Just after that, I heard a knock on the front door. No, it wasn't the little girl that shows up with her dad almost on a daily basis. I peeked out to see who it was only to find the guy that's doing a bunch of repairs with the swimming pool fountains. Knowing what my hair looked like, I just decided to go for it and open the door. I spent the next twenty minutes with he and a co-worker as they discussed what to do with my fountain situation. I felt a little self conscious, but seeing how it was in my own back yard, it wasn't that big of a deal.
I then looked at my watch and saw that I had five minutes to pick up B from preschool. I quickly dismissed myself, got S buckled in the car and headed out to get B. S was so excited for B to see my hair and made me promise that I wouldn't ruin it. Getting to preschool three minutes late, other moms were still picking up their children at the same time too, and there I was with my sixteen hair pretties still in my hair. I thought, hey, I'm at preschool pick up, can't be too embarrassing. So, I got out of the car and went to the door to get B. B took one look at me and told me that my hair looked dumb. I smiled at B and then the teacher and threw in, "S did my hair today". It suddenly made sense to the teacher. B went on to tell me that she hated my hair and that it looked crazy.
As we got into the car, B informed me that she had told her entire preschool class that we were going to the park after school. Well, that got S excited and so we did. But first, we ran to El Pollo Loco to get something for lunch to take to the park for the picnic. After ordering the food at the drive through, I really got nervous. I wondered how I would continue on with my sixteen hair pretties. How could I hand over my money to a little window cashier without thinking I was crazy with hair bows all over my head? But then, then......
My mind wandered back to Father's Day when I was a teenager. My family was already sitting on our regular bench at church as others were walking in. I won't lie, while sitting there I was looking around for my boyfriend's family to walk in so that I could do the normal flirty, "hi" to him. His family walked in alright, but he's not who caught my attention that day. It was his dad, Brother Porter with the most homemade tie I had ever seen, or any of us had ever seen. We were quietly giggling to each other, and laughing about it trying our hardest not to point at it. We came to the conclusion that it must be a Father's Day gift, probably from C, the youngest in the family. We watched Brother Porter that entire hour and wondered how he wasn't embarrassed out of his mind wearing that tie. It was short, wide, oh I can't remember, it's so funny though thinking about it. But then it got really funny, when we found out that it was actually made by his daughter M, who was probably 12-14 years old. We were just busting up laughing. Actually, we all still do. That's the truth!
As I was pulling up to the drive up window today, I kept telling myself that if Brother Porter could wear that tie to church to make his daughter happy, I too could wear sixteen hair pretties in my hair to make my own little girl happy. It's not just about me being happy over here. So, I pulled up to the window and acted as though nothing was different about me. Oh I sure did wonder what they thought about the forty year old lady with all the mismatched hair bows, but I just kept smiling thinking, I'm making my daughter happy just like Brother Porter did.
All these years and lots of giggles later, I'm thankful for the lesson I learned from Brother Porter.
2 comments:
Sixteen hair pretties equals 1 happy girl. That's a good trade. And one self-confident, caring mom made it all happen.
Haha I have a similar picture. N did my hair and COVERED my entire head with bows and headbands when he was bored, and he thought it was hysterical. It was really. It was night though so I didn't have to go anywhere. I think it's funny that you did all that stuff with them in. I am sure those people were wondering what was going on, too funny.
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