17. COLOR

I can't believe how long it has been since I last wrote something. So much has been going on and this is the first chance I've had to sit and write!

In the middle of February I went to New York for what was supposed to be an opening exhibition of my father's paintings depicting his experiences during the Holocaust. I was also excited to get a chance to spend time with my daughter. It turned out that the threat of snow cancelled the exhibition, but it didn't stop Rachel and me from shopping our butts off. I had such a great time with her. I really cannot stand living so far from both of my children, and wish there was a way that I could afford to fly in to see them both whenever I wanted.

I also fell in love while away.

It was with a bird.

Rachel's roommate has two birds, an African Grey and a Green Cheeked Conure. I thought for sure I'd get attached to the African Grey as it talks, and I figured the interaction would be fun. It turned out that the Conure stole my heart. First of all, she looks like a bird version of one of my cats. She has these mannerisms that are so cute, and so endearing, that I just couldn't get enough of this little thing. Then one evening we were sitting around munching on chips and salsa, and all of a sudden she comes walking down the hall. It turns out that she is a little piglet, and heard the rustling of the chip bags, and came to eat. She sat on my shoulder happily munching away on tortilla chips. I actually missed her so much, that I asked Rachel's roommate to send me a photo of her. I know, sick.

So I missed Monday and Tuesday of school, but came straight from the airport in time for class on Wednesday. I spent the entire evening making up a test that was supposed to be given that night but had been pushed up to Tuesday evening, as well as making up skills that were taught, such as applying relaxer. Thursday we had another exam and then on Friday morning I came in to make up some of the lost hours as well as perform a perm service, which caught me up with all that I had missed.

Thursday, after our exam, we were all excited to start our new chapter on color. Instead, Ms. White had us do finger waving and pin curls. I though we would all kill her. What I now know is that she is definitely not qualified to teach in a classroom setting. She may be fine out on the floor of a salon, as her method of instruction is more hands on and she teaches "what goes on in the real world," her favorite expression. She is unfamiliar with the textbook, and does not come prepared with having read the text that she needs to instruct on. This is very frustrating. When we finally started on color, she was unable to teach it in the manner that newbies need to be taught-that is, explain why, how, and the consequences of. We were left to our own devices on choosing colors for our mannequin that for some turned out to be inappropriate, for when it came time to re-dye the mannequin, some colors were so out there, that they were difficult to correct. Don't get me wrong. I'd rather do it the hard way and learn how to make the corrections. But Ms. White never taught it in this manner, and this is the stuff we need for our state boards. My husband tells me to keep my mouth shut and not go to the administrator to voice a complaint. I'm not too sure that I am going to be able to comply for much longer. I am paying for an education and expect to get as much as I can out of it. Not leave at the end of the evening feeling frustrated.

In fact last night, we were to start on salon ecology, basically learning how to prevent infection and the types of micro-organisms out there. Ms. White read two pages from the textbook, asked me to pronounce the biological names, and then closed the textbook and asked us what we wanted to do that night. The evening prior we had Ms. Diamond who administered our test on color and then had us do a whole head foil. She had her lesson planned. This BS of "what do you want to do" does not fly with me. I ended up rolling a perm, as this is a service that is time consuming, and we need a certain amount of perms to graduate, so I figured the more I knock out now, the better. It turns out that you can have all 1200 hours, but if you did not complete the amount of services that the state requires, you do not graduate until you do.

The classroom at times becomes a bit too familiar, like being stuck in an office all day with the same people. I am not good with this, as people get on my nerves real fast when I know their quirks. Ms. White talks about herself all evening-it's all about her. Latisha is truly an idiot, and why they let her come back a second time to retake the course is beyond me. She follows no instruction, comes in late, has a horrible attitude, does things the way she wants to, and I find it scary that in a few short weeks she will work on another person's hair. Spit-sucking Stephanie, being the consummate shampooer at the salon she works at, feels it her obligation to give instruction to the rest of us, as I guess having a "degree" in shampooing makes you a rocket scientist. Needless to say, she and Latisha are good friends. One of my favorite expressions, which always holds true about the people you choose to have in your life is, "water seeks it's own level." Enough said.

