JOURNAL: Hairhack; RUN: Home<-ss->Gym (jog, bike)

Today, I went and got a haircut during lunch. It wasn't good.

The lady was entertaining enough, but had more in the field of talk than of styling. On the plus side, she did attempt to use shears, but I was hoping more of a thinning than a hack.

She left the hairs above my sideburns long. She tried to gel my bangs straight up. She tried to comb the hair on the side of my head forward to cover up my receding hairline.

She frizz-puffed the hair at the top of my head. And I could've polluted the Potomac and choked a couple pandas with all the mousse she put in my hair. Speed Racer has nothing on me.

I put on my happy face but she may have sensed my apprehension as she kept telling me that it's all about how I feel about it. I was like "absolutely absolutely" because I just wanted to get out of there. On the way out, she said that I'd have to come back again so that I could tell her all of the compliments that I get.

Back at the office, the first thing I heard was: "What happened to you?".

I reassured everyone that I was going to cut it again myself when I get home.

Frustrated, I sort of gorged a few cookies Petrowski brought back from his department's K.N.O.W. meeting then went to the bathroom to restyle and and repair as much of the damage as I could.

I reassessed the day so far, recognizing the nits I had on my mind -- my spilt salad dressing on my khakis, the custodian's attempts to get me to go to church, the hairhack... And I put them aside. Yes, I had the perspective to focus on the more-important and started tackling little tasks head-on with the mindset that it was prevent them from compounding into paralyzing creatures.

And hairhack aside, work was actually pretty good. Busy, steady, and with interactions with a variety of team members. I felt of use, and at this very moment, I'm feeling much gratitude to them. It's partially new-found perspective and partially the endorphins still rushing through my body after just getting back from a healthy workout.

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Yeah, so I left work after an extra 45 minutes, then stopped by Wal-Mart on the way home to pick up a case of bottled water (for tomorrow's Toastmasters contest), some wine for tonight's impending haircut, and a bottle of ketchup.

Once home, I promptly started preparing the pasta salad (also for tomorrow's contest), cleaning up the kitchen and listening to an old Netcot podcast episode in the process.

Then after that, I promptly went onto preparing the guest bathroom for my haircut. And because I was wanting to go workout at the gym afterwards, it ended up with no alcohol involved. And let me say, I did a damn fine job with it.

Basically, I started with the left and right ear attachments then worked the sides with a #3. I used the same #3 to loosely trim the base of the back of my head. I then used a #2 and went over the sides again. I used a #4 on the back of my head all the way up to the crown of my head. I had to use the #3 and a mirror to carefully blend that area in. For the perimeter edge between the side and top of my head, I used a loose #3 and/or heavy #4. I used my free hand a lot to block off the top-hairs that I wanted to keep. My bangs and hairline areas didn't need any attention.

[Alright, the last paragraph was primarily just for my record.]

Anyways, I had immediate super-confidence in this haircut, and this morning's $18 trauma was forgiven. I've learned a lesson. Now, I wanted to show it off!

I got changed then went outside to turned on the front sprinklers, and 5 minutes later, I was at the gym.

I jogged a couple laps on top then did my ProStretch exercises (2 sets of calf stretches followed by another 2 sets of Achilles stretches, L&R alternating) before doing another couple laps then settling in on a recline bike. In addition to the lanyard with my membership card, I brought a pair of headphones. I got hooked up and ended up watching the second half of American Idol (yay for Gokey, boo/eww for Von). Yeah, so I ended up doing 6.00 miles in 26:00 minutes, the fleece pants tight on my huge thighs. After that, I jobbed a couple more laps then headed home.

Tonight, there were more people at the gym (8:00pm-9:00pm). Last night after the SCR board meeting, I was there (from 9:00pm-9:45pm) and did 10 minutes on the treadmill watching the British equiv of the Westminster dog show, 16 minutes (and 4.00 miles) on the recline bike watching the Discovery Channel where a guy was preparing for an in-a-box-with-thousands-of-bees-on-top-of-a-washing-machine escape stunt, then five laps on top before heading home (car).

I took some kitchen pics and then jumped right on the computer to write this while I was still "fresh". And now it's on the late side of 10pm and I need to have dinner... and shower. Dah. I'll be tired for the contest tomorrow, but at least my hair will look good.