OneShan Weblog

Financial Ruin

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 09:24:04 -0500

A new president was elected in this country and I have been watching and paying attention to this one more closely than I ever remember wanting to know what a President was up to. So I hope that people feel a sense of a new direction for this country that is under so much stress about the economy tanking. My business seems to be doing very well despite the media’s attempts at scaring everyone. I still even travel back to St. Louis to do hair every 6 weeks. Thanksgiving has come and gone. The two of us went local to the Bee Hive. I got the new Blackberry Storm a few days ago and I have the new Mac Book Pro on its way, so things are looking up. Not looking good this week however….. Our condo units tub drain has broken and is spilling water down the interior walls of our unit all the way down to 11’s unit. Guy in 11 came up sweating or wet after being in his shower on Friday to say he saw water forming on his bathroom ceiling, saying “it looks like tea” (he snickered after saying it) We suspect he is “family” (gay, that is). Jay was the only one home and stated that he only ran the tub for a moment, so that it must be 18. 18 came banging on the door after Jay was showering and reported, that he did NOT have water in his unit, BUT that he could hear it “flowing” behind his bathroom wall. We waited to hear back from 11 and continued to shower since we never heard from him in a few days. 11 was back and let us know.. water still…SO In come the plumbers. After negotiating with the unserviceable and disdainful management company to let us into 18, we finally got in so the plumbers could hear the water “flowing”, which turned out to be more of a strong trickle. Plumbers now have to tear out the ceiling to 18 today just to run a diagnostic that costs only $450.00 to get to our pipes. Under Massachusetts law we are not responsible to repair 18’s ceiling since our liability policy does not cover anything unless we are negligent. We are not negligent because we acted immediately, therefore our insurance company will not pay. However it is the right thing to do and if we refused we could be sued. So we have to magically come up with some unsaid amount to not only pay for the plumbers to do all the work to our drain, but to pay for the ceiling they are going to tear out to be repaired or replaced. Then what if 11 decides he wants his ceiling replaced, but in that case, I would suspect that Insurance would need to step in. We have no money, my two credit cards at minimum credit limits are maxed out, and I doubt with the state of things, we could get a home equity loan. I was also unable to get approved for another credit card, I am depressed, angry and frustrated to go into debt to pay for someone else’s ceiling.. I am going to attempt to contact the owner of 18 and ask kindly if he could claim on his home owner’s insurance policy for the ceiling repairs. We could then perhaps offer to pay half or the full deductible. To repair the torn drain pipe under our unit is going to cost $4400 that I took out of my business account and thus wiped us out completly. The hunt for contractors start today.

Go See Milk

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 09:42:50 -0500

This movie staring Sean Penn is the best Movie I have seen all year. A very moving piece with spectacular acting by Sean and Josh Browlin. I remember reading about Harvey Milk years ago and even then it struck me as a tragic yet inspiring story about early Gay rights. I was moved then as I was now by the shear number of people who attended the candle lit vigil after Harvey and the Major of San Francisco were shot in there offices at city hall in 1978. Gus Van Sant was brilliant this time by using original footage from actual events as well as the vigil crowd as far as the eye can see marching to City Hall.

October Travels

Sun, 02 Nov 2008 11:45:55 -0500

Again I find myself too busy to update my blog and here it is a month later. October was a very busy month and every weekend was spent out of town. The first week was another St. Louis work trip and I got to see the hilarious movie Religilous with friends and also a fun relaxing Sunday with family. The second weekend was Devon and Jesse’s wonderful outdoor wedding and a spontaneous trip to P-town, in which we even took Pru down with us on the Fast Ferry. It was a crisp cool weekend and most of the businesses were having sales as the natives we winding down from the hectic season. We wore Pru out with the walks on the beach and up and down commercial street as well as ourselves with a bike ride through some of the trails. We even ran into some friends, which makes things so much better and fun. The weekend of the 17th I took off to Washington DC, to meet up with Alec (my son). We had a nice time just hanging out and Donna was so sweet to offer up her place to stay. It was nice to also see Alonzo (from the DZine days) and we all laughed quite a bit. At one portion at dinner, I had to leave the table because I was laughing so hard. We even took a short day trip to Mt. Vernon; George Washington’s home before heading back home via BWI. The last weekend in October was Jay’s birthday and we went to Jacksonville Florida for a family weekend to celebrate an early thanksgiving. The activities included a trivia night at a favorite restaurant, a rainy afternoon of shopping, bowling and a seafood dinner. We also took a day trip to St. Augustine, just south of Jax, and had lunch in this historic city after browsing the nick-knack tourist shops and one museum. I can tell you that I was happy to live in the North East after being in the conservative south for even that short weekend. Halloween was again a great time in the South End, and we had a nice dinner at Sibling Rivalry after a long day at work. I know that next year, the salon HAS to be involved with this South End Halloween extravaganza. The streets are so crowded with trick-or-treaters and businesses stay open late to partake in this Holiday. I remember saying, as I did the previous year: “This is the only time of year Bostonians are friendly and inviting”. OK, back to the Grind, and don’t forget to VOTE! Next time I write, I will be saying Barack Obama is our next president.

