Random 5 for June 9 – Friendship, eccentricity, haircuts, desserts, internet

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My clematis. It’s a wonderful blue shade.

Friendship – People talk about having long-term friends that they rarely see but when they do it’s like they just talked yesterday. I don’t really have those kinds of friends except for one. A few weeks back I talked about my preference for using email instead of the phone. (Click here for post) I also talked about an old friend who doesn’t have email and the phone tag we play. We finally connected this week and yes, it was like I just talked to her yesterday. We picked up not on old memories but on what’s going on now. Not banal trivia but real stuff. Gosh, I had such a sense of loss when I got off the phone. She’s a bit wacky but I really like her. She’s been my bestie for 40 years.

Speaking of wacky – Let’s call her eccentric. She thinks differently than most people and sometimes her actions are…unusual. As she was telling me about decisions she has made lately (some unconventional), I couldn’t help but think how well she thought everything out. She even gave me a tip which ended up saving me a bundle of money. I’ll have to stop calling her wacky.

To bang or not to bang – I need a haircut. It’s been months. I’m letting my hair grow a bit. Nothing crazy but I look better in longer hair. I also let my bangs grow out. That is painful because there is a long time where it flops in your eyes. I’m at the point where I can almost (ALMOST) pull the bangs behind my ears (which get ginormous as you grow older!). Now I’m not sure I like the look. Bangs hide a lot of sins like wrinkly foreheads but getting all your hair off of your sweaty forehead feels like heaven. What do you do? Bangs? Or not?

Going old school – Twenty-five to thirty years ago Duncan Hines sold a tiara cake mix. It was a layered cake concoction that was fabulous. There was a cake layer made in a special pan, with a creamy filling and a fruit topping. As soon as they realized I loved it, they discontinued it. I have the special pans and know how to do without a mix. I’m making it this weekend with fresh strawberries. I am a manufacturing kiss of death. I like it and it’s discontinued. Everything. Hair products, foods, underwear. OK, maybe discontinuing the shoulder pads that looked like they belonged to football players was a good idea.

Gotta love the internet — If I want to know something, I look it up on the internet. Sometimes there are different versions of the answer but I get to research and pick. I have a stunning clematis. I’ve never had luck with them before. They bloom but then it all goes south. I may try propagating this one and I know how. It’s the same way my mother did her roses. Thank you whoever invented that fountain of knowledge. If only we could keep the bad and negative off of it.

So how was your week?

 

 

67 thoughts on “Random 5 for June 9 – Friendship, eccentricity, haircuts, desserts, internet”

  1. To bang or not to bang, that is a great question. I spent decades trying to cover up a high forehead, being stymied by an uncooperative cowlick. I gave up. Luckily, the forehead seems to have gotten smaller over time (or maybe I just stopped caring?)

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    • Since I wrote this, I’ve banged a little. Not the full on heavy ones from the 60s and 70s but some wispy ones in the middle. My hair revolted and it took a few weeks until I got them to settle down. My hair has a mind of it’s own. I think it’s a different person in a different form.

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  7. I sent an email to my friend since kindergarten three months ago and I just received an email from her yesterday afternoon. My email had been in her junk folder. We will talk today on the phone! She is the normal one in our friendship and I am the quirky one. Tickled that you connected with your friend.
    I have always had short hair (pixie cut) and no bangs to speak of except little wisps that fall down a little on my forehead. I don’t do well with bangs, they drive me crazy.
    I am truly thankful for YouTube and google! Your clematis must be very happy, it is gorgeous!

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    • Wish I could wear a short cut but it’s not to be. I never thought I would be described as the normal one in a relationship but in this one, I am. That clematis is very happy. Not sure why but I’ll take it.

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  8. Your clematis is unbelievable!

    Bangs are a love-hate thing. I have a high forehead, so bangs are a good idea. The trouble is, how do you get them to blend in with the rest of your hair? And if they go straight across your forehead, you look like a five-year-old.

    The internet is wonderful. How did we exist without it? I hope it doesn’t make knowledge so easy that we forget how to memorize. Oh, well. I don’t have a very good memory anyway.

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    • I blogged about it a few months back but after my brother’s accident, I was juggling a lot of balls in the air. While I forgot where my keys were, I never forgot anything that had to do with my brother. Even if he forgot his grocery list, I remembered all the items. I don’t understand it but my memory has improved after that shock. Maybe it was just being lazy before.

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      • That’s great, Kate. It’s probably true that our memory gets lazy. We need a little nudge now and then. Better of course if it isn’t a car accident. Last week we attended the revival of Oklahoma, and I was happy to find that I remembered all the words of the songs.

