Re: Domes
I was thinking about this at work today, but first a quick aside:
On the way home from work, I saw a kid wearing a Tigers cap. Just the classic blue cap with silver stylized D. You know the one. And if you don't, I'm ashamed of you. That style of hat always brings back really good memories, not least because my brother Matt wore one for the longest time, until it finally got too ratty to hold itself together any longer. So there's that, and also just general Michigan good times. It's symbolic, and it made me feel better. Today wasn't a bad day by any means, but that made it better.
What I was actually thinking about was hair. Mine, specifically. I grew out a beard just after PAX, and shaved it back down last week. I'm thinking of growing it back, because I like how it looked. It was something of a controversial beard -- some people liked it, some professed not to like any beard ever, and I honestly couldn't tell what most of the Triad thought, because we're all such consummate yacklers -- but I liked it, anyway. Aside from the beard, though, I realized that I've pretty much had exactly three hairstyles my entire life, and both times I changed, it was because of Courtney.
Through middle school, I went with the side-part. I couldn't tell you which side, though I imagine old photographs would shed some light on the subject. TOO BAD. I also couldn't tell you why I did it, exactly, except that I started doing it one day and kept doing it most days thereafter. After Courtney and I dated for a while, she must have gotten the (correct) idea that I looked like rather a prat, and decided to do something about it. I was on vacation with her family in ... Traverse City-ish, I think? I always forget exactly where it was we went, but I think it was up near there. But one evening, she suggested I try something different, so I did. Part down the middle! Better. It was a vast improvement. I looked less like a prat.
After that, I really didn't update it ... um, at all. There were tweaks here and there: Briefly, during high school, I used hair gel for reasons I still can't fathom, and there was one point at which Heather convinced me to let her dye my hair, so for a bit it had reddish streaks in it, which faded to blonde. I don't think it looked bad, and Heather said she liked how it looked, but I was still really self-conscious about it, so that was my first and last experience with hair dye. I don't mind my natural color anyway. It's boring, but I don't think it's particularly bad, so.
Then in the Chicago era of my relationship with Courtney, I think she noticed that my hair hadn't really gone anywhere from where she'd left it, and couldn't fathom why. One day, after a shower, I was side-parting my hair again, and she asked why I didn't try something else. It worked out pretty well the last time, I figured, so why not defer to her? I stopped parting my hair at all, and I also tend to keep it a lot shorter these days. It's incredibly low-maintenance (dry hair, shake head), which appeals to my lazy side, and it also makes me look slightly more like the adult I supposedly am, instead of a college dropout who plays bass in a shitty Sublime/Soundgarden cover band.
There really wasn't a point to all of this, really, except maybe to say thanks, Courtney, for making me look less dumb over the years.
On the way home from work, I saw a kid wearing a Tigers cap. Just the classic blue cap with silver stylized D. You know the one. And if you don't, I'm ashamed of you. That style of hat always brings back really good memories, not least because my brother Matt wore one for the longest time, until it finally got too ratty to hold itself together any longer. So there's that, and also just general Michigan good times. It's symbolic, and it made me feel better. Today wasn't a bad day by any means, but that made it better.
What I was actually thinking about was hair. Mine, specifically. I grew out a beard just after PAX, and shaved it back down last week. I'm thinking of growing it back, because I like how it looked. It was something of a controversial beard -- some people liked it, some professed not to like any beard ever, and I honestly couldn't tell what most of the Triad thought, because we're all such consummate yacklers -- but I liked it, anyway. Aside from the beard, though, I realized that I've pretty much had exactly three hairstyles my entire life, and both times I changed, it was because of Courtney.
Through middle school, I went with the side-part. I couldn't tell you which side, though I imagine old photographs would shed some light on the subject. TOO BAD. I also couldn't tell you why I did it, exactly, except that I started doing it one day and kept doing it most days thereafter. After Courtney and I dated for a while, she must have gotten the (correct) idea that I looked like rather a prat, and decided to do something about it. I was on vacation with her family in ... Traverse City-ish, I think? I always forget exactly where it was we went, but I think it was up near there. But one evening, she suggested I try something different, so I did. Part down the middle! Better. It was a vast improvement. I looked less like a prat.
After that, I really didn't update it ... um, at all. There were tweaks here and there: Briefly, during high school, I used hair gel for reasons I still can't fathom, and there was one point at which Heather convinced me to let her dye my hair, so for a bit it had reddish streaks in it, which faded to blonde. I don't think it looked bad, and Heather said she liked how it looked, but I was still really self-conscious about it, so that was my first and last experience with hair dye. I don't mind my natural color anyway. It's boring, but I don't think it's particularly bad, so.
Then in the Chicago era of my relationship with Courtney, I think she noticed that my hair hadn't really gone anywhere from where she'd left it, and couldn't fathom why. One day, after a shower, I was side-parting my hair again, and she asked why I didn't try something else. It worked out pretty well the last time, I figured, so why not defer to her? I stopped parting my hair at all, and I also tend to keep it a lot shorter these days. It's incredibly low-maintenance (dry hair, shake head), which appeals to my lazy side, and it also makes me look slightly more like the adult I supposedly am, instead of a college dropout who plays bass in a shitty Sublime/Soundgarden cover band.
There really wasn't a point to all of this, really, except maybe to say thanks, Courtney, for making me look less dumb over the years.