I woke up with a start at 4:30am in the morning. For some reason, I was dreaming I was on the Dr Phil show, not just watching it. Dr Phil points over to this one woman on the side of the stage and informs me, "This lady over here is undead... you're not afraid of her, are you?"

Undead. As in zombie. Or vampire. Or something equally frightening.

That's when I woke up. My heart was pounding, and I couldn't go back to sleep.

I have no idea where that came from. I had just finished the book A Spectacle of Corruption by David Liss, which deals with a man wrongfully accused of murder during the 1722 election season in England. No undead people there!

Once I was awake, I started getting paranoid that Psycho Woman's Daughter or one of her friends or someone was peering in my window. Lately I've been leaving the shade up a bit to allow the sun to shine in the morning and help wake me up. I haven't felt quite so groggy the mornings I've done that. But if you climb my fence, you can peer right into my window. Scary stuff.

So yeah. Not fun.

But the rest of my day more than made up for it!!!

My new friend AS had called this morning to see if I wanted to join her and the little girl she watches at the park nearby, but I wasn't even dressed yet. Yes, I am lazy. They'd already been at the park for half an hour, and they were already bored stiff. So I told her I'd meet her another day.

But then I got my butt in gear to go to the post office to mail something for Kurt and for my good buddy Art (HI ART!!) as well. Unfortunately the awesome postmaster wasn't working today, so I had to deal with cranky, grumpy, ornery Crazy Postal Clerk. I was in the post office only about five minutes. That's a record for me. When the awesome postmaster is working, I can stay for 30 minutes to an hour. But then she sees herself as Grace's honorary grandma.

Everyone loves my kid!

Once I got home, J called to ask when I was going to get my hair done so she could have Grace, and I talked her into going to lunch with me at the Mexican restaurant. Mmmm molcajete. Good stuff! Then J took Grace with her back to her house, and I went to my hair appointment.

My stylist was shocked at how quickly my hair had grown. She didn't recognize me at all; she thought I was the other lady who was waiting who had really short hair. My hair had grown probably three or four inches in the last five months. It grows insanely fast. She didn't want me to cut it; she thought it looked great the way it was, and that I should just get a new perm. But I like the tight curls, so I convinced her I wanted it cut short.

And short it is!! But it'll grow. Quickly. Trust me.

I had called my friend HC, who I rarely see because she lives down near Tacoma, to see if she wanted to do dinner. Fortunately she was able to sneak out of the house without kids or husband to meet me downtown. We went to Anthony's, which is sort of a fancy seafood restaurant. Not so fancy that you can't wear jeans on the weeknights, but every entree is $20 or more. Our waitress clearly believed we did not belong there, that we didn't have the money to be in that kind of restaurant. That made me mad.

First off, I got there before HC, and when the waitress approached me to ask what I wanted to drink, I ordered a Coke for HC and a water with lime for me. As soon as I got done talking, she says, "You want lime? Not lemon, but lime??" Ummm, that's why I said lime! Sheesh! They had a full bar there; I know they had limes.

Anthony's features an Australian lobster tail special on the weeknights for $19. But they had another lobster tail meal on the menu that was $40. So we asked the question: are these the same thing (there was no mention on the menu as to what the difference was)? The waitress says, "Of course not! That one is $40!!"

Well, no shit, Sherlock. Thank you so much for pointing out the obvious.

She finally explained after much prompting that the $40 tail was 8oz, while the $19 tail special was only 6oz.

When we finally got the check, I told HC we ought to pay with our platinum credit cards just to prove to her we can afford to be in there. So I stuck mine in, and she stuck hers in. Then the waitress walked past us no less than three times before she picked up the check.

Needless to say, she didn't get much of a tip.

Of course, after such a yummy dinner (because it WAS quite good), ice cream was in order, and there was a Coldstone Creamery right next door. While standing around savoring the ice cream, a very handsome black gent passes me on the way out. He stops as he's pulling open the door, and says, "Your eyes are simply beautiful."

I about melted into a puddle right there!!! How sweet!!

My husband tells me all the time my eyes are pretty, but you know, he's a husband. He sort of has to think that. But here is this total, complete stranger telling me I have gorgeous eyes. Talk about a ego boost!!!

I barely got my head out of the door, it had swelled so much.

So here is a photo of my hair at the moment. It will relax a bit over the next couple of weeks, and it's not styled quite the way I would do it. But I still like it.