Oh, what's a girl to do?

The husband's in Denver, the dog is finally asleep, and all my Halloween decorations are up.

Being idle is not exactly a strong suit of mine.

I have shot myself in the foot: pointless post #596

Well, not literally. I'd say it was more like unintentional visage cultivation. You see, over the years I have been told every so often I resemble Linda Evangelista. Mind you, I'm about 3 inches shorter and 2 dress sizes larger, so I'm not even close to supermodel shape. Yes, I realize this is a huge compliment, but I really don't think I look like her. Don't get me wrong: I adore her to pieces. She and Eva were my favorite models of the late 80s-early 90s. But when I look at myself in the mirror I don't see Linda. I see my mom. Well, everything except my nose. But I digress.

So yesterday I visited Jerielle, the only stylist I trust in this state, to give my hair a bit of an update. I was born with hair that didn't match my eyebrows, and over the years I have only brought out the blonde to a greater degree. Now I love my eyebrows. Love, love, love them (thank you, Mom!). But alas, they are naturally hued chestnut. I asked Jerielle to match my hair to my eyebrows. Yes, you read that right. I decided to go where most women choose boldly not to go. I traded in my golden locks for rich chocolate ones. At first glimpse out of the shampoo bowl, my eyes probably grew wide as saucers. Jimminy Crickets it was dark. Not goth vampire dark, but not like anything I've ever had before. It lightened up a bit as it dried, and on the way home I wondered whether I had done the right thing. I'm a natural worrier, though. This morning I woke up in loooooove with the color. I'm so silly sometimes.

I styled it into a polished bob and left the house to run errands. Twice today....yes, TWICE! I got stopped in my tracks to be told I look like Linda. One lady did a double take as I was sitting in the M.A.C. makeup chair at Nordstroms trying on different hues. She felt obligated to march right up and tell me I look exactly like her. Was there something in the air?

I came home to Google Linda to find out the hue I had chosen is one of Linda's signature colors, and my bob today was shaped exactly like hers from some time ago. Observe:

I was totally stoked to find out she's the new face of Prada this fall (at age 43!!). Could there be some handsome angel donor who would be willing to buy me these shoes? I almost fainted from desire when I saw them.
Between Alexander McQueen's current collection: http://www.worldstarhiphop.com/videos/video.php?v=wshha0lPra6hw2MB70T2 (*love!*),

Louis Vuitton's

and Jean Paul Gaultier's

....let's just say I've been quite inspired lately.....

Hello, October!

So I was picking up Hernando de Soto's "The Mystery of Capital" today as my new read and paused long enough to realize it's already October. I guess I could have paid closer attention to the crayola crimson and blazing tangerine hues of the autumn foliage or the fact that I have actually started wearing a sweater on my commute to work in the mornings....but frankly, I just haven't had the time to breathe and bathe in the lavish beauty that accompanies this changing of the guard.

Back in September I was living, sleeping, and breathing work. Even my dreams had work-related acronyms floating through them. I escaped to Washington DC for a weekend sojourn to speak to the OneMBA 2010 class as a panelist discussing a day in the life of an executive working in the current US economic business environment. I blinked and found myself back in the throes of deadlines and stress-entrenched meetings (particularly outside of work--I sit on four boards). Sleep? What? Who, me?

I also spent a weekend in Indianapolis at the MotoGP race, cheering on my two favorites: Nicky Hayden of the US and Casey Stoner of Australia. Hurricane Ike decided to hit the track the afternoon of the race, and I'll bet the cyclists didn't expect to be running in 45mph winds with sideways-spitting rain on a winding track that would make even a rally car racer from Estonia proud. They called the race at the 20th lap, crowing Valentino Rossi the winner, but in my mind all these racers deserved a round of applause for being able to race at 170mph in these sorts of conditions. That's what I call true talent (or insanity--sometimes, they're the same thing).

Last weekend I flew up to Dubuque, Iowa for a retreat and alumni board meeting for my undergraduate institution. Between cooking brats and handing out 400+ buns in the course of 3 hours at the Homecoming tailgate, I managed to catch up with my finance professor (whose class I took 12 years ago, yet somehow he still remembered me as if I was his pupil yesterday), the president of the college (who interviewed me for the Board of Regents scholarship my senior year of high school and is one I am proud to call a good friend today), and the VP of Institutional Advancement to discuss a Facebook related branding issue. I ran around my old haunts and saw many friends from a decade past, and it was the best fun I've had in many moons.

This past weekend I hopped down to Charlotte for the Bank of America 500 and basically took a four-hour nap while my husband tuned in to his favorite racers on his headphones. I cursed myself for not having brought my new issue of Inc. or Reason to peruse, so I had to make due by just sleeping. It was probably the longest stretch of sleep I have had all week.

I miss the academia side of my life already. I miss the challenges, the world of discovery and new places. My xenophile nature has been begging for a fix of far-flung teamwork. I can't wait for the electives to come out. I have to take a few classes next year just to keep learning, to keep moving, to keep interacting with even more new people.