amulets, haircuts & a roadtrip

so my mother is right, i was remiss in mentioning the return of my suitor, nicholas. i was indeed very thrilled to have him back, safe and sound here in the americas. along with all the fun bahamiam (similar to, but not the same as 'bohemian') shells and pink sand he brought back, he also finished my valentine's present that he'd been working on for a while!

to give you an idea of this fellow i'm dating, here's a little snippet for you.
not only does nick like to be out in the wilderness, hiking and whatnot, but he's also pretty creative in his wilderness-liking. when he comes across caves here and there, as missouri has from time to time, he's noticed that there's natural clay in them. so he's made a habit of collecting handfuls of this clay and filling his pockets for the hike back. then when he gets back to civilization he likes to mix the clay up with water and make it into beads or random things you might make out of clay. not only does he make the beads, but he also likes to make his own little kiln out of rocks on the side of a hill somewhere and fire the beads.
if this doesn't impress you, i don't know what will.

for my present he made a special bead (the big circular one in the middle) and he attached four other bead strings to it. they're symbolic of the four main character qualities he sees in me. he wrote about what each of them means. it was the sweetest thing in the world.

he's a good guy, that nick fried.

i hung it on my rearview mirror in my car, which was a big step for me.
you see, until now, the same little stuffed mexican parrot has been hanging on my rearview mirror that my dad gave me when i graduated high school and came to the states. when we first went to mexico as a family we had a green parrot hanging on the van mirror and it hung there for as long as i can remember. when i moved on from the family van, i wanted a parrot for my car, of course.
eleven years later and the same parrot was hanging there. his colors had faded to some sort of beige-ish green and his poor little beak was hanging from a strand. his tail feathers were all gone. he hadn't attracted a she-parrot in many a year.
it was time for him to move on to the memorabilia box where he'll live out his retirement days.

and now nick's creation is in paco the parrot's place. what nick made reminds me of an amulet. i told him through this action of replacing the rearview mirror adornment, he's symbolically taken my dad's place.
he's now my sugar daddy.
i expect him to act like it.
he was nervous, but i think he'll live up to the challenge.

in other news, but also related to nick, i went to get my hair trimmed yesterday. after 6 months of growing it out, i had quite a collection of split ends and frizziness, so i thought a little trim would do the trick. little did i know but that fateful decision would lead to an emotional rollercoaster the likes of which i didn't think possible (in the hair world anyway...)
it wasn't really all that horrible, but it wasn't great either. combined with some good ole fashioned hormones, i was on the verge of tears all day yesterday. when nick called to chat for a bit, he didn't know what he was getting himself into. luckily, he's the sweetest guy in the world (have i mentioned that before?) and he came over to console me in my distress and affirm my feminine beauty.
he did a very good job of it.
then this morning i went to a different lady and had her fix it up a bit, which resulted in the front being shorter than i wanted, but at least it was even and layered like it needed to be.

i don't feel as long-laired as i once did, but at least my emotional state has regained equilibrium.

and these tiny purple flowers helped a lot.


on friday, nick and i are driving to manhattan, kansas, to spend the weekend with some of his friends whom i have yet to meet. i'm sort of nervous, but i know it'll be fun. it's always good to see the side of people that comes out when they're around their favorite friends. no matter how well i know him, i don't think i'll ever see the part of who he is when he's around his little niece emilee :-)
she's not really his niece, but she calls him uncle nick and she's the daughter of some of his best friends.
i'll take lots of pictures and keep you posted next week.

i hope you all have a great springy day!
(even in wisconsin! sorry you don't have little purple flowers! i'll save you some for your visit this weekend even though i won't be here to share the joy with you...)