One of my best winter survival tricks for tundra living is quite simple: leave. Get out. Go somewhere, preferably warm and sunny, but at the very least somewhere else. Winter is a great time for visits of obligation; it’s a better time for fun vacations, but sometimes a body needs to work within certain restrictions. A required family trip to your mismatched Nader’s Raider aunt and “Romney is too liberal” bellowing uncle might not be the most pleasant experience, but if they live in Florida, it is a lot more pleasant if you can couple the visit to them with one to some sunshine and temperatures above freezing. Ideally you can take a week or weekend for fun – cheer on your team at a spring training baseball game, watch the whales migrate in Cabo, surf in Hawaii – but sometimes it is necessary to be a bit practical. Vitamin D is a practical need; if only I could get my insurance to let me apply airfare to my deductible.
Besides the benefit of a break from snow and ice, taking a break from the tundra also gives you something to look forward to…regardless of the weather here, I will not have to scrape ice off my car to go to work next Monday – I won’t be near my car and I’m not going to work! Win. It’s a mental, physical, and emotional break and it is necessary.
So! Tundra. You are on notice. If you are not significantly warmer and sunnier, preferably with longer days, by Thursday I AM LEAVING. One of us has to make a change; I accept that it will likely be me.
I Chopped Off a Foot…Twelve Inches of Hair
Tags: family, friends, hair donating, helpful tips, I win!, life, locks of love, pantene, personal growth, reflections
Image from Pantene's Website
I keep waiting to feel sad, but it’s just not happening. My friends who’ve already done this warned me that I’d be sad. I’ll cry, they cautioned, it will take awhile to get used to the change. The latter part is true for sure, but not in a negative way. I’m chronically squeezing out too much shampoo and then too much conditioner. As someone raised as a Lutheran Scot in the Midwest, I definitely feel guilty about that waste, but not sad.
A week and a one-half ago, I cut off twelve inches of hair which I donated to the Pantene Beautiful Lengths Program. This program’s mission is to provide wigs to women who lose their hair due to cancer treatments. (I considered donating to Locks of Love, which makes wigs for children. However, most LoL recipients suffer from alopecia and cancer is a more personal cause for me and my family. I looked into both organizations and both are solid causes.) The last time my hair was this short, I still had baby teeth and Mr. Reagan was clamoring for Mr. Gorbachev to “tear down that wall.” It’s clearly been awhile. I did maintain enough length that my hair is roughly at my shoulders and I can pull it back into a perky (short) little ponytail. Still, it feels kind of crazy. I reach back to touch it all the time, to make sure it’s there, but it’s also not all there.
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