The Six Flags (Out In the Park) and the Deva Curl NYC Pure Hair Design weekend.

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 14:47:07 -0500

Having been rushed around working all week, it was a relief to take a Saturday off, but still I didn’t have the time to prepare for New York like I wanted to. We took off early Saturday for Six Flags alone, as we still don’t have any good friends.. SIGH.. We did however meet up with some of Jay’s co-workers and their partners after we had been at the park a couple of hours. The park was not crowded and it was so cool to be able to ride all the rides and get on them so quickly. The rollercoaster called Mind Eraser is certainly jerky and more of what I would rename the “Concussion Maker.” I enjoyed the Batman a lot as it was cushiony with plenty of head support and swift. Pandemonium or as Jeremy would continually call it the the Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, something or other, obviously he is confused; was a favorite with its spinning rollercoaster car. I especially loved the two young ghetto fabulous transsexuals who were “vogue-ing” while cursing obscenities going up into the air and being dropped on “Scream” the 220 foot freefall ride, I suppose they fit the description perfectly. I relaxed a bit and had some nasty park cheese fries while chatting with Cody and James as they were sitting out the last ride on the Superman. Jeremy ended up loosing his car key on the ride and after only a brief 20 minutes after the ride was closed, they found the key in a spot that the staff frequent after someone looses things from the ride – the G spot they called it. I can only imagine after a long day standing around and lifting up chest bars and pushing big yellow buttons they all descend under a steep turn or flip under the coaster and sift through the tall grass or shallow rock. Occasionally picking up chewing gum by accident, or perhaps a nice watch, a million coins, a TV or two, or even a car key that may have fallen out of the pockets of the patrons while they put their hands up to spiral through fun at Six Flags. Another rush to pack after returning from Out In the Park and an early morning drive to the real city of NY. I arrived around noon waking up the girls on my phone call informing them of my proximity to the financial district hotel in which we were all staying. I could tell they had a rough night and they began discussing the previous night stories of debauchery in the Meat Packing district with a nice dinner and a continuous fight to get into clubs and bars (Apryl had forgotten her ID). I think they managed to get into a few places, but Jenny described it as feeling like she was in the movie “Knocked Up” running to the begining of the line and arguing with the bouncer. See IMDB link-- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0478311/quotes We got right to some shopping in SoHo - my favorite spot. We ended up waiting 45 minutes for this very cute stylish restaurant called Delicatessen which turned out to have the most unbelievably horrendous service I have ever experienced from a server whose brain was de-commissioned before she arrived to work. See my Yelp review.. http://www.yelp.com/biz/delicatessen-new-york No planned reservations for dinner, but we managed to find a pretty good place near China Town called Boroco. It was a cavernous place, more of a romantic getaway, but nonetheless, where else would I have the opportunity to try “creamed cod” – Seriously?! After dinner the girls went back to crash and I went uptown to…well…be out in NY. I soon got bored and tried one other location, “The Cock” over in the East side, and again got bored and took an early night in. I awoke in a sweat in the middle of the night and immediately went into a panic attack as I couldn’t feel my left arm. I crouched around in the dark only using my cell phone to light my way to find my Xanax - only took a half to start this attack from becoming worse. I felt ill and my stomach began to churn so I decided to run a bath, knowing that would calm me down. So here I am at 3am in a NYC hotel shallow bath tub pondering the reasons why my more recent anxiety attack came on: (1) Stressed at work, from being so busy and with all the new and sometimes demanding clients, (2) Recently being sick, and I hate being sick, and (3) Too much caffeine? I realized after soaking and calming down that I believe that my left arm completely fell asleep and when I turned over in my sleep all the blood started to rush back into my arm with painful vengeance. OUCH.. sigh. Of course the running joke when I get flustered or hyper in the salon is, “Shan why don’t you take a bath?” Deva Day at the Departure Lounge in SoHo. I am super excited to finally be officially trained in the Deva concept of cutting and coloring curly hair. I must say, the staff was very nice and down to earth, much more than I expected from such a reputable salon in New York. Our team from Pure really absorbed the details, and I think added more education through questions to the other 14 or so stylists in attendance from all over the country. Apryl cracked herself up and us with her imagining that she had smeared hair color all over the back of my vintage black jacket between swipes of painting strands of hair since we were in close proximity to each other. I suppose it was more imagining my response and her carelessness that defined the whole pretend scenario. At the end of the day and after seeing my techniques, one of the instructors/stylist said I should come work there. I want to work there, what if I did a few days a month in NYC? Over all we had a super time in NYC and it was always in my thoughts that it would be good for us to bond and chat as a team outside the salon. The Drive back was split up, Maria and I in the lead speed car and Jenny and Apryl following us up the FDR highway to 95. We got caught in Connecticut construction for about 30 minutes and while traveling Apryl would occasionally call Maria, just to chat. At one slow going bumper to bumper traffic Apryl was seen by us and many surrounding drivers crawling back into the of Jenny’s Hybrid. She put down the seats and was pulling her pajamas out of the suit case. The truck driver next to them certainly enjoyed the show. Maria was sad that I had forgotten my binoculars. We were so slap happy that at times I would burst into laughter just thinking of Apryl’s reaction to meaningless random items along the drive that might inspire a thought from her. It is always a joy to be back home in Boston with my man Jay. This week has been busy, but I have been much more relaxed. My 1 year anniversary of returning to St. Louis to do hair is upon us and I am excited to share my enthusiasm for good looking hair.

