Archive for the ‘Holidays and Special Dates’ Category

It’s all because of a book…….

Friday, July 15th, 2011

Interview with PBS Member Ivy (PBSmaven).

Ivy will appear on ABC’s 20/20 tonight, July 15, 2011 as a part of an episode about Kathryn Stockett’s book, The Help.

PBS:Books often have a tremendous impact on our lives, but rarely is such impact so significantly apparent as has been the case with The Help and our very own Ivy (PBSmaven).

Thanks for asking me to do this interview. I feel like an actual celebrity! lol

Back in Dec. 2010 I read the book The Help by Kathryn Stockett. The premise of the book is about the women down south and the maids or “help” they had and how they treated them. This took place in the 1960s just before and during the civil rights movement.

The book made me think about my childhood in NY also in the 1960s and a maid that we had growing up back then. Her name is Dorothy and she’d been with my family since my great grandmother…for three generations. The book made me think about how much she meant to me and still does and how much of an influence she had on my life. The book prompted me to write a letter to Dorothy and let her know.

After I wrote the letter I went onto Facebook and looked up the page for the book and movie. I made a comment on the page about how much I enjoyed the book and how it prompted me to write the letter to Dorothy. Soon after I was contacted via Facebook by a producer from ABC’s 20/20 show, Denise Martinez – Ramundo. She asked me if she could speak to me about the letter and the book The Help and of course I said yes. As the producer heard the story of my relationship with Dorothy she asked if I’d be interested in having ABC fly me back to NYC to have a reunion with her. At this point I should mention that Dorothy is now 85 years old and not in great health and due to my own health issues I’m not able to travel much. However, this was a once in a lifetime chance so I knew I had to take it or I’d never see Dorothy again. So on June 15, 2011, ABC flew me back to NY for my reunion with Dorothy. I was interviewed by two of the producers from ABC, Denise Martinez – Ramundo and Lynn Redmond as well as correspondent Deborah Roberts. You’ll have to watch the show which airs this Friday, July 15, 2011 to see how it all turned out!

PBS: The Help by Katheryn Stockett has been a book that has had lots of people talking about it since the day of its release. Did you have it Wish Listed?

Ivy: No, actually I was so interested in the book that I have to say I went out and actually bought it! That’s the first time I’ve actually bought a book in years! lol I always get my books on PBS but this one I just had to read as soon as I could.

PBS: Did you enjoy reading it because of your life experiences and/or because it was a great book?

Ivy: Both. The Help was easily one of the best books I’ve read in the past year. However, having grown up in the 1960s and having the life experiences that I did brought the book to life for me.

PBS: Can you tell us a bit about the person you were reunited with?

Ivy: Dorothy is one of the most amazing people I’ve ever known. She was my guardian angel, my protector, my second mother…she was and still is family to me. Dorothy is very religious and always taught me right from wrong. Most of all, she taught me how to love. That even if someone has wronged you to still try to be good to them because you don’t know what they’re going through. So basically she taught me compassion. She is truly an inspiration. She also has a fantastic sense of humor and her laughter was contagious!

PBS: Can you share a memory with us?

Ivy: One of my favorite memories was having lunch with Dorothy. As a little girl I’d sit with her and we’d have lunch and just talk. I honestly can’t remember specifically what we talked about but I remember she would teach me right from wrong and how to be “proper”. To this day, that’s stuck with me.

PBS: How does your experience parallel the book?

The only real thing I can think of that relates to the book (not really a parallel story here) is that I kind of relate to the character Skeeter. I’ve always been the kind of person that can’t stand to see injustice or suffering and the way I grew up was that there was no black or white. People are people, plain and simple. Dorothy and her family are black, I and my family are white, yet I’ve always considered Dorothy and her family my family. To me, we’re all blood. The book made me think about how Dorothy and her family may have been treated by the world back then and it made me really sad to think that they might have been treated any differently then my family and I had. Recently I had a conversation with one of Dorothy’s daughters, Jacqueline about this and she told me that when they had gone down south back in the 60’s they did encounter situations with separate bathrooms for black people and white people, and her being a little girl she didn’t know what it meant and she went into a white bathroom. She said her father scolded her when she came out but she didn’t understand why. It still amazes me to think that people could have been, and in some cases still are, so ignorant and prejudiced. People are people. We all have a heart, we all go to bed at night, we all go to the bathroom, we all love. We’re all the same person.

