You're not old enough to wear scrubs.

I had a visitor this week! My niece, Jamie, flew down from Philly to spend some quality time with her Cool Aunt Jyl...it was such fun, but my heart had a few hiccups.  Starting with her being on Spring Break, from c-o-l-l-e-g-e.  I have to spell it out because I still have a hard time believing that she isn't still figuring out the combination to her first real locker.  Yes, she's in college, studying to be a nurse - a profession I am completely unqualified for (proof of that later). 

This is a picture of Jamie a mere eight months ago, at her high school graduation dinner.  The point isn't that she is texting during dinner - it's that when she arrived here she said, "I've been wanting to get my hair cut FOREVER." (If you remember last weekend, my friend, Anne Marie, started off with a similar statement - "I want a new car," and by Saturday afternoon, the deed was done.) 

And so, I took a similar approach to Jamie's new hairdo...I packed her in the car and drove her to the nearest pseudo-salon with my iPhone at the ready with pictures of Katie Holmes. A half hour later, we had this.

A super-chic-cute-as-can-be-easy-to-manage-college-girl-hairdo.  Won't her friends be surprised when she steps off the plane?  I even think I saw Tom Cruise do a drive-by looking for his pretend-wife.  Mind you, Jamie has had the same hair style for, um, ever.  Beautiful brown hair running past her shoulders.  But every gal needs a change at some point in her life - and what better way to do it than with the one thing that will actually grow back.

Here's a picture from the front (Dear Summer...I love Best Camera for iPhone...thanks for telling me about it!).  This was on day one - we were still figuring out the proper way to style it...we totally won the battle and I'm sending her home with some extra tools (I tend to buy hair tools the same way I buy shoes - with little regard to what I already have).  Look how grown up she is!  Oh, there's another heart hiccup.

Favorite moment of the weekend for me?  When Jamie told her boyfriend how handy I was, because I "changed all the lightbulbs in my house by myself."  WHAT?????  She meant to say fixtures, I swear.  Like the actual fixtures where you have to turn off the breaker and stand on a ladder and hold wires in your mouth because you have no spouse. 

Then there was the trip to the Red Cross to donate blood - man, I bet everyone wishes they could vacation at my house.  As we were waiting our turn, another donee passed clear out.  Now, here's how most people react to such instances - "Oh, how can I help! Do you need me to assist in lifting her? Water? A Fan?" I know this because these are the things I heard.  While I focused all of my attention on the inside of my purse while praying that no one asked me to help in anyway.  This is why I will never be a nurse. 

And now for another heart hiccup moment.  My lil niece...my cute lil tiny niece who surely isn't even old enough to drive yet...bought a bunch of Scrubs at Walfart.  Yes, scrubs - like the things that people who work in hospitals wear (sidenote: they don't sell scrubs at Walfart in Philly...so to find them there was super exciting and CHEAP!). 

Why would she need such things??  Surely she isn't getting old enough to have an actual career? I mean, I just went to her high school graduation five minutes ago - how can this be? 

I guess the bonus is - I still rate.  She's gottten older, grown up...and yet, I'm still her Cool Aunt Jyl.

And someday when I'm in Assisted Living and she's passing out our chocolate puddings in her latest pair of funky scrubs...I hope she remembers that and slips me two.