Shan on Yelp.

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 14:29:42 -0500

My Neighborhood

What's this?

Boston Moped Massacre

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 19:02:31 -0500

Ok so here we are on our 1968 Riverside mopeds yesterday at the Boston Moped Massacre '08 rally...about 30 of us on mopeds swarming through the streets of Boston...blocking intersections, blowing through red lights and pedestrian filled crosswalks...for once, as a mass unit, taking over the streets usually very unfriendly to moped riders (although we have every right to be on the street...just as much as cars, trucks, busses and taxicbs)...unfortunately Shan's bike made it for 10 minutes and then died...LOL... We sat in a black top parking lot for 4 hours waiting for the damn ride to start - but with the moped culture (READ: partiers, drinkers, stoners)... We have learned that schedules are tentative at best... We think Shan's bike got overheated but who knows...[sigh]...guess we'll have to look at the plug, carb, condenser...(god do I sound BUTCH or what? Who uses words like plug, carb and condenser???) Anyway, we met some new people, other 'ped heads drooled over our bikes...now we need to get Shan's back up and running... (This is a copy of an email Jay sent to our friends, I thought I would share with everyone on my blog, enjoy.)

Barack Obama on GLBT equality

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 09:17:17 -0500

Car on Google

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 09:37:05 -0500

Don't forget Big Brother is watching (hee hee) Look below, my car in front of my building.

"Show me crazy"

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 09:01:28 -0500

What do you get when you put Winnie the Pooh, a picture of Jesus, another picture of a puppy and Donna Summers “Last Dance” on cassette tape? You get our cab driver from last night and we had a hard time keeping our composure during our 10 minute ride from the South End back home to Fenway. Oh, he also had cut some white tube socks and had them on both his hands, I suppose for some sort of protection or padding from the steering wheel. I couldn’t ask him why because Pooh was staring at me along with the photo of Jesus and the lonely looking puppy. I did ask if it was a radio station playing and he said “No it’s a tape.” The funniest thing about him was that he would bob up and down, dancing to the music and at every stop light he would pick up what looked like an inflatable or water filled dumbbell with his right hand and do a few arm curls; quite funny indeed. He thanked us repeatedly in a high pitched tourette’s sort of way as we exited the cab.

