Saturday, January 16, 2010

Finding myself, or some other equally pathetic title

Yesterday I was confronted with a horrible realization, and today yet another.

The first of these was what started out as a harmless height measuring game. The rules consist of standing on a wall labeled metrically and getting someone else to find out how tall you are. And yes, it's a game. If you had asked Rockefeller if Monopoly was a game he'd have given you the same answer. Point is, my whole life since 15, which is really only roughly half my life, I thought I was 6 foot 1. But YESTERDAY I was proven wrong. So very, very wrong. In fact, I am 6 foot TWO. I don't even know what to do about this.
Then today, I was volunteering at a casino (which shall remain nameless but one should note the high concentration of asians around 60 years of age which makes it incredibly difficult to remember anything distinctive about a person should a foul plot be found afoot), doing my bit to support the arts, when a fellow volunteer mentioned my red hair.

...........................................................................

What effing red hair. WHAT extra inch. WHO AM I!?!?!?!?????

This is getting a little absurd. At the very most my natural hair colour, which is, as so eloquently put by a dear friend, "that brown colour", could perhaps be described more fully as having reddish hanks, but in no case could I ever be mistaken for a ginger. Which reminds me, another dear friend called me up the other day, having thought of me whilst watching a documentary on redwood trees. Now I know for a fact it's because we both have that same luscious luster of bark, but it's eery what other similarities these stories share.

Back to the casino. James, the other cashier, was pointing out the fact that the last guy I had been giving money to for his chips had been checking me out (who was not asian but also in the 60 range therefore completely cut from my radar) and maybe it was because of the red hair. Gee thanks James, but maybe it was the speed and seductiveness with which I counted twenty dollar bills? This guy had won himself 75 whole bucks, so in addition to the 3 extremely sexy 20 dollar bills I handed him I included the elusive 10 and the more common and less appealing 5. I was also disappointed that it was 75 dollar man who had been checking me out and not $3100 man, who I had cashed out before that.

Anyways, now I'm going to have to spend another 10 years finding myself and going through more yet less understandable periods of rebellion. Everybody's okay with pine and spruce, but when it comes to redwoods, we really get the short end of the branch. As David Attenborough would say, "Conifers dominate the land."

3 comments:

  1. I KNEW IT! It was never my place as your maternal element to point out that we saw things eyeball to eyeball, as to do so was to risk excommunication. As for red, I dunno about that. I would say you are fair, with reddish tints, but would never describe you as red-headed. However it is not uncommon for mothers to be blind to their children's deficiencies. Er, hair colour.

    This was most entertaining, daughter of mine. The casino scene was particularly funny. $3100 man, indeed! Nuts to age/size/height/ethnic origin. When the chips are down...on the counter...that's all that counts.

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  2. Hey, I found out the other day that I am 5'5" and not 5'4" as I had thought. However, my mother will probably still argue with me on this point as she claims that she is 5'5" and I am shorter than her. Anyway, your hair is not red. Curly - Yes. Beautiful - Hell Yes. Red - Sorry, not so much. Now, Erin on the other hand....has red hair.

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  3. Hey-o,

    Being a red heard is pretty awesome (as I an almost a red head, yes?) and 6'2"? Pfft, in your native country of Norway you are pretty much a shrimp. Obvi :)

    Erin

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