Captain's Log
Captain’s Log,
The last “heatwave” of summer was a bust as light clouds and smog moved in Tuesday and then thick smog on Wednesday, keeping temperatures low. Today Seattle is actually overcast, with the temperature sitting at 62 degrees as I write this. It’s four o’clock now, so that’s probably as warm as it will get today. Glorious!
Yesterday, I actually got a compliment on my hair. I was walking in to Trader Joe’s when somebody outside doing a survey said, plainly enough: “I like your hair! It’s all curly and long!”
My hair has been a big adventure for me over the past year. I had had it buzzed short for all of my adult life and the second half of my childhood, so I stopped cutting it in March of 2007, and since then I have only had it trimmed once, by Fumi this past April. Kendra had said she liked my hair the most just before I would cut it, and would have liked to see it even longer. So longer it went. Since my hair is thinning, it may be my only chance to see what these luscious locks of mine can do.
As my hair grew longer, its indefatigable curliness took control. If my quest to grow a long goatee earlier this decade were merely The Hobbit, this epic endeavor would surely qualify as The Lord of the Rings with full appendices. Appearances quickly escalated from the acceptable to the obscene, and I found myself in need of hairspray.
There are four things I do with my hair these days. When it’s freshly cleaned, I can simply leave it alone. If this happens, it will frizz out into a fro. Alternatively, I can brush it out to its full splendor. That makes it look like a lion’s mane. (See: Banon from Final Fantasy VI.)
I rarely do either. I’m not fond of the fro at all, and, while I do like the lion’s mane, I feel too ridiculous to wear it in public. Instead, I usually beat my hair down with spray gel, in which case my head looks as though it is covered in snakes. This is my preferred choice of the four, but I have to do it just right or else my hair will poof outward rather than flow downward. If I’m going out, I will almost always make sure to spray my hair.
Conversely, when my hair is matted or dirty, and I have slept on it, brushing or spraying it would be useless, but on its own it tends to look like a palm tree without the spikes. I kind of like this, and am okay being seen in public like this, even if I rarely do it.
Recognizing that I’ll never be able to have any of the hairstyles that require straight hair, my aspiration all this time has been to achieve the Captain Hook Look. However, this ultimate perfection has proven to be elusive, and now I doubt I will ever be able to get there. (If you remember, Captain Hook didn’t make it, either.) Recently I have been thinking that it may be time to simply give up and cut it short again. Kendra has long since lost her affinity for my hair, and, of all the people I know, only my mom has had anything nice to say about it. (It turns out that she has always loved curly hair. It must have sucked for her that my dad keeps his short all the time, that I followed suit, and that my sister’s hair is straight.)
So, this unexpected compliment outside Trader Joe’s yesterday was well-timed. Afterwards I find myself thinking that perhaps there is some merit in being distinctive. I also found my hopes rekindled that, if patience persists, I may yet be able to grow my hair out to a point where it looks fantastic. Unlikely, I know, but an interesting possibility. I’ve always pegged my looks as average. I can look handsome when I do my work right, but otherwise I’m plain or worse. My hair is much the same, but it sure would be nice to find a long-length solution that works well.
Oh! More that I know:
1. I saw a beautiful full moon over the weekend. Very intense and bright. I went up to the roof to get a better look, and saw that it illuminated everything-the Sound, the hills, even the mountains.
2. On Tuesday evening, these awesome jellyfish clouds took over the city. It was sunset, and a layer of smog had been building all day. There were some light clouds that day too, looking like deflated little puffs. Around the time of sunset, all of these puff clouds seemed to be melting at the bottom for some reason. This gave them wispy little jellyfish tendrils. I took a picture of it, but I can’t upload it now due to computer limitations.
3. Lastly: Does everyone deserve to be loved by someone? Nobody seems to love poor old President Bush anymore. Interesting question. I take it to read: Is there anyone too dull, too empty, too undefined to be admired? People who are well-defined will always be able to find admirers. Only the truly forgettable can hope never to be loved. But why would they? That’s the thing!
