Madeleine gets a haircut

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postaday2012

Somehow it seems that we arrived much more quickly to L’Oreal today than we did the other day. Sabine opens the door for us and ushers me in, the receptionist the same one who took my appointment on Tuesday, ushered me toward the back and led me to Monsieur Bouquet who takes my hand and says “Enchante, mademoiselle, I am pleased to make your acquaintance, allow me to show you where you can sit so that I may look at your hair” I smile at him and say “I am pleased to meet you as well, would it be alright with you if my best friend Sabine sat near us?” He smiled and said “But of course mademoiselle” I signaled over to Sabine and she sat right next to me, beaming with excitement. I on the other hand felt such queasiness in my stomach and my throat was parched, I was a nervous mess. Don’t get me wrong Monsieur Bouquet was very kind and you can see that he was a true professional. He gently undid my hair from its pin and started to comb it out with a strong motion. I could feel from his hands that he was clearly in his domain and very sure about what he was about. He combed all the tangles out put my hair in a side part and then he pulled it back and up and let it all fall back down. He put his hands on my shoulders and said “Are you ready to come with me to get your hair washed?” I took a deep breath and said to myself, here we go, it will be fine. I smiled and said “yes”.

All that I can say about having my hair washed by a professional is that everyone should have the experience once in their lifetime. When I put my head back into the sink and the water started sprinkling on my head at a really nice temperature, I thought that was lovely and the shampoo felt tingly on my scalp which was quite pleasant but when I felt the fingers start massaging my scalp at my temples and gradually circle around my head and going down to my neck and then proceed back up to my temples and then back around, I was helpless against the sensation of intense goose bumps, my knees went weak and alarm bells could have gone off and I wouldn’t have cared. Everyone in the world needs to experience a head massage it would make the world a much nicer place for everyone, I promise. It is the greatest sensation in the world, at that point I didn’t care if I had a hair cut or not, the massage was that great.

When my blissful head massage came to an end, the moment of truth was at hand, it was time for my haircut. Monsieur Bouquet and I went back to the chair where Sabine was sitting in her hair reading a magazine. She looked up and put down her magazine and started talking to me telling me about what she had seen in the pictures of the Vogue magazine and the ideas that they had given her. I was thankful for all her chatter because it did distract me from focusing on how much hair was falling on the floor. I had asked for a ponytail of my hair to be saved before Monsieur Bouquet had even started to cut, Sabine had it in her handbag. I couldn’t help it but my eyes kept looking down and noting quite a pile on the floor and my stomach was still a bit clenched with nervousness because I still wasn’t sure how this was going to end up.

When I was allowed to look up at the mirror, Monsieur Bouquet wasn’t done mind you, he was simply done with the big cuts, now he was going back and forth and making smaller cuts and it looked like he was sculpturing my hair to fall in a pre-determined place. It was fascinating how controlled his movements were, it really looked like artistry. My stomach was starting to relax because I was staring to see the final result and it didn’t look hideous. Sabine kept her dialogue going and I must to confess that it was very soothing and I was so glad that she was a part of this. This was another adventure to add to our life story. Monsieur Bouquet’s hands started to slow down until the scissors were put down on the counter and then he got the hair dryer. While he was gently drying my hair and styling it in place, I was getting used to the bizarre lightness of my head. I felt that my head had lost at least 10 pounds, it felt so weird.

How many books do you read?

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literature, postaday2012

About how many books do you read each year?

April 12, 2012

Books Per Year

New York City, Midtown Manhattan, New York Public Library NYPL, Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, 1897-1911

I used to read so much more when I was younger. Nowadays I would say about twenty books, give or take a few, I think.

Call It the Reagan Rule

It kind of makes me sad that President Obama invokes Ronald Reagan as a model. I understand the logic, how best to paint the current crop of republicans as irrational and greedy when their vision contrasts so starkly with their patron saint, “Saint Ronnie”. I wish that President Obama would remind the American people of a true progressive Teddy Roosevelt, the conservationist, the protector of the underdog. Teddy Roosevelt learned much about how the unfortunate truly lived when he was Police Commissioner in NYC. He never forgot those people in the tenements and you saw it in his public policy when he was afforded the opportunity to reenter political life later in early 1900’s. Having someone on our side like Teddy Roosevelt who was a man’s man, an intellectual, a historian. an activist and a fighter. Edmond Morris, his biographer, does a spectacular job of bringing Teddy to life and it’s easy to forget that he has been gone for all these years because aside from technology, things haven’t really changed about the fight for the soul of this nation of ours.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Ann Romney Hits Back Against Hilary Rosen

