let the festivities begin! - Part one

Elissa Sundet - Self Portrait - Painting
I found a photograph of this on another floor and kind of laughed when I found the fountain itself. I took a picture on my iPhone and showed it to my dad, "YOU"RE AN ARTIST!" he said ;)

Antonio Campelli - Self Portrait - Painting

Elissa Sundet - Painting

This one appears small in the photo, but in reality it probably was the same length as both my arms, fingertip to fingertip. The picture does not do it justice.

Eye make up that Bella and I played with :)

I sit here writing to you as a freshly graduated cosmetology student. Last Friday, December 17, 2010 I clocked out for the last time at 12:30. It was most certainly a bittersweet day for me. Leaving the school wasn't too bad, but leaving the people - my fellow students and teachers - I came close to shedding a few tears, but I was scolded by the woman who had done my make up that I wasn't allowed to cry until after I had taken it off. It's hard to believe that my year of education is over already! It seemed to drag sometimes, but as I look back on it I just can't believe how fast it went by.

I had a job interview right after school so I hopped in the car with my parents and headed off to Gugliotti's Salon and Spa in Rocky hill. This was the second time I had applied and interviewed with them and I wasn't sure what to expect. One of my classmates was sure that I would get the job saying, "Isn't it just perfect? You finished school and got a job on the same day!" I told her not to say that because I didn't get the job yet. My first interview was around 30 minutes so we figured I could be dropped off and my parents would be able to go do some shopping or something. They were very surprised when I called them 10-15 minutes later with excellent news. When I stepped into the office the first thing that the woman asked me was, "Did Carmelo talk to you today?" I was puzzled...

She then proceeded to tell me that they normally higher people who are still in school just because you start as a receptionist and that gives the employee some time to acclimate to the salon, but if I was willing to be a receptionist even though I was done with school, for the time being, they would love to have me. The job was mine, if I wanted it...which I did ;) I go in sometime this week to talk over details and such.

After the "interview" I was treated to a tasty lunch at Wood 'n Tap. Thanks mom and dad!

My best friend was waiting for me when I got home, ready to jump on me and make me a "cosmetologist pancake". We then proceeded to have coffee and play with make-up - because that's what we do :)

That night I went to the MCC art show where a few friends of mine had some of their pieces on display and I was in total awe at the artistry that came from their hands. Particularly the self portraits of my friends Elissa and Tony that they did for their painting class.

Soon after I got home, one of our friends showed up for a hair appointment. I went to sleep that night quite happy with my situation, and glad that I wouldn't have to wake up at 6:45 for school the next morning. I would, however, still have to get up and do hair and makeup for a photo shoot, vintage style....

Responsibility, what's that?

A couple weeks ago, my college friends started to come home. Now, more or less, they're all done and here. Next week is also my brother's last week as well as my two youngest siblings and pretty much everyone in the continental U. S.
Next week is also the start of my summer vacation. And the week after that? I go back to school. Just one week? Yuppers, that right. As much as I love cosmetology, I picked the wrong profession as far as summer vay-k's are concerned. See, all my friends who are in college right now get/got a four year transitional period into the shedule I call "real-life-adultness". Summers off from from school, but slowly wheening it away with a job here, some extra work there, maybe having a not so conenient work shift but still, summer.
I've seemed to have bipassed that. Sadly. After I've graduated, I'll be working, and apparently stylists have the tendency to become workaholics. I guess if you're loving what you're doing it's not really work right?

Now, if you know me, you've probably had your ear talked off about my school and the interesting people I've met there. I you have then you've heard me talk about the Guggliottis, the people who own a salon by the same name, as well as my school.
This Friday(6•11•10) I have a job interview with them. This is a pretty big deal. Although I'm only applying for a receptionist position, they almost always offer aspiring stylists in that position, an assuring position. After assisting(shadowing stylists and learning the ropes) you become a stylist.
Now this is a verrryyyy high end salon owned by THE WORLD DIRECTOR OF COMPETITION. if I get a receptionist job here, even if I decide not to go on to assisting, if that position is offered me, I've still got my foot in the door of hairworld, and made very good connections with people in high places.

I'm excited. Very much so, yes. But i'm nervous as a person could be. Never done an interview before. Don't know what to expect...

So those of you who will, pray for me? I'd really appreciate it. I'll keep y'all posted.


- Posted from emikel's iPhone -

foiled again!

Lately the majority of my days at school have been filled with foiling hi lites. As far as grades go, they've been pretty high, so if you want a foil hi lite done, go out and buy foils and the color you would like and then call me, as far as interest goes...it's dwindling. This most likely is because I am slow. Slow, and precise. It's hard for me to do one and just go on. I like to make sure I've covered every hair, placed it neatly in the foil, fold the foil cleanly, without many wrinkles and such, and then check to make sure that the color(or colesteral as the case is now) is not leaking onto them clients(...mannequin's) head. This is all fine and dandy when one is only doing a partial foil to the top of the head, but when one is completely covering a whole entire head with foils...let's just say that my way of doing things is not all that time efficient.

