I am not a hair person. I don’t even know how to braid hair (it tends to come out like an ugly rope). Struggling with split ends the last few weeks, I decided it was haircut time. Chris told me about his beloved Astor Place Hair, where even mayoral candidates and celebrities go, and I was completely thrown off guard. It was one of the most chaotic and unexpected experiences I have had in this city. You walk in, and it’s like one gigantic barber shop with a zillion barbers, people talking in all languages and accents, and stylists running around like mad men. Definitely not relaxing by any means, but it was fast and cheap, and my stylist smiled more than anyone else ever has while cutting my hair. I’ll be back.

I had a chat recently with someone who loves his job. He left a stable job he hated and was bored at for something that was a little bit riskier and a whole lot more fun, exciting, and innovative. He said to me, sure, it’s great to work at a stable company where the employee head count is over a thousand, where it doesn’t matter if you slack off for the day and update yourself on everything in your Facebook or Twitter feed, but it’s even more rewarding to go into a job where every single day, you contribute something that counts. It made me even more painfully aware of how meaningless work could potentially be if you allow yourself to get too complacent and comfortable.

Occasionally on the weekends, we’ll have Girl Code) on TV as background noise. As embarrassed as I am to admit it, I actually find it entertaining, especially when I hear some of the things that girls admit to. One of the most “laugh-out-loud” things that I heard was when one girl said that you probably hate 90% of your girlfriends and complain about all of them, and then you say you want more girlfriends, but that’s really so that you can complain about new girlfriends and less about the old ones. It really is true, though; even though I might be seeking new girlfriends at this point in my life, the truth is that all the new ones will probably drive me crazy in some way because anyone I would be interested in being friends with would have something outrageous about her, and while I might love it, I will also love to hate on it. It’s why we as women have love-hate relationships with the women in our lives. We love hating whether we admit it or not.

Tonight, we went to see Cat Empire, an Australian band, perform. I’d never heard of them before, but Chris has been their for years. I asked him what genre of music they were, and he said that I just needed to listen to know. They are some mix of ska, jazz, and Latin, but the funny thing I thought about while listening to them perform is our general desire to categorize everything into neat little boxes. Prior to meeting friends of freinds, we often ask what her ethnicity is, what industry is he in, just as when we hear of a new performer, we ask the genre. It would be refreshing to take the same approach as I (involuntarily) took tonight – to enter the concert with a blank slate, expect nothing, and be surprised.

Tonight, Chris and I used a package that his best friend got us for Christmas and went to a Paint Along BYOB class. We did our own renditions of the Flatiron building in a class of mostly couples and girlfriends while sipping mango Moscato. We’re not quite sure what to do with our paintings since neither of us is particularly proud, but it was an enjoyable experience to be in the same room expressing creativity together in a way that we normally do not. When I think about the different artistic skills that people have, I always wonder if I might have had more potential with a paint brush if I had been given more opportunity to do it as a child. Now, I just feel too impatient to seriously try it again.

For such an expensive city, New York actually has quite a number of free events of all types available to the public. The Lincoln Center has Target Thursdays, where Target sponsors a performance every Thursday of the year, and it’s first come, first seated. The River to River Festival happens every summer and provides free concerts. The New York Philharmonic has free performances on the Great Lawn in Central Park and in other boroughs throughout the summer. As long as you are able to spend some time waiting and possibly duck out of work early, you can snag your spot. Tonight, we went to a Lincoln Center concert where Meg Okura’s Pan-Asian Ensemble played. It was an incredible performance, and looking back at it, it’s crazy to think that we paid nothing for it. We’re really privileged to live in a city that values art and entertainment so much.