2003 Dressage at Devon

Pre-Devon Diary

Wednesday September 17, 2003: The Haircut

Settled in the camper for a good night sleep yesterday evening, Mary told me to sleep in and recuperate from my long voyage. Waking up at 4 AM because of the heat, at 7 AM because of strange Floridian wildlife noises and at 9 AM to actually get up and throw myself again in the country of the living, I was surprisingly well rested in order to begin my first day of work;

After two cups of Wyoming Huckleberry tea, flavored with Florida own-grown lemon juice, my spirits had revived so that Mary, JJ, Penny Peck, Tracey Hayden and I were able to settle down for a round-table company meeting to raise ideas for future projects and goals for the websites Horsesdaily.com and Dressagedaily.com. Writing down three full pages of jobs to do, I was immediately inundated by loads of work. To begin my day I firstly tried connecting my laptop to Mary's photo laptop; it didn't work. Secondly, I tried hooking up my laptop to Mary's ISDN network; it didn't work. A little disappointed, I resorted to my traditional fortes, i.e. uploading articles and photos to the site. Finally when I had actually done some work, it was time to leave for my date in Deland.

Two years ago, when I came to Florida for the exact same trip (the drive to Devon included), I joined Mary for her appointment in the beauty parlor with her hair dresser Roberta (Salon Blondie on Rich Avenue in Deland, FL). After Mary got her hair cut, I was spurred by the two ladies to plant myself in the seat for a new coif. Normally, I never have the time or motivation to go to the hair dresser for a 1-hour hair cut. That is what I wear my hair long and in a pony tail. Though being 21, the time was right for me to do something about my brown strands and revitalize them. I LOVED what Roberta had then done with my hair and since that day I tell my Belgian friends that I go to the hair dresser in the U.S. and nowhere else.

Circumstances (graduating from university) forced me to get my hair cut in Belgium on July 2, 2002. I couldn't stop mentioning Roberta to my Belgian hair dresser, who eventually felt threatened and rivaled by wonder Roberta. Since July 2002, no scissors have come in touch with my hair.

Today, however, I gave Roberta free reign over my hair and she put it back in motion. With great precision and inspiration, Roberta cut my hair in the right style, so that I no longer had to look like a bum. Hair mission accomplished.

While Roberta was fixing my hair, Mary spent some time scheming. She had secretly invited Leah Trunzo (one of Mary's young photographers and helpers and a close friend of mine) to appear on the doorstep of Salon Blondie out of the blue for a surprise visit. Leah had cruised to Deland in her new dream car (Mercedes SLK Convertible in red metallic) so that she could hook up with us. Leah and I went for an ice cream, while Mary was being treated by Roberta.

The three of us drove home to Deleon Spring for a nice JJ cafe dinner which consisted in green asparagus, broccoli and grilled chicken. As we had been loitering ladies in Deland, JJ's chicken was a little overcooked. I felt a bit guilty about spoiling his fine cookery due to my (our) sloth.

I showed Leah photos that I had taken in Europe over the summer before she headed home to Boca Raton. Leah had an early morning on Thursday because she needed to go to work. I puttered a little more on the websites before turning in at 11 PM.

-- by Astrid Appels