Another Goodbye

She did it.  After years of cutting, curling and coloring at Headlines, Melissa Quandt (the Evil Twin as I like to refer to her), took the sign down and walked away last night.  She takes her clients with her to a new salon in Wichita, one that’s closer to her new lovely home and right on the way from her house to Starbucks, so the commute will be, let’s call it PERFECT.

When I started My New Life, Melissa was there, so I was pretty much expecting to be the one that would be there for her.  I was and you know what she did??  The little hussy made me clean out the crappy color cabinet.    Actually,

it’s a huge compliment.  You only allow those you love the most to help you with the crap you hate the most.  So I bitched about it, then grinned because I knew she couldn’t live without me, or better yet….wouldn’t want to.

As for her New Life, I’m not sure any of us get why she was crying cleaning out her shampoo bowl, she is after all, still a hairdresser.  All her customers are following her to Salon Images (over there near 21st & Tyler by Emperor’s Grill-which has awesome fried rice!) and she will stay in touch with the girls she worked with at Headlines, I can hear  ”I have lunch today with Shelly ” already in my head!   So telling her that she should be happy to have a change of scenery seemed almost unnecessary, but it was.  Her heart was broken, just like any of ours would when you walk away from a life you know, to one that at this point, ,only seems good on paper.

Most of Melissa’s clients will show up on Thursday and comment on the new place, the new location, the new stuff and most will really like it.  I know I can’t wait to be the first one in for a color job (even though it’s merely for accent, I wanted the place of honor, I am so a TV Diva, amazing I didn’t make it in the business past the 20 year mark!)  What we won’t see or remember is all the years it took to get her to this new place.  She once owned Headlines (she hated that part of the business), she has had clients who’ve married, divorced, moved, and God Bless Them, passed away, yet she was always there, ready to make them beautiful and listen to all those stories.     For most of us, it’s just a new setting, for Melissa, it’s “Her New Life” just beginning.  Congratulations Melissa, if I’ve learned anything while I was starting over….it’s just that sometimes we stay too long. A wise woman once said (in a teaser for her new TV project, “Sometimes change is GOOD.”    An even wiser one (which means not ME) said, “Often the only thing standing in the way of a great life, is a good one.”  Well, DUDES, get of our way, we’re on the fast track to Heaven on earth, but I promise, we’ll make plenty of pit stops at Starbucks along the way.

Best job ever!

• Monday was the first day of the rest of my life.   When I left TV News last spring, I was so busy making the transition for my family, and then summer came, and my freelancing jobs kept me at shoots and meetings, and  blah blah blah, Did I mention all the time I spent at the pool, well let’s just say even if I was with the kids, I’ve really had very few “Mom” days.  The days when the kids are at work, and I’m at home.  My first one flew by.

The BFF and I starbucksed, yes, I do get credit for making that a verb….and while I really wanted to go back to bed, we’re moving in two weeks so we did a little gravel shopping, a little tree shopping, and then I had to grocery shop, by the time I got home, got the groceries put up, ran to pick out a light for the new house, stopped by the new house, came home got the chicken on for chicken noodle soup, cleaned the kitchen and sat down to do MY work on the computer I have only an hour left before Lexy gets home.  I MUST be done before she gets here.  The one thing I had always missed out on was that after school blabbering about what they did all day.  By the time I got done with the news at 7, they no longer remembered what they did.  So I’m writing this at the speed of light, and looking forward to tomorrow.  I have found the best job EVER, I love being a Mom now that I actually have some time to do it right, I’m Anita Cochran, and that’s what I really wanted to say.

It’s about to get better

I’m knocking on wood as I type this, but it appears our house has sold.  I couldn’t stop screaming when we got the news, because to me it’s the voice of God telling me I’m not as dumb as I am blonde!  This new life of mine only works if we downsize, and the biggest expense has been my castle.

Part of the reason I worked so hard, and worried so much about losing my TV income, was that I knew we couldn’t afford this house without it.  I would do almost anything to keep this house.  It’s not a mansion, it’s not the most expensive house on the west side, but it’s unique and screams ANITA lives here (well it did till I took the Billboard with my face on it down from the garage walls, that puppies going to the new house!)

Well anyway, I clung to this house thinking it was partially responsible for making me happy.  I loved how it functioned for our family, however I was too busy paying for it to really enjoy it, or even spend much time here.  These last few weeks, things have finally settled down and I have been home for several hours at a time, just LIVING.  It’s priceless.  I hope that living debt free in our new home, will be even more valuable, if not, I’m getting dibs on buying this place back, that is if I can get that  high paying TV gig back too.   Just Joshin’ folks….because Breaking News:  I may be Broke, but I’m happier than Anita Cochran has ever been even sitting at her favorite Starbucks store!

 

 Standard Podcast [1:25m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download