On a bad hair day you can fall in love

Even on a bad hair day we can still fall in love. 

  This morning I woke up reflecting on my romantic relationship and I found myself drifting back to when we first met.  December 3rd 2004, early evening, I was at home with my babies (that would be my 4 dogs) having a taste for bananas, apples, and oranges, and whatever else caught my fancy at the grocery store. Wondering out loud to myself I said, ‘hmm, do you really want to go to the store with your hair looking funky’? ( I had a perm then and with wet weather it would just go frizzy all over) My eyes were looking tired from dusting and cleaning the house all day.  This was my ego talking to my stomach saying, ‘ewww, we look bad’.  My stomach won out because it kept saying, ‘Yummy, bananas maybe even some yogurt, Fuji apples, oranges yum’!  Ok so fine, I touched up my hair as best as I could and went to town which was only two miles from where I live.

Cave Junction had two grocery stores at that time and it was a toss up which one I would go to. One store had a pretty good deal on apples but their bananas and yogurt were too expensive. The other one had everything I wanted at a good price except apples. So I went to Shop Smart where Fuji apples were 99 cents a pound but there was a sale on yogurt, banana’s, and oranges.  I went to the fruit section, then to the dairy section, and had managed not to run into anyone I knew or God forbid…. a cute guy. Thinking I was pretty good at keeping a low profile on a bad hair day, and feeling pretty darn good about it  all of sudden standing in front of me was a very attractive man with beautiful friendly eyes smiling right at me!

  Dam it, I was cornered! All I could do was smile back at him and move on fast before he noticed I looked like something the cat dragged in.  I made a hasty retreat past him and moved on to the register regretting that I did not feel good enough about how I looked to at least say hello or something.
Meanwhile unbeknownst, to me he liked what the cat dragged in and was determined to find a way to talk to me.  While, I stood at the counter getting ready to purchase my items, I realized that the handsome man stood behind me and he only had one item in his hand.  Well, I thought the least I could do was allow him to go ahead of me. I motioned for him to go ahead mumbling something silly like, ‘I have more than you’.  He refused saying, ‘No that’s ok’.

  Ok this was too much for me because now he was up close and personal. I was finding myself taking sniffs in his general direction because I liked how he smelled. (that would be a chemical attraction working)It was manly but not pungent and then I found myself staring at his full lips and white teeth.  Suddenly I realized I was staring at his broad chest and at that point really insisted he go first.  The poor man sighed, acquiesced, and placed his bottle of Ginger beer (my favorite) on the counter to pay for it.  Whew,’ ‘I thought, ‘Maybe if I am lucky he did not see my wandering eyes and this torture will soon be over’.

  ‘Wait what is this’, I thought, ‘why is he still standing there after he paid for his drink’?  I watched in horror while he scribbled something on his receipt and turned towards me to speak. ‘Oh No’!  ‘My name is Leo’, the man said, ‘If you are not married or have a boyfriend, I would really love it if you called me sometime’. Handing the receipt to me, he flashed me another beautiful smile.  I was astounded! My hair was truly frizzy and I had my big bulky, trying to hide my figure coat on and my eyes were blood shot. I found out later all he saw was my smile, and yet he still wanted me to call him! 

I was 43 years old at the time and I actually blushed and found myself stammering, ‘No, I have none of those. My name is Wendy and thank you’ ‘Smooth really smooth, Wendy.’  With that, he turned and left the store leaving me with my mouth hanging open and the lady behind the register smiling, holding back the laughter at my stammering.  Let me tell you, I called him two days later (abiding by the two day rule) and 2 ½ years later, we are still together. 

So I say, ‘On a bad hair day, you can still fall in love’.