The last “heatwave” of summer was a bust as light clouds and smog moved in Tuesday and then thick smog on Wednesday, keeping temperatures low. Today Seattle is actually overcast, with the temperature sitting at 62 degrees as I write this. It’s four o’clock now, so that’s probably as warm as it will get today. Glorious!
Yesterday, I actually got a compliment on my hair. I was walking in to Trader Joe’s when somebody outside doing a survey said, plainly enough: “I like your hair! It’s all curly and long!”
My hair has been a big adventure for me over the past year. I had had it buzzed short for all of my adult life and the second half of my childhood, so I stopped cutting it in March of 2007, and since then I have only had it trimmed once, by Fumi this past April. Kendra had said she liked my hair the most just before I would cut it, and would have liked to see it even longer. So longer it went. Since my hair is thinning, it may be my only chance to see what these luscious locks of mine can do.
As my hair grew longer, its indefatigable curliness took control. If my quest to grow a long goatee earlier this decade were merely The Hobbit, this epic endeavor would surely qualify as The Lord of the Rings with full appendices. Appearances quickly escalated from the acceptable to the obscene, and I found myself in need of hairspray.
There are four things I do with my hair these days. When it’s freshly cleaned, I can simply leave it alone. If this happens, it will frizz out into a fro. Alternatively, I can brush it out to its full splendor. That makes it look like a lion’s mane. (See: Banon from Final Fantasy VI.)
I rarely do either. I’m not fond of the fro at all, and, while I do like the lion’s mane, I feel too ridiculous to wear it in public. Instead, I usually beat my hair down with spray gel, in which case my head looks as though it is covered in snakes. This is my preferred choice of the four, but I have to do it just right or else my hair will poof outward rather than flow downward. If I’m going out, I will almost always make sure to spray my hair.
Conversely, when my hair is matted or dirty, and I have slept on it, brushing or spraying it would be useless, but on its own it tends to look like a palm tree without the spikes. I kind of like this, and am okay being seen in public like this, even if I rarely do it.
Recognizing that I’ll never be able to have any of the hairstyles that require straight hair, my aspiration all this time has been to achieve the Captain Hook Look. However, this ultimate perfection has proven to be elusive, and now I doubt I will ever be able to get there. (If you remember, Captain Hook didn’t make it, either.) Recently I have been thinking that it may be time to simply give up and cut it short again. Kendra has long since lost her affinity for my hair, and, of all the people I know, only my mom has had anything nice to say about it. (It turns out that she has always loved curly hair. It must have sucked for her that my dad keeps his short all the time, that I followed suit, and that my sister’s hair is straight.)
So, this unexpected compliment outside Trader Joe’s yesterday was well-timed. Afterwards I find myself thinking that perhaps there is some merit in being distinctive. I also found my hopes rekindled that, if patience persists, I may yet be able to grow my hair out to a point where it looks fantastic. Unlikely, I know, but an interesting possibility. I’ve always pegged my looks as average. I can look handsome when I do my work right, but otherwise I’m plain or worse. My hair is much the same, but it sure would be nice to find a long-length solution that works well.
Oh! More that I know:
1. I saw a beautiful full moon over the weekend. Very intense and bright. I went up to the roof to get a better look, and saw that it illuminated everything-the Sound, the hills, even the mountains.
2. On Tuesday evening, these awesome jellyfish clouds took over the city. It was sunset, and a layer of smog had been building all day. There were some light clouds that day too, looking like deflated little puffs. Around the time of sunset, all of these puff clouds seemed to be melting at the bottom for some reason. This gave them wispy little jellyfish tendrils. I took a picture of it, but I can’t upload it now due to computer limitations.
3. Lastly: Does everyone deserve to be loved by someone? Nobody seems to love poor old President Bush anymore. Interesting question. I take it to read: Is there anyone too dull, too empty, too undefined to be admired? People who are well-defined will always be able to find admirers. Only the truly forgettable can hope never to be loved. But why would they? That’s the thing!