A Girl's Gotta Eat... AND Get Her Hair Done

I don't know about other people, but I cannot possibly feel at home in a city until I know a few particular things about it.  For example, I need to know where the good coffee is.  I need to know which Target location has a better clothing selection than the others.  I have to know which restaurants are good (of course) but, specifically, I really want to know which ones have half-price wine night and which ones have 2-for-1 appetizer night and what sorts of special deal-of-the-night offers there are and all of that.  I mean, who really wants to pay full restaurant mark-up for wine??? 

I knew these things about Louisville.  60 West alternated half-price bottles of wine on Wednesdays and Fridays with half-price martinis on Thursdays and Fridays.  Avalon had an entire Girls' Night Out menu if you sat inside instead of on the patio... and that menu was just as yummy, at nearly 60% off the cost of ordering dinner from the standard menu.  These are the bits of wisdom that separate the locals from the visitors, and I just can't have that "I really live here" feeling until I know stuff. 

Discovering which salons are safe to go to and which ones you should run screaming from are definitely key pieces of information for any girl who doesn't love the troll doll look, and these things unfortunately must be learned from other women's mistakes.  If you don't actually know very many other women yet, you pretty much can't get a haircut without risking months of Fraggle-hair.  If the inevitable phase of new-girl-in-town-friendlessness doesn't knock one's self-esteem down a notch or two, Fraggle-hair will, and scaring people with an accidental K$sha impression isn't going to be conducive to meaningful socialization anyway.       

In other words, don't judge me for googling restaurant deals and asking strangers for the names of the hair stylists while I should be writing some deep dissertationy thoughts.  Research is research, and a girl's gotta eat... AND get her hair done.  ;)