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Ever look in the mirror and totally shock yourself? I did earlier this week!
I was in my typical bum-wear: yoga pants and a sweatshirt from 1999. It’s a faded brown, with a few holes, and the cuffs are torn where the folds used to be. That’s one fall perk; when I take Gracie out, big, baggy sweatshirts, are the perfect way to hide the fact that I don’t feel like wearing a bra.
So if I’m typically a bum, what was the big shocker? My hair! I’m parting it differently, and sometimes pieces here and there still try regress to a former life, but this was bad! It looked like I stuck my head in a blender, and this was after my 2nd venture outside that day! I grabbed my brush and started working out the mess, only to have it get caught in a knot so big it was halfway to making dreadlock status!
This is what happens when I take a week off from the 9-5 photography to get some artsy work done. So thank you boring products that need to be photographed… you keep me looking halfway decent five days a week.
What about you? Do you ever just bum out? Ever been caught by your neighbors looking like hell? Help me feel a bit less freakish and tell me about it!
What are these numbered posts all about? Read the introduction to my Photo & 100 Words project and find out!
It can get pretty bad, yeah. If I’m really working on something, if time is really tight, then I let all kinds of things slide. I may skip a shower. I mean, if I’m going to be in the house all weekend, and no one is going to see me, and all I’m going to do is work in the shop and get dirty anyway, well, the shower may become optional rather than a requirement, at least for 48 hours.
I did have an occasion when I was finishing up a sculpture that was going out to an artisan gift shop. They wanted it by a certain date, because a gallery walk was coming up, and they’d get tons of traffic. It came down to the week it was due, and I still had quite a bit to go. I was working at the machine shop at the time, and I did some easy math: Shower/get ready for work takes 45 minutes minimum. I work nights in a filthy, hot machine shop. After an hour of work no one can tell if I showered or not. I can have almost an hour of extra work every day this week if I don’t shower. I need that hour. The guys at the shop don’t need for me to smell springtime fresh.
I did have one guy call me out on it. I mentioned one day that I was so busy I hadn’t been able to shower. He said, “You slimeball. You didn’t shower today?” I said, “No, did you?” He smiled, “Nah.” I said, “Well, then?” That was that.
I did not go the entire week without showering, but it wasn’t a high priority. Keeping my promise to the gallery and delivering on time was, and I did that. The piece took a while to sell, but eventually it did sell, so there’s the nice footnote to that one. Still, yeah, I looked pretty rough during that last week. Got it done, though. Got it done!
It’s funny you mention the shower thing… lol… I was going to include that in my post, but it was getting too long, and I didn’t want to get too detailed, but let me just say I have missed a shower to get an extra hour or two behind the camera, computer, or whatever needed to be done. I totally get it, and I thank you for sharing… I definitely feel less freakish now =)