I had something terrible happen to me this week.  It is almost unspeakable, it’s so bad.  It was so sudden and unexpected, also! Just came out of nowhere and attacked.

I was simply standing in the bathroom in front of the mirror, getting ready for work.  I finished up my makeup, brushed my teeth, and gave my hair another lookover to make sure nothing was sticking out funny.  Then it happened.

I found a white hair on my head.  It was too long to be a cat hair, and it was attached to my scalp.

Where in the heck did that monster come from??  And why???

The trouble is, if it was only one hair, I’d actually be ok.  All my life I’ve found randomly colored hairs growing in with all the strawberry blond ones.  I had course, dark red hairs, fine blond hairs, and once, even a black one.  No idea how that happened.  So one white one wouldn’t be that big of a deal.

 But no, it was the SECOND one I found in the past two WEEKS!

What is up with that??  I mean, I am only 30!  Okay, if you want to get technical, 30 and a half, but I’m too old for half-years.  Closer to 31 than 30, but that’s still too young for white hairs to be beginning their horrid game of hide and seek. 

Also, that’s only the two I’ve seen with my own eyes.  I mean, if I sat down and let someone look at my head (like that’s going to happen now!)  who knows how many would be found?? That’s another advantage of being six feet tall and favouring high heels, I guess – no one can look at the top of my head that closely. Maybe it’s my karmic payback for laughing so hard at Emma’s remark about my husband’s hair...

I didn’t watch the Miss America (or USA, whichever it was) last night, but along with most of the rest of the country I have seen the clip of Miss California’s Q&A about gay marriage.

I strongly support gay marriage, and disagree with her answer, but I applaud her courage for stating her beliefs and not caving to the pressure I am sure she felt on that stage.  

I know many in the audience disagreed with her, and Perez Hilton, who was the guest judge who provided the question, has blasted her on his blog for her answer, but this is still America, where we are all free to have our own beliefs and opinions. 

I have heard several times today that her answer is to blame for her losing the crown.  If so, that is really a shame.  Maybe it was her stumbling over her answer that was really to blame, and not her answer herself.  Because if the fact that she stated her honest opinion as an answer to a question that ASKED her opinion, then we as a society have just taken a big step backwards.

I learned this week that it is very hard to plan a birthday party for middle schoolers. 

My daughter turned 11 last weekend (Good Friday) and her party was yesterday.  We had the theme (movies) and guests and location (the park) but that was it.  I hadn’t worried too much about activities, because we’d be at the park!  Playground, a dock, ducks and fish to feed popcorn to, lots of room to run and play.   Then we saw the weather forecast.  Started as 60% chance of rain in Wednesday’s report, and ended the week with a 90% chance of rain. 

Crap.

As we had no backup location, the party was moved to our house.  I stopped Friday to get a few last-minute items (like more food!) and thought I’d better get a game for the kids to play.  The trouble is, a majority of the games are outdoor games, and most of those are for smaller kids.  The rest are adult games – either drinking games or stuff the kids just aren’t quite old enough to “get.”  For example, there was a party game that went along with her theme, but the kids had to know who Robert Redford, Grace Kelly, Natalie Wood, and stars of that era are!  Not likely.

Target had the Scene It games on sale for half off, but Emma wasn’t interested in any of those.  We have board games aplenty, so I didn’t want to get another one of those.  Besides, she invited 16 kids and I knew for sure of 8 that were coming (ended up with 11 guests). Not many games for that many players!

Then I remembered what one of her gifts from us was:  Sing It for the Xbox.  I had never heard of it, but playing it I could see it was like a cross between Guitar Hero and karaoke.  There is a microphone, and you sing along with the words on the screen and are scored similar to Guitar Hero. 

Party time came, and the earliest kids played Operation while they waited for everyone to arrive (so much for no board games).  Knowing how easily this age gets bored, I let her open presents first.  She loved everything she got, and I think this was the first year she got NO toys.  YES!!! No more small parts!  She got craft kits, bath products, a CUTE Vera Bradley tote bag, and several kids gave her gift cards or money.  After cake, ice cream, and popcorn, the girls got out Sing It.  It is the Disney edition, with songs from Aly & AJ, Miley Cyrus, High School Musical, Camp Rock, and other singers under Disney’s control on Disney’s label.  Everyone wanted to go first, except Emma.  Finally I ruled that they’d go in birthday order, January to December.  We had quite a few good singers!  Then it was pinata time, and I think we’ll be finding candy in our living room for weeks to come.  Or a dog will.

All in all, the party was a success.  Everyone had a good time, and no one was bored, no drama, no hurt feelings.  Even with her separate groups of friends together there weren’t any issues.  Except for the fender-bender in our driveway, but that was a parent issue.  Good thing they knew each other and get along well!  One parent was in a large SUV when another in a small car pulled in behind him.  Our driveway is uphill, and he couldn’t see her car and backed right into it.  Oops!

I just might even let her have her party at our house again next year.