PBS: This must have been quite emotional for everyone involved in the reunion. Did you cry?

Ivy: OMG did I ever!! I warned the ABC crew that I was a crier and to have tissues handy! I lived up to my promise! lol

At one point when I was reading the letter I had written to Dorothy, there wasn’t a dry eye in my house. lol My Mother, who hadn’t heard about the letter, was crying buckets, the producer was crying, I think even the camera man was crying! lol

PBS: Would you share an excerpt from the letter?

Ivy: Here is an excerpt from my letter to Dorothy:
“…For the last 15 or so years…I’ve kept a picture of you next to my computer and look at it every day. It’s a picture that was taken of you at the luncheon after my grandmother’s funeral. It’s the only picture I have of you but it’s priceless to me. However, I know that with or without that picture, you’ll always be in my heart and prayers as the woman I looked up to, the woman who loved me, the woman who protected me and the woman who never failed to make me smile.”

PBS: Was it difficult to locate Dorothy?

Ivy: Dorothy’s lived at the same address for the last 50 or so years. I had her address still in my address book and ABC contacted Dorothy’s daughter’s Barbara and Jacqueline to set this reunion up. Dorothy had no idea it was going to take place until the minute she saw me.

PBS: Are you planning on seeing the Movie?

Ivy: I’m definitely planning on seeing the movie!

PBS: Have you kept in touch with Dorothy and her family?

Ivy: Yes I have. I’ve spoken to both Dorothy and Barbara by phone and I’m in close contact with Dorothy’s daughter Jacqueline both on Facebook and phone. We’re closer now then ever. We used to play together as little girls and it’s such a blessing to be able to talk as adults. I’m so very thankful for ABC setting up this reunion. I never thought I’d see Dorothy or her family again. This has reunited me with my “long lost family” and it’s been such a huge blessing to me!

Dorothy's daughter Barbara, Ivy and Dorothy

PBS: Is there anything else you would like to share with us?

Ivy: Just two things;
Watch the episode of ABC’s 20/20 on The Help tonight, July 15th so you can see it all for yourself and….you never know where a book will lead you. Reading a book can change your life in ways that you never could have imagined!

PBS: Thank you Ivy, for sharing this wonderful experience with us!

Don’t forget, there’s still time to enter to win free passes to advance screenings of The Help in select cities before it hits theaters nationwide August 10th! Members have until July 20th to submit their entries.

Just click here, complete the 4 questions and you’ll be entered in a random drawing to receive passes to a local showing prior to the August 10^th release date.

Tags: Book Recommendations, Members
Posted in Holidays and Special Dates | 16 Comments »

Embrace your Geekness Day – July 13, 2011

Wednesday, July 13th, 2011

By James L. (JimiJam)

When I really think about it, I have to ask: Do we really need a day to celebrate our geekness? Every day seems dedicated to one geeky endeavor or

Geek Squad

another. Whether we know the difference between Java and Javascript, we’re all computer geeks to a degree, and we certainly rely on geeks when it comes to building, selling, or maintaining our computers. Who doesn’t have that one friend or family member who always knows just how to straighten things out when the PC doesn’t seem to be running right?

It’s probably likely that most everyone seems to know at least one geek, if not an entire pack of geeks, of almost limitless varieties, shapes, and sizes:

Tekkoshocon 2010

Star Trek Convention

Maybe you’ve got a father who can’t get enough star trek, or a brother who dresses like a Wookie on the weekends; maybe it’s a son who can’t be bothered to pause video games long enough for a proper bathroom break; perhaps it’s a brother in law who tinkers with computers both on the job and off; Or maybe, just maybe, it’s you yourself, fascinated by any given subject to a degree that the average passer by would clearly identify (and quite possibly admire) as geeky.

