So much of what we experience day-to-day is so packaged for sale to a demographic, so averaged and simplified for mass consumption. I just love that the land from the old airport is being developed and how lucky we are to have another Old Navy.

That’s one of the reasons I love my hairdresser Cameo. For one thing, her name is Cameo. I don’t know even one other Cameo and she is definitely an original. I love that I drive down a major street in an industrial part of town, but turn right by the big red and white TIRES sign and end up on a tree-lined, winding street, a secret entrance into a hidden little neighborhood. The neighborhood isn’t planned and packaged with curbs and sidewalks or formal deed restrictions. People have some times clever, some times trashy things in their yard and the lawns may or may not be mowed. Cameo’s house is green with purple trim with kid’s toys in the yard and if her house were a word it would be Joy. There is a studio in the back, a large metal building with her husband’s glass blowing studio on the right and her hair cutting studio on the left.

I’ve never been much on small talk with my hair dresser and have usually opted for reading a magazine, but not with Cameo. She has great stories like how she has her girlfriends over the first night of each full moon. They make a fire out back and share what they are grateful for and one thing they wish for in the next month. They write their wish down and then put the papers in the fire, to send the wishes out into the universe. Cameo is also a great listener. I’m a pretty private person (well, except for this blog, which is a very new thing for me), but I will spill the beans about my infertility, difficult pregnancy, new family dramas and old childhood wounds, all without hesitation, as if I had known her forever.

So, I have a HUGE date on Saturday and I wanted to get my hair cut. For my 40th birthday a few months ago, Blue Eyes gave me a set of envelopes with dates on them. They are tickets or some other plans, one every other month or so, well into next year. When we get busy with Baby Girl and Noel and the house and his job, we’ll have these plans already made, reminding us to take time to be together and have some fun. We have a baby sitter and everything.

I’m wearing a fancy purple dress that is so pretty I could wear it to the Oscars, for which I have yet to be nominated, my husband says because my screenplay hasn’t left my laptop, but that is another post. I COULD wear this dress to the Oscars, IF I were invited, it is that beautiful. I thought it would be nice to fix my hair to, you know, something a little more than combing it through when I get out of the shower. But my haircut is pretty grown out and it flips oddly and my bangs hang in my eyes, so I make an appointment with Cameo.

Cameo doesn’t even make fun of me when I explain to her that I want a great pony tail haircut. Most all of the time, I want it to be long enough and not too layered so I can just take a shower, let it dry and put it into a pony tail. This is all the time I have most days and it is a safety issue as well, since Baby Girl’s grip has gotten pretty strong. I have even given up on blow drying my bangs, so they just lie flat on my forehead, looking kind of sad from being neglected. But, on special nights like a date with my husband, I want to style it, without too much work of coarse, and look amazing.

And Cameo takes care of me. She gives me a trim with very light texturing and then gives me the scoop on the best ponytail styles. One is to take the hair on top of my head and twist it, then bobby pin it down, like I’m wearing a yamika. The take the hair from one side and twist it heading to the back of the head, same with the other side, then gather the two sides and put them in a tiny, invisible pony tail holder. Then undo the yamika and let that hair hang down. It’s a super fancy pony tail. Julia Roberts wears this style. It is a pony tail worthy of the Oscars. And for every day, she give me sweep bangs, which hang well, off to the side, even without blow drying.

There are a lot of hair dressers that can help Julia Roberts ready for the Oscars, but to help a Mom with a new baby look good without using product or styling during the week and also do something a little special for a date with Dad, now that is an Oscar-worthy performance.