Boston Rain

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 20:49:24 -0500

Rain, rain, rain and more rain in Boston, SIGH.... But the two 1968 Benelli mopeds are up and running; Woo-hoo. They are so much fun to ride and they get tons of attention. We picked up the second one yesterday after a very nice guy in Woburn has been working on them out of his workshop behind his house for a week. So we took the back roads home with the moped in the hatch of the car and we got stuck in a tunnel that was flooded from a flash flood (see photo below). Several cars attempted to go through and a small handful didn’t make it. We waited (30 mins) till they closed the road behind us and we back tracked. Work is going strong and I have been really picking up more and more clients. I do get a bit more exhausted lately and I need to start pacing myself and remember to start snacking in between to keep nourished. I have been watching more of the Olympic Games and especially like the Diving events. OK Back to the Olympics..

Summer in the comment section

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 22:23:56 -0500

Whew, Pride is over and the Block Party in R.I. was a drag, so we ended up walking to most of the local gay bars in downtown instead. Overall I think Providence is a cute little town. The evening of the 4th was spent watching (for our first time) the Boston Fireworks; we even took Pru (Great Dane) with us, but she certainly didn’t care for the finale. We had attended two small BBQ’s that day, one by Jenny and Rich and the others’ Matt and Scott. My father has come and gone from his very first trip to Boston, that same weekend. He drove (the long way) all the way from St. Louis to bring Jay and I two identical 1968 Italian mopeds. I am still trying to find someone to work on them and get them up a running. Although it was a short trip as he had to get back to North Carolina to pick up a good friend from her Tai-chi weekend. We rode the high speed 30 passenger boat out in the harbor called Codzilla. (see my review on yelp: CLICK HERE. ) I actually really enjoyed the tour of Fenway Park, and made me yearn to attend and see a game. I think the highlight of his trip was his 30 mile hike out in the ocean to see the Whales. It was nice just to show him around the town and for him to see how and where we lived and worked. There has been some drama on my client testimonial section of my website in the past week or more. You have to scroll down several rebuttals to get the original message everyone is referring to, quite funny and frankly, simply ridiculous. (Quick Link) Well back to work…

New England Year Two

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 12:18:50 -0500

OK, it has been a while since I last blogged, so this is a long one. Boston is wonderful this time of year and everyone cherishes it; so to kick off the warm weather Jay and I took a day trip to Portland, Maine and had fresh lobster by the ocean on Cape Elizabeth. It was picturesque as most of New England tends to be with the rocky shore and the quintessential lighthouse. We took our time driving up US-1, passing the smaller towns and the thousands or so antique stores. Portland was very grand all perched up on the hill looking out over the ocean. We took just a little time to stroll along the downtown streets before heading back. I did want to check out Kennebunkport on the way back, which I heard was cute, and, indeed, it was a petite little village with several stores that featured nice clothing and of course up-scale trinkets. The town sits on a small bay that has all the fishing and sailing boats docked bobbing up and down in the setting sun. We dined along the miniature harbor in Kennebunk, which is across the small bridge and a 30 second walk from Kennebunkport. The view of the large homes along ocean drive was incredible as we headed out of Kennebunk. I recently celebrated one year at Pure and business is absolutely booming for me. I am so fortunate to finally feel some relief that I am busy again. Yelp.com has been extremely helpful and of course my quality of work, and personality help and everyone encourages others to come see me. So I feel good again. A woman named Maria recently joined our team, and we are eager to share our knowledge and expertise with her. On the first of June we attended the Boston AIDS Walk briefly. Since we walked all the way from our place to the Esplanade with Pru, by the time we got back toward Kenmore Square, she was beat. I think I realized that day how old she really is. Of course a 7 year old black Great Dane in the hot sun doesn’t mix. I had another trip to St. Louis for work where I got to attend the Taste of the Central West End, which took place right outside the salon. I had an amazing time this trip with Janelle coming in to town as well with Donnie, Catherine and the kids at the City Museum as we spent several hours crawling through the huge five story jungle gym and the cavernous tunnels. Catherine was quite impressed with the artistry and time it took to build such an elaborate place, and we both thought there is really nothing like it, that they really should do some national advertising, as well as have someone commission a book about the history of how the City Museum was created. We would buy it. I was also invited that same evening to see Natasha Bedingfield at the Pageant with Debbie, Angie and Adam, so that was a nice treat. Back in Boston I was busy with work of course and also the volunteering I did for Pride. I helped out at Pride Lights, then took off Saturday to help with the Parade and walk along side the Obama team, and then worked the door of the Beer Garden at the festival. Sunday of course was setup for the Stuart Street Block party in the rain, sigh. We did manage to get it set up, but with a late start. I hit a brick wall about 1pm and then got some more energy around 8pm, just in time to tear it all down and pack it up. I do enjoy volunteering, but I am going to pursue other organizations and ideas I have in store for the future. So in the last week along we have attended the Fenway Community Health Spirit Cruise, which takes you out into the Harbor for an evening of fun, music (CDs put on rotation), boys, girls and light hors d’oeuvres; also went to the El Greco exhibit at the MFA and to see/hear Amanda Palmer (The Dresden Dolls) with the Boston Pops, for part of what they call their “edge Fest” series. I just fell in love with the Boston Pops and will be looking into the musical piece called The Planets by Holst. Today we are heading to Providence, Rhode Island to attend the Pride Block Party they are having. This should be fun. One last note, I am trying to get my father’s two 1968 Italian mopeds to Boston. He gladly said we could have them, but we are trying to figure out all the logistics right now. Cheers and have a wonderful summer.

