Coloring My Own Hair

"She was what we used to call a suicide blonde --

dyed by her own hand."

-- Saul Bellow

A pretty funky chicken 12-17-14

"All the products I need for my hair

are at the drugstore!"

-- Laura Osnes

"Now I just have mood hair."

-- Julia Roberts

My hair is brown.

Regular, plain old brown. Nothing special.

And I'm OK with that. I like my brown hair. Brown is a perfectly fine color for hair.

But every now and then, when too many rogue, wiry grays start poking through the landscape, I like to color my hair. I don't choose anything exotic. No "raspberry creme" or "ebony mocha" or "Navajo bronze." Just regular, plain old brown.

I prefer my collar and cuffs to match, thankyouverymuch.

I've paid big money for a professional to talk me into and then dye my hair a shade I don't really like. They convince me it's "on trend" or "edgy." It's almost always unnatural looking -- too black, too red, too weird. Still, I fork over the cash, then spend the rest of the day trying to convince myself that it looks OK.

I tried highlights. Once.

After it was over I feigned excitement in front of my stylist, but it was a ruse. I hated it. But I wanted a second opinion.

So immediately upon leaving the salon I drove straight to my husband's office for his take on my new streaky look.

Me: "What do you think?"

Him: (long pause) "It makes you look (searching for the right word) ... older."

Me: (inner monologue) "Fuuuuuuuuuuuuckkkkk!"

I tore out of his office, sped straight to the drug store and bought a $9 box of regular, plain old brown to cover up the $100 damage.

"They" say the most flattering hair color is the one you had, naturally, when you were in kindergarten or thereabouts. For me, regular, plain old brown is what looks good. 

It's not the most exciting color in the spectrum, but it works for me.

  

Chickens In A Window

"Walking is the perfect way of moving if you want to see into the life of things.

It is the one way of freedom.

If you go to a place on anything but your own feet 

you are taken there too fast,

and miss a thousand delicate joys that were waiting for you by the wayside."

-- Elizabeth von Arnim,

The Adventures of Elizabeth Rugen

Ceramic chickens in a shop window 11-23-14

"It is good to collect things,

but it is better to go on walks."

-- Anatole France

Ceramic chickens in a shop window 11-23-14

"Many people nowadays live in a series of interiors ...

disconnected from each other. 

On foot everything stays connected, 

for while walking one occupies the spaces between those interiors ...

One lives in the whole world rather than in interiors built up against it."

-- Rebecca Solnit, 

Wanderlust: A History of Walking

I'm bored with exercising indoors, so yesterday I headed out for a long walk.

I saw our local fire department burning down a house for "firefighter training."

I saw hundreds of geese flying in the sky in honking, noisy Vs.

And I saw these chickens looking out from behind the glass of a closed-up shop's window.

If I hadn't taken the walk, I'd have missed seeing the firefighters.

I'd have missed seeing the geese.

And I'd have missed seeing the chickens.

It's a good thing I took a walk.