it's all about me

This is a rare post in that it's all about me and not everyone's favorite blog subject, Ellie - although I will sneak in a picture of her to avoid getting hate mail from the likes of my sister.

First off, my hair has finally reached a turning point in its tumultuous growing out process. It still wants to stand up on end, but now I am able to tame it some with a bit of a gummy-like product. Ryan and I have trimmed up the hair on the nape of my neck and on those delightful "sideburns," as these areas seem to grow faster than any other and can be quite unruly! Of course, without hair gunk and upon waking up in the morning, I still resemble a sad looking Monchichi, but at least during the daylight hours I am sort of achieving a funky girl rocker style.

Here are some photos of my hair at its turning point, exactly 7 and a half weeks:

I call this the "modified baby faux hawk" -
will I soon be able to achieve an actual faux hawk? Is that an oxymoron?

Look ma, no glasses - my eye is finally healed!

Me and beautiful baby girl, snapping pics in the backseat

Enough about my hair. I want to officially proclaim to the world (or at least my handful of readers) that I have recently embarked on two very special adventures. First, last month I dug out my cheesy old Yamaha keyboard from my parents' house, cleaned it up a bit, and gathered my favorite music books. I now play a little bit every day, pretty much relearning things that used to be second nature. Fortunately, I picked it back up before I had completely forgotten how to read music!

I started learning the piano when I was in fourth grade. Being a musically-minded type of gal, it came naturally, though I hardly ever devoted time to practicing and never realized my true potential. And I never will realize my true potential, because I don't plan to drill myself or memorize concertos or practice for hours upon hours. But merely playing for fun even for just a few minutes a day (complete with all my awful mistakes) has already given me so much joy and inner peace. I hope to pass down my love of the piano to little Miss Elliott, who enjoys pounding away on the keys along with her mommy. Someday we will either restore my parents' piano, which has fallen into a sad state of disrepair, or we will purchase our own that we can play on for years to come.

Second, I have begun to write a novel. It's a YA (young adult) fantasy with some sci-fi thrown in - two genres I never thought I'd be compelled to tackle. I'm only in the beginning stages of writing, working mostly on piecing together a rather intricate plot, inventing my characters, and frantically jotting down all my ideas before they disappear (sometimes even texting myself in the middle of the night for lack of a pen and paper!)

I've always wanted to write a book. As an English major and a librarian, I have a deep love for good literature and often find myself weaving tales in my mind, often inspired by whatever I am reading at the time. As a kid, I wrote long rambling stories that filled up entire journals (the most notable of these being the aptly titled I Need a Shrink, which featured myself as the protagonist and my entire third grade class as side characters.) After college, I wrote and rewrote about 80 pages of Table, a screenplay based on a dream I once had. But this project fell by the wayside - ironically, Table was tabled.

Now I am once again inspired to take on a massive creative writing project. Since I only have nap-time and nighttime to write, it'll be a slow going process (I'm thinking a matter of years) and hopefully Ryan - who has so kindly been helping me with ideas - will still like me when I ignore him for hours at a time. And hopefully I will keep working until I can proudly say I have completed my first novel! Wish me luck, and forgive me if blog postings become shorter and less frequent as a result of all my hard work...