Three years later and we triumph at wacky hair day.
My eldest is in her third year of public school. The public schools here are a massively organized thing, and it takes a while to learn all the ins and outs. They have something called "spirit week," which I only experienced in high school when I was growing up. But things have changed.
In kindergarten, I didn't realize that it was wacky hair day until alas too late, and we didn't have hair that was at all wacky (well, I put in a largish prime number of pig tails, which lasted about 10 minutes). Last year, I tried hard for wacky hair that did not stay wacky very long at all (probably about 10 minutes, but her hair was combed very well, and my pig tails had gotten a bit tighter in the intervening year). In first grade, I did have a brief epiphany where I realized that getting ready for wacky hair day was more like getting ready for a wedding than our normal morning hair brushing routine is.
I went all out this time buying hair care products in the days leading up to wacky hair day. I even had to turn back from the temptation to buy various serious hair dye products, as I knew that somewhere in there was a line between wacky and excessive.
My daughter's hair was spiky when I dropped her off, and when I picked her up, she smilingly showed me the still standing spikes.
Credit to her for the the realization that cute is part of wacky.
Thanks! I feel such a thrill each they run one of these in the actual paper newspaper! My mom worked for Harcourt Brace & Jovanovich an editor before my sister and I came along, and my grandfather did something involving paper and printing for Time Magazine, and so the idea of black ink on paper in fact seems like the highest form of success to me.
Incidentally, I finally have figured out how to edit the links for the site, so I've added your blog!
Cheers,
Chris
I saw this column in the Voice. It's nice to see you in print. Kudos.
Steph