16. PERMING

This week has been quite hectic and exhausting. It began Sunday night when my husband had a bunch of his friends over for the Superbowl, and I lost count of how many glasses of wine I consumed. Needless to say, Monday was unbearable! I had planned to study all day for my chemistry exam that evening. I tried everything to wake myself up out of the self-induced stupor, coffee, fluids, cold shower, even going for a walk, but nothing helped.

I basically stumbled into class, and was happy to see that my fellow classmate, Cassy, was in the same dire position as I was. I ended up getting 100% because the test really wasn't that hard (although I'd like to take credit for my conscientious studying). Then I lucked out, as Mr. Sanchez gave us the option of having class time or sitting in on an inservice given by a master colorist. Of course I jumped at the latter as did Cassy, and we sat stupefied until we were allowed to go home. I am getting too old to drink and am seriously going to limit my consumption from now on.

We are learning how to perm hair and all the chemicals that are involved with the process. The pH scale is now my new friend, and I spent Tuesday night dreaming of neutralizing hair. The one thing that scares me is doing damage to someone else's hair. Mr. Sanchez has shared some horror stories with us about inexperienced hairstylists and the havoc they have caused on unsuspecting clients. I pray not to become a statistic.

Again I am amazed at the science behind all these processes, and how much knowledge is needed of the chemical interactions before one can/should proceed with any application. I still think of my husband's hairstylist with befuddlement.

Another teacher has joined the school. I had mentioned before that they are short handed. Ms. Green is a seasoned stylist, with over 30 years in the industry. She started the class by handing out a "quiz" which was a set of instructions that required you to do numerous things such as calling things out when you came to a certain instruction, standing up at another, etc. Somewhere in my gut I knew this was a trick. It turned out that the first instruction was to read all instructions carefully. The second instruction was to write your name on the paper. After this you weren't supposed to do anything. You didn't find this out until the last instruction which told you to go back and look at instructions #1 and 2: after this, if you had read all the way down following instruction #1, you never would have proceeded beyond instruction #2. I felt foolish, but it did open my eyes to not jump first but to take the time to read things through.

The funny thing about this is that Mr. Sanchez was out of the room when she gave us this "quiz." So when he came back into the classroom, she asked if he'd like to participate, and while we continued learning about perm solutions, we watched as he shouted things out, stood up, etc. all the while trying not to laugh. Ms. Green was truly impressed with the knowledge we had gained about the chemical solutions, and sincerely stated that she thought we were a really bright bunch of students, and asked who had already taught us so much. I pointed to Mr. Sanchez and stated "that guy there who just flunked your quiz." Everyone got a good laugh-it was cute.

So Ms. Green is a tough cookie, and you can't slide with mediocre work. She is a perfectionist, and her motto is "time is money," so she teaches in a fashion that requires you to work efficiently. I think I'm going to like her.

I am going out of town and will miss 2 days of school which I am not happy about. I come home on Wednesday and plan to go straight to school from the airport as I have an exam on Wednesday AND Thursday on perms, relaxers, and curl reformation, as well as the history of these processes.

I am hating work more so than usual, probably because I am enjoying cosmetology so much in comparison. I am seriously considering finding a job in a salon for the experience and stopping the nursing which I absolutely despise except for the money. I am sick of traveling to see patients, sick of coming into the office and not having a desk or computer to work on since the owners have a computer system that doesn't allow more than 2 users on at once, and they are on the computer most of the day (a good deal doing personal stuff as well as looking at semi-nude photos of Brooklyn Decker). The office is the size of a large bedroom, and we are on top of each other all day. One of the owners' wives calls constantly bitching and complaining, while the others' texts him all day. It's like watching two teenagers. I am pounded for ideas for marketing though this is not part of my job. When they go out for lunch (they have yet to ask if I'd like for them to pick something up for me), I then have to listen to the office manager who bitches about her health non-stop but does nothing about it. Once they pass the state survey I think I will give notice.

15. THIS STUFF MAKES SENSE

Mr. Sanchez was kind enough to postpone our test on the chapter most of us liked least until this past Thursday. I got a 92% plus the workbook which gave me another 100%.

My husband found this great website for people who are in the business of hairstyling or who are interested in the art:( http://www.style-hair-magazine.com/). I spent part of my morning looking at some of the instructions, and lo and behold, all the stuff in the chapter that we just tested on is there. Then I watched an episode of Shear Genius the other day and there too they discussed quite a bit of what this chapter offered. I guess I better go back and really learn the stuff if it's going to be such an integral part of my work!

