Preparations

With my vacation coming at the end of this week, I'm already starting to prepare for the trip. Yes, I'm preparing almost a week early, because I'm a planner and a control freak. As I mentioned in a previous post, this planning included haircuts, cleaning, reservations, etc.

Witness to stupidity: This has nothing to do with my preparations, but I though I should comment on it anyway. And it's been a while since I've written a post about stupid people, so here we go. Boulder is an active city with lots of people walking, jogging, and biking on the streets or sidewalks. There is an understanding that drivers look out for walkers, joggers, and bikers and walkers, joggers, and bikers look out for drivers. While driving to hair salon, I was stopped at a light and noticed a man and his son on their bikes riding in the bike lane. Since there was no traffic coming from the other directions, the father just started to ride through the intersection and through what was our red light. The son paused for a moment, but then started to follow. But just then the traffic in the opposite direction had the green arrow and started to turn into the intersection. The son sort of panicked in the middle of the intersection, and turned around and went back to the street corner. The idiot father was about fifty yards away before he eventually looked back and noticed that his son was still waiting for the light to change. That's great parenting for you!

Haircut: My hair has been a somewhat long, wild mess because it's been many, many months since I got my last haircut. I'm happy that I found a new salon—officially it's called a barber shop, I guess—where I can get a nice haircut for a good price. I've been to some really nice salons in Boulder, but I was tired of spending $60–$70 on a haircut. And if you got something like highlights, it would be well over $100. I've decided I don't want to do color or highlights anymore...at least not for a while. I got tired of spending the money to maintain it. Plus, I sort of decided to just let myself go gray. So all I really need is a cut and nothing too special. At this new place, I can get a cut for only $30. Wahoo! They also give you a massage when they are finished. I thought it was going to be a regular massage, but it turned out that they use a large, vibrating machine. (I realize that sounds somewhat naughty, but I don't know how else to describe it...) Anyway, the large, vibrating massage machine was really powerful and not exactly gentle or soothing or relaxing. It actually felt like my teeth were about to rattle and fall out of my head. But it's the thought that counts.

Shuttle: Because this is a busy travel week, I wanted to make early reservations for shuttle service to the airport. Usually I can make easy reservations online, but the company must have changed their Web site because I was redirected to the national shuttle service. You can still make reservations, but things didn't seem right. I'm not sure if I missed something when I was selecting my service, but when they gave me the rates they quoted the price as $230. Um, $230 for a trip to the airport? Is it in a limo with a mini bar? Does it come with an escort? That didn't seem right, so I quit that session and decided to phone in my reservation for the bargain price of $30. I'm still somewhat curious what you get with a $230 shuttle trip, but I suppose I'll have to find out another day.

Current mood: full—I made my world famous Vodka Cream Pasta for dinner tonight
Current music: iTunes on shuffle—David Gray "Say Hello Wave Goodbye"
Current drink: Remy Martin VSOP Cognac