i'm loving having you around

adventure of today: getting dyed blonde in taiwan
thanks to a good samaritan, i missed the fast train and wound up on the super slow train to taipei. then i encountered a series of helpful people including a flier-passer-outer, a taxi driver, and 3 guys who work in a kitchen who were in a back alley on a smoke break. thanks to those 3, i ended up at the salon.

it could be a very long story but the highlights are..
-dark purple satin merlin robes that the attendants helped you put on in the middle of the waiting room of the salon
-the attendants themselves were dressed in khaki one pieces that would remind you of what mechanics wear.
-my stylist, peter, spoke lovely english and i told him about 400 times that i was completely freaked out and that i would definitely be in tears if my hair turned out orange at the end of it
-when i got my hair done in austin over christmas, i asked my normal stylist what the worst thing they could do to me would be.. she said leave the color on too long. it should be 10 or 15 min
-peter told me he intended to leave it 30min
-i told him to come check me at 15
-he didn't come. i demanded that someone rinse me out
-they said wait a minute
-i stood up and just made a mini-scene until someone walked me to the sinks
-it turned out very well! it's more or less the right color. no orange, no green

the real highlight of my day was a man in the train station telling me my chinese was very good. i asked him a question and then we started chatting. i never get tired of encouragement.

tonight we had a big birthday party for katie/jerry. it included pinatas, tequila, balloon animals, pin the tail on the donkey and various other party games that tess dreamed up. super fun, super messy. a beer and a bottle of vodka both crashed and flew into a million pieces on the tile.
big day tomorrow. time for bed.