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  9. Your clematis really is beautiful, Kate! It looks vigorous, and the color is delightful! I don’t know anything about the tiara cake or the pan, but it sounds really delicious. I hope you enjoyed it! And i have a lot of wacky friends. I have friends that I met in first and second grade. We are very good friends because of our history, and I think we’d admit if we met today we probably wouldn’t choose each other as friends. It’s a little laughable at times. We are SO different, but friends, they are!

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    • You are lucky. I don’t have any close friends from my school years. A good friend from high school died a few years back but she lived in a different state so I rarely saw her. I did make some lasting friends when I worked. Maybe by then I picked people that I had some basic things in common with rather than the person sitting next to me in class. It’s good to hear that you have some going back to elementary school!

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  10. What a gorgeous clematis! Wow!
    As far as bangs go, I’ve had bangs for so many years I wouldn’t want to get rid of them. I’m turning into my MIL wearing the same hairstyle for decades.

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  11. Short hair looking like Alfalfa! Can so identify with that. (shiver) I was a very skinny kid and my mom hated to spend time messing with my hair, so it was often sooo short (and permed to a crisp).
    I used to love bangs except they have to get trimmed all the time and are so darn sweaty here – just to hard to grow out. Fortunately the last time I asked my haircutter about “maybe I should…” she firmly said, “No.”
    Beautiful plant – do you have to tie it to the fence/trellis behind it of is it sturdy enough to stand when blooming? Must look perfect by the pond with that coloring on leaves and blooms

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    • I had long hair for almost all my childhood. Ponytail with bangs mostly. The clematis is a tenacious clinger although I did pull a few stray tendrils back. Mostly it takes care of itself. I must have been around 10 when I got my first perm. Yikes! Bushwoman! By the time the 80’s came along, the perms were softer and so easy — long and curly, easy peasy. Those were good hair days.

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  12. I have always liked the look of bangs as I think they soften your features – not many of us have a totally perfect face, no eye bags and no wrinkles. But I have never been able to work with bangs, probably because I never knew how to work with a blow dryer and get those my hair to be feathered back and stay back or those bangs to lay the right way. When I still worked on site and had bangs, I took one of those butane curling irons with me to work once I removed my hat in April and until I donned it again in October, because by the time I walked from home to the bus, my bangs stuck out straight and had no rhyme or reason to them. I have stick straight hair. They would stick out every which way. I even had my bangs permed to see if it would help – it didn’t as my hair grew fast. I hated being a slave to bangs so I grew them out again. The funny thing was my hair stylist said after I wanted layers and bangs about 15 years ago “you don’t have the right hair texture for nice-looking bangs and you’ll regret it; the models in magazines have a small fan trained on them to give their hair a little lift.” She was right.

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    • I usually do ok with bangs except for hot weather they they stick to my sweaty forehead. This growing out is painful. One day my hair looks good, the next, not so much. We’ll see. It’s nice to have a stylist that is honest.

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      • I have long, layered hair and it spends 99% of the time in a high ponytail or bun – when I had bangs and worked out in the yard or somewhere where I’d be hot or sweaty, I used a stretchy hairband to get them off my face. The older I get the less tolerant I am of hair in my face and I am always pulling it up and back.

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  13. I have unfortunate hair – thin and flat, with a high forehead and a cowlick. Genetics didn’t favour me on this one since all four of my siblings have thick curly hair 😕 I SHOULD have bangs, but I hate the feel of hair on my face and keep pushing away.

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    • I did better than my brother whose hair is closer to poker straight. I have wavy hair but lots of cowlicks. I can’t wear my hair short or I look like Alfalfa! We are never satisfied with our hair. I get the hair on face feel especially during the summer but I may do it. We’ll see. Depends on my mood the day I go for the haircut.

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  14. I’ll comment only on haircuts. I let my hair grow for several years, getting my son to whack it shorter from time to time. When Great Clips moved in next door to our favorite supermarket, I had it made. The cost was the fraction of New York prices. A month ago I had a cut that looked good for a few days, but my hair seemed to grow longer by the minute. A week before we left on our trip, I told the hair dresser to cut it short. I’m lucky I didn’t have to buy a wig! It was useless to hope it would grow out enough to look normal before the wedding in CO. Thank heavens no one aimed their camera at me, and I should look more like myself by the time I get home. My hair was not long enough for bangs!!!

    Sorry. Second comment: Your clematis is fantastic. I’ve never seen one so full of beautiful blooms.

