Friday, February 22, 2008

Bloggin' ADD

Without anything even noteworthy, this week has just been hectic. Or something. I feel kind of lame calling it hectic. Because, if someone were to say, "oh yeah, why has it been so hectic?" I really wouldn't be able to give a good reason.

Right now I want to bite the head off of two very loud little boys. Instead, I'm typing.

A 19 year old girl I worked with who has seizures (she worked a different shift, we only worked together once--last Saturday) died on Wednesday. The girls she worked with are really having a hard go of it. Understandably. My heart just breaks for her parents. No parent should have to suffer that pain.

My friend Jennifer came to visit me over the weekend. Jennifer is my best friend from high school. She and her daughter were my first visitors since moving here.

I am a sloth. She is full of energy. She loves me anyway. We didn't even really compromise. She just had to endure my sloth-like ways.

Which reminds me, I have been very Cheryl-esque lately. (Cheryl is my mom.)

Here's how it all started. I found some awesome shampoo. It actually makes my hair straight. I can hardly contain myself how much joy this brings me. As a result, I feel compelled to share this with everyone I know. And even some people I don't know. I don't have curly hair. I have nappy hair that frizzes and has random, unsightly, unpleasant waves and curves and funky doodle-doos. This is courtesy of my 3 children. I had lovely hair before they came along. I also had a waist.

Well. The reason this is Cheryl-esque is this:
When I was a junior in high school I met Jennifer in our American History class. We were like this strange combination of very alike while never two more different people. One of our first encounters I noticed a bruise on her arm. She said she got it from wrestling with her boyfriend (that is truly how she got it). Well, I somberly removed my headphones (I was wearing headphones and listening to a walkman in American History!? What is that about!?) and placed them on her head and cued the music (fast forward, stop, listen, fast forward, stop, listen, fast forward, fast forward, fast forward, stop, listen, rewind...oh, that'll do.) to Reba's "She Fell Down the Stairs Again". I didn't know it at the time, but she thought it was hilarious. I have no memory of the incident. Because I have the self-preservation ability to wipe from my memory all the really inane things I do.

We slowly became friends. One day I brought her home to hang out at my house. Jennifer is quirky and random and hilarious and very intelligent. She's an eclectic combination of characteristics. My mom thought she was mentally challenged. Really truly. After Jennifer left that night, my mom was uncharacteristically curious about Jennifer and how we came to be friends. Finally it came out that my mom thought she was mentally challenged and she couldn't really figure out how our paths crossed in school. There was no judgement about me having made friends with a slow girl---she was just genuinely curious how we met. You know, because I was in AP classes. Listening to Reba.

When I thought back on some of the things Jennifer said and did, I couldn't stop laughing. My mom just couldn't figure out some of her behaviors, and that was the conclusion she came to. To this day, we laugh pretty heartily about this. I haven't really lived in my hometown since I graduated from high school, and in those 14 years, my mom and Jennifer have developed their own friendship.

But, what's especially funny to me, is that even given that my mom thought Jennifer was slower than average and not able to grasp a lot, she didn't treat her any differently than anyone else.

Back to that night Jennifer was at my house, it was about 9:30 pm and Jennifer was about to walk out our front door. Suddenly, my mom came flying out of the front bathroom holding a bottle of shampoo. (I think it was Agree. Does that shampoo still exist?) She holds it up, as good as if she were doing a commercial and said somewhat urgently, "Jennifer wait! We just LOVE this shampoo." Jennifer didn't quite know what to do with the information. I didn't quite know where my mom was coming from either. She gave a couple of reasons why "we loved it so much" and when she was done, she turned around and went back into the bathroom.

Jennifer looked at me, hoping for insight, I just shrugged, we laughed, and she went home.

My mom is random. In a helpful way. And I have become the very same.

I even told a girl I work with who has the straightest (and quite thin) hair ever invented about the shampoo that straightens hair. She looked at me for a moment (as though I were slow myself) and then said politely, "I'm really more in the market for shampoo that thickens and gives body."

To summarize: Hectic for no reason week, Jennifer came to visit, found great shampoo, my mom likes to tell people about shampoo for no reason at all, plus she used to think Jennifer was mentally challenged, I tell people about shampoo, therefore, I am becoming my mother.
The end.

p.s. try not to submit this post to any "Pure Gold Writing" contests. I'm just trying to keep it real here.

p.p.s Spell check works again! I only misspelled "eclectic". Who knew it didn't have 5 C's?

13 comments:

Leslie said...

i'm sorry about your coworker. :(

glad you had fun with your friend.

i remember agree shampoo. it smelled super yummy.

i am glad to know that spell check was broken for more people than just me.

and i liked this post and followed it very easily, which means i think i might need an add diagnosis.

Mamarazzi said...

this is hilarious...i mean of course it is hilarious.

ummm can you share the name of the shampoo here? i have some nappy hair too...did you share it and i missed it? cuz i was REALLY paying attention.

sorry about your co worker...sad.

Code Yellow Mom said...

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

And all that just because it is fun.ny. stuff here, and doubly so because I know Cheryl, I know Jennifer, I know your hair...I know your slothful ways...(just kidding!)

And I'm going to google "Pure Gold Writing" right now and find out how to nominate you.

(P.S. I have a new blog...Will you come visit?)

Code Yellow Mom said...

I also like the term Cherylesque.

Super Happy Girl said...

Please tell us th ename of this magical hair straightening shampoo, I must know.

Cherylesque. She is, very yes. Sister Cheryl is a super fun lady, I was telling Fashionsta about the signs she wrote for you, pure gold.

Bubbles said...

Ah Cheryl. The first tiem I met her she told me all about how her brothers ran all over the ranch as kids and never chose to use the restroom when they need to go and as a result got poison oak all over their private parts... I'll never forget that day. Cheryl is a kick in the pants.

Jenny P. said...

Isn't it fun when we realize we can be like our moms? I'm just like my Mom. Except I don't exxagerate stories like she does. If your are waiting in line for something for two hours, when Mom tells the story, it's four hours. Babies that weigh ten pounds at birth... fourteen pounds if you hear it from my Mom. I don't think she does it intentionally... we all totally get a kick out of catching her though. I'm not like that. Atleast not yet. Time though, I'm sure will make me just as nutty.

loved this post.
think you're funny.
sorry about the co-worker.
could also use the name of the shampoo.... people don't really understand when I say that my hair is only straight when I try, but when I don't try it isn't curly either.

Luisa Perkins said...

Hey, I dreamed about you last night. You and your cute fam lived in a Manhattan apartment downstairs from us. I met you on the stairs, and we were trying to figure out a good time for a playdate.

Just a little more randomness for you. Maybe I dreamed that because P and I keep wishing that this baby we're having in June will have red hair, even though neither of us has a red-haired gene in our body.

Just had to share.

Anonymous said...

I, too, am extremely curious about the magical calming shampoo. I have the same thick and unruly hair, and using a flat iron isn't going to happen at 5 am when I'm starting my day. Because I'm a sloth as well. Straightening hair is *so* boring...

When your mother met me for the first time, she thought I was homeless. I am not kidding. To her credit, she was very polite. Not so much to my credit (or your brother's) I hadn't yet discovered how to brush my unruly hair and was probably wearing dirty jeans. I deserved any and all assumptions.

Michelle Garff said...

One of my favorite posts.

Tori :) said...

That's horrible about your coworker. I am so sorry. :(

What shampoo is it?

NOBODY said...

The shampoo is Herbal Essences and it's "Pin Straight". The bottle of shampoo and conditioner are hot pink. Good luck y'all.

Deena said...

Thanks for shampoo. I'll have to try it on the 'fro.