danajohnhill.org | Hard Times Come Again No More

I didn’t get a single haircut in 1994.  By the end of the following year I looked like a beardless hippie.  When the urge struck to shed my locks, I didn’t want to go to just anyone.  Sitting on a chair in Linda Fessenden’s bathroom, I watched my long hair fall on the floor.  From then on, if I needed a haircut, I’d go to a friend or do it myself.  The upside to this was that I saved a lot of money; the downside was that I often had bad hair.

When I first began seeing Miriam, I asked if she’d be willing to cut my hair.  I think she did once, but haircuts, in her opinion, are best left to professionals.  So, beginning in 2001 or so, she and I started seeing Amy at The Tease, which used to be in an upstairs suite on SE 1st Street.  Amy was nice, and did a good job, but The Tease was very expensive, and, if I recall correctly, Amy only got a fraction of what we paid.  Eventually she left The Tease and Miriam and I sought a new hairdresser.

I don’t remember how, but we found a girl named Danielle with her own salon called Hair Supply in an old house right behind Wise’s Drugstore.  Danielle is really talented–so much so that Miriam feels free to say, “give me whatever”–and she’s a mom who’s running her own business, so we feel good about going to her.  Plus, she’s not that expensive, and, best of all, she is glad to take a before and after picture each time I go.  Since 2005 or so, Danielle has been the only one to cut my hair.

Last month I had an appointment that I simply forgot about.  I had written it down, but by April 16 I was so busy with papers and tests that I simply spaced out.  So, today was my makeup haircut.  Miriam told me the other day she liked my hair when it was a bit longer, so I only got a little taken off the back.  And, while I didn’t get a shampoo–my favorite part of the haircut procedure–it didn’t cost me anything.

Danielle doesn’t do any advertising I know of, and her name isn’t even written on the outside of her building, but it seems like half the people I know go to her.  While I was there, I ran into one of Miriam’s roller derby teammates.

I doubt I will ever grow long hair again.

Filed under: Friends, General, Musings on May 7th, 2009 | No Comments »

One B; one B+; one A; another A.  My cumulative GPA is now 3.70.  That’s not bad.

Filed under: School on May 7th, 2009 | 1 Comment »

Some time ago, Jeff and Sandi gave us two bicycles: a Schwinn and a Cannondale.  Since then, I have used the Schwinn as my primary mode of transportation.  I ride it to and from school and work every day, seven miles round trip.  It rides great, the brakes work well, and it’s just the right size.

One thing, though, that’s bothered me off and on since I got it has been the pedals.  They’re plain plastic, but they have these ends that curve around on the inside close to the cranks.  Every once in a while, I will get my shoelace caught on one of these.  Sometimes this will happen at an especially inconvenient time – when I am trying to cross a busy street, for instance.  I have repeatedly told myself I need to do something about the pedals.  I certainly have had plenty of opportunities to replace them.  I have other bikes sitting idle, and I could have cannibalized their pedals.  But, I was personally offended that any bicycle pedals would be designed with so obvious a flaw, and I decided to right the wrong.

So, last weekend I took my rotary tool and cut off the dangerous portions of the pedals, and now I can ride comfortably, free from the very real fear that my foot will become physically tethered to my bike at the precise moment I’m crossing some traintracks or jumping a gorge.

Filed under: Transportation on May 5th, 2009 | 2 Comments »

I’m not going to go Ted Kaczynski here, but I cannot fail to notice the ways technology has caused me immense frustration over the course of the last year.  In 2008, I had to buy a new television to replace one I had purchased less than two years before; I had to buy a new computer to replace another that failed in data-losing fashion; and I experienced a months-long plumbing nightmare.

My new HDTV is the greatest thing ever, and thanks to the good folks at Quality Plumbing, the drain is clear, so that horror has ended.  But no sooner had the water begun flowing than more trouble has come along to take the place of the old.  This weekend, after being at work all afternoon for back-to-back beg-a-thon shifts, I arrived home to find the house exceptionally warm.  The air conditioner was blowing hot air.  Thanks to help I received in the past from the Clays–who had a similar problem–I knew the culprit was a bad capacitor, and I did replace it today at minimal cost.  But, that’s just the beginning.

Miriam began complaining recently that the laptop–my expensive replacement for the old computer that failed so horribly–was behaving oddly.  For instance, when she would turn it on, the screen would be blank.  Not having experienced it myself, I couldn’t guess the cause.  By Sunday morning, however, it happened to me.  Indeed, after starting Windows, the screen would go blank and stay blank.  Sara told me that that is precisely what her HP laptop did to her less than a year after she bought it.  This computer is less than ten months old, so it is still under warranty, and, if it’s going to break, now’s the best time, being the holiday between spring and summer classes.  But, hell fire, what is the world coming to that we cannot make a product that lasts more than a couple years any more?

I’ll confess my share of the blame: I have allowed myself to become captive to the power and convience of computers.  Indeed, I use a computer every day for many important tasks.  Consequently, when I have this sort of problem, it’s a cripling predicament.  I spent an hour and a half on the phone this morning with HP technical support (not being jerked around – it just took a long time to run some diagnostic tests), and now I will be without my laptop for two weeks.

I’m not planning on going off the grid, but sometimes I’m tempted.

Filed under: Rantings, Technology on May 4th, 2009 | No Comments »

This semester, for the first time since I’ve been at the University of Florida, I had final exams in all my classes.  The middle two, which I took on Tuesday and Thursday, were relatively painless.  The last, which I took Friday, I’ve already told you about.  The first, which I took last Monday, was extraordinarily challenging for me.

“Donne to Milton” was the title given to the course I took this semester on seventeenth century English poetry.  It wasn’t easy.  The exam was in two sections.  The first involved identifying passages from works we’d read, and going into some detail about what the passages meant.  This was challenging because, a) I have a terrible memory, and, b) because, stripped from the larger work, short passages often lack any context at all.  The second half of the entailed writing an extended essay on Milton’s Samson Agonistes.  Ouch.  The long and short of it is that I regret taking the class due to the difficulty, and my distaste for much of the material.  I discovered I do not care for John Donne, and I hate John Wilmot.  On the upside, I did learn to like Andrew Marvell; “Upon Appleton House” is an amazing poem.

Filed under: School on May 2nd, 2009 | No Comments »