I take it back, or The quest left me blowing out the flames

Happy 2010!

I take back what I said about having to up the degree of skankitude for New Years partying in Stockholm. We had a blast at the dinner and party with total strangers, and all of the ladies there (*Swedish* ladies) were cute and quirky and not a skanky outfit in the bunch! I just wore something tight n black (helllllo, its Sweden. Why didn't I think of that sooner?) We rang in the 2010 with champagne, sparklers, a blue moon and lovely new friends.

But of course, as you may have noted in the previous post, getting ready for NYE was a little more stressful for me than usual. Especially after attempting to curl my hair. I don't have a hair dryer at all here, but I did pack my US curling iron. I have had the thing for years, its a little threadbare and missing its little foot that keeps the heated part propped up, but its always been my favorite hair curling device. I haven't had to use it here yet, because, like I said, I only ever wear jeans and I don't even own a hair dryer. But in my desire to pull off Stockholm NYE style, I thought I'd break out the curler. Old trusty. But we don't have outlets in the bathroom. In fact, we don't have outlets anywhere near a mirror, period! So I finagled my US curler in a small appliance transformer in a European plug converter in an extension cord, and left it to warm up. Brilliant, right?! I could see myself in the mirror, which helps when you are holding super hot things centimeters from your scalp.

Except that the burning smell a few minutes later was my beloved US curling iron, on fire, on my school notebook (yes, I suppose the notebook was a bad idea in hindsight, but thank god I didn't leave it to warm up on the rented dining room table!) On fire! Smoke and flames! Stu smartly unplugged the thing as I was yelling at it to stop, and we were both blowing out the fire shooting out of it. It is now in 3 piec.es, with a melted core and scorched handle. How sad. I didn't even get to use it. Instead, I wore a headband on New Years.

We missed our friends and family back in the US, but it was still a damn good New Years celebration. And now off to Italy for a week. Until then....