Off The Fashion Train

It's a beautiful Monday morning and I have to start it with an apology for not doing drawings for either of the winners for last week's prizes. I claim book-launch related stress as my excuse. You see, book launch took almost all of my mind so I only had one brain cell remaining. Then I had to use it at McDonald's trying to convince them that meat & bread only meant really just that.

So without further ado - the winner of the Jana DeLeon prize basket is estella!!!!!!

The winner of the signed copy of UNLUCKY is catslady!!!!!!

Ladies, please email me at jana (at) janadeleon.com with your mailing info so that I can get your prizes out to you. And congratulations!!!!!

Before I start my complaining for the day, I thought I'd share with all of you exciting news - I've accepted an offer from Dorchester for my next two books. They are the first two in a series of romance/mystery hybrids (in Louisiana, of course), the first of which features a woman haunted by her dead mother-in-law. You've got to love that one, and I can't even begin to tell you how much fun I'm having writing this book.

So now on to my rant for the day - when people jump off the fashion train.

Now, I'm not saying everyone ought to run out and buy the latest designer whatever. Heck, I don't either - and probably won't unless I get that whole Paramount picture movie deal I dream about. I just find it fascinating that at some point and time in everyone's life, they simply jump off the fashion train and from that point forward, they continue to wear/groom in the same style as the day they jumped off. C'mon, you know what I'm talking about - you've all seen old men in a breakfast restaurant with their socks up to their knees - dress socks usually - with shorts.

For those of you who don't know, I changed jobs (I start the new one tomorrow) from the training department to documentation. So no longer will I be jetting (or tarmacking, as I usually manage) around the country training people - instead, I will be manning a desk at my home in Dallas writing the documentation that other use to train. Well, training was a client-facing position so I had to change certain things about my appearance in order to look "professional." Of course, as soon as my transfer was approved, all bets were off and Jana got right back to being Jana.

You see, I have this boss who jumped off the fashion train somewhere in the late 80's, early 90's. The worst part of this is, he's actually younger than me. But he has no sense of style at all. So the first thing I did was visit my hairdresser. I'm a natural blonde with highlights and lowlights in my hair for that streaked effect. The last time I went in, I had my hairdresser put the black back in my hair. You know, it's that section on the back (the bottom layer usually) that is colored darker than the rest of your hair. If you visit any mall and throw a rock, you'll probably hit someone who is wearing a similar style.

So I'd actually had my hair done for a couple of weeks when he walks up and says "why is the back of your hair black?"

So I reply "because it's hip and trendy and now, and you couldn't possibly understand. You really need to get out more."

Mind you, at least 25% of the women at my company have hair like this, but apparently he hasn't noticed. Hey, at least he didn't say anything about my nails. As soon as I had the black done in my hair, I headed straight to the nail salon, had them remove my very professional solar nails with the French tip and exchanged them for acryllic in bright, glittery, hooker pink! I swear, with my hair and nails back to normal, I hadn't felt that good in over a year.

So what's your look, your style????? And when do you think you'll jump off the fashion train?

- Deadly (but still trendy) DeLeon