We are now studying chemistry which we will have yet another exam on on Monday. Our neighborhood held a yard sale today, so since I had to sit outside from 8:00 AM until noon, I ended up reading the entire chapter and making flash cards to study from while I waited for customers.

I learned how to do a 90 degree haircut and a 45 degree haircut this week, and now I understand what the stylist has been doing when she cuts my hair. Mr. Sanchez was really impressed by my 90 degree cut saying he couldn't believe how great it turned out.

What we had to do was to take our African -American female mannequin and shampoo, blow-dry and flat-iron her hair until it was nice and straight. Then we had to give her (it) a 90 degree cut on dry hair. Mine came out beautiful, if I do say so myself. I am SO tempted to try and cut my own hair now-I just don't know if I have the guts!

While watching the above mentioned episode of Shear Genius, it occurred to me what this industry lacks. I realize that the contestants are chosen based on their talents as well as egos, and who will provide the most entertainment for the show by being controversial. Most are in their late 20's to 30's. What I realized is that they do not know how to listen. They, and from my personal experience, most stylists, are so wrapped up in their own head about how they know what would look best on a client, that they really do not listen to what the client is expressing or trying to express. I think coming into this field from a medical background may give me an edge over most, as listening is a huge part of trying to find out what is really going on with a patient.

This is something that probably can't be taught. It either comes with maturity, or not. Some people (like my ex) never get it and never will. Any hairstylist who has lost a client should follow up and find out what they did that caused the client to go elsewhere. I would bet that the proportion of complaints of not listening or "not getting it" in terms of what they asked for, would be quite great.

So I've begun to implement my plan for April. Starting March 1st I will not be seeing patients on Mondays and Fridays, but will use this time to catch up on inventory of my bags for my upcoming shows. Then in April I will start to go to school on Monday mornings and Friday mornings. I'll need to work some extra weekends to make some money, but I hope my shows will do well and that I'll get some follow up internet orders as well. It all remains to be seen!

14. EXPEDITING THE PROGRAM

So this is the plan.

I spoke with the director of the cosmetology program yesterday, and told her that I wanted to finish the program much sooner than the 18 months that it takes for the evening students to complete. Since the daytime students are so far ahead in the material that they have already covered, it would be a diservice to me to try and catch up on my own without proper hands on instruction on the various techniques that they have already done and that the evening class is yet to do. I have to agree with this.

So the deal so far is this: around mid-April we are due to finish our classroom work and will be ready to start working in the salon. At that time, I will start coming on Monday mornings as well as the evening, and also on Friday mornings (there's no evening class on Fridays). This will give me another 12 hours each week, plus we are allowed to clock in 15 minutes earlier than our scheduled time, which I do every day, giving me an additional 1 hour per week presently, and another 1/2 hour for the 2 extra days that I will attend. After doing the math, it is feasible that I can complete the course in a year, rather than 18 months. I will still work in the office 3 days a week, and can see patients on weekends to supplement my income. I still have my shows that I have scheduled to do, so starting March 1st I will not be working on Mondays and Fridays and will use this time to sew inventory for my upcoming shows, and then when April rolls around, Mondays and Fridays will be used for extra class time. That's the plan.

Tonight we had another exam on the material that we studied with Ms. Ellie on design and form, etc. I was really surprised that I got 100% as well as the additional 10% for the workbook. The chapter I dislike the most is on pincurls and all kinds of weird styling that looks like a throwback from the 1940's. It just seems like a ridiculous amount of work for such a short lived style. Plus the chapter is over 50 pages long, and we were to have a test on it tomorrow, but Mr. Sanchez was kind enough to postpone it until Thursday.

We are now starting on the chemistry involved in hairstyling. Judging by the material, I feel like I'm back in college. I happen to love chemistry-it makes sense to me and I absolutely find it fascinating to learn how things work on a molecular level. This I don't mind studying and devoting a good deal of time to.

