Commercial Break

Now imagine this doo on a 7 year old!!!

Fixing Vandercar - Season 1 ~ Episode 1 (con't)

Like all reality shows, this is the segment where the dramatic music is cued and the subject talks really low and stifles the urge to cry while telling a secret or a story from their past.

And Fixing Vandercar wouldn't be a reality show without our very own whispered segment.

Here's the back story, minus the tears, cause I've already figured out how it relates to my fears and hopefully have put them to rest. Having said that, however, has not taken away my hesitancy to trust people with implements in their hands when they are near my head.

Many of you know that I was a late comer to the Vandercar family. I can imagine that I cramped my teenage siblings plans once or a thousand times on a friday night when they wanted to go out, but had to babysit their baby sister instead. I also imagine that I was somewhat sort of a baby doll come to life.

As I grew up I remember wanting to be wherever my brothers and sisters were and remember getting to go with them...not realizing that I was probably called a tag-a-long.

I remember going with Sister Susie and her friends to Tony's Drive INN and how I thought Brenda and Marilyn and Susie were so grown up, hip and pretty. As I remember, Brenda was planning on becoming a beautician and all I remember is one day they got it in their heads that they were gonna "set" my hair. There were rollers and a dryer involved and the whole beauty shop process and when they finished I looked like a tiny person with very BIG hair. (think bouffant). Now, many of you know that by this time in my young life, I was probably more comfortable in a Cubs hat and no shoes or shirt than a fru fru hairstyle.

So the big girl curls freaked me out.

I did NOT know what the term "SET" meant when it came to hair-doos and I had KNOW idea that when I washed my hair, the curls would disappear.
So, you can imagine me...when I finally got alone and went to bed that night, I laid my head on the pillow and instead of wearing the hairnet that keeps the hair doo tidy, I pressed my head into the pillow as hard as I could and spent the better part of the night...pressing my hair down to my head with my arms and hands. I put my head under the pillow, on top of the pillow, anything to flatten my hair back to the dutch boy cut that I was used to. Of course, I'm sure the next day I looked like a wreck. I don't remember the relief that came from washing it and it returning to normal, I only remember the anxiety that came from being torn between wanting to be with my sister and her friends and the fear that they would keep using my head for hair practice!

So there. That is the story of my early hair care. And why I might flinch if you innocently try to straighten a stray hair on my head.

See no crying.
Well, at least not yet.

Commercial Break

Fixing Vandercar - Season 1 ~ Episode 1 (con't)

Sister Susie was getting highlights, so she was first up in the shampoo room and then onto the chair.
While waiting, I got a better look around the place and found these things to be very cool: lights, boots and the upside down Christmas tree! Then it was Susie's turn to wait.
While her color did it's magic, I took my turn in the shampoo room.
It was there that Lori and I decided that I will move to Lowell and open up a book/coffee shop across the street in what was Nellie Jane's (another bank building, I believe) and we will do cross promotions for each other's business! Oh, and we'll be neighbors too, cause I'll get an apartment in the upstairs of one of the buildings downtown. (please, pay no attention to my oversized neck in this picture).

Then it was onto the chair where Sandy and Susie watched Lori go to work!

This is where I'm telling Lori my first memory of getting my hair "done."
Which tho innocent enough, probably scarred me for life and made me wary of "beauticians."
Watching Lori work, tho, I was starting to relax and see that there is a difference between a person who cuts hair and a stylist. This girl, is an artist!

THEN, just when I was RELAXED..
I heard Sandy, the fixer,
say the word

WAX.

Stay tuned for the visit to the unexpected room where my new found confidence in the beauty business gets put to the test.

Commercial Break

Fixing Vandercar - Season 1 ~ Episode 1 (con't)

We got to town and parked across the street from C'est Moi, the Salon that is owned by Lori, Sandy's "girl."

I had no idea that Lowell had such a funky salon nestled in it's downtown!
And I felt pretty good about the repurposed building. Gotta love old Bank buildings.

We walked in and Sandy was waiting for us and this is where I really started to feel like I was on a Reality Television "how to I look" makeover show.
I mean, this place ain't no Great Clips (although the people at Great Clips are always very nice). The girl at the desk whisked our coats away and asked us what we would like to drink and invited us to have a seat on the sofa.

Lori came out to the front and we had introductions all around. The Fixer (Sandy) took over and told her that we were here for a makeover and that she could do whatever she wanted. Lori, said okay, but that she needed a little more direction...
so they talked about the possibilities and that it needs to be easy to take care of and low maintenance. We asked if she had the Internet and we had her google image "Kirstin Stewart Joan Jett Mullet."
I had told Sandy I liked that cut and The Fixer was convinced that I needed bangs. Lori was at the computer and as the image came up, she said "love it, love it, love it."

