How To Find The Right Hair Salon

3 Tips For Picking Your Next Salon

My hair is important to me...I'm a natural hair blogger, why wouldn't it be?! There are different kinds of women out there; those who can do their hair on their own at home, those that have to go to the salon to get their hair done, and those in between. I'm an in between kind of woman leaning more towards the have-to-go-to-the-salon side! Knowing this, I've had to perfect the best way to find the right salon for me. I used this method to find the best cosmetologist in the world when I was in NC and I'm hoping for the same results here.

Nothing is foolproof, but this method has worked before, so I have no choice but to put it to work again. Here are the three tips that lead me in the right direction when looking for an awesome salon.

UniverSoul Circus Review

Under The Big Top

UniverSoul Circus provided free tickets to another blogger in exchange for a review for this event. She was unable to attend, so I went in her place. These thoughts are totally my own, unpaid and honest. Just Mi!

Source

Imagine my surprise when I was invited to a night of fun at the UniverSoul Circus the night before I was leaving town for the holiday weekend. I had the night planned full of activities to prepare myself to get on the road, but I'd always wanted to go to this circus, so I jumped at the chance.

Fine as Wine

It was a stormy Friday night on the 27th of September in 1985. Despite Hurricane Gloria making her presence known, another presence was made. This was the day God decided to bring me onto this earth! This past weekend I celebrated by 29th birthday! I wasn't excited about and I'm still not too thrilled, per se, about being 29 but let's go on and add that to the list of stories to be told at another time! :-)

I unintentionally tasked my boyfriend with doing something special for my birthday weekend. I hadn't planned anything and the only goal I had was to get 'dressed up'!

Friday night we enjoyed a comedy show at DC Improv. There was a comedic MC, two comedians and the feature comedian Bobby Lee. I don't know if you guys used to watch MADtv, but he was one of the cast members (during the Key & Peele era). All of the comedians had enough joke in them to make me laugh, so I was pleased with the night.

Each morning included breakfast. If you know me, you know I love breakfast food at any time of the day!! Most days my body can't always make it up in time to enjoy some of the breakfast places I like but I guess that's why birthdays are special. I found my signature breakfast sandwich for when I'm on the go...and of course, I had my fave...IHOP!!

The weather during the work week before my birthday had been drab. You could tell autumn was nearing by the consecutive days of 70-something degree weather. I'm a Fall baby, so this is prime time for me but I was a bit worried about what Saturday would look like. Thank goodness God saw fit to kiss my cheeks with beautiful sunshine!!

I won't share all the details of my beautiful birthday but my boyfriend is an amazing planner. Saturday included some shopping at Tanger Outlets but the highlight was some of our night time plans. I finally got to ride the new ferris wheel at the National Harbor!! We also stayed at the harbor for dinner at Bond 45, an Italian steakhouse. After having one of their steaks, our standards for steak (and asparagus and spinach) have been set pretty high! Their cookies need a little work...lol...but over all the food amazing!

My family and friends showered me with love and well wishes. I'm so appreciative for being a thought on people's minds...especially on a Saturday. I've always felt like my birthday was one of the best days of my year and people who help make it even more special have a special spot in my life for that year!! It kind of helps me put into perspective my relationships with people but not to the point where you have no place if I didn't hear from you. I know things come up and people get busy, etc. etc. etc...but I appreciate being thought of! Who doesn't?! So thank you for all the Google+ messages, emails, text messages, FB messages, IG comments, twitter shoutouts, and anything else I might have forgotten!! You all are the BEST!!

Also a great big muah to my babe!!

He made my #29andfineaswine birthday a success

He def makes my heart smile :-)

P.S. Don't forget to come back tomorrow!!

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One Year Ago...

One last look at my old apt.

August 23rd, 2013 was one of the days my life changed.

See here before reflecting with me.

(You might also want to grab a snack because this is a long one...

but reflecting usually takes some time :-)

I've been on my own for a few years. I'm a very strong woman who takes care of herself, so I'd also say I have this independent thing down pat. I wanted more for myself; I wanted better; I wanted something new and different. When I was in high school I'd always say, "When I graduate I'm never coming back!" Ask my mom...lol. That could've just been the teenager in me talking, but over the years I equated success with not being in or around my hometown. I'm at a point where I can pretty much do whatever I want whenever I want so it seemed like a better time than any to pick up everything and move away from the comfort zone I knew so well.

