Today is going to be awesome because:

1) It's payday! (yeah, yeah!)
2) After work, I'm getting my hair treated with the magical protein serum! (yeah, yeah!)
3) Tonight I'm cooking bok choy! (yeah, yeah!) (Bok choy and teriyaki chicken, that is. And watching "Mallrats" with E. I've never seen "Mallrats" - can you believe this? I have the soundtrack...)

This morning, everything seems to warrant a "yeah, yeah!" But this is good, right?

Yesterday morning, I read a NY Times article about the popularity of going fridge-less. I hadn't realized that there was an "unplug your fridge for good" movement; my ignorance of this trend doesn't surprise me too much, because even though I recycle and walk/bus as much as possible and all these good things, I would not consider myself an ueberenvironmentalist. Anyway, reading about this shift in some people's buying/cooking habits made me think of Germany, where people's fridges are generally smaller than ours - some the size of dorm fridges, actually - and where people aren't super obsessed with refrigeration. Eggs aren't refrigerated in the store; some people leave open containers of juice on their counters. (That was just my host mom, actually, but you know...)
For the short time that I was there, I felt like I became more comfortable with not refrigerating certain foods that could, for a certain time, be left out. Then, when I got back to the US, my old obsession reared up and now everything's kept cold.

I did a little mental exercise, recollecting the current contents of my fridge and determining what, if anything, could be transferred to the counter/pantry. Apples could be moved. Bread: moved. Lettuce, if I used it within the day, would be OK. Eggs (reluctantly) could stay on the counter. A lot of my condiments (salad dressings, ketchup, mustard, etc.) need to be kept cold, I think, as do my dairy and meat products. With more deliberate shopping habits and better meal planning strategies, I could definitely get by with a dorm fridge.

***

One of lnb's recent tweets (about the beautiful house) made me think of a house in Galesburg that I saw for the only time during senior week. A. and I were driving back from a diner - was it the Brickyard? I feel like it was way out past Dick Blick - and we saw a house with a fake leg hanging from the front porch. A mannequin leg. I wanted to take a picture but didn't have my camera, and when we went back, we couldn't find the place. It was straight out of Flannery O'Connor, and I sometimes wonder if I didn't imagine it.

Also: Bibnall, I totally lied yesterday about the absence of independently-owned donut shops in my area. There's a family-run place on Rte. 9 called "The Donut Man," and I've only been there once (for coffee and a pistachio muffin - this was three years ago). But now I'm geared up to visit and get an actual donut. Yeah, yeah!

Hair-i-lujah

I think I've found a winner for Best Local Salon. After working the 12 to 2 shift yesterday at the Grad Conference Bake Sale, I headed to The Lift in Easthampton for a simple trim. I shouldn't say "headed to," since my trip was circuitous and I stopped twice for directions: once at a strip mall dry cleaning shop just over the Southampton border, and once at a weird machine shop type deal right near the Easthampton roundabout. Finally, though, I made it to Eastworks, an old home-goods factory recently converted into shops/galleries. I'd somehow managed, in my two.five years living here, never to visit Eastworks, but I'd like to go back. True, the few shops I passed en route to the salon appeared to peddle mostly "country-cutesy" gift items, but the galleries might be interesting.

Anyway: The Lift. Decor is pleasant: leather chairs in the waiting area, blond wood, grape-cluster shaped lamps hung above the reception counter. The chairs at the shampoo station are massage chairs (a la Sharper Image or whatevs), and I was given a warm towel for my eyes as my hair was shampooed. Product line: Bumble & Bumble. My stylist was friendly, not too pushy, and didn't take too much off the ends.

But there's more. In addition to having my ends trimmed, I had a special conditioning treatment applied to my hair, and oh. My. God. I don't think my hair has ever been so smooth and shiny. Not even when I was a kid, and had yet to damage my hair with heat tools and processing. This treatment, which reinvigorated my hair with protein, effectively repairing the cuticle(s), is something I would have poo-poohed a few years ago, but no longer. I even asked if I could buy this wonderful protein serum and treat my own hair, but I guess the product is only available for use in salons, so powerful it is.

Bottom line: if you're in Easthampton and needing a haircut (or treatment), head on over to The Lift. The staff are friendly, the wait time is short, the products they use are great, and they're considerably cheaper than other places in the area.