It seems Latisha has disappeared from the program. For someone making a second go-round, she has been absent for 3 exams and has missed over a week of class. The rest of us seem to be very dedicated. One other student and I (it turns out she is a bit closer in age to me than I thought-she has no kids so there are no worry lines, no frown lines, and not as many smile lines :)) show up every day at the same time with the same enthusiasm. As exhausted as I am from work, I still look forward to class.

I worked on Sunday, as I have a patient that lives fairly close by. Whenever stuff like the following happens, I just envision never having to do this again: I had an appointment to come to this patient's home at 10:00 AM to fill all his pill boxes with his medications. This guy is a nut for bridge. It turns out that when I arrived, he had just gotten a call to fill in as a player, and was running around his house like his butt was on fire, trying to get dressed and worrying that his caregiver hadn't shown up as of yet to drive him to the bridge hall. I told him to finish getting dressed, and that I would start on his pills. I finished "pouring" his medications into the little daytime boxes, which still had the lids up, when he announced that he had forgotten to take his morning meds and turned the pill box over to dispense the meds, not looking to see that all the containers were open. So now there are dozens of pills scattered all over the table and floor, I am standing there dumbfounded, and he decides to call his caregiver to tell her that I will be taking him to bridge and she didn't have to rush to get to his house. I ended up taking him to his bridge game (what could I do? The guy was out of control!) and then had to come back at 6:00 PM when he came home from playing 6 1/2 hours of bridge to clean up the medications and put them back in their proper places in the pill boxes.

There are times, like I tell my husband when he annoys the crap out of me, that I wish I had a bat that I could pull out of my purse like a switch blade, and hit him over the head with. This was one of those times. No "thank you", no "sorry I made a mess"-nothing. This is when I think about school with a smile.

13. OWNER OF THE SCHOOL

So Thursday we were all anticipating if we were going to do anything of educational value, or get to assist again out on the floor, when the owner of the school walked into our classroom and said that she'd be teaching us for the evening. We were pretty taken aback, as we never really get to see her for more than a few moments other than when she would poke her head into our classroom to say hello. Our evening turned out to be one of the most informative classes all of us has experienced so far.

Ms. Ellie owns the school with her husband and is a former hairstylist. She has an enormous enthusiasm for her craft, and a wealth of information to share. She teaches in the style of a "regular" teacher, lecturing non-stop but with some interesting hands on material to not let it get too monotonous.

Our class focused on developing an eye for body and facial structure, what key elements about both of these play into the appropriate look that would most benefit the client, and which styles would not. We then went on a search through the school to find examples of these different body types, examining both the staff and the students to stress the physical features that a student can observe in a person.

The most interesting aspect of the evening, was when Ms. Ellie had each of us sit up on a stool, covered our hair so that only our facial structure was visible, and we had to determine the shape of each others' face, the distance between key areas of the face to determine what was the prominent feature, and what hairstyle would then be appropriate to the facial structure. Then we analyzed each others' skin tone and eyes to determine if they were classified as "warm" (reflecting yellow, orange or red), or "cold" (reflecting blue, green or violet). We looked at the hair to see if the color that the person was wearing coordinated to the tones of the eyes and the skin. I was amazed when Ms. Ellie determined that my hair color was too warm for my skin and eye tone, and held up a swatch of hair in a shade of blonde I would never have considered, and saw how perfect it would be on my head, all by taking into account the warmness and coldness of a person's skin and eyes and how to balance the two. Fascinating.

I am considering talking with whomever is in charge to see if I can begin to attend school on Monday mornings and Fridays to expedite this process. There isn't a day that goes by where I just cannot stomach all the paperwork at work anymore. If I have to double up on homework that will be fine. Day classes are 6 hours long and they attend for 10 months. Evenings are 4 hours, and we attend for 18 months. It's a big difference. If I can get it somewhere in between, that would be acceptable. We'll see.

12. NO TEACHERS

For the past 2 nights we have not had a teacher. One is out after having surgery, another has pneumonia, and another lost a family member. That left Mr. Sanchez to run the salon floor with the senior students and unable to give us classroom instruction. The only good part is that our exam is postponed. I haven't been feeling too well for the past few days and studying wasn't high on my list.

