#299 - CM

I know some of my blog posts are random people.  While typing, I often laugh to myself about the people on my list.  Some I am very close to and some are just people who have passed through my life for just a short period of time.  I often wonder how many of the 365 people that I have picked, would pick me.  I know for a fact that #299 not only would not pick me, but she has no idea who I am.  Let me explain.

In 1990, I was a first year PT school student, living in the big city.  I never had what I would call "cool hair."  I tried to go with the style of the day...long with a pony tail (high pony, low pony, side pony), banana clip, french braid, hot rollers, sponge rollers, bendaroos etc, etc, etc.  But in the end, I really have wavy, curly hair which does great when I am in Colorado, but in the humidity here... not so great.  I always wanted long hair, because everyone else had long hair and theirs always looked so great.  But my hair did not just grow long, it grew B-I-G...think chia pet!  The longer it got, the bigger it got.  I look back on pictures from back in the day and shudder... 

Anyway, I digress.  In 1990 a friend of mine (with similar hair issues I may add) recommended a guy who she saw in N.O. for her haircuts.  She said he did a really good job.  I did not have a regular hairdresser, so I figured I'd just make an appointment and go.  Twenty years later, I still make the trip to N.O. about every five weeks to see the same guy for the same haircut.  I will thank him for talking me into cutting my hair short about 4 months after my wedding, and only letting me talk him into growing it out once in the last twenty years.

#299 is his daughter.  She is his only child and he is one proud poppa.  When I first started having my hair cut there, she was about five years old.  I would usually go in on Saturdays which was her day to spend at the salon.  I remember that she was cute as a bug with strawberry blond hair which she usually wore in long pig-tails.  Every time I went in for at least three years she had on a pair of red cowboy boots.  Her favorite pair...they went with everything, and when you were as cute as she was...they really did.  She would sit in the corner and watch a DVD on a small TV, and every now and then she would come up and ask a very grown-up question like many only children who are around a lot of adults usually do.

Over the years, I have listened with interest to my hair-dresser brag on his daughter.  She graduated with honors from an all girls school in N.O. and won lots of accolades in the field of theatre, song, and dance.  She then was accepted into a culinary school on full scholarship in North Carolina where she ended up changing her major to wedding planner (aka coordinator of events).  She got a job working for a professional sports team in the area and did an internship as coordinator of the VIPs who used the suites in the stadium.  She was in charge of the catering, the menus, and all the extras.  This internship led to another scholarship for her master's degree in business.  She is almost finished with this now, and is ready to return to the big city (finance' in tow) to help her dad open up a beauty school.

I know that I am a proud momma and I have been known to brag on my kids from time to time.  If #299 lives up to half of her hype, she has turned out to be a wonderful young woman.  She has no idea who I am, and in my mind she will always be that cute kid in the red cowboy boots.  I wish her the best of luck!