IRS Romance

I just sent my accountant my 2012 tax questionnaire with all my paperwork, and towards the end of the questionnaire, there were questions about 2013 so he'd know what to plan for the future. One of the questions read:

"Do you anticipate a change in marital status in 2013?" And there was space to check yes or no.

But in between "yes" and "no," I wrote: "Possibly."

I wonder what the accountant will think of this. Maybe he'll have a laugh.

I told Joe about this, and he said. "Did you write: it better?"

Tunes Tuesday, "Drove Me Wild," Tegan and Sara

​Even though Tegan and Sara's new sound is synth-ier this time around for their new, seventh album Hearthrob, they're still singing about heart-wrenching breakups. 

Artist: Tegan and Sara Album: Heartthrob (2013) Download: http://www.filepup.net/files/NSMHXEP1359413665.html Tracklist: 01 -- Closer 02 -- Goodbye, Goodbye 03 -- I Was a Fool 04 -- I'm Not Your Hero 05 -- Drove Me Wild 06 -- How Come You Don't Want Me 07 -- I Couldn't Be Your Friend 08 -- Love They Say 09 -- Now I'm All Messed Up 10 -- Shock to Your System For promotional purposes only, if you like the album support the artist and buy it!

Seven albums...man, time flies. That's a lot of heartbreak. Who are all these mean girls? It's good for fans of Tegan & Sara's music I suppose. I love the fizziness of this new album, and although Closer is my favorite song, I'm picking "Drove Me Wild" as a close second. These are the sunniest tracks, lyrically. Just check out the song titles of some of the others: "I Couldn't Be Your Friend," "How Come You Don't Want Me," and "Now I'm All Messed Up." It's really a fun pop album though, I swear!

My Visit to Drybar Georgetown

Have you all tried Drybar yet? I've been reading about the only blowouts salon chain for so long, and ever since an outpost opened in Washington, I've been curious to experience the cult of blowouts. This is the longest my hair has EVER been, so now seemed like an ideal time to try it out before I chop it in the spring.

So this past Friday, I hoofed it to Glover Park/Burleith for an early morning appointment. Note: it may say Georgetown on the website, but that's a bit of a stretch. If you don't have a car, the location is inconvenient, but buses do run up Wisconsin every 10 to 15 minutes. Here's a rundown of my Drybar experience:

​The design is beautifully done. It looks appropriately posh, and makes that $40 a pop seem like a bargain. (Joe, you might want to stop reading here.) The place is huge too, there's a whole back room with styling stations near the shampoo room. I didn't wait at all for my appointment. I met my stylist, got my hair washed, and chose the Mai Tai from Drybar's "menu" of hairstyles, and drank some lemon-flavored water. No champagne as it was 8 a.m., but maybe I should've gone for it.

​​As seems appropriate in the girliest place ever, flat screen televisions played The Devil Wears Prada without the sound on. I caught the tail end of this, and then the first 5 minutes of Mean Girls. Again, of course they played those movies. 

Actually, I barely watched any of it because I took my glasses off and the screen turned into vaguely-Anne-Hathaway-shaped blurs. This is where my guide stops being a service to readers, because I can't see at all without my glasses and I have no idea how the stylist created my hairstyle.​

​But this is how it turned out:

​Ignore the overgrown bangs, please. I really liked the job she did, and enjoyed the overall experience as a girly treat, but I don't know if wavy done hair feels like me. I know that's more about my own issues and way beyond the purvey of Drybar, ha. My friend Alex said, couldn't you have done this yourself? Maybe if I really tried with the curling iron.

​No, looking at this picture I realize that there is no way I could do this myself. The back looked really pretty. It stayed this way pretty much all day, looking a little less "done" by the evening, then turned into very loose waves the next day and was pretty much gone the third day. But your milage may vary.

On the way to the salon, I read the Yelp reviews and some people were really unhappy. Women are just so picky about their hair.  And everyone's hair is different, so it seems even more difficult to fit everyone into a "Cosmo-Tai" or "Mai-Tai" or whatever. That's a lot of hurdles for drop-in blow-out places like Drybar to jump through. I feel like I have a level of trust with my own hairstylist that is difficult to replicate with a one-off appointment. I also wonder if the stylist positions here are a difficult job to fill in general, since your tips have a cap on them without cut or color? Do most people who love doing hair want to cut hair as well?

But I can see why these styles of salons are hitting it big. If you have a special occasion or maybe you want to get your hair did and feel pretty, this does the trick. I'll probably just stick to my normal hair appointments and try to get better at doing my own hair, but it's nice to know that it's in the neighborhood. Curious about trying Drybar DC for the first time? Want to tell me about your experience? Comment below!

Rabbit Ears

Here in cable-less land, when you want to watch the Oscars and your digital tuner/antenna only picks up Fox, Spanish television, and something called Cozi TV (?), you have to get creative.

My roommate and I battled the antenna for an hour, with ABC flickering on occasionally then going back to the dreaded blue screen. Googling didn't help at first: the advice we found included "try adjusting the placement of the antenna." Doy. That must've been click bait. But a very high-tech solution of aluminum foil plus a box duct taped to the wall actually worked! And just in time, when the show was about to start and we had given up hope.

​What did you think, if you watched? I realize now that I will never watch any live, national event on television without also scanning Twitter, and I don't know how I feel about that.  My personal Twittersphere hated Seth and thought he was the height of misogyny, but I follow a lot of feminists. Everyone's Twitter echo chamber is different, I suppose. His whole hosting schtick was so meta. And no one's dress really stood out to me. But 2012 was an amazing year for movies.

Judging from the previews I've seen recently, I don't know if I'm optimistic for 2013. Spring Breakers, I'm looking at you. And every movie set in the future about aliens invading the earth. There are a lot of them. I just saw Side Effects though and really enjoyed it. It's a corkscrew of a plot, and some fine performances.  

Back to our living room: should we keep the ​jerry-rigged box situation? Or just get cable already.

Tunes Tuesday, "New Beat," Toro y Moi

I love Spotify but I don't understand what's going on with it sometimes. I managed to disable the Facebook feature that adds every song you listen to the newsfeed — at least I think, and hope and pray. I don't want all my Facebook friends to know that I routinely listen to the same song 10 times in a row. And that sometimes it is a Taylor Swift song.

But beyond that, I haven't investigated the social media settings aside from occasionally checking my inbox. And this week, I clicked on this song, sent via my friend Serena's hip kid sister. I don't know how I came in possession of this, but here it is:

Second single from the Toro Y Moi full length "Underneath The Pine" out February 22nd on Carpark Records. www.toroymoi.com www.carparkrecords.com p + c 2011 Carpark Records

Toro y Moi just put out a new album, but after hearing this song, I was curious enough to download 2011's "Underneath the Pine" and I'm stuck with this one for now. I think "New Beat" should immediately be your new theme song. It has a confident strut, like the dude who knows he's the hottest person in the room. Don't you think? 

Modern Apartment Door Numbers

A new management company took over an apartment down the street from me, and watching the renovations, I thought of something...

If an apartment building switches over to new numbers in a Helvetica font or similar, I bet you that they raise the rent. That's an amenity. Yuppie urban class-A apartment dwellers can't get enough of sans serif.