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    • I never encourage a stylist to cut short because they almost always cut it shorter than I want it. When I was young I could have a major meltdown (as if people just liked me for my hair and life as I knew it was over) but these days I just say “it will grow.” However, it’s harder to get me back for haircuts. I like your shorter layered look. Suits you. Haircuts around here are $45 to $60 except for places like Great Clips. My problem with the walk-in places is that I can’t get the same person. You are very lucky but maybe you have great hair. I have a friend (of Italian descent) whose hair is wonderful. It isn’t straight or curly but was thick with a lot of body. She never had a bad haircut in her life. This is the first time clematis has ever been so nice for me. Maybe the fact that it’s 3′ from the pond has something to do with it. It gets enough moisture.

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  16. The clematis is GORGEOUS. Did you have to put anything in the soil to make it such a lovely blue or is an easy peasy thing – ie no supplements at the exact right moment.
    My neighbor has a lovely blue hydrangea but they do require that kind of care, so I am happy to enjoy her labor from here.

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    • No and that’s the good news. Easy peasy and it doesn’t die back in the middle of the summer. I love hydrangeas but for the blue ones, the climate is touchy. If the stems die back there are no blooms for that year as it blooms on old stems. I haven’t seen any blooms on my Nikko blue this year and we had a chat last year. I told them if there were no blooms this year they were getting yanked out. If the soil doesn’t have the right PH, you have to adjust for blue or pink depending on what you want.

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  18. I had a fringe for years, then started to grow it out. When I had my hair cut into a long page boy style, the stylist cut it back in again.
    I hate it when it’s at the length that’s too short to tie back and too long that it gets in my eyes or flops over my glasses. Took me about seven years to grow it out completely. Now its just long and I tie it back every day. However………. I do have the stray tufty bits and have no idea where they came from!!

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  20. Your Clematis is spectacular! I have a small wrought iron gazebo and put a clematis at each of the supporting posts. Only two survived, and despite replacement a few times of the ones that didn’t, I’ve just given up.

    As for bangs, I’ve done both and each have their own pluses and minuses. Bangs tend to lend youthfulness to a face, If they’re just log enough, they can be held back with clips or bands for convenience. ‘Sans’ bangs make things easy (once/if you manage to live through the growing out process which often takes more prisoners than not). Always a tough call; good luck making it.

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    • My neighborhood has a lot of clematis that is gorgeous so I tried once again to grow it. I’ve lost so many before it but this was successful. Now after a few years the deer have found my row of knockout roses. Sigh. They look like a herd of buffalo dined there.

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  22. I love your Randoms. I have an unfortunate hairline too – my Dad’s fault let’s say because it’s just like his hairline. I have almost always had bangs and when I was a kid Mom absolutely could NOT cut them straight so I had lopsided bangs. It was my trademark (ha). I have very thin, fine hair so have to have it short and some years ago after chemo I lost a LOT of my already thin, fine hair so I just plain am not happy with my hair……period. That cake sounds amazing. Never heard of it though. I make biscotti once a week and that’s the extent of my baking. Have a great Sunday and week ahead!

    Hugs, Pam

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    • I had a friend with a low widow’s peak and she always wore bangs but sometimes they stuck out. No one is happy with their hair. I am fortunate that I have thin (not the fortunate part) hair but it’s very thick. It has thinned a little on top with age but not bad. I had very thick hair as a younger person.

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  24. I am the TV show kiss of death. As soon as I decide I like a series, it’s canceled. So now I refuse to watch until they’ve wrapped at least 2 seasons.

    The Game of Thrones producers should be grateful I didn’t like the books enough to watch the TV series.

    I’m growing out my bangs now and going through lots of clips to hold them back.

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    • I’ve done clips and I can braid them (sort of) but they will still fall in my face. As for TV shows, me too. I’m not the targeted audience anymore so if I’m lucky to find something I like, I try to be very quiet about it.

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    • Erma was a fountain of wisdom! Most clematis I’ve had blooms then the stems die back. This one has a big push now and then continues to bloom all summer without going dead. I have learned to cut it to the ground to get rid of all the dead looking branches in the spring and it’s worked. The instructions were not to prune at all but then I had a inside thicket of dead twigs.

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  26. I have bangs to hide an awkward hairline. However, I get my bangs heavily ‘fringed’ so they aren’t a straight line across my forehead as my mother used to cut them! They are much thinner, but still hide what needs hidden!

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    • If I cut them, that’s what I would do. They took so long to grow out because the last cut last June was heavily razored. I have a cowlick at the hairline. Not one of my favorite features.

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  27. I sometimes grow out my bangs – or try too. Then I say to heck with it and get them chopped off again. It’s not an easy task to complete. It must have been old friends week. I also connected with the one who I play phone tag with. That cake sounds delicious, Kate. With just H and I around to eat , I rarely bake. I did make some banana bread this week with some overripe bananas.

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