal and is sitting pretty right about now, eh? But here's my beef with a rule like that: first off, it's a rule and rules are made to be broken. Secondly, how you wake up in the morning can really set the tone for the day, maybe even a few days. Let's take a few Mondays ago now, for example, when I woke up at 4:59 a.m. with a feeling of something warm trickling down the back of my throat. It didn't take me long to understand that the heated liquid was blood. I placed a hand to my nose and stumbled to the bathroom. Large crimson droplets hit the sink and the counter as I flipped on the light with the unpainted hand. I'd missed getting my shirt dirty, but my feet, the bathroom floor, and the carpet in the bedroom had not fared as well. I had, q...

I wonder sometimes about our ability, as humans, to accomplish tasks. I'm certain I've spoken about this before, but the topic comes to light in my mind because I'm working on a project this summer. One that has deadlines imposed by me and a friend (we're working together). And while I know how difficult it is to get everything done at home and at work, I have to try each week to uphold my end of the bargain and get my work done. (As does my friend, and she's doing a great job.) What I find, though, is that not everyone else works that way, and I'm not sure why. Sure, I know we're all different and motivated by different things, but if I have a date on my calendar circled in red, indicating that I need to be somewhere or something needs to be done by that date, you can bet your last dollar I'll do my best to get the task finished. So I'm asking myself, and you, what motivates you to follow through with a task? Think carefully about that statement...

My cell phone rings when I'm at the hair salon, speaking to the stylist while Talia gets her hair cut. The readout says it's Dad calling, at 4 p.m. on a weekday. I better take the call. "Hey Dad, can I call you back?" "I bought fresh green beans at the store and I need to know how long to boil them." "Oh, well I don't boil beans, I saute them. In a bit of olive oil and garlic." My comment is met with silence and I figure that he doesn't want to saute the beans. "If you don't want to do that, though, I'll have to get back to you in a few minutes." "Okay. Would you do that?" "All right. Bye." The man has an internet connection and scads of cook books, and he calls me. Maybe he just needed to hear a friendly voice, maybe he really thought I'd know and so he'd get a quicker answer than he could find with his computer. Who knows? What I do know is that it doesn't take long to sea...

No one likes to talk about--or admit to having--bugs in their house. But sometimes, it happens... We came back home from a week's vacation to find an infestation of fruit flies. Anyone who has ever studied the small but mighty Drosophila melanogaster knows why they've been a staple of laboratories for years: the fly breeds quickly and lays many eggs (it also has only four pairs of chromosomes and is relatively easy as far as insect husbandry goes). After Tim had killed 20 or so flies and I had smashed at least 10 (in addition to Aaron's harvest of 6), I decided that my hands would feel much better if I found a different solution than simply slamming my fingers against the kitchen cabinets. And where did I find my handy dandy solution? The internet, of course. A capful of red wine vinegar and a drop or two of liquid dish soap later, and I had myself a real trap for these flies! I'm not usually into showing carcasses... Which just goes to show you that you d...

Dear Agent, I'm beginning to think that I should quit writing books and simply focus on letters. I find the act of writing them very satisfying, and I always feel better after I'm done. Much like the last time I wrote to you , I will try to be short. But again, I have a request. (I'm fully aware that this letter is actually the fifth in this installment, and that last time, I chose a more descriptive title. Just consider it part of my creative license, if you will. Sorry if I have confused you.) I'm okay with the fact that you cannot respond to every query letter . And yes, since you specifically state on your site something akin to, Due to the number of submissions we receive on a daily basis, we are no longer able to send out personalized responses to queries unless we are interested in your story. Therefore, no response means that we aren't interested, you've covered your rump quite nicely. Well done, I say. Well done. Why then, am I writing? Because ...