Kristin's Off Month - brought to you by the color RED

I made it to my off month alive!!! Woohoo!! I am so thankful to have some time to rest and decompress from rotations before going back at it in July. Once I got back from Knoxville, the first thing I wanted to do was kick of my off month by making a bit of a change.

And by a bit of a change, I mean a very drastic change

And now, some background music, courtesy of the one and only Bette Midler...

Ten points to Gryffindor for whoever knows how it is I know this song.

Answer at the bottom!

I've wanted to dye my hair for many years, but never actually got around to it until now. I went to my stylist, Melissa, and said something along the lines of "I want you to make my hair the most unnatural shade of red that is physically possible." Five hours, two attempts and a mix of every color red dye in the salon later, I achieved my own personal hair nirvana.

Attack of the selfies!

 *insert hallelujah chorus here*

Melissa curled my hair so beautifully and
I'll never ever be able to replicate it again.

 *a light shines down from heaven to illuminate my new locks*

With my natural curl

Seriously though, I am IN LOVE with my new hair! IN. LOVE. And so is everyone else apparently - so many random strangers have stopped me to compliment my hair. I feel so glamourous, like I am a princess (Ariel, of course)! I want to dress up and put on make up all the time, which is very much different from how I normally am. 

I wish I could keep this hair forever! But alas, I'm only going to have this for a month. It's not an especially "professional" hair color (although the pharmacists I work think it's within the realm of professional-ness), so I'll be dyeing it back to its normal brown at the end of the month. Even if I felt I could keep it, the upkeep would be more expensive and time consuming than I could afford. Someday when I have a real income, maybe I will be able to bring it back, or try another color. But for now, I will enjoy it immensely.

In other news, my parents and I tried out a new restaurant called Tart that opened in the Cooper-Young area last month. If you are in Memphis and have not been to Tart yet, you need to drop whatever you are doing and go there NOW! It is a French-bistro-style restaurant, bakery, and coffee shop that serves breakfast, lunch/dinner, pastries, and of course tartes. 

Cherry tart, croissant, and cafe au lait

My mom's tuna nicoise salad

Everything we tried was beautiful and delicious. I had a piece of cherry tart, which was kind of like a flan, and a croissant, which were both fantastic. My mom got a nicoise salad that looked like something out of a gourmet magazine, and my dad got an heirloom tomato salad that I neglected to take a picture of. My parents also got a piece of apricot tart and a chocolate croissant.

Having a good hair day because it hadn't rained yet.

There's really no where in Memphis like Tart, and in the month that it has been open it has been getting a ton of well-earned good buzz. They are still adding things to the menu (the cherry tart I tried was new that day) and will begin hosting community classes in the future, so I can't wait to see what they do! I will definitely be back again! 

It has been raining off and on for the past several days, which has been rather unpleasant, and will continue raining for the foreseeable future. Today at work we had a particularly big downpour, and when we left for the day, we walked out the front door and saw THIS:

I had to take a panorama to get the whole thing in. Everyone was outside taking pictures.

This picture doesn't even do the (double) rainbow justice. It glowed. It was brighter than any rainbow I have ever seen. You could clearly see every single color, even the usually elusive blues and purples. It was breath-taking, and such a blessing after a long, rainy day. The sunset was equally stunning.

What a beautiful creation God has made! Let us rejoice and be glad!

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Answer to where the song came from: ADPi Sing 2009! I was a red crayon and this was the red crayons' song!