And now for something a little bit different!

…but only a little bit.

In honor of my final final, I wanted to do something a little bit different. But what should it be? After a brief and still hysterical conversation with my sister (wherein she quickly emerged from her house like a shy wren from a cozy nest, twirling to show her haircut to her sister who was passing by that very moment on a bus home), I knew what I had to do.

There will be time, I told myself, ignoring the stomach-clenching paranoia.
No…, the paranoia protested back. Something will come up!
I’ve been doing really well on my post-a-day challenges. Nothing will come up! I insisted back.

So, I (perhaps foolishly) ignored my better judgment, lowered my laptop cover, and went to the grocery store with Robert. And then we hung out with V for a little while. And then I remembered I hadn’t eaten dinner…and it was almost nine. And then I still wanted to do that small change.

Here it is, folks: I am nearly late turning in today’s blog (and I know it’s arbitrary, but I still like it). I can still say “nearly” because I’ve another hour to go before my time is officially up. Anyway. Here it is, for real:

I colored my hair tonight!

Nothing major. Just a slightly deeper shade of red (I think…it’s still wet, so we’ll see what it looks like in the morning). If it comes out purple, I’ll panic…and then go to my hairdresser and beg her to help me fix it. But, I’m telling myself, it’s still wet. And red almost always look purple when it’s wet.

What I don’t understand about myself is that I seem to always color my hair (all four times I’ve ever done it) at night. Like…late at night. Close to bedtime. Which means I have to go to sleep with a wet head (I have super thick, super frizzy curly hair…it doesn’t do well with a blowdryer…think…Simba on crack cocaine).

But tonight was the worst time of all.

This time…I colored blind!!

Duhn-duhn-duuuuhhhnn!!!

In the past, I was much more consistent with wearing my contact lenses than I have been lately. So, in the past, I was able to see just fine. This time…I had to remove the glasses.

It’s fine, I told myself moments before sliding them from my face. I can go by feel. It’s supposed to feel like shampooing my hair.

You know what it feels like to color your hair with gloves on while blind?

A little like this:

AAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!

Because I couldn’t see, my hair was going all over the place, which meant that it was indeed passing in front of my face (mostly so that I could see the ends and make sure they were getting color on them). I literally thought I was going to die at one point. I’m not even kidding. The odor smacked me in the face, and I started to cough. Which caused me to breathe in more. Which caused me to stifle more coughs. Which caused my eyes to well up with tears. (I eventually caught wise and turned on the exhaust fan. In the immortal words of Brita from Community and Charlie Sheen: duh-doy! Maybe the fumes killed a couple brain cells….)

Also, waiting for 25 minutes while the dye works its magic is worse when blind. I absolutely believe that. I mostly played on my phone…holding it as close to my face as it could get without bumping my nose, and kept checking about every minute or two to make sure the alarm hadn’t screwed up. It hadn’t. Only seven minutes had passed. Keep waiting, A.Hab.

Finally, finally the glorious moment of rinsing out arrived. And I was a wreck. I ended up having to cry for Robert to come help me. (I was in desperate need of a giant claw clip…which neither of us could find, and I least of all. It’s gone. Apparently. But he found other clips, which helped.) As I rinsed out my hair, he gathered the materials I rattled off to him in a frenetic and utterly bizarre list. For what I can only imagine is the first time in his entire life, he read instructions for coloring the hair. Just to make sure I wasn’t missing a step.

He’s a good husband.

As for the verdict on the hair…Robert likes it. I’m holding my breath until it dries. And then we’ll see.

But it’s just so typical of me to end something major and then do something minor to acknowledge it. Coloring my hair tends to be my go-to “thing.”

Do any of y’all have quirky habits you employ when you’re celebrating a milestone (however small or large)?