Of course, it wasn’t always this way. When I was a kid, being called a “geek” wasn’t exactly a good thing. Along the lines of “spaz” or “dweeb”, “geek” was the kind of thing that got thrown at you during recess, when they weren’t throwing dodgeballs (with less than playful intent). In the term’s early years, a geek was even worse than a simple insult; once upon a time, the “geek” was the circus performer who sat in a cage, behaving like a primitive proto-human beast, biting the heads off of chickens and growling at passers by. Fortunately, we’ve come a long way since then.

Dungeons and Dragons

Gone are the days of lamenting the label; here are days in which people not only wear the mantle of geekhood gladly, but boldly and proudly as well. Geeks are no longer tormented, but celebrated. We have entire catalogs, collections of some of the oddest and yet coolest items imaginable, dedicated to the Geek Culture. We have t-shirts that proudly brandish our geek status. We have conventions at which we may join other geeks in celebrating the specific branch of geekness to which we ascribe. Geeks, with all their awkward foibles and oft-neglected attention to the fashionable, have suddenly risen to levels of recognition formerly reserved for the dazzling and glamorous. It’s no longer uncommon to see celebrities walking the red

Tenth Doctors

carpet not in designer and expensive couture, but sporting what is now known as “Geek Chic”. Somehow, against steep odds, geekness has managed to work its way into the mainstream. From business to entertainment, from the specific to the common, these days geeks are just plain cool.

Geekness seems to have become as accepted as sunshine, and as normal as rain. And yet, despite its now dominant role our lives, an entire day has been set aside, presumably for those still unaware that geekness is not only allowed but encouraged. July 13^th is Embrace Your Geekness day, a day on which any of us and all of us can and should let our Geek flags fly!

Tags: Book Reviews, Book Suggestions, Members
Posted in Holidays and Special Dates, Musings | 7 Comments »

Video Game Day – July 8th, 2011

Friday, July 8th, 2011

Video Game Day – July 8^th, 2011

By James L. (JimiJam)

Video games have been around for a LONG time. Those who remember Pac-man’s early days may take offense at this assertion, at least until they hear that the first video game predates Pac-man by over 20 years! In 1947, Thomas T. Goldsmith, Jr. and Este Ray Mann submitted an application for the very first video game related patent, then called a “cathode ray tube amusement device”. The game was not only the world’s first video game, but the first of what have come to be known as “shooters”. In this case, the targets were meant to represent airplanes, and the first gamers used a set of buttons and knobs to fire the cathode ray tube beam toward the oncoming blips. Little did anyone realize, a multi-billion dollar industry was born.

The future of video games wasn’t even remotely obvious during those first fledgling decades. In fact, it took quite a few stumbling years in the mid-to-late ‘70s before gaming began to show it’s true potential. While many of the first home consoles (Atari, CalecoVision, Intellivision) found some success in the early ‘80s, it was largely due to what is now known as the Golden Age of Video Arcade Games that gaming truly came into its own. Memorable classics such as Pac-Man, Defender, Space Invaders, and Centipede quickly became buzzwords in America’s pop-cultural vernacular.

While the age of the arcade enjoyed its primacy, we also saw the arrival of the home computer, as well as the rise of one of the most important words in video game history: Nintendo. Originally a playing card manufacturer, Nintendo’s focus shifted to home entertainment featuring some of gaming’s best time-tested interfaces, like the “zapper”, a light capturing device used as a gun, and familiar to anyone who has played games like Nintendo’s own Duck Hunt, bundled in-cartridge for the Nintendo Entertainment System with the biggest icon since Mickey Mouse: Mario Mario, the plumber.

