Life of Wry

The first thing that happened today was I got my hair cut. Been thinking about it for months and planning to do it for weeks. I made the appointment with my mom’s hair cutter, Klaes the swede, a few weeks ago, and kept mum about it, 1) in case I chickened out and 2) as a surprise for Jim.

I sneakily took this selfie last week while sitting in the backseat, driving home from Dutch Flat, knowing it was probably the last time in a long time I’d be long of hair. I even smiled. I’m embarrassed to smile for my own selfies. Gawd.

Klaes is a heck of a nice guy. We had endless things to talk about other than cutting my hair. And, because he’s Swedish and such a nice guy, he was the kindest conversationalist ever, as I worked through some very rusty Swedish.

It was a long appointment. It started with him rubber-banding my hair in four places, and then cutting it right off! This is a bit creepy, but here’s what that process yielded:

Then some weaving, then some washing, then some more cutting, then some drying, then some styling, then some product (this time around I’m willing to use product). This was the result of that whole process:

I look half hysterical, half happy. But mostly happy.

I drove home to mom, who was anxiously waiting; she’d been in on this whole plan from the start and managed to keep quiet about it. She loved it.

We were going to meet Matt for lunch and, if it wasn’t a bother, take a look at the restaurant three days before its launch. She thought Matt would not notice; I was sure he would. We bet lunch.

Matt did not notice. Lunch on Kari.

(For the record, Michael did not notice. Nor did Eric. What’s with men?)

We did a get a chance to tour the restaurant. It was crawling with contractors, staff and delivery people. It was just nutty busy. But he showed us around and we were impressed!

Here’s mom and a coupla very relaxed partners:

Eric was meeting with folks and couldn’t join us for lunch..

Michael, Matt, Mom and I ate down the street at a Greek restaurant, which was good enough, then wandered around a bit.

We’re about four short blocks up from Highway 1 and the beach, but you still see people walking down the street in bathing suits–going into stores, sitting in sidewalk cafes… can’t even imagine how fantastic that must feel.

It’s a very touristy area…

The shorts (shorts??) say, “I pooped today,” which explains her expression.

In addition to tee-shirt shops, Main Street’s full of restaurants…

This museum is across the street from the new Legends:

Michael and Mom kitty corner from the restaurant:

Here’s us reflected in a Legend’s window:

Before heading back north, we drove around some neighborhoods close to downtown. Love the leaning, lanky trees:

Huntington Beach is becoming quite the tourist destination. The beaches are gorgeous and extensive.

And they have a Legends in the heart of downtown!