Hairy Situations

Any of you that have known me for any prolonged period of time understand that hair has always played some kind of role in my life. For those of you that don't know this you are going to get a crash course in the hair cutting stages of Katie. You should definitely be excited. :-)

When I was born I was one of those babies that came out with a full head of hair (as the picture above demonstrates). One of the earliest stories associated with my life is when my mother was being wheeled to the nursery to check on me. As she rounded the corner and got the first glimpse of the wall of windows she was a bit perplexed by the small crowd giggling and pointing at one of the babies. You can only imagine her hormonal response once she realized that everyone was pointing and giggling at me, the "Don King" baby with the hair. My mother quickly made them all feel bad by sobbing and pointing out that I was a beautiful baby, but the relationship between me and hair had begun. :-)

As time went on the gravity defying features of my hair calmed down and my hair grew quite long and lovely. Below you see my hair pretty close to the time of the next story in the hair cutting stages of Katie (I thought the barber chair was a nice touch).

One more shot of the long and lovely locks before...

Before I decided to cut my hair on mother's day. :-) Yes, I really did do that. Yep, on mother's day. Was it a mother's day present? I don't know, but it certainly was a mother's day surprise.

The events were as such: my mother was taking a nap, my dad was supposed to be watching us but instead left me in the care of Kelly (who was probably about 6) while he mowed the lawn (You have to understand that at this point in his life the care of the lawn was sacred, and we were pretty good kids).

Kelly and I were watching something on TV and playing with some craft stuff when I started playing with her Hello Kitty scissors. Now you have to understand that Kelly's scissors were AWESOME because they actually cut things, and at this point in my life I still had the fake scissors unless I was under direct adult supervision (which was apparently a good idea). So, as I was playing with Kelly's super cool scissors I decided to see if they could cut my hair... and guess what? They could! But uh oh, now my hair was uneven... hmm... how to fix that? Oh I know, take a little off the other side. Ooops, now I have two fists full of hair, hmm... I better hide the hair in the couch cushions. Let's take a look at that hair, oh no, not even yet, lets take off a little more. Now we have more hair, I know hide it behind the books in the bookcase.

So it went, for who knows how long, until I got caught. True to my form the picture below was from a planned (pre-haircut) family photo session, my poor parents. What are the repercussions of cutting your hair at that age you may ask? Are there any? Oh yeah, there certainly are:

1. I had to leave preschool for a while, so that I didn't tell the other kids what I did and start a haircutting fiasco.

2. I had to get a haircut to try to repair my piecemeal work.

3. I had to get my ears pierced and wear more dresses so that my mom wouldn't cry when people said, "what a sweet boy you have."

4. My parents kept finding little clumps of hair in random places around the house for months.

I don't regret it though, and I doubt my parents do either. It's a pretty fantastic story. Below you can see a few months after the cutting incident as the hair was growing out. :-)

So began my haircutting adventures. There aren't many adventures in my haircutting life, but the few that exist are fun and entertaining. There was the one incident where a boy in my first grade class refused to take his "rat tail" off of my desk (for those of you not familiar with the term, a rat tail is when a boy basically has a crew cut, except for a very long small portion of hair near the base of his neck) . I asked him once, I asked him twice, and SNIP, I didn't ask again; I simply handed him his rat tail. Unfortunately that turned into a parent teacher conference, but I don't really recall getting into trouble for that. :-)

My next real haircutting adventure did not occur until I was about 25. Pre-chemo my Aunt Laura decided to donate her hair to locks of love, so in her hospital room I cut the ponytail, colored her hair and gave her a bob. I have to say that I think my haircutting skills immensely improved over time (Perhaps it was all of the "practicing" I did on Barbie dolls).

My next haircutting adventure happened yesterday. I had the immense pleasure of spending the day with my Aunt Patty. We watched Price is Right, went to the mall, made a bunny at the Build a Bear Workshops, and Patty got a picture with the Easter Bunny. While walking around and teasing her about getting makeup for her upcoming prom she mentioned it might be fun to color her hair. To be fair we, as a family, had teased her the night before that maybe she should color her hair purple for Easter. Those of you that know Patty know that she would have giggled and dismissed the idea. However, it seems as though she was paying more attention that night than I thought.

So yesterday at dinner we asked what color she wanted, she said blonde or red. After dinner we went and bought some dye, she had decided to go with an ash blonde. Below you will find the picture by picture steps of the events that unfolded.

1. I created my "hair station" in the kitchen.

2. Patty pre-hair adventures.

3. On goes the color. (yeah, I am rocking a candy corn apron and yellow cleaning gloves. I make that look good! ha) On her lap you can see Patty's bunny Hoppy that we made earlier in the day.

More color.

4. Processing time. Patty decided this time was best spent picking out clothes for my mom to buy her.

5. Washed, combed and ready for a cut!

6. We somehow missed getting photos of the actual cutting, but here we are with the styling. (I'm concentrating)

7. A little bit of hairspray... and Patty asking that I make the bangs a bit more short.

The finished product! :-)

So there you have it, the hair cutting adventures of Katie. I have to warn you that for my planned mother's day post we will revisit hair a bit, but it will be worth it. And yes, you heard me right I am actually already planning another post. You should be pleasantly surprised I have a few more in the works, so I hope to improve my posting speeds.

Miles to go before we sleep...

We had one day left with Kelly before she met a friend to tour around Italy for a couple of days, so I was eager to get some good places in. We started at Bomarzo (which you have seen in previous posts) which is the Parco del Mostri. I figured this is the exact place Kelly and my Mom would like to visit while in town. 

Here is Kelly "posing" with one of the sculptures. 