Since those early days, we’ve seen Nintendo joined by companies like Sega, Sony, and Microsoft, who over the years have released an army of consoles and formats, and have consistently revolutionized the notion of home entertainment. We’ve seen games grow from simple single screen spritefests to immense and beautifully depicted virtual environments set as the backdrop for ongoing storylines and multifaceted plots more complex than the modern movie trilogy can express. These days, gamers don’t just play for the simple thrill of a few satisfying bleeps; today’s gamers immerse themselves into the roles of their characters, roving virtual landscapes in teams and squads with comrades networked across the world, perpetuating limitless plotlines and participating in nothing less than modern mythmaking, taking the labels of hero and villain alike onto themselves.

Friday July 8^this actually the first of two days set aside for celebration of video games. Considering how powerful these sources of amusement have become within modern society, it’s not surprising that two days are required. From a two players manipulating blips on oscilloscopes to warehouses filled with row after row of gamer-helmed PCs; from single screens of platforms to environments so real they have weather patterns; from an informative paragraph in an instruction pamphlet to hours of in game cinematics expositing storylines to rival some of the most fantastic of novels, video games have evolved into something far greater than their earliest designers could have ever predicted. We now live in a world chock full of video game inspired paraphernalia, including toys, movies, books, clothing lines, music scores, home decorations, entire conventions, whole lives dedicated to what has become a world unto itself.

The Myst Reader Books 1-3 by Rand Miller, Robyn Miller, David Wingrove

What Every Parent Needs to Know About Video Games by Richard Abanes

First Strike – HALO, Bk 3 by Eric Nylund

Perfect Dark: Second Front by Greg Rucka

The Best of the Super Mario Bros

Donkey Kong Country by Michael Teitelbaum, Leif Peng (Illustrator)

Sonic the Hedgehog by Michael Teitelbaum

Tags: Book Recommendations, Book Suggestions, Members
Posted in Holidays and Special Dates | No Comments »

World UFO Day – July 2, 2011

Saturday, July 2nd, 2011

By James L. (JimiJam)

64 years ago this week, Foster homestead foreman William Ware “Mac” Brazel stumbled upon a pile of debris that has since become both infamous and legendary: the alleged wreckage of an alien craft, believed by some to have crashed to Earth weeks earlier. The story of the events at Roswell, New Mexico caused quite a stir – for a little while, anyway. It wasn’t until nearly 30 years later, thanks to physicist and ufologist Stanton T. Friedman’s interviews with USAF Major Jesse Marcel, that interest in the incident was renewed, and genuine Roswell Fever was born.

Purported UFO Source: NASA

It’s impossible these days to escape the theme of extraterrestrial visitors, swooping down on our planet from far away star systems or galaxies. Accounts bearing witness to advanced spacecraft and unidentified flying objects go back as far as the earliest written records of humankind. Only recently, however, has the phenomenon been elevated to such a celebrated status as it enjoys today.

July 2^nd is World UFO Day, as of 2001, celebrating the date on which most believe Mac Brazel made his now famous discovery in Roswell. Since that time, the governments of the world have been quietly investigating (and at times instigating) sightings of unexplained phenomena witnessed in the evening sky. Groups of lights hovering in the air, glowing orbs moving erratically across the heavens, silhouettes maneuvering at

Source: NASA

breakneck speeds and angles; all have been reported, with increased frequency, in the years since the idea of flying saucers from outer space crashed upon the pop cultural consciousness of the modern world those long years ago. Of course, most are revealed to be simply remarkable meteorological phenomena, typical earth-based craft, or hoaxes. Still, nearly 20% of sightings remain unexplained to this day.

Since those early days, Western civilization has become moderately obsessed with the image of strange life forms descending on our world. Books, movies, and music all have had their hand in celebrating and analyzing the potential implications of visitors from the beyond.

