Purple Streak

It's my birthday. 

Thirty-four, for those who were wondering.

This being the Year of Less Consumption, I decided to get a non-material birthday present for myself: A streak of purple in my hair! 

Here's a close-up I took with my cell phone in my car, right after I got the streak:

In the top photo, my hair has some weird stuff going on, because I had just been out frolicking in something else I got for my birthday: An awesome snowstorm! 

I've made it clear that I love a good snow, in the proper time and place.  And I think January is the proper time and place for a beautiful snowfall.  I was able to enjoy a gorgeous, peaceful snow falling steadily throughout my birthday. 

But back to the purple streak.  It's not on the top layer of hair, it's underneath, and so far not one person has commented on it.  No problem, though, because the streak is for me!  I think it's a metaphor for my overall self.  And I know everybody's sick of the whole "this is a metaphor for life" thing, but it's my birthday, so please indulge me. 

See, I think, on the outside, I'm just your standard boring Midwest Suburban Housewife, just doing laundry and making dinner and complaining about the monotony of life along with all the other suburban housewives at the park.  But then, if you look a little closer ... bam! ... I have a subtle streak of something interesting.  I write what I like to think of as an occasionally humorous blog, I act in plays, and I push myself to train for athletic events for which I am not at all qualified.  It is those little interesting tidbits that constitute the purple streak in the otherwise fairly dull brown haircut of my life. 

So that got me thinking: Why not do more to bring out my inner purple streak?  Now, again, in case this wasn't totally obvious already, let me be clear that I am talking about the metaphorical purple streak; I'm not gonna go all Katy Perry and make my whole head techni-colored.  But, I mean, why not emphasize my inner purple streak?  I'm not suggesting I'll spend more time on recreational hobbies, I'm just saying that why not focus on making the good things I do a bigger part of how I view life and myself as a whole? 

And you know, I wanted to come up with a silly rhyming or alliterative theme to go with my birthday, the way I did with Thirty-Three: The Place to Be.  But the only word that kept popping in my head as a rhyme for thirty-four was more, and every dumb slogan containing more sounded grossly suggestive. 

So, instead of rhyming, my slogan for 34 is going to be Embrace Your Inner Purple Streak.  To celebrate, I got decked out in purple:

And then we shoveled the driveway:

After shoveling, we played for a little while outside.  Now, I don't use the word precious very often, but, I mean COME ON:

Snow angel action shot!

And here's what my purple self looks like after 90 minutes in a snowstorm:

The other thing I'm getting for my birthday is the return of 30 Rock!  It was really nice of Tina Fey to get me that birthday gift, don't you think? 

So, in honor of my birthday and 30 Rock, I'll end with a 30 Rock quote from Jack Donaghy:

"My mouth tastes like purple."