It's hazy sunshine, but we'll take it and say thank you. High today of 73F --- also thank you. My class is over, my work for next week is finished, and I might just go out today and whack down vinca in the gardens, as I have been telling myself (sternly but vainly) to do from the beginning of the year.
Wearing today (though I will clean up and change to go out tonight):
*Wool& Camellia (M), bought July 2021, dyed royal blue by me in July or August 2022
*The old Eddie Bauer thrifted cotton cardigan we all know and love so well by now
*Secondhand Birkenstock Rosemeads, bought March 2023
Woke up with still-curly hair this morning, thanks in part to LUS Irish Sea-Moss gel, but mostly to warmer temperatures and humidity.
I did glaze on some gel after I combed it out, then scrunched it again to give it some shape. It'll do for my purposes today.
MEANWHILE . . . some weeks ago I finally ordered a pair of "transitions" glasses from Zenni --- the kind that darken in the sun, but lighten when you come inside, so you have sunglasses but don't have to take them off every time the light changes. I've never had prescription sunglasses before, so this had been kind of exciting. I had had them in my shopping cart for literally a year while I dithered about spending the money on them (having, at the time, just bought my current blue glasses), and then forgot about them. Whatever the original price had been, by the time I did remember and order them, there was some kind of sale going on, or else they were just desperate for me to empty my shopping cart. Anyway, they cost me $40, not $100-something. So, I ordered them, and I've been waiting for them ever since. They were supposed to arrive yesterday, but instead, between Thursday and today, they've been bouncing back and forth between the post office two blocks from my house, the post office in Mooresville, NC, an hour away, and currently, as far as I can tell, a facility in Gastonia, fifteen miles in the opposite direction from Mooresville. According to the tracking info, they actually passed back through the post office two blocks from my house sometime last night. Now the tracking info just says they're in transit again.
A similar thing happened to the Viking just last week. I'd sent out three packages on Monday: a flat-rate box with a bunch of the Artgirl's sketchbooks, a flat-rate box with her Doc Martens sandals, because it was suddenly really hot in Dallas, and a flat-rate Priority Mail envelope with the Viking's ADHD meds. Everything was supposed to arrive by Wednesday. The sketchbooks did arrive Wednesday. The sandals arrived Thursday. The meds, which the Viking was anxious to have before spring break, sat in a holding center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for twenty-three hours before beginning a vague meander toward Dallas. In the end, I think he went off without them to Scotland, where he seems to have had a good time and not suffered from want of focus --- fortunately he didn't have to take any exams during his travels.
All that to say: what. the heck, U.S. Postal Service --- Service, as you might imagine, is a word which here means something other than what you would think it meant, because service is not precisely what is happening here.
Eventually, I guess (?), I'm going to get these stupid glasses? I have been looking forward to sunglasses, so I guess it serves me right . . .
AFTERNOON UPDATE:
Been outside pulling vinca and pruning back dead rosemary. Here are some shots of the front garden and walk, which I haven't recorded in a long time, because it's been kind of a mess.
There was a lot of dead rosemary, choked out by vinca, but here's some live rosemary by the porch, looking quite lovely in bloom:
The front walk:
The daffodils are mostly on their last legs, though there are still a couple of clumps of really late ones that haven't yet opened. Meanwhile, lilies are well up, and the iris are showing themselves as well.
Also peonies:
And I have containers of violas, sometimes in combination with bulbs:
The husband and I did a good morning's work together, then he finished mowing and weed-whacking while I came in and soaked myself in the bath. I washed my hair again, not that it really needed it, but I just felt like it. I clarified it with some apple-cider vinegar, since it had been a long time since I'd done that, did my 4-minute bond-repair treatment, then --- since it's Saturday and I have all day to do basically whatever I want --- I took the time not only to glaze on some gel, but to brush-style as well. Basically, after smoothing on gel, I wet-brushed it through my hair thoroughly, then taking my hair roughly section by section (I can never do this neatly), I brushed underneath each section, shook it a little to get it to form a clump, and scrunched to encourage the wave. Here's what it looks like still wet:
(I've also put back on my Not Perfect Linen Smock dress, because it's deliciously warm out there).
So, kind of snaky-looking hair, but I'm letting it air dry, and then we'll see how it turns out. I think I'll go sit back out in the sun . . . the day is so glorious. I could really use those stupid transition sunglasses I ordered, but they seem to be stuck in Gastonia still. My tax dollars, working hard for me.
I am still wearing my purple Birks, by the way, and the hoop earring in my left ear has a pendant: heather enclosed in resin. So that's purple, too. I will put my cardigan back on to go out tonight, but even without it, I haven't for one minute forgotten that it's Lent.
EVENING UPDATE:
Two hours later, my hair is pretty dry, and while I'm not sure my extra styling effort paid off in such great results that it would be worth my time to spend the few additional minutes every time . . . this is nice. It's shiny, it's soft, there's way less frizz than before, and the waves have some definition.
Feeling good, happy to have worked in the garden, ready shortly to head to Hickory to sit on the pub patio in the lingering light of this beautiful day.