Getting layers cut into my hair does not make me look like Jennifer Garner.
I don’t hate it any more than I did before. I don’t like it any more either, but I’ll give it a few days and see what I think. Mostly what I think right now is that the shortest layer, which still seems to be a bit angled and is jaw-length, is a lot better than the longer stuff under it.
I’m just not any good at growing my hair long, am I?
We did find me a chair! It took 3 hours and we went to every single office furniture place in town that was open, but we finally found a good, comfortable, chair that I think will do very well. Now all I need is the monitor arm and I can put Nook 2.0 all together!
And, on a completely different note, apropos of nothing except Angie reminded me of it, a story about missed opportunities and defining points on one’s life:
When I was 13, my drama class went on a high school trip to New York City. We had a layover in St. Louis, and I was wandering around the airport, bored and tired. During my wanderings, I saw a really cute guy playing a racecar video game, and I thought for some reason that he looked familiar. I went and got a cookie and came back. He was still playing. I hid out behind the AT&T booth and watched him for a while, trying to figure out why he might possibly look familiar, and trying to get up the nerve to go say to him, “Uh, hi, you look familiar, how come?”
Eventually I decided it was just my imagination, because he was really cute and I was sure I’d LIKE to know him, but I was too embarrassed to go say, “Uh, hi.” So I went back to the drama group and kept reading my book (David Eddings’s MAGICIAN’S GAMBIT).
About twenty minutes later, a girlfriend of mine came rushing over and flopped in the chair beside me and said, “Kirk Cameron is here!”
And I realized that the kid I’d seen *had* been familiar, because I’d seen his picture on my friends’ walls (I hadn’t ever watched Growing Pains, at that point). I said, “Oh, yeah, I saw him a while ago,” and then we all went and mobbed the poor bastard. I kept thinking, “If I had been brave enough, I could have actually had a conversation with this guy, instead of being one of a faceless mob of people clamoring at him.” So I promised myself I’d never chicken out like that again.
Fast forward more than a decade. I’m in the Houston airport, standing in line to see if I’m going to make my flight to Florida for the Highlander Clan Cruise. A guy behind me says something, and I go, “! I know that voice!”
I look over my shoulder, and Jim Byrnes is two people behind me. A few minutes later we’re both out of line and I’m thinking: if you do not go talk to him, Cate, you are going to regret it for the rest of your life. You know this, because you’ve already *been* there once.
So I gathered myself and went and said hello, and we talked a couple of minutes. Later that weekend he saw me on the ship and said, “Hi, Cate!”, and an entire year later bellowed, “My friend, Catie Murphy!” at me in a room full of crowded people, so talking to him made not just that weekend, but several others through the course of several years.
I will always be a little sad that I didn’t nerve myself up to go talk to Kirk Cameron and find out who he was, but I will also always, *always* be glad that I not only learned from making that mistake, but that I had the belly to follow through when the exact same opportunity came up so many years later. It was one of those rare moments in life where you can see a turning point very clearly, and act accordingly. I think that’s pretty cool.
OMG. I so remember seeing Kirk Cameron. IT was like *the* highlight of the trip, well the flight anyway. *L*. Wasn’t there rumors that some had seen Emmanual Lewis around there too? I never saw him myself, but others said he was around…
You couldn’t have been only 13! were you? God – sometimes I feel so old. *L*
The whole Growing Pains cast was there. They’d been filming some Christmas special in Hawaii or something, I think.
I was 13, but I also graduated from high school at 16. You’re not old. (Well, you may be, but I’m also young. :))
Ahh, good memories.
CATIE MURPHY!
Hee hee.
I miss Uncle Jim.
Emmanual Lewis was on…. Webster… I think. But yeah – didn’t see the rest of the GP cast there. *chuckles* But did see some of the Staff wearing their GP jackets! *L* I’ll never forgive myself for not taking pictures of Kirk though. Ah, I was sooooooooo crushing on him at the time too…. how big a geek does that make me?
wait – don’t answer that. *L*
Y’know, something just occurred to me–years and years ago, when I was still in high school, I did summon the gumption to talk to someone famous (to me), when Emma Bull and Will Shetterly were in Uncle Hugo’s in Mpls. Which caused a whole lot of fun and greatness in college, so I’m glad I did it.
Clearly, the lesson did not stick for me, or was perhaps overwhelmed by my stupid “augh not attractive enough” voice. I shall have to keep both experiences in mind for the future. Thanks for reminding me!
That’s pretty much the way I met the Flash Girls, too – after one of their shows, I sent all my friends off to do whatever they wanted to do and hung around and approached them. And they gave me a business card with the Signal to Noise mailing list address on it, and we chatted, and … well, there you go.