The Yards

The farthest from home I'd ever been was when I was in college; it was about 2 hours away. No matter where I was I could always make day trips to see my family and friends. Being honest, day trips seemed to always turn into extended stay trips...LOL! Not being able to do that has been one of my biggest challenges to deal with. I mean, sure 5 to 7 hours can technically be considered a day trip but when you're used to trips being 30 minutes to 2 hours long...a 5 hour drive is a different kind of beast. I can't tell you the many times I've driven home in monsoon storms, or been in extreme traffic after leaving straight from work and getting home at 1 or 2 in the morning; or been so tired after the drive but had only one full day to try and see and spend real time with everybody. Yeah...weekends aren't really that long when you're squeezing so much in so it's been hard!

Joe's Crab Shack for the 1st time

Over the past year my relationships with people have changed. Some for worse, some for better. I must admit social media plays a part in hindering my reach out efforts. Free time is like a unicorn! When I get it, I'm guilty of having a list of things I need to do but doing absolutely nothing! What can I say?! Being an adult is exhausting and I love my rest! As much as I say I want to do better with reaching out to people, I don't always do as much reaching out as I'd like. Sure that works both ways, but I can only account for what I do.

It snowed so much here last winter

Social media makes me feel like I'm keeping up with everybody because it makes things easily available. Through social media I still feel like everybody is a hop, skip, and a jump away. Face Time has helped me feel like I'm sitting at home in the living room with my family many a time. So, it's served it's served a purpose for me. However, it's also left some feeling disconnected whereas in my introverted mind, I'm thinking things are good and we can pick up where we left off whenever we get back together! Some of that is because of social media and some of that is because of growing up and apart. There should be a balance there regardless and I know I'm not alone when I say that's something I need to work on it.

Reppin' NC at work

I started my job a year ago today; August 26th, 2013. I've grown in my professional life this year and I feel as if I'm on a good track to keep moving up. Knowing I planned to move away, I prepared well for the transition. I'd just accepted a promotion, so my resume was nice and still is! The most important professional goal I have is to keep moving up. I'm not saying this in a ruthless manner, but I don't want to accept any position I feel is lower than what I'm doing now. I want to take in as much as I can and learn everything that's put before me. I'm a hard worker and I excel because I can. I want to continue to prepare myself so I'll be ready when an opportunity presents itself.

This year has been an eye opener. I won't say I have any regrets about anything I've done. I feel like experiences are lessons. Going through something first hand is the best teacher. That doesn't mean that I wouldn't have preferred to learn some of these lessons by word of mouth...lol...but sometimes you can't firmly grasp things you don't actually experience yourself. I get that.

The Washington Monument during Memorial Day weekend

I have desires and dreams for my personal future, like I'm sure the rest of you do. They're my biggest motivation. I make decisions for my present based off things I know I want for my future. I'm not one to try and force things to happen, or manipulate people or situations so the outcomes will be in my favor; neither am I one to settle. So as much as I see this picture of the future and how wonderful it'll be, I'm here for the plan God has for me. I can desire, plead, and beg all I want, but it can't match anything God can do!!

SO, as frustrating as things can get, as homesick as I can get, as much as I can want to be in the presence of my family and friends...I can go on and on with this stuff...lol! I know there's a design for my life and I know God's the designer. The best I can do is be grateful for the life He's given me, be grateful for where I am in my life and for the things He's done for me thus far (if I were to go into detail about how I got my job right now, you'd know how real He is)!!

Nationals Baseball

I've enjoyed DC. I've had a great time. I've enjoyed my relationship; the beautiful scenery; my job; the new people I've met; the activities I've gotten into; and the person I've grown into. Now that I've gotten into a "comfort zone" of sorts, I hope to get out of that in this next year. I hope to make my house more of a home, to see more of the city, and to create even more meaningful relationships here (top of the list...finding a good church home! lol). Last but not least, I hope life is gracious to me and sees fit to grant me beautifulness because there's nothing wrong with wanting what you want! I know everything will be alright. I have faith!

