Just because I�m invisible does not mean I am not real.

Well, what do you know, it�s rosh chodesh, again, and that much closer to the end of the school term. Today I dyed my hair a different colour, well, on the box it was a different colour, but my actual locks are still dark brown, except for the gray roots, which are sort of reddish. I�m beginning to think that prolonging my youth isn�t worth the effort and I should just forget about dying my hair and let it go gray and be done with it. But then I look in the mirror and can�t bear the idea of looking old, so out comes the Clairol� and out goes the gray.

I spent a good hour and-a-half on the phone this morning with one of my invisible friends, taking advantage of the fact that he works at a business with a toll-free number so there was no cost to me, trying to �be there� for him as he goes through a particularly trying time. It was a little weird at first, the fact that we were speaking instead of instant messaging as we usually do, but it didn�t take long at all to feel perfectly comfortable with the new medium, and it sure took less time to converse than to type out questions and responses. It was an hour and-a-half well spent.

My daughter came home this afternoon with her girlfriend, and they helped dye each other�s hair (that bathroom has never known such a mess), Little Princess covering her fading pink (it was absolutely beautiful, almost gemlike, for a Hallowe�en costume) with a deep red which was verging on black in the picture on the package but actually ended up an almost garnet shade, and Jo-jo chose a glossy black.

Choir was long as we ran through the entire programme on the risers (oy, my aching back!) and I ended up cooking dinner instead of going out to Da Toni�s as we had planned because we had to be back for the jazz ensemble concert. I ended up boiling up a bag of perogies, frying them in butter with onions and parsley and dill, and saut�eing a wokful of shredded cabbage with garlic and caraway seeds. It was a very eastern European type of meal. Of course we had leftover birthday cake for dessert and Hubby finally got to open his gifts. His mom gave him a bottle of Glen Livet and a couple of sport shirts, his sister gave him a nice bottle of baco noir wine from her favourite Ontario vineyard, Little Princess gave him a couple of books (actually earlier in the day), and from me he got the usual date book for the next year, a new zip-up fleece jacket, and a box containing some useful tools�a collapsible pliers with pull out useful items in the handles (� la a Swiss army knife), an exacto blade, a small flashlight using one AAA battery�and a new watch, except the bracelet is enormous and has to have several links taken out before he can wear it without it falling off his wrist.

The jazz ensemble concert was actually very good, a nice change from the norm. There are two groups, Mike�s and Kevin�s, and there is usually a large discrepancy of talent between them, but this year they were very evenly matched and of very high calibre. It was a pleasant surprise.

Now, fortified with a shot of Angostura special barrel reserve rum (there is only one left in the bottle *sob* ) I�m going to head off to bed, hopefully before midnight, and make nanaimo bars tomorrow for the BUMS bake sale.

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