Not A Flying Saucer. Not Courtesy of NASA

Some have argued that literary reference to alien encounters began as far back as the ancient texts and artworks of some of the world’s most well-known early civilizations. Believers who subscribe to these hypotheses refer to such visitors as Ancient Astronauts, and find all manner of alleged evidence in scriptures, hieroglyphs, and primitive paintings from across the globe. Carvings and statues have been said to depict spacesuits or rocket ships, and passages in texts and scriptures are said to have described airborne transport much like the planes and spacecraft of today. Beginning with H. G. Wells War of the Worlds, the realm of overt fiction began a relationship that has now become an industry all its own, playing a significant role in increasing the popularity of the Science Fiction genre, and fostering the careers of well-renowned authors such as E. E. “Doc” Smith, Robert A. Heinlein, and Arthur C. Clarke.

In movies and television, too, alien species and extrasolar worlds have proven to be a near-limitless source of provocative and fascinating material. While films such as Star Wars, E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Independence Day have risen to iconic status in the eyes of American culture, they owe their very existence to earlier, classic cinematic works such as Flash Gordon, The Day the Earth Stood Still, This Island Earth, and Forbidden Planet. Television series on the subject, like Star Trek, Doctor Who, or the X-Files, have turned out to be some of the most popular and beloved shows of all time.

Courtesy of NASA

Fiction alone cannot contain such a popular idea, as is evidenced by the number of serious scientific inquiries and experiments conducted, lectures by noted astrophysicists given, and earnest conspiracy theories espoused over the years. Some of the most famously intelligent minds in recent history have, at some point, turned their focus toward the heavens, and weighed in on this controversial and popular subject. They have never had much difficulty finding an audience for such conjecture, and that audience is growing larger every year. Recent polls suggest that more than 60% of Americans believe that alien visitors have made contact with human beings, and about 50% believe abductions have taken place.

Source: NASA

The possibility of extraterrestrial contact is just too intriguing to ignore, the fanciful notions too attractive to resist. Whether it’s a gripping space opera, an action-packed war between planets, the existential questions of humankind’s place in the Cosmos, the scientific ramifications, or the dark and mysterious conspiratorial flavor, people are just naturally drawn the mystery of the Unidentified Flying Object. It is with this sense of curiosity and awe that I will find myself looking skyward over the course of the next few evenings, and wonder, are they really out there, looking back down at us? Only time will tell; until then, the thought alone is more than enough to keep our eyes on the skies and dreaming.

Communion by Whitley Strieber

Chronicles of the Lensmen by E.E. “Doc” Smith

The Roswell UFO Crash by Kal K Korff

2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke

The Boy from the UFO by Margaret Goff Clark

The UFO Files

The Puppet Masters by Robert A Heinlein

How to Make the Most of a Flying Saucer Experience by Professor Solomon

Tags: Book Recommendations, Book Suggestions, Members
Posted in Holidays and Special Dates, Musings | 5 Comments »

VostromoScope – Cancer

Thursday, June 30th, 2011

Element: Water
Ruling planet: Luna
Symbol: Crab
Birthstone: I don’t know, but I’d get that checked out if I were you

Cancer. CANCER. Really? Twelve months and eight million fluffy friendly animals and THAT’S what you pick? You know, I would think the whole point of the astrological chart is to help people reflect IN TRANQUILITY on their lives and worlds — in a word, destiny — and you offer CANCER? What kind of positive impact is THAT going to make? The other signs have nice names: Aquarius (ooh…), Libra (ahh…), Sagittarius (whoa…)… then BLAM! — CANCER! What?! What the — I mean nobody’s gonna choose to drive around in the “Ford Tumor”, are they? or the “Dodge Neoplasm?” right? Nobody’s gonna get up on the Broadway stage and start singing “This is the dawning of the Age of the topoisomerase inhibitor, tra la” and anyway that doesn’t scan AT ALL!