On Tuesday night Ms. Pauly had us sit with the senior class for an inservice on haircare for African-American hair. This is so foreign to me, as I never realized the challenge that African-Americans have with their hair and scalp. The school has a large African-American population as well as numerous customers who come to the school's salon for their hair care, so learning these processes is important. However, realistically, though a client can only request the same student up to 3 times, I cannot see an African-American client wanting their hair done by a caucasion. I know that I sure as heck wouldn't if I were in their place. But this remains to be seen.

Wednesday evening was much more interesting, as I was selected to work as an assistant to a senior student named Jeanie. Jeanie is an interesting looking woman, probably around 31-32, who is originally from South America. Her facial structure looks almost masculine, but when up close, it actually looks as though she might have had reconstructive surgery due to an accident. She has this magnificent mane of thick, curly hair.

Right off the bat, Jeanie had me assist her. She taught me how to look up a client in the computer system, find the formula used on their hair on their prior visit (if there was one), and mix the color with the developer while measuring out everything using a digital scale. Luckily we had a teenaged girl, who was thrilled to have 2 people work on her hair.

The project was for natural looking highlights to the hair plus a haircut and new style that required cutting off about 4" of hair. She taught me how to part the hair, how much hair to take for each foil, and actually let me do a few. Again, for someone as precise as a surgeon when I do things, I felt like a spaz.

While the color was depositing (we used color, not bleach), I picked her brain. She was a wealth of information as she is only 1 month away from graduating.

When the highlights were ready, she had me take out the foils while wetting the client's hair and then had me wash and condition the hair. After she did the haircut, while explaining every step of the way, she had me blow-dry the hair.

It was great. Of course it's new and usually everything new seems exciting, but it felt like when I was painting for a living. Using my hands for something other than paperwork, creating a new look and getting a hug in return from a very happy teenager was pretty cool. Plus, her mom gave Jeanie a tip and me a few bucks as well. I insisted that Jeanie take it, but she wouldn't hear of it and thanked me for all my help.

We don't know what's going to be tonight. I really don't want to sit for 4 hours watching instuction videos, but I have to show up to collect the hours. I can't wait to get through all the bookwork and put it all into practice!

11. ROLLERS

About 3 months ago I went to a very upscale salon in my area that came highly recommended. As I've mentioned before, I go through hairdressers like I go through nursing jobs, so before I let anyone touch my hair, I make an appointment for a consultation with a stylist. One stylist in particular was recommended as being "phenomenal" with color.

I met with George, a man about 27, very soft spoken, kind of artsy-nerdy, but who seemed very confident in understanding what I was looking for. I brought lots of photos and even photos of how my hair was a few years back and told him that I just wanted my hair back to the way I used to have it, my base color and lots of highlights. He assured me that he knew exactly what I wanted, and I made an appointment with him for the following week.

Long story short, my hair came out nothing as we discussed. I had specifically told him that I did not like chunky highlights, rather to spread them out in thin strips about 1/8" wide. What I got was 1" chunks of very blond hair on top of auburn hair (my base color is a dark brown). I knew when he saw it he knew it was wrong and was quick to say that sometimes a small touch up here and there is needed to get it perfect, so I should come back tomorrow and he would rectify the situation. I neglected to say that throughout this 3 1/2 hour ordeal, small things were mentioned in passing such as "your porosity is off, so I'm just going to add this to your shampoo," and "your ends are a bit dry so I'll add this conditioner to them," never stating that this was being tacked on as an additional service to my bill, which came to a whopping $250.00. Plus he tried selling me product at $26 per bottle. To shorten this pathetic disaster, I ended up going back to him 3 times to fix this mess. Each time I heard that sometimes another touch up is needed, but after 3 strikes you're out and I was done. And pissed.

I tell you this because on the first day of school when we were receiving our orientation from Ms. Pauly, she mentioned that a stylist from a local upscale salon comes in periodically to teach the newest methods in haircutting, and mentioned the name of the salon. Do you know how sometimes you know instantly what's going to happen next? Well last night I walked into the school, and guess who's teaching the haircutting class. You guessed it.

I avoided him like the plague, as I have since found another hairdresser who so far has been doing what I ask (this is another story for another time) and I didn't want to embarass him as well as myself, since my hair is drastically different than the mess he had left it in. Everytime I had to walk by the open classroon that he was teaching in, I raised my mannequin head to the side of my head so it was it's profile that was seen instead of mine. I know, real mature. But sometimes you have to do what you have to do.

