Beauty Salon

Yesterday afternoon on one of my normal "Dad's Taxi" runs I had a cross-cultural experience. Karen had an appointment to get her hair trimmed and decided that Natalie could also use some professional TLC on her blond locks. Karen asked me to bring Karen to the salon to save a bit of time. On the way Natalie and I picked Karlie up from Pre-K. When we got to Bonnie & Clyde's Salon in Watkinsville Karlie was enthralled, looking around at every detail. Karen had not arrived before Natalie was invited to have her hair shampooed. Karlie's interest was peaked as Natalie went around the corner but she was too shy to follow. She wanted to move closer after Natalie was seated in a styling chair. However, when Karen arrived and was escorted back to have her hair washed Karlie could not resist seeing what went on in the next room. She made several trips back and forth between the sinks and the styling chairs until Karen emerged.

"I want to have my hair cut too," Karlie whispered to me. "Only I still want to be able to put it up in a ponytail," she clarified. I laughed. I told her that today only Natalie and mom were getting their hair done. She would have to come back another day for her turn.

At times I felt like an interloper as Karen and the two stylists discussed hairstyles and haircare. Natalie even began to add her two cents. Karlie was a pinball between the two chairs and the one I was occupying off to the side. She was fascinated at all of the attention lavished on her sister and mom. She was learning a culture that I knew I would only observe, that I could never really understand.

Sensing the afternoon slipping away, I told Karen I needed to head home and get supper started. Karlie begged to stay with the girls. As I left the lyrical laughter of my three girls sang to me all the way to my car. That is a sound I will never forget and will treasure always.

18 degrees....

Its cold this morning, really cold. Here it is 18 degrees. And according to the Today Show, it is only 20 degrees in NYC!

I woke up at 5 am. I know, right! As I rolled over in bed i tweaked my CPAP mask and pulled it apart. I had to get up & turn on a light to get it fixed. By the time I got it all back together, I was wide awake. So I got up.

It was nice to be up alonw this morning. I've been able to complet day 11 of my Bible reading plan on www.youversion.com, do my push-ups & sit-ups from www.hundredpushups.com, read a few blogs that I follow (www.fatcyclist.com), and get my head together for work this week. To be honest, I'm not ready to go back to work today for a few reasons. First, I have loved hanging with my family - especially with Karen. In the busyness of life moments alone can be hard to find. We have had several days of shopping together, eating together, working on projects together and being parents together. I'm afraid the normal grind will steal that from us - as it usually does.

Secondly, I would love to stay home or go to the library to do some writing today. I'm not as far along on my first three chapters of my dissertation as I wanted to be. I'm hoping to carve out a few hours each day to write over the next few weeks to get it done.

I am looking forward to work too. There are some cool things happening with our students. They are catching a renewed vision for leadership and are inspiring a new vision for leading BCM this year in our quest to become community and to model Christian community in all we do. The worship series for this semester has me really excited! More on that later as it develops!
This should be a great year. I hope to finish my degree - or at least get my dissertation done - graduating in December of 2010 or May of 2011.

So its off to the office I go, before others wake up and I get distracted! It's gonna be really cold out!