And it just gets worse, because oh, sure, you say “it’s just the Latin word for “crab” so yadda yadda yadda” — well I mean we don’t go around the garden and say, “Oh, look at all the cute little Lepuses!” — do we? It’s not “Who Killed Roger Lepus?”, am I right? No, it’s RABBIT. Nothing wrong with that, is there, “rabbit.” And if you met a cute girl in a bar and she told you she like totally believed in her crabness, would you ask her out? I know I wouldn’t. Well maybe. Depends on how cute. Point is, how would you know what kind of crabs she really was into? Would you wanna take that chance? And she’s not gonna call anyway, so I mean…

So I just think that calling it “cancer” is really unfair to the people born under this sign. Statistics’ll back me up on this, too — you think anybody with “CANCER!” hanging over their heads has ever accomplished anything that took confidence, or self-reliance or anything? Oh please —

— Helen Keller? Whined a lot as far as I know, at least Patty Duke did in the movie. And talk about table manners!
— Henry VIII? Started this whole social upheaval that influenced the course of human history and all ‘cuz he liked the ladies to LEAVE ALREADY (they all probably had crabs, so who can blame him?)
— Julius Caesar? Even his salad dressing has friggin’ ANCHOVIES in it, I mean, talk about being bitter
— Sylvester Stallone? Guy liked to beat up cows, I mean, come on
— Tom Hanks? Do you know ANYBODY that likes Tom Hanks?
— John Glen? That guy — OK maybe John Glen made a little something of himself, but he’s the ONLY ONE

So look, let’s all just agree that we’ll start calling it something nice, something pleasant to wake up to, like, uh… “The Soft-Shell Beachcomber”, that’s not bad at all. Or maybe “Buttersauce” if you wanna just sorta jump ahead there. At least it’s not freakin’ CANCER!

This month’s forecast: Dine out at least three times, but only within a two-block radius. Someone you want to confront will be a stronger opponent than you anticipate, especially for a nine-year-old girl. Wear only blue.

Some crabbish books for your reading pleasure:

A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle

The Crab: Legend of the Five Rings by Stan Brown

The Cranky Blue Crab by Dawn L. Watkins

Tip on a Dead Crab by William Murray

CANCER: The Sign of the Crab by Teresa Celsi

I Love Crab Cakes by Tom Douglas

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Tags: Book Suggestions, Members, VostromoScope
Posted in Holidays and Special Dates, Musings, VostromoScope | 8 Comments »

Sunglasses Day is Today! o-o

Monday, June 27th, 2011

An homage to Sunglasses by James L. (JimiJam)

Now that summer is officially upon us (though for some it’s been around for weeks already), it’s time to celebrate one of the most indispensable of summertime accessories, Sunglasses!

June 27^th is Sunglasses Day, and regardless of whether you’re regularly bespectacled in the off-season months, it’s a day everyone should celebrate! Sunglasses are everywhere, as well they should be. Whether it was the heyday of Hollywood and Holly Golightly strolling across the screen, or General McArthur leading a column of troops, sunglasses have long gone from simple protective eyewear to truly iconic status.

Modern movies have been keen to include various and memorable sun specs, from Tom Cruise’s shades in Risky Business and Top Gun, to the Terminator’s imposingly darkened visage. Doc Brown had his futuristic visor in Back to the Future II, even when flying through a rainstorm. The Blues Brothers would be as lost without their sunglasses as they would without their hats and suits, and the Men in Black would be in a terrible state without their trusted Ray-Bans! Take a look in the video store for a movie about a dog with personality, and it’s a safe bet even pooch is sporting a cool pair of shades right there on the cover.

Music has its bright moments, and a handful of ways to keep from squinting in those moments. Summer wouldn’t be summer without catching Cheap Sunglasses playing under the glare of the midday sun. As students take to their summer breaks (or in some cases, summer classes), it’s wise to consider whether their Future’s So Bright, they have to Wear Shades. Even in the evening, Corey Hart Wears his Sunglasses at Night. For that matter, so do I!

Sunglasses have obviously long been considered integral to affecting an image of pure coolness, but there’s more to dark glasses than simple sense of style! These days, whether they’re prescription or not, Wayfarers or Aviators, Teashades or Solar Shields, sunglasses aren’t just a matter of fashion, but of protection. We all know about using sunscreen to protect our skin, but what about those pretty peepers? In these, the sunniest of months, with their prolonged daylight hours, it’s essential that we do our best to guard ourselves against both blinding glare and harmful UV rays.