Mr. Sanchez obviously has a new girlfriend, as he spent a good portion of the evening with his cell phone hooked to his pants while he continuously checked for texts. Instead of 2 10 minute breaks we were given one 15 minute and one for 30 minutes. One of the girls in the class and I stayed in the classroom to use this time to catch up on some homework, while the others disappeared. I really didn't appreciate his use of our time for his personal use.

We spent most of the evening going over our reading assignment, (while he checked for text messages), and then in the last hour we learned how to apply rollers to the hair.

When I was a kid, the only people I ever saw in rollers were the women in the beauty parlor that my mother dragged me to every Saturday to sit, watch and wait for what seemed a tortuous amount of time, while she and her fellow roller queens sat under the hair dryers and tried to hear each other speak. I never new that there actually was an art form to their application.

It seems that the placement on the scalp is very important. They are not arbitrarily placed, but strategically, according to what kind of curl you want and how much volume (lift) you want the curl to have. I never understood why, in my futile attempts to try and set my mother's hair on my own, the hair would fall off the roller from the sides, only to learn that there is also a method to how wide the hair should be as well as how much hair gets rolled on depending on what kind of result you are trying to achieve. It really was very interesting. Too bad we only got to do 1/2 a head and then it was time to clean up to get ready to go home. All of us were dying to finish and dry our mannequin's hair to see the finished result but time had run out. We were all disappointed.

I cannot believe that this is already the third week of school. We will get a print-out of how many hours we've accumulated so far, so that I can officially start my count down.

10. NEW INSIGHTS

Though this is Saturday, I had to work, as the agency I work for is limited in it's resources for RN's (actually, I'm the only one available except for one other who chips in once in a while).

I had to do a lot of driving and got to thinking about hairstyling.

In our studies, there is a lot written about form, texture, lines, and profiles related to hairstyling. It occurred to me that the reason why I am enjoying this so much is that I was a sculpture major. All the elements we are studying related to hair, is relative to sculpture. When I studied sculpture, I was working with a 3-dimensional form hidden within the block of material that I was sculpting. It's the same with hair. You are presented with a form, and you use your talents to figure out what you can carve from this form to create something beautiful. You take into consideration the person's features, the elements of their face and body and how you think a style would be appropriate to compliment their features.

I realize this is the tip of the iceberg, as I have so much more to learn about this related to hairstyling, but the concept is the same. Before I even made the decision to study cosmetology, I would always comment to my husband when we would watch a show or a movie, how some one's hairstyle or hair color was so wrong for them, and what I thought would look so much better to compliment their features. Never did I think that life would head me in the direction to make a living doing this, though I have quite a ways to go, but my teachers keep assuring me that "it flies!"

I am still so surprised as to how much I look forward to starting another week of school. I can't wait until we start learning about color, and all that's involved with it. We have to study some chemistry, which I always found fascinating in college, and it will be interesting to apply the principles to the processes that we will be using. Especially from the point of having had so many processes done to my hair over the years; to learn the actual science behind it will be something I will really enjoy. I am the type of person who is never satisfied with just a plain explanation; I want to know the whys and hows behind it.

So this was my epiphany for today.

I can't wait!

9. THERE'S ALWAYS ONE IN THE CLASS

Do you remember when you were in school, there was always one kid that always acted like he/she was clueless, and that the world owed them because they always "misunderstood" the laws laid down by the teacher? Well I have one of those in my class, but she is post-high school, which is pretty pathetic.

To begin with, I was surprised that the school was open on Martin Luther King's birthday. The school has a large population of African-American students, so I called the school to confirm that they indeed were holding classes that night. One of my class-mates, Latisha, did not come to class on this holiday, so I naturally assumed it was because of the fact that it was a federal holiday and most places were closed.

Instead, Latisha comes in on Tuesday and asks (exactly like this): "Do we all had school yesterday?" When we all nodded in agreement she exclaimed "We did?"

So yesterday we were all very aware that we were having an exam. And on the first day of class all the rules and regulations were laid down, first and foremost being that if you are going to be absent or even 5 minutes late, you must call the school. One hour into the class, Latisha strolls in. And can't understand why Ms. Diamond will not allow her to now take the exam that we all have finished. Plus she never bothered to call and let Ms. Diamond know that she was running late. Plus she also missed the exam on Monday. Mind you, this is the second time that Latisha is taking this course, having dropped out in August due to her third pregnancy: Latisha is twenty.