Boston Summer/Memorial Day Weekend Upon Us

Fri, 23 May 2008 17:15:45 -0500

Pride is 3 weeks away and we are really in gear for all the festivities. I am finalizing the last minute orders on the decorations for the Stuart Street Block Party coming up Sunday June 15th. I need to get this all wrapped up because I will be in St. Louis again the first week of June, so that means I will miss two Saturdays in a row in the salon. As part of my obligation volunteering in Pride, I have to work other events sponsored by Pride besides the one I am working on, so I will be working the Parade and then the festival on Saturday June 14th. Today is just beautiful in Boston this Friday May 23rd and It seems everyone is heading to P-town for the official opening weekend of festivities and you can tell by the visibly slower foot traffic on the streets. I have been asked by several people if I am in P-town because it is certainly often a given that you will be there. We are still low in funds and also we don’t know a ton of people to invite us to stay with them down there, but we are looking into going towards the end of June, and perhaps sharing a small place with some friends. My last day at Restoration Hardware was yesterday. It was a short lived part time job after starting back in November of last year. They liked me so they asked for me to stay on and then I decided to stay even through the last moments. The last several days was mostly packing up the store and cleaning it up, and t was fun actually to work along district managers and other employees from several district stores who came in to help close it down. I will miss seeing some of my fellow co-workers as I have become accustomed to them. I know I will be in contact with a few of them. Woo Hoo to summer… See ya at Stuart Street… Check out other links to the Party-- YELP.COM

Dining Out Guerrilla Queer Bar

Mon, 05 May 2008 16:58:31 -0500

“Busy scissors, Oh oH, hairdresser on fire” Morrissey said in a late 80’s song. Pure is picking up after a long and lonely winter. The word is out and business is good, they are even hiring a new girl who starts this week. I recently returned from St. Louis again after another successful trip. It was cold and raining even in the Midwest for this time of year. It was a trip that was full of extra sights, such as being able to attend the Dining Out For Life event and Atomic Cowboy with friends. I am trying to find a non-profit AIDS service organization here in Boston that wants to take on the Dining Out program (www.diningoutforlife.org) . We shall see how that goes after I hear back from JRI Health Services and also from someone at the Dining Out program. There are all kinds of social things going on as well, we attended Guerilla Queer bar this past Friday along with 500 + people. We got there at around 9:15 and still the line was a block long. So they decided to take over The Liquor Store, which features a mechanical bull that the ladies ride in there bikinis, but seeing as the Gays took over, we saw all kinds of “ladies” being thrown from the bull. The music was ify, but the crowd was friendlier for the usual Boston gay crowd. I mean, wow, we even met people in line, people actually spoke to one another. Wednesday is the kick off of the Gay & Lesbian film fest and we are going to the opening show at the MFA. Friday is the hilarious musical play, Whizin’ put on by the Gold Dust Orphans, which every season they take famous plays and give them a “Twisted” revamp. It will leave you in stitches. It was great to see Andy and Kellie here in Boston as well this past weekend. Andy was here being recognized as one of the top 100 inner city architects, representing St. Louis. We had a nice dinner and walked around the North End after stopping in at Mike’s Pastry for our sugar induced comma filled canoli’s.

Boston Marathon

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 10:12:03 -0500

I went to Brookline yesterday to watch some of the Boston Marathon. I walked up to coolidge corner to meet up with our friend and the women who helped us find our home here in Boston. Her company Coldwell Banker Reality was having a BBQ.