On Friday afternoon, we started doing a Full Hi lite Slice - covering every-other section of hair with color(colesteral) and putting it into a foil, and doing this to the whole head. I got about 3/4 of the way through before it was time to leave - (I finished it up the next day, took out all the foils and then started again on a variation of what I had just completed.) Tedious. SO, tedious. By the end, the mannequin looked like she could pick up a radio signal better than the satellite station we were listening too. Not only was my Friday filled with foils(ALLITERATION!), but with what felt like impending doom. We had been told a week or so in advance that a test would be coming up soon. That we would have a pre-test on Friday, and the real test on Saturday.
So early Friday morning, we all went over our notes on Chapter Nine - The Theory of Haircutting - Salon Fundamentals and then sat down for the 35 question pre-test, the real test would be only 25 question, making every answer count.

I got 30/35, that translated into a grade would be about 85, maybe 86% (depending if you were feeling generous with your rounding.) Two of the five wrong answers were careless mistakes of circling 'a' instead of 'c' - I was half asleep, and simply not paying attention. I went home that night, tired out, and anxious about what was coming the next morning. I went to Leadership Core(a meeting where the juniors, seniors, and some the college age+ adults come together as the leadership for the youth group and have a bible study and discuss event schedules). That fellowship relaxed me until I got home...and studied till 11:00(with wonderful jazz music - thanks hedge) and then fell asleep with crazy dreams that I'm not quite sure helped me sleep well...

I was mentally prepping myself for the morning to come.

In The Beginning

The fateful day arrived this Tuesday(12/15/09) and was greeted with some nerves and much anticipation. Monday night I set an alarm on my phone to wake me up at 7:30 (since I've been waking up sometime between 8:15 and 10:00 for the past five months.) Strangely enough as I went to bed that night I felt fine. There were no butterflies in my stomach or tense nerves in any part of my body. Even my brain, which normally runs crazy analyzing and over analyzing and over anticipating was calm and relaxed. The only thing that had me really "worried" was that I didn't know which room to enter when I arrived.

I went to bed with a peace I've only experienced a couple of times, a peace and ease of mind that only comes from God. (Thanks God, I needed that, really)


[This is what it says on the back of our school shirts. Neat huh?]

I slept soundly, though my body was still full of expectancy, but was wide awake come 7:00 a.m. My alarm hasn't gone off yet... I thought groggily as I contemplated just laying in bed, but my nervous system was too pumped and ready to go, so I hopped out of bed and headed to the shower. Surprisingly I was in and out before my alarm (which was now set for 7:15 after I added a Snooze Allowance [ ;) ]) had gone off. Hmmm, I did that really quickly!
It's not that I take long showers, but I do like to just kinda stand in the warm water for a while. But when ones nerves are excited and they know they're in a time crunch miracles can happen :D

My father and I jumped in the car and raced off to the International Institute of Cosmetology(herein after known as International or IIC, or just school). We arrived about 15 minutes earlier than planned. I tried to open both the front and back door and found that they were locked. We waited a little longer until we saw some of the other not-as-new-as-I-am students go in.
It felt odd getting out of the car, in an unfamiliar and strange place, and having my dad drive away with an "I love you" and "goodbye." Now I was on my own.
I walked into a room with stations set up along the entirety of each wall. Each station had a large black gym-like bag, a black and metal case(like what they use in special agent movies), and seven boxes stacked on top of the counters. I was directed to the space the kits with my name on top and took a seat. We were encouraged to take part in the "welcome" continental breakfast - consisting of DD doughnuts and coffee.
We all sat at our stations, quietly sipping our December 2009


We all sat there quietly sipping our very hot coffee as one of the directors explained dress codes and how to clock in and out of school. (It's pretty cool, we each have our own code and there's a machine that reads the length and size of our hands to make sure that someone else isn't clocking us in and out)

As the day progressed we went over all our equipment and mannequins, eventually wetting down one of our SEVEN mannequin heads. (It was really creepy loading them all into the trunk, individually wrapped in clear plastic bags at the end of the day...) That afternoon we learned two ways of sectioning, and how to section each part of those sections.

That awkward first day ended silently as we all packed up our 50 lbs. of new stuff and headed home with stiff backs and aching feet.

Here are some of the goodies I brought home that day :D

These are my Le' Marca hair shears. These are very professional, and very sharp, scissors that I will be using on real people when I reach the mark of 200 hours of training and go from mannequins to humans.

aren't they pretty?

This is one of my two straight razors. Don't worry, I'll be trained properly and have enough mental health so when I get to use them I won't pull a Sweeney Todd...on most people.

This is Jesus (or John the Baptist) my male mannequin. Each mannequin has it's own little punny name on the back of their neck, but this guy has some weird ghetto name that starts with M...but for the life of me I can't remember what it is, but it doesn't matter cause he doesn't look like the name they gave him, so I changed it ;)

Plop went the mannequins, ready for inspection by my family. My dad wanted to sit them in our windows, next to the Christmas window candles, to freak out the neighbors. Oh dad.

all my junk.

My fancy smancy kit.

this is the little emo guy emblem of IIC.