Now she is pissed off, mumbling under her breath, and guess who is her best buddy? You guessed it, spit-sucking Stephanie, who for some reason, was sucking spit at an alarming rate last night. Latisha is now undermining everything Ms. Diamond is instructing the class in, and I am looking at this girl (I mean girl-3 kids or not) like she's an idiot.

I must be an idiot for writing about these antics.

I got a 98% on my exam, and yes I turned into one of those nerds ready to slit their wrists because I got one wrong and I had studied this question a good part of the day. But with the workbook completion, I got another 100%. Two others did in the 70's and 80's. Mandy, who lives with her boyfriend and mother and has a 3month old and a 2 year old I think failed, but at least the girl tries and shows up every day on time. This was not an easy exam.

I really like Ms. Diamond (I think I've said this a number of times already). She has this laid back soft spoken way of doing things, and you can tell that she has much more experience as a hairstylist than Mr. Sanchez, who admittedly has done primarily African-American hair, and then only for a very short time before trying his hand at teaching. I was shocked to find out that he is only 33.

We learned the 180 degree haircut from a different perspective, the way Ms. Diamond teaches it, and I found it much easier to do. Then she had us get used to using a flat iron and a curling iron.

Since the flat iron is to me what vibrators are to some women, I am very proficient in using one. Curling irons I am not, as I really hate the look of up-dos and curly-q's in the hair, but I know I need to learn how to use this as well.

I have to see a whole bunch of patients this weekend, and need to get a head start on homework, since we are covering 2 chapters next week and having 2 exams plus a quiz the following week. The difference is is that when I was in nursing school I dreaded Mondays (everyday for that matter). Now, once I'm past my day job, I really look forward to coming to school. I guess that says a lot.

8. MISS ALISSA'S NEW HAIR-DO

We had a quiz today. I revert back to my high school days when I never studied and then wondered why, when I looked at the material on the test, I didn't recognize anything that was being asked. That's how I now get when I take tests. I study. I study like a mother, cause I think that the "old lady" in the class needs to prove something, and besides, I hate to fail or at least not come out on top (not that I'm competitive or anything like that). But when tests are handed out, this always happens: I look at the questions and internally panic, not recognizing anything that they are asking or even the language it is written in (English).

So the quiz turns out to be quite confusing, as I noticed that it is photo-copied out of a textbook that we do not use, and the definitions do not correlate to any of the definitions in our textbooks.

Mr. Sanchez (again tonight) explains that we will have to know the terminology from both textbooks for the state exam, which doesn't make sense to me since they conflict. He assured us that by the end of the 18 months (SO far away!) it will all compute. I am skeptical.

We worked on Miss Alissa's hair tonight (I PROMISE to provide photos). We learned how to do a long layered cut, commonly known to us hair dressers :) as a 180 degree cut. What is interesting is that I used to have my hair cut in this fashion throughout the 80's (it's sort of a longer-layered version of the Farrah Fawcett hair-do (may she rest in peace), but I never knew what the hairdresser was doing. Mine came out pretty darn good, if I say so myself, and Mr. Sanchez agreed.

Tonight we also reviewed the numerous styles of combs ( I never knew the difference or that there even was such a variety). I'm sure you've seen the comb that has a long tail, formerly referred to as the "rat-tail" comb. Mr. Sanchez was quick to point out that the new politically correct name for this comb is the tail comb. I asked if the rats were getting insulted, and he almost spit out his water. So we have a tail comb, formerly known as the rat tail. I hear Purple Rain playing in my head.

So spit-sucking Stephanie (okay, I'll be nice-which as I've mentioned before is hard for me), Stephanie, was kind enough, being the aficionado of hair shampooing, to show me some shampooing tricks, that were actually pretty cool. Maybe she's trying to suck up (oops, no pun intended), but it was helpful.

Tomorrow we have another large exam. Two in one week-I feel like it's mid-terms except it's only the second week of school. I have to see only one patient tomorrow, a new case down in Boca requiring wound care (my favorite) and then I'm coming home to study.

Wish me luck!