There are so many bright and colorful wonders to behold in the brilliance of summer’s days, and sunglasses can help keep your eyes keen enough to take in every splendid glimpse. Whether you’re out for a stylish look, or a sensible guard against the glare, get those shades on and jump into summer!

Life Without Cheap Sunglasses Stephen E Burrows

The Meaning of Sunglasses by Hadley Freeman

Sunglasses After Dark by Nancy A. Collins

Spectacles & Sunglasses

o-o o-o o-o o-o o-o o-o o-o o-o o-o o-o o-o o-o o-o o-o

Tags: Book Suggestions, Members
Posted in Holidays and Special Dates | 5 Comments »

It’s Beautician’s Day!

Sunday, June 26th, 2011

And to celebrate here are some Member Musings by Adriane (myhotstylist)

Do you ever think about your daily routine at work? For a beautician, routine is a foreign word. When I open the door to enter the salon, my senses go into overdrive. The smell of perms and shampoo, hairspray and colors… the sounds of music, laughter, blow-dryers and clippers. The sight of happy people surrounding me, and hair all over the floor. I’m instantly in a better mood no matter how tired, grumpy or frumpy I feel. The excitement and adrenaline begin at the thought of being able to be creative with my hands, and looking forward to the smile and hug I will later receive from my first client of the day. THIS is my life.

Although beauticians have a fun job, there are times when we rarely get to eat, experience fits of uncontrollable laughter, and sometimes we question our own sanity to the point of wanting to pull out our own hair. We laugh, we cry, we can get very catty at times. Our clients become our friends and we get the joy of sharing in their life’s greatest milestones. Words cannot express what is feels like to be the first to know when someones pregnant, getting married, got into college; or the overwhelming pain you feel when you get a call on New Years Eve and find out that a client you dearly loved has passed away. Life is definitely full of ups and downs, and beauticians see it and live it every day. We do what we do because we care about people. We get paid to play and do what we love the most.

It takes a special person to be a successful hair stylist. However, I honestly believe it takes an even more special person to put up with me in my chair. We each have our own quirks and things that makes us tick. Being a hairstylist has taught me a lot about myself. Patience, kindness, gratitude, and respect. I have been called too skinny, too fat, been told by a 9 year old that i look (cough) 39. Helped an autistic child overcome their fear of scissors. Been featured in newspapers for doing a Locks of Love haircut on a man undergoing chemo-therapy. Been invited to weddings, and almost pulled over at 5am trying to get to the salon to do said wedding updo. Sometimes, I do get frustrated, but it is mainly with myself. My hair has been almost every color of the rainbow at one point or another, but its fun to get reactions from clients in the salon over my newest do. We have a ton of fun in our profession, but mainly we are like one big crazy family.

Working in a salon has truly been one of the best experiences of my life. Ever since I could remember, all I ever wanted to do is play with hair. As you can imagine 90% of my dolls ended up bald! Not a handful of people I know can say that they have their dream job. Not only am I a beautician, I’m also a miracle worker, psychiatrist, creator, counselor, mediator, actor, comedian, friend, critic, analyst, fashion adviser, entertainer, trendsetter, informant, manipulator, keeper of secrets, hearer of confessions, and occasionally, one who cuts hair. We do our best to see the beauty in everyone, even if we want to fire our customers.

In honor of Beautician’s Day I’d like to share with you one of my favorite poems of all time.

Audrey Hepburn’s Beauty Tips:
For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.
For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.
For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.
For beautiful hair, let a child run his or her fingers through it once a day.
For poise, walk with the knowledge you’ll never walk alone.
People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; Never throw out anybody.
Remember, If you ever need a helping hand, you’ll find one at the end of your arm.
As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.
The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure that she carries, or the way she combs her hair. The beauty of a woman must be seen from in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides.
The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mole, but true beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul. It is the caring that she lovingly gives, the passion that she shows, and the beauty of a woman with passing years only grows!