DC Living

Will I be here forever?!

No!!

But I aim to continue enjoying myself while I'm here!

Peace and Love!

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We Are The Champions

Remember this post?! Well let me fill you in!

We played the three makeup games and won all three games (Game 1: 13-7, Game 2: 22-9, and Game 3: 13-3)!! Winning those games put us in 2nd place for our league! It felt great to have accomplished that because I knew our team was one of the better teams in our league. Honestly speaking we deserved 1st place, but that's another story for another time. We hit a mid-season slump after having 2 bye weeks back to back and we had a very hard time climbing out of it, but as you can see by those scores above...we made it!

The tournament was this past Saturday...ALL of Saturday! We had four one-hour games scheduled so I knew this day had the potential to be a long day (if we kept winning). Our games were scheduled for 10, 11:15, 12:30, & 2:30. These were single elimination games, so one loss would have had us a one-way ticket out of the tournament for good!

Since our first game was so early, I thought we'd have a nice, cool morning of softball ahead of us...WRONG! I was nowhere near ready for the amount of heat and humidity we had to face all day long. It was already hard enough having to get up that early on a Saturday morning but add to that having to competitively active and you've got yourself a challenge!

The first game was really close. I'm sure I wasn't the only one having trouble with having to be active that early in the morning because none of us were hitting like we normally do. I was nervous the entire first game. My stomach was in knots and I was shaking terribly! I'm super competitive but not in a showy way; I internalized all that anxiety and couldn't get rid of it no matter what I did! I'm sure nobody likes to lose, but I don't like losing when I know I (or we in this case) are capable of winning! A game that we should have won by a landslide we won by the skin of our teeth.

After barely making it out of the first game alive, we have about 10 minutes before our next game. Even though we couldn't get our bats going, we played the best defensive game we'd played up to that point so we were on a high. It was time for our game to start but the other team was nowhere to be found! This was such a blessing! We had the opportunity to rest, get hydrated, get some batting practice in, sit around and relax and cut up...like we normally do...so we could get our heads wrapped around being competitive yet still having a good time.

The next two games we played were tough, but we made it out champions. We got over our slumps and arrived at the end of this journey greater than we were when we started. We meshed as a team and showed DC what we could do!

This has been a great season and I've met some wonderful people who have created an interesting summer for me!! I've grown a lot as a softball player and I still have a lot of growing to do to become more consistent as a player. I can't wait to see what we do next year. I know they're are some teams out there gunning for us...but they're going to have to work really hard if they want to dethrone The Authority!!

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Memorial Day Weekend

Directly after my summer vacation my family came up to visit for Memorial Day weekend! We had to jam pack so many things into one weekend but it was worth it!

Me and Chris were the event planners. Friday we took my mom, sister, and nephew to our favorite restaurant: Matchbox! We take all our first time DC guests there!!

Saturday we met up with some more of my out of town family to do some see what kind of shopping the DC area had to offer. My plan was to make it to The Capital Wheel at National Harbor (for the kids) but Memorial Day weekend was the opening weekend!! Traffic was backed all the way up the off ramp to the highway, so we nixed that and hit up Tanger Outlets. This outlet mall is fairly new to the area and I've been meaning to visit. This was the perfect opportunity.

Sunday was the day I looked forward to because this was going to be everyone's first opportunity to see the monuments. My sister came back in October and we tried to visit the monuments then but it was rainy & cold! Since it was Memorial Day, we knew it would be too hectic to drive. We thought it would be a good experience and a little fun for everyone to ride the Metro instead! What a success! My family got a taste of the subway life and we didn't have to worry about driving or parking! If you read this post, you already know how I feel about this subject!

The initial plan was the definitely see the White House and the Lincoln Memorial because my nephew talked everybody's head off about these two monuments up to this point! There would have been trouble to pay if we didn't make the magic happen. We also had to see the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial because my sister wanted to see this one! My moma wanted to see it all!