We then stepped into out of the parlor and behind the screens to let the "fun" begin.

First up:
Just like on tv.....

The Before shots.
Stay tuned for wash, cut and a visit to a room that was NOT on my Fixing agenda!

Commerical Break

Fixing Vandercar - Season 1 ~ Episode 1

Now that my hair has grown out and I'm almost ready for another haircut, I'm finally getting around to airing the pilot to the reality show: Fixing Vandercar.

I started the new year with a list of resolutions and broke most of them by the evening of New Year's day. But one person who has no problems keeping resolutions is Sandy Vandercar.

The first thing we talked about fixing was hair.
She told me I should make an appointment with her "girl."

But, knowing me like she does, she knew that if left to me, it would take me months to get that appointment made, if ever.
So while I slept in on Jan. 2....Sandy was on the phone making appointments for both me and Sister Susie who was looking for a new doo for her upcoming trips.

Susie opened the bedroom door and said,

"Get up! Sandy got us and appointment with Lori!
We need to be there at 11 o'clock!"

I looked at her a little shocked and dumbfounded and wondered just what I had got myself into.

(insert dramatic music here)

To be continued after a short commercial break!

Happy Birthday Girls!!

Another Munchkin : (

Another Munchkin has passed away bringing the remaining Munchkins down to four, possibly five (unconfirmed Munchkin living in Boston).

Meinhardt Raabe played the Coroner who pronounced the Wicked Witch of the East dead.

Flashback Friday....Worthy Grangers

Worthy Master:
"Worthy Steward, inform the Gate-Keeper that I am about to open the Grange."

Steward:
"Worthy Gate-Keeper, the Worthy Master is about to open the Grange. Please close the gate."

Gate-Keeper:
(dave's line)
"Worthy Steward, the gate is closed."

Steward:
"Worthy Master, the gate is closed."

Wait! Say what? Three raps on the door?

Steward:
"Worthy Overseer, there are strangers at the gate."

Overseer:
"See who they are, and ascertain what they desire."

The Steward opens the door and says:
"Who comes?"

The Hayden Family?

That's right.
All the Haydens and more were at the Grange Meeting Monday night surprising the Worthy Secretary, Sister Susie as she was named and awarded the Best Grange Member, ever.
Wish I could have been there, but then again, I probably would have been kicked out cause I don't know the password.

Worthy Sister Susie, we all think that you are most Worthy!
You are a Great Granger and a Great Person!

Directions to here:
Pictures anybody? Kelly? Anyone?
I know there are more vintage Grange shots, I can see them in my head...I just don't know where I saw them. I'll keep looking.

Fixing Vandercar - Concept Development

Every show that we watch on the television goes thru several steps before it makes it to TV. The show goes from the Big Idea to concept development to the pitch to the production and finally the presentation to its audience.

I am getting ready to air episode one of Fixing Vandercar, but thought I would give you a little background first.

As you read in the last post, Sandy and I ARE related but are very different from each other. 

We both have definite likes and definite quirks.

We are both very different people, but have similar issues. (think o.c.d. here).

I can pull on my sleeve and she knows exactly the feeling I'm having: "it's too tight," or "it's touching me."

After listening to Sandy state her opinion over the years, I've learned that there are certain topics that she is usually almost always right about.

For instance:

Certain food combinations:

If she tells you to eat two things together...no matter how bizarre, it's usually very good.

Shopping:

She once was shopping with me for an emergency wardrobe crisis and picked out a pair of pants for me in no time flat AND they fit AND I liked them. That NEVER happens to me.

So, when I got ready for the Christmas Eve service this past year and realized that I packed the sweater that I meant to leave at home and left at home the sweater I meant to bring, Sandy noticed right away that I was having an issue with my clothes. It was an okay sweater, but it was

1. touching me...and

2. I didn't like the way it looked with the pants I had. and

3. Blah, blah, blah.... 

The issue with the sweater made me not like the way my hair was and my shoes and it reminded me that my glasses felt like they were giving me a headache and that I didn't like my coat cause it was making me feel static clingy...and so on and so on.

Then I looked at Dave Vandercar.

And thought, He's Bob Vandercar's son, how does he not have all these issues?

Dave always looks very well put together and very comfortable.

And then I said "ah, hah. He has Sandy." 

I was in the car with them when I figured all this out and I got the big idea for a reality show and right there developed the concept and gave the pitch for the show to Sandy.

I told her, I need Fixing Nancy advice....and before we drove the country block that it takes to get to church, we had extended it to the several topics and the whole family and named the show:

Fixing Vandercar.