We’re buckling our seat belts, getting ready to leave our house so that I can catch my flight to Charlotte:

“Hold on! I just looked down and realized that I can see through my shirt.”

“Oh, your shirt’s not…WOW. Your shirt is REALLY see-through.”

“Let me grab a tank top from my suitcase.”

I hop out of my seat, walk to the back of the car, open the trunk, unzip my suitcase, grab a tank top, then proceed to put on the tank top in the driveway while hiding behind a car door so the neighbors won’t think I’ve taken up an odd – and somewhat disturbing – new hobby.

Then:

“Can’t you just SEE me showing up for the SheSpeaks conference wearing a see-through shirt?'”

“Well, then they’d have to change the name of the conference to SheSpeaksVolumes.”

“You make an excellent point.”

“I try.”

So Martha just called to tell me how much fun! so much fun! just more fun! that she and Julia Claire had on the computer the other day, and OH, Julia Claire is such a dear friend! she’s just dear! so dear!, and do you know that they went to the Sam’s the other day and just had the best time? The best time!

(Julia Claire bought her grapefruit and Martha didn’t buy anything because everything she needed just comes in these ENORMOUS sizes and where would she put it? She doesn’t have anywhere to put it!)

She also wanted me to tell y’all that – and I quote – “An old dog CAN learn new tricks! She can! Oh yes she can!”

I think we’d all do well to have that engraved on some sort of commemorative plaque, don’t you?

Words for the ages, my friends.

Amen.

So, completely unrelated to Martha but relevant just the same because, well, IT’S ABOUT MY HAIR, I went to get my hair cut the other day and got home from the hair cut and decided it was WRONG, ALL WRONG, not what I wanted at all, and the root of the problem (OH YES I DID) was that I tried to “direct” the local guy who cuts my hair into doing what the hometown Hair Wizard has done for the last two or three haircuts.

Anyway, after I stared at my post-haircut self in the mirror for a solid four minutes, I picked up the phone and called the salon and asked if I could make a return trip because I’d made a grievous error in terms of trying to stifle my trusted hair care professional’s creativity. And the sweet receptionist told me to be there at three, that they’d work me in and get everything taken care of.

So at three I showed up and sat down in R.’s chair and repented. I said, “I should’ve never tried to tell you what to do. And I should’ve known better. I am so sorry. Work your magic. Whatever you want to do.”

He laughed and started cutting – HAIR FLYING EVERYWHERE. Ten minutes and about two inches later, I walked out of the salon with a short-and-sassy summer ‘do.

And while I didn’t think that I wanted short hair, I really do love it. It’s funky and flippy and fun. I’ll post a picture once I actually, you know, HAVE a picture.

Strangely enough, that’s a picture-posting formula that’s always worked well for me in the past.

So I guess that my short hair and I need to finish packing and then put on some clothes suitable for flying.

Which reminds me: when I was younger, Mama always thought we needed to get dressed up to fly on a plane because flying WAS VERY FANCY, and it’s only been in the last six or seven years that I’ve realized that boarding some sort of aircraft does not require a coordinated ensemble.

That would’ve been good to know when I went to Washington, D.C. my junior year of college and chose a red, white and blue outfit for the plane ride. I believe there may have even been some appliqued stars involved.

And while I didn’t actually sing “The Star Spangled Banner” while I was getting on the plane, I TOTALLY HUMMED IT IN MY HEAD.

While I carried a small – albeit imaginary – American flag.

…but Carolina Mama isn’t.

And if you hurry over to her blog, you can sign up to win The JJ, an adorable jewelry travel case that my sister-in-law Janie designs.

Now I know that I’m a little bit biased, but I think these jewelry cases are a near-perfect travel product. They’re great-looking, practical and functional – I use mine ALL THE TIME.

And you can win one of your own by clicking right here.

The deadline to register is Wednesday night at midnight.

So get after it, girls!

I have a new post up over at the AllAccess blog.

And I seem to have written the whole thing without capitalizing words for effect.

I KNOW!

SheSpeaks is coming up in a little less than a week, and I am going to spend a chunk of tomorrow working out the finer points of my part of the presentation that I’m doing with Melanie and Shannon.

Because I’m thinking that next week I won’t have much time to work on the presentation what with getting a haircut and looking for brown sandals and wondering why it’s become increasingly impossible to get my eyelashes to curl.

I’m not even kidding about that last thing. It’s driving me crazy. No matter what I do, my eyelashes look like they’ve been ironed.

Anyhoo.

At SheSpeaks one of the things I’m going to be talking about is finding your bloggy voice (tip #1: CRAZY HELPS) and making that voice consistent with the look and feel of your blog.

So. Three things.

1) Would y’all be so kind as to point me to some blogs where you feel like the look of the blog perfectly matches the voice of the person who writes there? And it doesn’t have to be a mama blog – it can be a political blog, a fashion blog, an entertainment news blog, whatever.

Next.

2) Does the look of a blog – the graphics, the fonts, the colors – have any bearing on whether or not you continue to visit? In other words, if someone has incredibly thought-provoking content but the look of the blog isn’t visually appealing, do you care?

Finally.

3) What’s your favorite blog out there in terms of design? What blog makes you sigh with contentment as soon as you click over? And what specifically do you like about it?

If you’re more comfortable emailing me all of this information instead of leaving it in the comments, that’s fine by me. Just please try not to say anything negative about a specific blog because OH, CAN YOU EVEN IMAGINE THE AWKWARD?

And if you also feel led to offer some advice in regard to my impossibly straight eyelash fiasco, I’d be most appreciative.

Really, internets, you’re going to be helping me with a whole host of quandaries.

So if you’re feeling invaluable right about now, well, guess what, YOU TOTALLY SHOULD.

All righty. We have us some winners in not one but two (TWO!) giveaways.

First, the iPod giveaway winner:

Comment 58 – Susan

Susan, check your email – there’s a message from me in there somewhere, and it tells you what you need to do next.

Second, the Ethel gloves giveaway winners:

Comment 63 – Jeni – Jubliee
Comment 128 – Laurie – Gala
Comment 148 – Misi – Rendevouz
Comment 237 – Michelle (no blog) – Signature
Comment 371 – Kathleen W. – Jubilee

And remember, if you didn’t win but would like to order a pair of Ethel gloves, you can enter in the discount code “Boomama” and receive 10% off of your total order. Just click here to get started.

Congratulations, everybody!