Here are Kelly and I in the slanted house. I was playing like I was dead.

Mom and Kelly coming out of the slanted house.

I thought this urn looked very Harry Potter like with the red writing.

Kelly and I in front of a big acorn. 

After the Park of the Monsters, we got on the road to head to Pienza. Oh the sunflower fields!! They were all looking the other way, but they are still beautiful!

There is Pienza on the hillside in the distance.

Pienza a little closer.

In Pienza!

The view.

The Ogden ladies and the view. Pienza is a bit more touristy than Amelia, so they have lots of shops around the city center. TONS of cheese shops. We got some pasta, sauce, wine and cheese.

After we dropped Kelly off with her friend, Mom and I headed back with Connie and Chrissy. Connie likes to pull over on the side of the road so we can take good pictures. :-) 

In the distance is Montepulciano. AKA Twilight New Moon town for all my Twilight friends. 

We saw the dog herding the sheep so we stopped the car and got out to see them close up.

A sign to prove I was almost there. We were all too tired to tackle another town. I know it's still sunny, but it was 8:30pm. The sun is very deceiving in Italy.

Then we went to Porcelli's for pizza. This picture is for my cousin Jim's wife Heather. :-) Mom and I thought you would like to see the restaurant named after your family. 

That was all for Sunday. Quite the busy Sunday. I got a trucker tan on the left side of my body because we were in the car so long. (a trucker tan (for those of you that don't know the reference) is when you get a sunburn on the side of your body that the car window was on.

Ciao Ciao!

The Holy See

No self respecting Catholic can visit Rome without going to the Vatican. I would argue that no self respecting person could go to Rome without visiting the Vatican, but that is your own call. The Vatican is one of the most amazing places I have ever been, and every time I go I seem to find something new that I am in awe of. 

This is a picture of the Dome at St. Peter's, and a new modern sculpture by some guy named Arnaldo Pomodoro (which means Arnold Tomato, something our lovely tour guide pointed out). Our tour guide was hilarious, it was by far one of the best tours I have ever been on. This is supposed to show a link between the past (the dome) and the present (the sphere).

This is one of the many Papal seals that adorn multiple rooms in the Vatican. Typically, if the following room was "remodeled" by a certain Pope, then his seal or some form of identification will be on the entrance to that room. 

I particularly find the sculptures that have fig leaves where other objects should have been/used to be very entertaining. 

This sculpture is funny for two reasons. 1) the fig leaf. 2) This is a perfect example of a horrible restoration. This is a woman's head on a man's body. 

Another mixed sculpture. This one is particularly funny because it is a sleeping woman's head on a mans body. (Close up below)

Really??? You mean to tell us that there were NO other heads?? No other heads with eyes open that they could have used? A sleeping figure standing up fully engaged?? Very funny.

There is a map room in the Vatican. The maps are amazingly accurate, particularly because there was no way to see these things from above. So the artist created these by walking around. You can see Amelia, it is actually listed as Ameria. (It is sorta center top... a little to the left)

This is the hallway that the Popes walk to get to the Basilica.

The Basilica.

It is impossible to grasp the enormity or the beauty of this place with my camera. I suggest everyone get on a plane and come over and see it for yourselves. :-)

My sister, Mother and I in the Basilica.

The ceilings... so beautiful!

After the Vatican we had a wonderful dinner in Travestere the "restaurant" district of Rome. Our family friends Connie and Chrissy Wendlek were with us, but I can't find any group pictures! 

After dinner we walked around a bit on our way back to the hotel. Here are some Roman scenes at night. This is the National Monument of Victor Emmanuel II. It is the most remarkable memorial I have ever seen, which got me wondering, who was Victor Emmanuel II? Well, Victor Emmanuel II was the first King of unified Italy. The monument was designed in 1895, inaugurated in 1911 and completed in 1935. The monument also holds Italy's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier with an eternal flame. (so there's some history for you)

Another one of those fantastic situations you stumble onto while in Italy. When walking around we saw this, Julius Caesar the play being performed at the ruins of Caesar's Forum.. so where the original murder actually occurred (I think). Very surreal.

The Colosseum at night. 

Kelly's tongue and me in front of the Colosseum.

Quite the busy day. Incredibly hot, and tiring, but memorable and fantastic!

Ciao, ciao!

Family Times in Roma

On July 16th my mom and Kelly arrived in Rome ready for an Italian tour! We met at the hotel at 10am and then started a tour on foot. While walking around I left them to get my hair done and then met them at the Column of Trajan, which happens to be right next to this restaurant which is where they had their first Italian meal.

This is the Column of Trajan.

Here I am with the lovely ladies. The view behind us is the view we had during lunch. Our restaurant was directly to the left. It is amazing the views and places that you can go to while in Italy.

These are the ruins of Caesar's Forum.

More ruins at The Forum.

Me tossing a coin into the Trevi Fountain.

As seems to be usual in Italy in general, we happened upon a wonderful surprise. While walking around after dinner we heard music and started walking in the direction of the music. When we rounded a corner this is what we saw.

What was most entertaining is that while looking around I saw one of the speakers that came to speak at the Conference that my program held. (He is the Carabinieri in the pictures from the Conference dinner night.) He came over to meet my family and informed us that this is the Carabinieri Orchestra.

He is a fan of pictures, so we were told to wait while he went and got his "two favorite officers" to take a picture with me. I am laughing because of something Kelly said or did, but I don't quite remember it. :-) 

And that, my dear friends, is the Ogden Girl's first day in Rome.

That is a very abridged version of Rome. :-) Many more days to catch up on!

Ciao Ciao!