Hey gurl, heyyyyyyy. Going back to October (seems like ages ago!) I spontaneously decided one night that I really really really wanted to cut my own hair. I have gotten these urges over the years, mainly at night, but never followed through because of FEAR. Also, it always seemed a little too Britney Spears-ish. However, I’ve developed a real “Let’s see what happens!” attitude in my later years and I had Josh videotape me with an extra-sharp pairs of shears in the bathroom, lopping off my hair. It was VERY satisfying. Then Josh “cleaned up” the edges, and voila! Suddenly bobbed again. The last time was in my early 20’s. To be honest I really wanted a “lob”, but it will grow out.

A few days of bleached blonde and I was ready for CUHLUH. I rotated through several “semi-permanent” dyes from Sally Beauty in the month of October. I called the salon to see what they would charge to pink my hair, and the cost started at 150$, which made me choke a little. DIY it is!

Halloween nails and Halloween decorations! We went all-out like we always do. I also took the boys to the dollar store and let them buy some Halloween decorations for their rooms.

The little redhead even requested a Halloween cake for his 4th birthday, which Josh spent a few hours slaving over. Chocolate layers! Mmmmmmm.

In October I shipped off the mermaid painting, which I decided this year should go to Francesca. It was so big I couldn’t fit it in my car, I had to use the minivan, and it cost me 320$ to ship it from UPS (it was too big for the post office! Can you imagine???). Francesca was pleased, and so was her daughter–it’s in her room now.

For our costumes this year, Josh and I did something different–we were both Alex from “A Clockwork Orange”! I’m pretty sure it’s the first time I’ve ever been in male drag for Halloween. We even wore our costumes to work. Several people at the pumpkin patch knew who we were supposed to be, which was cool.

I gotta say, it was a comfortable Halloween costume. And the black Doc Martens made me feel EMPOWERED!

The boys were matching too, they were both a character called “Punkleton” from Goo’s favorite game “My Singing Monsters”. He’s been obsessed with that game since age 3. Currently he wants me to write the “monster handlers” (the people who come up with new characters) with some of his ideas. My creative, artistic son!

A couple of works in progress. I decided to do a series of four paintings depicting a Goth woman in all the four seasons. Here’s summer and spring Goth.

Our jack ‘o’ lanterns this year. Josh is a great carver–look at how cute the honey pot and bear are, for the little redhead! Mawwwww.

Right after Halloween, the entire family flew down to…Palm Springs, baby! It was our first time visiting. Friends of ours moved there about six years ago, and had been inviting us to come visit them for years. Stephanie especially was always regaling me of all the drag queen shows she goes to, and how much fun the Pride parade was (in November!). So this was finally the year! Here I am poolside in their backyard, living my best life.

The all-pink, all-kitsch Trixie Motel was a mere 5 minute drive from their house (everything in Palm Springs is close–it’s small!). The staff couldn’t have been nicer and even offered to take these fun shots of Joshy and I. I bought a pair of pink heart sunglasses from the gift shop…of course!

This was our third vacation of the year and we really couldn’t spend a lot of extra money, but of COURSE when I saw a store called “Just Fabulous” do you think I could resist?? The store featured several brightly-colored Christmas trees, all sporting different themes (artists, rainbows, etc), plus more drag queen merch than you could throw a wig at. I let Goo choose the family Christmas ornament for the year, and he picked a really cool blue glass cactus with a pink flower.

And you better WERK! Of course we went to the Pride parade! I actually spent the full 2.5 hours there. Thank goodness I bought that rainbow umbrella because it was a whopping 90 degrees that day, gurl. The boys peaced out after about an hour but that was OK. I’m pretty sure Stephanie knew every single queen in the parade personally–she got a lot of attention! I blew a kiss to a queen and she blew one right back to me, and another queen said “Hey Barbie!” to me so I felt special.

And of course we saw lots of Sisters! I’ve been obsessed with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence ever since I first heard about them. At point I even wanted to be one! They always bring a smile to my face.

I took a lot more pictures than this, of course. And I know I uploaded more of them to Flickr yesterday, but where are they? I could upload the lot into Flickr and put it into a “Palm Springs Pride 2023” album, if I was super motivated. I used to organize all trip photos into albums on Flickr…before I had kids, that is! Haw hawwwwwwr.

After three wonderful days in Palm Springs with our gracious hostesses, we drove 2 hours down to San Diego! I had texted my cousin months ago to tell him that we would be visiting Palm Springs and since it was close to San Diego, maybe we could visit him, too. He offered his beach house rental to us to stay at for free! We only had to pay 200$ for the cleaning fee. SCORE.

My cousin is an artist and a lifeguard. We also met his charming wife and their son, Wyatt. I was also able to see my Aunt Caroline during the trip, which was nice.

My long-time BFF Lisa also stayed with us, and her mom too. Her aunt lives close to the beach house, so they were able to visit her during the trip. Here’s Lisa helping me with the Palm Springs-themed puzzle Stephanie bought me! Love it.

The San Diego zoo, Legoland, or Seaworld? My cousin had a family membership to Seaworld and could get us in for free, so Seaworld is where we went! It was actually cooler than I expected. We watched the Orca whale show, got to pet and feed manta rays and seals, and saw pink flamingos and sharks.

My weak-ass pink hair dye was no match for California sun, and I was practically blonde when we returned. Here I am realizing that I have basically turned my real hair into one of my wigs–dream come true?

And finally, my father visited us for Thanksgiving, bringing Lucy, his 8 year old Lab along. I was SO excited for Lucy and Rosie to meet, but the sleek, high-energy dog that I remembered Lucy being was replaced by an old, morbidly obese cranky woman! She was NOT having any of Rosie’s puppy energy, and there was a lot of growling. Heigh ho.

It’s currently December, and we just put up the Christmas tree last night. I’m glad, because I wasn’t feeling the SPIRIT this year. Now I have a little more. Time to make some Christmas cookies. Ta ta!