Thursday, September 18, 2008

Shaving, Parents

As many of you know, I shaved my head last week. It was pretty much a whim - I've kind of always wanted to know what I would look like with really short hair, and Ed thought it would be a cool idea, so we did it. (He actually bet me I wouldn't do it - he doesn't think I'm very impulsive. I made him give me 5:1 odds before I would. But, no, I didn't cut my hair off for $5. That was just a bonus.)

I think it looks kind of awesome. I definitely look butch. People at work were surprised, some feared I had cancer (oops), and some were amused. My boss asked (in an email) if she could rub my head, but I told her I was not lucky like the Buddha. When I see myself in the mirror, it makes me smile.

And Ed loves it. He confessed that, had I had my head shaved the night he met me, he might have been too intimdated by my attractiveness to talk to me. What's weird is, when he says it I actually believe it. (If you know me, you'll understand it is not too often that people are put off by my intimidating beauty.)

So, the day after I shaved it, I let my mom know. She said she hoped I was kidding and, when I said I wasn't, she said, "No comment."

On Tuesday, I posted pictures to my Facebook page. They just show me in a t-shirt with my shaved head - nothing weird. But apparently it was more than my mom could take. She sent me the following email:

I have removed you from my facebook. I can't stand to see those pictures and am embarassed by you. Why would you want to do something like that. Nevermind I don't want to know. This is more than I can deal with. I really hope you will get some help. Please don't be friends with any of my friends on Facebook. I don't know what I would say to them if they saw this. I hope no one did. I can't imagine that this type of behaviour will help you at work. I wouldn't be at all surprised if you got fired. Please grow up.

I'm totally out of here no need to reply. I've had it. Too much hurt from you.
I think it's pretty unusual to get disowned by your parent over a haircut, but this isn't the first time she has said things like this to me. I care about my mom very much, but my willingness to tolerate this type of thing has significantly diminished over time.