I was flipping through the channels the other day, and I came across a new show on MTV called Maui Fever. I guess it is to Laguna Beach what Road Rules is to The Real World. Except then where does The Hills fit? Maui Fever follows (hold your breath - big surprise coming up!) a bunch of rich white kids in Hawaii. I didn't look up their bios, but I am going to guess some, if not most of them are not originally from Hawaii. In any case, pretty much every show on MTV now follows the exact same formula: rich, spoiled skinny girls and muscly guys drink, party, and hook-up in lavish surroundings, then cause unnecessary drama which usually revolves around some drunken misunderstanding or some drunken hook-up. I am not at all against drinking or getting it on, but I am very much against causing or exacerbating ridiculous drama. Which is why I couldn't finish watching this show. And just one of a million reasons why I would never be invited to appear on this type of show.

MTV, you're breaking my heart. I remember when I was growing up, we didn't get you, so I would go to friends' houses and watch you play videos, with your weird VJ's and your House of Style and Real World casts who talked about politics and had real jobs . . . and later, even after you started getting crappy, you redeemed yourself a little with Daria, which felt way too much like my life for a cartoon. RIP, MTV.

My hair has been the bane of my existence for about fifteen years now. When I was a little kid, I had thick, shiny, super-straight hair fashioned in a stylish and gender-radical bowl cut. Then, one day, I woke up with curly hair. But not just regular curly — frizzy, pouffy, curly in weird places and straight in others. It just got worse as I tried out different styles: bangs (horrible idea!); bangs in various stages of growing out; even an awful early 90's perm to even out the curl. As a teenager, I shaved my head on a few different occassions, which was all right, except it grew so fast and all the in-between pouffiness was unbearable. I will never forget one day in fifth grade, the coolest girl in class told me, "You know you could be really pretty, if you could just do something about that hair." I have heard her voice in my head pretty much every day since then.

Upon moving to Humidity Central, PA, my hair became more frizzy than ever. I began experimenting with different hair stylists and products, dropping mad cash on products from Ouidad and Curl Friends. Although I really liked Ouidad's leave-in conditioner, I gave it up after I made the conversion to natural products. Before I went natural, I had a chemical frizz reduction treatment, which made my hair less pouffy, but not less frizzy, and also totally dried out. I tried almost everything in Whole Foods' beauty aisle, and that stuff ain't cheap. I tried Bumble and Bumble curl cream, which is not particularly natural, but earned an okay rating from the Skin Deep report at The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. I liked the Bumble and Bumble frizz serum, but it didn't seem to last very long. Then, the other day, I got free sample of Aveda's new Be Curly line, and. . . it sort of worked. So I bought the whole damn 5-piece kit, which cost $75 and made me feel very guilty. I came home from work and twirled and curled and diffused and all of a sudden, I had awesome hair. I got all kinds of compliments. Unfortunately, I have not been able to repeat that awesomeness because I wake up late every single day. But this is the first time I have liked a product enough to recommend it.

I really really hate shopping and when I find something I like, I want to buy a lifetime's supply and never go shopping again. There are a couple of other things I have been trying to find for years, so I will just put this out here if anyone has any recommendations. I'm looking for low-heel, knee-high black boots that are comfortable enough to walk around the city in but not so industrial they look out of place with a skirt. I would prefer something non-leather but I could probably be persuaded to wear leather if all of the other factors are in place. I also really really need to find some good underwear. I admit, this might be my fault for always going the outlet store route here, but I am ready to make an investment. I'm looking for some comfy full coverage underwear that does not induce VPL. So far, I have tried Under Armour, Jockey's No Panty Line Promise (it's a lie!) and Gilligan & O'Malley from Target. No luck. Ladies?

Part of my Christmas present from Albert was a large weekly moleskine planner. I have never been really good at using planners before, for several reasons. First of all, I never had one that both fit snugly into my bag and allowed me to write letters big enough so I could actually see them. Secondly, I very much enjoy scribbling notes on random pieces of paper, placing those pieces in various places, and never finding them when I need them. Thirdly, even though I am obsessively organized in almost every way, I always sort of resented the idea of planners, preferring to think of myself as a free-spirit. For the same reason, I do not wear a watch.

Well, perhaps I have grown up a little, because I just love this planner. In fact, I even retired my trusty, grubby messenger bag and bought an actual pocketbook just so I could more easily tote my planner around. I am still iffy on the pocketbook. I love the way it looks, but when you have spent years and years with a strap that wraps securely around your body, it is difficult to adjust to straps that just sort of dangle over your shoulder. I feel so vulnerable, but on my walk yesterday I noticed that most women employ shoulder bags; the only messengers in sight were on art school kids and actual bike messengers. Anyway, back to my planner: it has a pocket where I can stash my mail and receipts, and on each page across from the weekly calendar is full page for making lists. I love making lists! When I turned 25, I made a list of all the things I needed to do that year (like going to the dentist). Now I get to write a new list every week, so "make dentist appointment" will probably be showing up every week for a few months until I get so sick of writing it I actually do it. Planner, I think I love you.

Five things you didn't know about me (or maybe you did):

1. In high school, I was voted Most Outgoing, Class Actress, and Most Individualistic. I hated almost every minute of high school. I didn't consider myself to be particularly outgoing and I had quit the drama club by senior year. However, I am secretly proud of my Most Individualistic (a.k.a. Class Freak) award, even though I had to pose for a picture with a pseudo-goth kid who wore fishnet stockings on his arms.

2. Some more insight into why I might have won that award. . . There was never anything to do in my hometown when I was growing up, so my friend Owen and I used to entertain ourselves by dressing up in crazy outfits and going bowling and getting way over-involved in English projects (see: Ricki Lake style talk show about Ethan Frome; Sing-a-long about Henry Wadsworth Longfellow). We also decided to rent these how-to-dance videos from the library and we ended up learning how to waltz and fox trot and swing. We actually got to be quite good at swinging, and at our prom (which took place on a boat on the Connecticut River that was otherwise used for murder-mystery dinners), one swing song was played. All of a sudden, the entire senior class (who, most likely, thought we were total freaks — excuse me, individualists) ended up forming a circle around us while we spun and dipped and Owen lifted me up in the air. It was like a moment out of a movie, and it was awesome.

3. As I child, I much preferred drawing pictures and writing stories to playing outside. In fact, my mom had to force me outside — my sister and I considered it punishment. Together we invented an entire town of people and wrote stories about them. Long after my sister lost interest in these stories, I kept going. Sometimes I just thought about them, and made movies in my head. I still have all of the stories and I really want to flesh them out more and put them all together someday.

4. I have a secret (or not-so-secret) desire to make a cringe-worthy documentary in which I interview all of my ex-boyfriends, even though that would necessitate talking to all of my ex-boyfriends. They are all total characters, and seeing them interviewed on film would be an interesting evolution of my life. Hey, ex-boyfriends, if you read this, call me!

5. I used to go to Cape Cod in the summers with my friend Lindsay. When we were about twelve years old, we took a trip to Provincetown and decided we wanted to show our support for gay rights, by dressing head-to-toe in rainbows. Seriously, I even wore a rainbow beret. We thought we were the coolest kids in the world. And we were, but maybe not for our taste in clothing.