HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO......

But that would necessitate getting an artificial tree.....another disagreement in our household. I *won't* have a fake Christmas tree! EVER!

Now, that being said, I *do* have a small one at work upon which I tried your suggestion. I had gotten little decorations for start-of-school, summer and Halloween. My coworkers then decided they didn't want the tree up all year long, so I got all those little decorations for nothing. sigh. I had mentioned it numerous times and I thought everyone liked the idea. If they didn't, I wish they would have said something *before* I spent all that money. :(

Joan

Every once in awhile I like to put some excitement into my usually-mousy-brown hair (with tinges of gray/silver coming in), and go for magenta...yup, hot pink! The gray takes it really well! I do just a bit on the top, and as it fades over time (6-8 weeks) I get a nice "aura." Just something to spice things up a bit when it gets dull, usually late winter/early spring, when we all need some COLOR in our lives!

Ah, the benefits of self-employment! You can be weird and nobody cares!

sue

Since you paid for the little tree at work, bring that one home and decorate it year round. Perhaps that would satisfy your need for a tree....

My granddaughter Hailey, who will be 10 this month, stitched a Christmas gift for one of her teachers. Apparently she picked just the right teacher to give it to, because this teacher is also a stitcher, and knew the things to say to allow Hailey to understand just how much she appreciated it. It seems she has a separate small Christmas tree she decorates every year with only cross-stitched ornaments that she and her friends have done. When they came back to school after the holiday, she told Hailey she had hung her gift there as well, and that it was the only one on the tree that had been stitched by a student. Hailey preened all day.

Hey - your hair isn't mousey brown. Trust me - we have a good friend (the professor) who despite all discussions from her daughters, me, even my husband has been having her truly, truly, mousey brown, fine, lanky, straight hair parted in the middle hanging down nearly to the waist for quite some time. We worked her up to buying hair clips better than the 59 cents plastic type. Finally, the last couple of years the teenage/college daughters convinced her to have a family outing and all go get their haircut together a couple of times a year - so now it's trimmed to below shoulders and looks happier. However - the good thing - this year a bunch of grey came in (more than the just streaky) and finally, her hair looks nice. So, the hope for the mousey brown thing - eventually the silver lining really is that! We still don't know why she refuses to just do something a bit more flattering - but think the DH has something to do with that.

It's a great idea. When I was in school I was still playing in a band. And, for me that requires my alter-ego to step out - which included some intriguing color mixes and glitter in my hair. One day - we'd played on the weekend, both days, and Monday morning I had my Advanced Thermodynamics class (see this as about 5 or 6 people and the venerable gentleman who was the prof). About 30 min into the class, he suddenly stopped babbling - looked at me - pointed and started kind of muttering my name - the guys broke out laughing. Me, well, "sorry professor - we played last night and I just didn't get to washing it out". Him - "could you please not do that again?" I guess he found it distracting (there were 2 other guys from the ME dept, and one of the young profs that played together).

My first year working, I had a couple of very snotty to me, resentful, coop students (junior/seniors at Umd) who were assigned to work under my direction. Some cultural issues in particular with the one from a very traditional, Italian, from Baltimore City family. Anyhow - I know they thought I was very bitchy (of course not the case, exactly). I had tried to be friendly, but it wasn't going so well. One weekend I'd gone back to Pgh to see some friends, and the band had a play-date. I came to work on Monday with my hair still some stripey copper, glitter, and maybe a little pink. I can still see this coop - touching my hair - lifting it- looking in amazement and saying something like "it's true - you really do have a life..."

Very true. Knowing the limits, and being good enough otherwise to make people deal with eccentricities is the key elsewise. When I came back with the crayola red hair from Amsterdam - the secretaries didn't say a word - though there was some looking. Then one of the AF Cols (our deputy) - great guy - walked past me in our reception area while I was giving some work to the secretary - and he said "yup, someone's been in Europe" and kept on going. The hair definitely got some looks - this was about 13 years ago - and it was a color not seen in the states. Even passport control - the guy in NY looked at it - at my photo - at my travelling companion - asked him "do you like it?" - "yes" - then said to me "you'll be ok here in New York

- but when you get to Washington ...just shook his head. The color definitely got some stares for a while til it mellowed a bit - especially as I think I'd come back in time to for the Jewish High Holidays - and some little kids at services were definitely staring and pointing. The god-kids loved it.

ellice

Heh. When I was still living in Dayton, I died my hair royal blue. When I arrived at work the next day, the department secretary took one look and said "I take it you've accepted that job in Salem?"

Elizabeth

Snort! I'd have like to see that

Excellent. My secretaries at that time were neither clever enough, or nice enough to say anything like that. The nice one - well, a nice but not too bright girl. The smart one - no one could believe our boss had accepted her

- nasty piece of work, lying, screwing up peoples time sheets, manipulative

- smart enough but no wit. And the other one - only there for the $$ and didn't actually care to do much of anything - except talk to people about her horse. The nice one - who was the Directorate chief's secretary (promoted from our group) - had a hard time once the 2 nasty pieces of work were there.

Royal blue - just wouldn't work for me. But, it's a nice color.

ellice

Back then, I had little enough grey that the blue was only visible in certain lights. Too bad it only lasted about 3 weeks.

Elizabeth

While I am occasionally tempted, no one in my current job would bat an eye.

Elizabeth

DD had her hair royal blue for 2 yrs. in high school. It was really short, and she'd bleach it first, then do the blue -- looked terrific (pixie-ish) on her! And she's not a "showy" personality, fashion-conscious, or anything attention-getting in any other way...sort of quiet...she just liked blue.

Alas, now she's all grown and in a "responsible" job and says she can't do that any more.

sue

When my younger daughter was in her early 20s, she dyed her hair manic panic pink. Omigosh. It was vivid. And it took bleach to get it off my bathroom tiles and her skin. That said, it was interesting looking.

A student that used to work for me dyed his hair the coolest shade of blue/purple. Depending on the light, it sometimes looked blue and sometimes purple. Hard to get used to at first but I really liked it after awhile. Now that he's in seminary school, he's let his hair go back to a "respectible" color. :)

Joan