The weather was beautiful, but it was a little on the warm side! My sister is 5 months pregnant and if you know anything about the monuments, you know they're not a hop, skip, or jump away from each other!! Walking around all the monuments would easily take a whole day! With this in mind, we planned to see as many as she could tolerate. The sun was wearing us thin HOWEVER we all got a second wind after the temperature cooled down and we grabbed a light snack. My mom wanted to see them all. I've been up here for almost a year and she's just now coming to visit. Who know when she'll make her way back! So, she wanted to take full advantage of her vacation and finish seeing as many as we could!

Overall we had a great time! I miss my family dearly and I wish home was a little closer but the visits are fun and I hope they become more frequent in the future (meaning more trips for them up here!) :-)

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National Cherry Blossom Festival

The week before last was the National Cherry Blossom Festival! I'm not going to say that I'd never heard of it before, but it wasn't particularly on my radar way down in North Carolina!

I didn't think I would be able to make it out this year because I had so much going on with work, softball practices, taking care of business, etc...but I did! Most of my coworkers mentioned that most DC natives don't engage in the tourist-y things like the Cherry Blossom Festival...but I refused to be grouped in that category! I come from a small city where there's rarely anything going on, so to be able to go to a national event in my own city means something to me!

There was an actual festival that happened on the 12th that my boyfriend and I were unable to attend. However, we wanted to get out and see the cherry blossoms before they all fell off. Here are some of the pictures I took (he took that picture above):

Aren't these pictures beautiful?! I can tell you that the scenery was more beautiful in person!

This is an event I'd recommend people attend. There were different activities and events throughout the week. I love the beauty of nature so just being able to enjoy the Japanese Cherry Blossom trees on such a beautiful and warm day was reward enough for me.

Be aware!! There were hundreds of thousands of people out...and I'm not exaggerating when I say that!! We DID NOT drive and I wouldn't recommend it. There was gridlock traffic in that area and parking was ridiculous. We took the Metro which took a load off  because we didn't have to worry about driving or parking. Walking was a bit hectic but we weren't in a rush so we took our time.

Next time I hope to be able to attend some of the events and activities. I could have done so this year, if I wouldn't have waited so late to do my taxes!! (For some reason I always wait until the last minute to get those things done. I'm not pressed for the money, so I look at it as a good thing, BUT I promise to do better next year! LOL) Looking back at Japanese Cherry Blossom Week 2014, I can say it was a success! This whole weekend was a great weekend!

Now only if that weather would come back to stay!! :-)
Have a great day y'all! I know I will!

P.S. - Don't forget to check out Janee's Birthday Giveaway for your chance to win a $600 Visa gift card!

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Truckeroo Visit

This past Friday, I did something new!

My boyfriend and I visited the local Truckeroo at the DC Fairgrounds!! This was my first time and I wanted to share it with you. I feel like sharing this experience won't give you the full picture because there were a lot of circumstances that prevented this event from being greater than it was. This was the first Truckeroo of the year and there was a possibility of rain. There was a cover band there and the atmosphere was very jovial but there weren't too many trucks out. It was a good opportunity, however, to see what this thing was all about without being overcrowded.

I also didn't get the chance to try any of the food (which was a bummer because I keep hearing about how good some of these food trucks are) because we had dinner plans that I certainly didn't want to ruin! Some of the food trucks I would have tried were BurGorilla (gourmet burgers from basic to bananas); Cup Mac DC (gourmet pasta); D Claw (crab cakes and lobster rolls); etc.! They've been doing a lot of construction around my job where the food trucks usually park, so I'm just so curious to find out what I've been missing.

The next Truckeroo is May 9th and the one after that is June 13th. I will be going to one of those and I will be eating some "street meat" and other goodies! If you'd like to join, these would be perfect opportunities!

What food trucks have you found to have good food?

P.S. - Don't forget to check out Janee's Birthday Giveaway for your chance to win a $600 Visa gift card!

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Big City Lessons

First of all...my birthday is 21 days away!! 

LOL...just felt the need to make that announcement

:-)

Now, as you all know, I've moved to the "big city" and I've been here for a about two weeks now. I knew there would be differences between living here and living in the South so I wanted to keep running log of these lessons. I want to cherish every bit of this!