I think that it is safe to say that everyone in this world has struggles, Anne Romney who is exceedingly wealthy has had a great deal of health struggles in her life. She seems to be a warm person but she has never had to forcibly choose between buying food or paying for medicine for her MS, many working mothers have to make those incredibly hard choices and I used the term forcibly because there isn’t another word that suits the predicament that ails so many families out there. Employer sponsored health insurance isn’t guaranteed, buying your own health insurance is increasingly impossible given the cost of premiums and high deductibles. No one is saying anything against the wealthy, I am simply making the case that given what Mitt has said on the campaign trail, in terms of health insurance and his views on higher education, he doesn’t comprehend how easy he had it and how easy his sons have had it. It is much easier to be a success when you already have the backing and the tools behind you such as say Donald Trump and Mitt Romney. They both had successful fathers who helped guide them along to their own successes and they are both grooming their own sons for the same. Don’t pretend that policies that are aimed at the “job creators” have any impact on the average person, their income is actually earned by the sweat of their brow, not through carried along interest.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Romney Says He Will “Restore” America… But, to What?

Isn’t it a sign that an empire is on the decline when the politicians are campaigning with calls to a past greater glory? It seems to me that the corporate policies adopted by the collusion of Wall Street and congress and the tax rate cutting of the upper brackets pretty much bankrupted the national commons for everyone. What I mean by national commons isn’t just the national parks and our public spaces but our common public educational system, our common public law enforcement, our national research and development and even our space program. Once the C.E.O’s pay was divorced from the common interests of their own company and tied to the singular issue of stock prices, the C.E.O’s failed to exercise proper judgement on policies designed for the common good of the company and instead focused only on the shareholder, a trend that has extended itself to everything else in our society. The common good no longer prevails, it has been superseded by the good of the few.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

How Did Mitt Make So Much Money and Pay So Little in Taxes?

Unfortunately many of our lawmakers belong to the class of people who pay the carried interest tax rate for most of their income, so would it be in their economic self-interest to not change those rates and moreover, their campaign war chests depend on keeping their benefactors happy and since the richest of the rich earn all of their money on capital gains and carried interest, that is also a huge incentive to keep things as they are. What is surprising is that the well to do who get hit with the Alternate Minimum Tax don’t fight back harder against their much wealthier brethren, because the successful ones who earn between 300k and 1 million pay much more than the likes of Mitt Romney and I would argue that is grossly unfair, there is a big difference between 30% to 35% and only 15%. If the theory behind the low tax rates for capital gains and carried interest is that it encourages investment, than why don’t we see the economy much more improved through these millions and millions of dollars not paid to the government in tax revenue, but are theoretically reinvested in our economy? Why has our economy not grown? Isn’t that the principal argument against raising these rates? I don’t see the results that we have been promised. I see a lot of hysterical GOP lawmakers deflecting criticism by yelling “socialism” and “class warfare” and that is about it.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Will George Zimmerman Be Convicted?

What I find to be encouraging is that Zimmerman was finally arrested and charged with a crime. I have read that since 2005 when the Stand Your Ground bill was signed into law by Jeb Bush, the rates of “vigilante” murders took a significant uptake. Growing up in New York, I took a legal studies course in my Catholic high school. My teacher was Sister Fitzgerald, a lovely nun and I remember clear as day discussing in class a person’s duty to retreat and the use of equal force, meaning that you don’t bring a gun to a knife fight. I realize that each state is different but I always felt that if New York could be so reasonable, than other states should be as well. Florida isn’t the only state with this dangerous law on its books and hopefully the lawmakers will wake up and realize that adopting the Stand Your Ground law only invites vigilantism, not true law and order.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Ann Romney and Working Moms

I understand what Ms. Rosen meant by her statement regarding Anne Romney and her understanding of what it is like for other women. I think what got lost in the whole outrage is the point that Mitt and Anne Romney will never understand what it is like for millions of working mothers and single mothers because no matter what their own struggles were from early on in the life together, Mitt Romney had a leg up, that put him in a circumstance that he and his wife never had to make really tough choices. I appreciate the fact that Anne is battling MS, a tough disease, our aunt recently passed away after living with MS for 40 years, so I know how it can be, but if Anne were like most people, she might be calling for a different nationalized health insurance program or if she and Mitt hadn’t been son and daughter-in-law of a highly successful governor and auto industry executive, she might have been forced to become a working mother, difficult to do with MS. I see the value of these questions due to how Mitt and Anne Romney achieved their success.Yes it was through hard work on both their parts but I am sure there is the question; if Mitt couldn’t have afforded Harvard, if he hadn’t had the social circle he was born into, would he be the success he is today? Is his vision of America as the land of opportunity still viable for the average young American starting out without Mitt’s family history and connections? These are valid arguments and questions. There is no question that being a stay at home mother is as difficult and important as anything else, but so many millions of women don’t have the choice. It is a financial necessity for them to work outside the home, that is what got lost in the debate, the loss of increased wages throughout the decades for the median income family of America.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost