Powder Mill Road

Excellent suggestion, Auntie Kathy! Today I will write about the reaction I get to my haircut.

Let me start by saying that I have tried not only to keep a positive attitude, but also a humorous one. I know that people around me get cues on how to act toward me when they see how I feel. If I am the same person I always was, I am more likely to be treated as myself and less like a cancer patient.

Don't get me wrong, I like it when people treat me with the right dose of seriousness, are understanding, patient, tender, and send me flowers and cookies and other gifts ;-) But I really don't like it when people pity me. For example, I briefly saw my old boss a week ago. I hope he's not reading this because he gave me a pity look and he whimpered "oh, hi" quite pathetically. Meanwhile, on the inside I'm thinking of how happy I am at the way things worked out with the job situation. I really just wanted to stick my tongue out, but that would have been unprofessional.

So, anyway, I was talking about my attitude and how other people get their cues... Remember the nut job in my drawing a few days ago? I work with a few of those people. I think engineers have a propensity toward this - they are a rare breed. These nutjobs are the people that are just so incredibly predictable and annoying and sometimes you really want to mess with them. So we did...

Three other people at work that shaved their heads in solidarity. It was kind of funny because they were bald for at least a week while I still had a full head of hair. And it was pretty bold for all of them because Mark had really long hair (like Rusty), Simon shaved off his facial hair and I'd never seen him without a mustache, and Steve defied his wife's wishes and shaved his head, too. There was also John, who cut off his ponytail. He didn't go totally shaven probably because he's afraid it won't grow back ;-)

So, to any outsider, it seemed to be an epidemic because they did it all on different days. I wasn't quite ready to tell everyone at work because I wanted to avoid that pity look for as long as possible. So when people asked why they shaved their head, they said it was a software cult. Or it was Fight Club. We'd be sitting together at lunch and that's when it was really fun.

One day, one of the real nutjobs who is oh-so-annoying sat down at the table and said "So, what do you think of Mark's new haircut?"

My reply? "Oh, I like it so much I think I'm going to do the same thing next week."

We all looked at each other and tried to stifle our laughing. Aren't we mean?

Well, yesterday was the first day I was at work for a full day with no hair, and people were really starting to wonder about this software cult. I gave up the ghost and told a few people. My attitude was so good that one person asked me if I was serious.

I am. Sometimes.

So, that's my story. We also took pictures today. This one is of all of us hairless. Left to right is Steve, Me, Simon, John, and Mark:


This is John, proud of what he calls is "8 lousy centimeters of solidarity":


Then Marybeth, probably saying "Why are you taking a picture of me?":


Then, this last one was my request (Powder Mill Road is where I work):


I swear, I do actually get work done. Sometimes.