hair today, baby tommorrow.
so tomorrow (unless jodi goes into labor during the night) we have a baby. i’m not sure if that’s sunk in yet. it did strike me today that perhaps i should get a haircut since chances are i’ll be in a few pictures the next couple of days. so i went to find a barber in perham while lydia was in prescool and found out that there are no barbers in that town. there are a handful of family beauty shop all purpose places but no barbers. something you should know about me (actually you there’s no reason you should know this, but i’m telling you all the same sucker) is that i’m afraid of 4 things. heights, snakes, my tax man robert melde telling me i have to do my taxes myself, and getting my haircut. this last one pertains to the discussion at hand. i have childhood memories of freezing outside great clips and freaking out and sitting in the car while my mom took only my brother when we were both supposed to go in. or sometimes i’d make it in but then freak out at the last minute and bolt for the door. i was okay with my mom, aunt, or cousin cutting my hair but that was about it. and from a fashion point of view that makes my fear even more irrational. if someone’s moving sharp objects around your eyes, ears and jugular wouldn’t the sane thing be for that person to have some sort of qualification beyond shared last name? there have been two break throughs in my adult life concerning my hair. one was the purchase of a clippers during my senior year of highschool. the other was befriending the barbers over on west. 7th, mitch and steve. On november 3rd 2004 i went in for a haircut. i’m not sure what got into me, a more appropriate action would’ve been to shave my head, adorn my sackcloth and administer ashes and lament the coming 4 years. maybe facing my fear (rhymes with shear) was my act of bolding moving on.org so i went into this place and got my haircut, talked with my Democratic Gen x barber about the coming years, and left feeling great for the first time ever after having my haircut by a stranger. since then i’ve been back twice – thats almost annualy, and that’s a big deal for me. in fact that means i’ve paid strangers for 5 haircuts since 2000. I just about got this thing licked.
so tommorrow being the big day it is i decided to get a haircut. first i picked up stamps for the baby announcements and rhonda the postal clerk dropped two bombs on me. stamps will soon be 41 cents, and, as mentioned earlier, there are no barbers in perham. in my selfannalyzing and i’ve concluded that part of the reason i don’t like getting my hair cut is the smell of salons. secondly salon is a girly word. and thirdly salons are expensive. barbers on the other hand smell like grandpa’s aftershave (old old old spice), feel manly, and most importantly are cheaper. so obviously i was devastated by the news. but hey, if abraham wouldn’t have gone up the mountain would he have made it into hebrews 11? hell no. and so, i took this as a test of God deeming my worth as a fearless parent. Rhonda said there were two places that took walk ins, thrify cuts and a place next to suds, the saloon in town. no brainer. off to thrifty. couldn’t fit me in. i lost momentum. fine i’ll check out the other place. i drove by it three times. got the gumption to park in front of it. mustered up the courage to go inside, and asked if they had any openings. what was that? a ram in the thicket? totally, they were booked i was free. i walk by faith what can i say?
so i didn’t get a haircut, but i tried, and so i am very pleased with myself and the outcome of events. maybe tonight i’ll shave my noggin’ to celebrate.
and tommorrow, we’ll have a baby.