I am supposed to be out gallivanting right now, and by “gallivanting” I mean “doing whatever I can find to do downtown that’s free.” Instead I am sitting at home with some bottles of Special Effects on my head that I found in the back of the cabinet. The cool dark brown sort of faded out to a dreary auburn color, so I am hoping that the red goo will make it look a little brighter, and yet still interviewable.

I’ve been hanging out at the library a lot lately, with the hobos, whom I kind of feel just a couple of degrees removed from right now. I don’t know how long things can carry on like this. When do you start making deep cuts? Do we really need the internet at home? I thought about selling the car, but who would buy it right now? Don’t go anywhere–don’t need the car. I tried to figure out my Xmas list this morning, and I am worried about that, too.

I cut my own hair this morning for the first time since July. It’s kind of fortunate that it’s so long, because it’s pretty easy to cut, one little section at a time. I had split ends like whoa from all the tiny combing and abuse with the lice thing. Also, I can finally say that the lice are gone. I don’t think I finished telling you about Listerine?

After giving up on the lice creams from the drugstore after two rounds and still having the crawlies, I went for the big amber bottle of Listerine. The first time I saturated my hair with it over the tub and put a shower cap on for a couple of hours. Afterwards I tipped my head over the tub and rinsed out the Listerine and watched bugs fall out. I don’t know if anything can be more happy and more depressing at the same time. I followed up with some conditioner and combing and lo, more bugs. Way more results than with the drugstore stuff. This was followed by a week of constantly rechecking and pulling nits, and they seem to be gone for now.

More awesomeness: I talked to SeaFed about Christmas scheduling last night. We also talked about the fact that Franny has been having stomachaches for the past two years and I am testing her by changing her diet to be gluten free, since it seems there’s a correlation between her eating pasta and bread and having a stomachache after. In the few days that she’s gone gluten-free she has had no stomachaches, which could be a coincidence, I know, but it’s hopeful since she used to have them daily. Then we are to put her back on gluten for five days and see if they return, and if so her doctor will order tests to see if she has Celiac’s.

SeaFed told me that she doesn’t get stomachaches at his house, unless it’s around the transition. I almost laughed, because she told me she gets them all the time, especially since her stepmom was making spaghetti a lot at one point. He also basically came out and told me that she was having them because Strudel’s dad and I broke up. Of course it’s my fault. Of course her stomachaches of two years were caused by the terrible conditions at my house and our recent break up. He conceded that sometimes he has a tendency to “gloss over” things (I immediately had a flashback to coming home to find Franny covered in her own shit and him on a different floor of the house, or me crying during fights and him falling asleep in the middle). He’s lucky he lives an unimpeachable life; how terrific that Franny never has stomachaches over there. It’s times like these that I have to remember he never really believed me about anything that was important with the kid, even, like, scientific facts. I can’t for the life of me figure out why I don’t spend more time talking to him.