Friday, November 1, 2013

Being Beautiful and Not

I'm photogenic.
This is lucky for me since my personality is better looking than my face oftentimes.

Red heads have this funny thing where we either look super duper good, or we don't. We're not "cute". We're not pleasant looking. We're striking.

For example.

This is Julianne Moore without makeup:





This is Moore all dolled up.





Most days, I wear glasses, no make up, and I pull my hair up in an easy bun.

I remember seeing my mom with long hair and a bun while I was growing up. I thought to myself, "Self, we will not wear a bun every day. We will do our hair."

But alas, I have other things I'd rather do than such trivial things as shower and wash my hair every day... or brush it. And it doesn't take a lot of effort. Just a little bit goes a hilariously long way.

Today, I am going to see a play. Knowing that I would be running straight from work, I decided to dress like a person. I put on a green dress and a white sweater. I washed my hair and brushed it. Still in my glasses and still not wearing any make up. (Just not feeling the make up right now.) But it's still a big enough difference that three men have come into the office to discuss my looks with me.


Why? HellifIknow.

The first guy just said I looked nice. Innocent, kind, generous. I won't analyze it further. He simply said I looked nice.

The second guy. Ahhh. The second guy. That was just funny stuff. How do I share this conversation? I guess I just have to suck it up and type it out like a dramatic novel. I shall write in third person.

**
He entered the office with a purpose. This was a man on a mission. He needed to use the restroom. As he made his way across the front of the office he suddenly stopped and looked at the woman sitting behind the desk. She noticed him looking. She raised her brow with suspicion. "What?" Then remembering that she should exercise a measure of congeniality and customer service, she quickly followed that up with, "How may I help you?"

 He stared at her for a moment, thinking. Finally, he spoke. "When's my bill due?"

She started to speak. "What unit are you in?"

He interrupted her. "Nevermind. I need to use the restroom first."

Tick tock.

He reemerges.

"You know I'm 54." He says this with a little wink. She stared down at her keyboard trying to figure out why he was telling her his age.

"Your bill isn't due for a week. Did you wanna pay in advance?"

"Yea, I'll put some money on it now."

"Okie dokie."

He blurted out. "You know, you look good. You've lost weight."

From her seated position at the desk, she wondered how on earth he would know this.

"I haven't. But, thanks."

"Nah, you've totally lost weight," he insisted.

"Nope, not a single pound."

"What are you doing to your eye brows?"

"Nothing...Why?"

"You don't pluck them?"

"Nope."

"What'd they look like in high school?"

"The same."

"Dang."

"You got children?"

She looked left and right, trying to give herself a moment to decide whether she should invent an elaborate family. She gave up. "Nope."

He laughed with joy. "Good for you!"

She furrowed her brow and tried to go about the business of her business, printing receipts, writing due dates, circling important information.

"You changed your hair color."

"Nope."

"It's darker."

"Okie dokie"

"You been to any good restaurants lately."

She surrendered to the conversation and contributed a thought about downtown cuisine stating that she enjoyed Christopher's Steakhouse on Pierpont more than any other steakhouse in town. As the words came out of her mouth, she wondered if she had remembered the correct street name. Then she thought about how much she would enjoy a tasty steak. He continued to spout off the names of fancy restaurants around town. She wasn't interested. She just wanted him to stop talking about her various traits and let her get back to watching Thursday night's episode of Scandal. 

Eventually, he left the office.

She made a mental note to remember the conversation and blog about it later.

**

The third guy came into the office a few hours later. His comments were brief.

He wore a stuffed teddy bear on his head.

"Do you like my hat?" 

"Did you kill the bear yourself?" She asked.

He laughed.

"I missed you the other day."

"Yup, I was gone Wednesday."

"The ugly guy helped me."

"Good! I'm glad to hear he was helpful!"

"I missed you."

"Well, I'm here today!" She smiled trying to just take the compliment and enjoy the kindness in the words.


**

This is what happens when I brush my hair.

I can't decide if it would be easier if I just looked nice EVERY DAY. I have friends who are stunning on a regular basis. Perhaps I wouldn't run into these issues if I just made an effort every day. I think it's the DIFFERENCE. I really need to make an effort.

Today, I'm grateful for the funny guys who come into the office.
I'm grateful for the adventures of being single. Perhaps married women have similar experiences, but I wonder...
I'm grateful for my red hair.
I'm grateful that I get to be both beautiful and not so beautiful, depending on how I feel that morning.







2 comments:

Melissa said...

I've always loved red hair. The funny thing is Shane has always loved the way people look with red hair too. So, there's us, did we marry redheads? Nope. Brunettes. Ha! :D
I could write a story about Shane and redheads but it would probably embarrass him, so I won't. ;)

Eve said...

I laughed out loud. That's awesome! You know your brother was my first kiss, so it must run in the family. I think he raven haired wife is gorgeous, so he definitely refined his tastes!