Laura’s Muses

I was flipping through a tattoo magazine this morning, and stumbled across a photo of a young-ish girl (early 30’s?) with a nice, large, black tattoo that read “Jesus died for somebody’s sins, but not mine.” It was stretched across her chest, under the collarbone area, in two bold lines. Now, I’m all for artistic expression and I respect everyone’s own personal view of Jesus even if I don’t agree with it. It just seems that this particular tattoo seemed to express two things to me as the viewer: 1) she WANTS to debate about Jesus, and is even inviting such a conversation. This leads me to the conclusion that 2) In my opinion, she may not even know what she really feels about Jesus deep down. More often than not, I’ve found that the people that tend to talk about Him or want to argue about His existence usually end up finding Him later in life and becoming a Christian.

Anyway, I just found that interesting…

Sometimes I wonder if I’m the only person concerned with the moral downfall of society in general, and more specifically the celebrity population. Flipping through the pages of a People magazine the other day, I noticed article after article and picture after picture of these Hollywood icons flaunting to our youth what’s “popular” these days: pregnancy before marriage, racking up DUI’s, divorces, custody battles, public sex acts, and list goes on and on.

Most frustrating to me recently was realizing how Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have become this epitomy of the “perfect family.” Um, hello! He supposedly cheated on his ex-wife with Angelina, then left his marriage to shack up with her, the two of them had a baby together AND adopted another child, and they’re STILL not married.

Other examples: The Nick and Vanessa incident in Mexico recently. Remember those X rated pictures? I was surprised it wasn’t followed by another celebrity sex tape. Let’s not forget Nicole Richie and Joel Madden…dating for, what, four mintues before she’s pregnant? Speaking of pregnancies, who the heck is the father of Salma Hayek’s baby? What else… oh, I read somewhere the Kate Moss and her druggie boyfriend are talking about having kids… and no, I’m not even going to go into the whole Britney situation. That’s a post in and of itself.

My point is, these are the people that are most influental in our society and they are completely shying away from any decent and moral behavior. They expect us to accept their lifestyles as “normal” and do not seem to care how young America will be affected by their choices. Stars that seem to have a shred of decency and interest in how they are portrayed (Mandy Moore, the reformed Christina Agulera, Amanda Bynes) are cast off as being too boring to talk about, which says a lot about the standards of the media and those of us who thrive on the celebrity gossip.

I had the cutest old lady come in to the salon today. She was about 80 years old or so, and her name was Barb. She was very sweet and talkative, and she had a precise opinion on what she wanted her hair to look like. Her hair was already short, but she wanted something with more “style”, something -as she put it- different from all the other old ladies out there. According to her, her hair had a mind of it’s own and she wanted it to have the final say. Meaning, she wanted her haircut to reflect the way her hair grew. She pointed out all of her ‘cowlicks’ and different growth patterns, and the way her ears stuck out if the hair was too short around them, and the way her hair liked to fall to the left side. She wanted to be able to just wash and go, with no fuss. Also, she wanted choppy bangs.

I was very nervous after this in depth consultation, but I had faith that together, we could come up with a good style for her. I cut and textured and razored and cut some more, whittling out a nice shape that would hopefully meet all of her criteria. At first I wasn’t sure if the idea in my head would pan out in reality, but I was pleasantly surprised by the outcome. It was an almost perfect, sassy little ‘do that just worked for her. Even her daughter exclaimed, “That took ten years off you! Very hip!” She just smiled and said, “Yes, it’s a style that’s all my own.”

If there are others out there who, like me, have been searching for the title of Best Cheesesteak in Columbus, I am happy to report that I have found the winner! This thing is good. It’s melt-in-your-mouth, put-a-smile-0n-your-face-for-the-rest-of-the-day good. It’s just THAT good.

My personal search began a few years ago. I was working downtownm and located down the street was a Charley’s Steakery (which has since closed down). A co-worker and I had lunch there once, and so stunned was I at the delicious blend of steak and cheese, I must admit I dined at the establishment on my own at a most unhealthy frequency thereafter. I have since made it a personal goal to order a cheesesteak at any and all restaurants that I go to that offer them on the menu. The result has been a non-stop comparison of city-wide cheesesteaks that has failed to produce a hands-down winner. Until now.

Previous favorites include Chili’s (the garlic toasted bun provides a unique flavor that stands out among the crowd), Max & Erma’s (a delicious, simply done sandwich that is always of high quality), and of course the original favorite, Charley’s. There is sometimes even the exceptional cheesesteak experience at an establishment that ends in disappointment on a return visit, when the sandwich making just isn’t consistent. The search has continued, then, to find that WOW sandwich, the one that just stands alone from the rest and says, “I am here, I am cheesesteak and I. am. delicious.”

8 Restaurant and Bar, in the Short North, has this sandwich. The grilled steak is perfect in texture, the cheese is cheesey without overwhelming the rest of the sandwich, and the blend of onion and peppers are cooked so perfectly that they melt in your mouth, adding flavor without that stringy onion thing that sometimes happens. Everything about this sandwich just works together, bringing out each flavor without any one particular one being overwhelming or lacking. It’s just…perfect. Now go have one.