Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Water under the bridge...

Since I seem to have created a theme this week of “doing things” including things that need doing (my to-do list), and things that I’m glad I did (my ta-da! list), I thought that I should also consider the things that have made me scratch my head.

I don’t generally have regrets. Not big ones anyway (cue Edith Piaf), though I admit that from time to time I wonder if it’s such a good idea to buy as many tights as I do, hoarde as much cashmere yarn or eat chocolate for breakfast. (er, I don't do that. And if I do, it's dark chocolate, which is good for you, right?)

But honestly, for anything that I’ve thought in hindsight was sort of a bad idea, I can think of a dozen things that have come of it that I never would have learned or experienced otherwise and for that I’m grateful.

There are, however, a few doozies about which I can only say, “Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time…”

And here are some of them:

1. The asymmetrical hair cut, ca 1984. I don’t believe that I have any photos of this disaster. (And for that reason alone, I believe in guardian angels.)
2. Layers. Too many of them, which is probably not as many as most people have ever had, but were too many for me. Ca. 1986, 1988, 1999-2000. I don’t have any photos of the first two, as they lasted only for about 24 hours before I cut all of my hair off to get rid of them. I believe that I may have a photo of the third ‘do because I got my hair cut on New Year’s Eve (!), which is proof that I have been abducted by aliens because it leads me to number three
3. Getting my hair cut in a strange city from a hairdresser that I didn’t know. On New Year’s Eve. (Wha-? See? I must have been abducted by aliens.)
4. Dropping OAC algebra. I’m not sure that I would use it all that often, but I still wish I’d kept it.
5. Highlights. March 1999. They were “blonde”, if you had to describe them, which I wish you wouldn’t - I’m trying to forget. The girl who rinsed my hair out actually said “Maybe they’ll look better when your hair’s dry…” They didn’t.
6. Buying a white bathing suit.
7. Not testing said white bathing suit in sunlight.
8. Not practicing the piano as as kid. I really can’t play. I think I’ll add “learn to play piano” to my To-Do list.

I think that part of the secret of happiness is being able to look back with satisfaction – or at least with appreciation of the experiences you've had. And I know that I have learned from all of these things. Some lessons though, it seems, take longer to learn.

To quote my dad, “It’s aaaallll water under the bridge. Of course, some water moves faster than other water…”

Though I've learned that NO water moves fast enough to grow hair. And ALL water is bad for a white bathing suit.

4 comments:

  1. Ahhhh! I had the same haircut ca 1984 AND I had tried to bleach my bangs with peroxide so they came out orange! My guardian angel was obviously taking a break then because it's captured for posterity in a family portait.

    I remember those highlights and those layers!

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  2. I think the most important thing you wrote in this item was "the secret of happiness is being able to look back with satisfaction – or at least with appreciation of the experiences you've had ... and ... to have learned from all of these things".

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  3. So many regrets seem to be about hair! Is that a coincidence?

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