My favorite haircut of all time...Part 1

I dedicate this story to Katie, Angie and Jen - for always crying from laughter whenever this story is told!

When I was in elementary school, the first thing I would do when I got home was turn on the television and eat a snack.  This was back in the good old days when parents could trust their kids to go home by themselves and not worry that anything bad was going to happen to them.  In saying that, my 2 older sisters and myself were home while my parents were still grinding the 9-5.  We didn't have cable back in the day so we were forced to resort to the 3 channels that we had (NBC, Fox41 and ABC).  Our choice of television at 4pm was Golden Girls.  I LOVED IT!  (I didn't understand half any of the sexual innuendo I just knew that Sophia was dang funny and that Blanche had the right idea with her hair...).  One day, while watching the Golden Girls, I decided that I was going to make myself so beautiful that all would be mesmerized by my good looks.  I decided that I wanted to get my hair cut like Blanche.

WHAT?!

Let's please review the information we have at hand.  I was 9 years old.  NINE - that's it.  And I was thinking it would be a GREAT idea to get my haircut like a sixty-some-odd slut lady on television...those are the first things we must question - we'll have more to question later.  

I waited to tell my mom of this, but I do remember (I guess we were watching this great show at my friend Missy's house) calling my mom from my best friend's house and telling her my bit of information, "MOM! I want to get my haircut like Blanche Deveareaux from the Golden Girls!"  I'm wondering now what I thought then would be her response..."WHAT A GREAT IDEA, KARI!!!" {really?!  AGAIN, I was nine}.  I don't quite remember her response except for the fact that it was curious as to why I was calling her with this and why I even had this burning desire to go through with it...I think we ended the conversation with, "We'll talk about it when you come home."  And we did.  

Here's the last bit of information that we must review: the FACT THAT SHE LET ME DO THIS?!  We can all sit and wonder if my mom was secretly part of adolescents' plan to murder my identity and social status - but I beg to differ.  I love my mom because all growing up she really allowed us to make decisions for ourselves and emphasized (before and after) that all decisions have consequences and that we must be willing to face the consequence (good or bad) to the decisions we make.  This style of parenting really worked well with me because I knew my mom trusted me and thus it didn't create in me a desire to make harmful choices...well, except for this one.  I believe she said, "Kari, you can get your haircut however you'd like to get your haircut - it's your hair.  However, I do want you to understand that it is short and there's a really good chance you won't like it and I don't want to hear you complaining or get upset with me that you did this."  And with her good graces I never looked back.  

I'm not quite sure how long it took for the haircut appointment to be made or when it actually went down in relation to this conversation, but I DID get my haircut like Blanche Deveareaux - what 9 year old wouldn't want that?!  Look at her, she's sophisticated, she's sexy, she's so well put together and at 9 years old, I knew that her haircut would make me just the same.  

There are many spin off stories to this one, but I'll save those for later (when I include a great picture of this amazing hair-do)...I hope you get a good chuckle the next time you sit in the hairdresser's chair as you think of your friend, Kari (nine year old version) super excited to get her haircut like someone else's grandma!