Today I am getting my hair trimmed and highlighted. The last time I did that was Tuesday, May 31, the day before the buyers of our old house walked through our (now their) front door for the first time. That was nine weeks ago. It’s amazing how much can change in that period of time, how we can benchmark such time spans with regularly scheduled events in our lives (such as hair cuts).
As I sat in the chair and my hairdresser (for the past twelve years) cut, colored and styled my hair I am sure that we talked about my house having been on the market for almost eight months at the time. However, as much as I hoped and dreamed that someday my family and I might get to actually move and live in our current residence, I never would have dreamed that it could all come to pass (offer made, contract negotiated, closings on both houses and moving all of our stuff from one to the other) before my next scheduled appointment!
I usually make my hair appointments seven to nine weeks a part, depending on my family and our schedule. So periodically over the years I have found it interesting to reflect on what can, and often has taken place, in between these appointments.
Usually when I have done this in the past it has been for more simple and lower key events, such as “next time I am here Sean’s summer vacation will be over and the school year will of begun.” However, there have also been more significant and even bittersweet benchmarks that I have noted and lived through with my hairdresser, including my last appointment in 2008, when I was still carrying Molly, before she was born and died.
We haven’t gotten around to sending out any kind of blanket “change of address” email to family and friends, so my hairdresser, whom I also consider a friend after all these years, will be surprised to hear the news I have to share today about our move and how quickly it all transpired!
So how about you? What benchmarks do you notice and use to mark the passage of time and significant events in your life? Do you recall any that stood out to you lately?
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I usually look at when the milk expires. Like right now, our milk expires after our anniversary. We've also got a vacation coming up and I am looking forward to seeing those dates on the milk jugs so that I will know it is close. 🙂
Many things mark the passage of time for me and are benchmarks for what has happened since: the anniversary of my brothers death (coming up on 34 years); when we started ART (7 years ago) and when we stopped (2 years ago); when I started Weight Watchers (14 months and 40# ago) and Cardio Barre (13 months and 26 inches) ago; when we went live with our adoption agency (8 months ago).
Very interesting that you use your hair appointments, that small increment of time, to reflect on all that has happened in between. Maybe it would serve me well to find something with a shorter interval.