Furrowed brows.

Recently I made a quick visit back to my hometown in Wisconsin. The trip was fabulous - full of cheese runs, visits with friends and family, and lazy afternoons. Because moving is expensive and I'm not exactly flush, I thought I would get my haircut while I was home - and at the last minute, sprung for an eyebrow wax. I patted myself on the back for being so clever - saving twenty dollars? Done!

This... as it turns out, was a bit of a mistake. I walked into the perm-drenched salon and was greeted by a woman with wildly blond hairsprayed hair . Her eyebrows were penciled in, and her makeup screamed, "HELLO! WOULD YOU LIKE A JELLO SHOT?" I think her name was Tiffany. Trying to not be judgmental (hey, we all have our own looks, right?), I proceeded to the chair.

To make a long story short, I went into the salon with eyebrows and left looking like a surprised hooker. Afterwards, Tiffany handed me the mirror and I audibly gasped. "Oh my god... they're really THIN!" I think I managed to say. Tiffany looked crestfallen. "You don't like them?" I looked at her face, and then I looked again at mine. "Um... well, uh, oh they're just... thinner than they've ever been. Ever. Uh... oh my god."

I was then escorted to the chair for my haircut where I gripped the armrests. I considered faking an illness to avoid the cut entirely. What was going to happen to my hair? I not-so-casually kept saying to Tiffany things like "Oh, you know, just a tiny, tiny trim. Just follow the layers already there. Just... oh, I just need BARELY a cut." I think Tiffany caught my drift because once she started, we both sat in silence, with her looking overly concentrated for a 20 dollar cut and me fearing the absolute worst.

The cut ended up being fine - and the eyebrows, well, I've only burst into tears twice because of them. When I got back to Missouri, people didn't seem to notice them unless I pointed them out. I gradually began to forget all about my hooker brows, unless I spend too much time in front of a mirror. And, thanks to my German and Italian roots, they're already beginning to grow back.

Today's joie de vivre is that most things aren't permanent. Things will come back, grow back, get back to normal. Homeostasis is inevitable. So, yes, I have an awkward period of growth ahead of me - with my eyebrows, with my new job, with making new friends. But things level out; they always do.

So in the meantime, I'll just try to be patient. And try not to look in the mirror too much.