Of salons, elephants and roommates

Today I finally indulged in one of less appreciated perks of my workplace: its proximity to the Aveda Institute. My hair had been out of control for months-- I just hadn't had time to get it cut-- and it was starting to take a toll, i.e. further encourage the style slump I've fallen into since I bought the house. The other thing keeping me from making a hair appointment is that I can count on one hand my positive professional haircut experiences. Most hairstylists have trouble with at least one of the following sentences, if not all of the above:

(1) I have no skills with regard to my hair. Please do NOT leave me with a style whose maintenance requires skill of any sort.
(2) My hair has a lot of body and a lot of curl. Believe me, I, more than anyone, would LOVE one of those short, chic, face-framing cuts, but they do not work with my hair. They only make me look ridiculous because I am not going to put an entire bottle of product in my hair or blow-dry it for an hour.
(3) I need to be able to pull my hair back; please do not cut it beyond the length where I can do so.

Maybe once in my professional haircut experience have these rules not been broken. Yet, for $18 (plus tip), this student that cut my hair was wonderful. She (a) asked me what I wanted; (b) erred on the side of cutting longer than I was willing to go; (c) was very cognizant of the maintenance nightmares of curly hair; and (d) generally gave me a decent haircut that won't require maintenance. It was amazing.

To make matters better, if you book your next treatment at the time you pay for the one you just received, you get a 20 percent discount, so I'm getting a back treatment next week for $32. The institute is in a really cool building, too.

***
I've blogged before about another quirk, if not perk, of my workplace: it's quite close to the Verizon Center. Those of you in DC [that do not have your heads under a rock] couldn't have avoided reading or hearing about the controversial attraction at the Verizon Center this week-- the circus. Since the last thing this city needs is another blogger weighing in on the ethics of the circus, I'll leave that debate to everyone else and her grandmother. I will only say that walking from my office to the Aveda Institute, through the alley behind the Verizon Center, I could certainly smell the circus.

***
I'm once again looking for a roommate. I am so glad I don't need one, i.e. I can pay my mortgage and basic expenses without one; however, with a roommate, I could more quickly replenish my emergency fund, as well as my travel budget, so it's worth a try.

I find myself asking the same rhetorical questions about the potential roommates that have contacted me as I have about potential plumbers and electricians. First of all, can't anyone spell anymore? I'm serious: WTF?!? Do people not learn spelling, or for that matter, punctuation or grammar, in school anymore? Do people just not think that e-mail is a forum worthy of the niceties of spelling and grammar? I'm the first to concur that e-mail is an casual and convenient forum, one where certain niceties of more formal correspondence need not be observed. However, I don't believe that spelling and grammar are ever optional.

Second, I just want to take some of these people under my wing and help them out. But not live with them. I want to tell them what not to write in e-mails to potential roommates, like "Financial issues have forced me to leave school sponsored housing because it is just getting to expensive." and "I am looking to move into a place with my partner." The first one is self-explanatory in terms of why not to write it; as for the second, if I wanted to live with two other people, I would have advertised for two other people. There is no way I'm going to live with two other people, much less for the price of one.

So for the benefit of housing-seeking humanity, I would like to offer a few pointers. These would also not be without use in a job search:

-Check your f*ing spelling.
-Be polite.
-Subcategory of be polite: Don't be presumptuous; this means everything from not writing, "I'll come look at it today at 3pm" to "send me your phone number." I'll send you my phone number when I decide to send you my phone number.
-Pay attention; do not ask questions that are answered in the listing. Do not send an otherwise blank e-mail asking for more information-- if you want information, ask specific questions. Do not ask me three times in an e-mail string whether Friday would be good to look at the house, when I told you before you even asked that Friday would not work for me. I am not kidding:

I wrote (on Tuesday): Evenings this week, apart from Friday, are good for me in terms of showing the house.

She wrote back: Can I stop by on Friday? At what time? Also, how far is the house from the Metro station? [I had provided the distance from the metro in the listing].

I wrote back: Friday is not good for me. [and provided alternate days/times].

She wrote back: Are you available at all on Friday?


I did not make that up. And she's perfectly nice-- she ended up coming by last night. She's not weird. One guy who came by today was... not so much weird as desperate and very talkative, which does not inspire confidence. Hopefully, one of the grammatical, not desperate people will work out. Otherwise, I'm afraid I'll be out of the market for a roommate.