And then there’s my hair
We went to the Cheesecake Factory in Palo Alto for dinner the other night. Turned out I wasn't cool enough to get in, but my new haircut was. "Sir, I'm afraid you'll have to wait outside, but if your hair would like to come in, we can seat it immediately."
(On a more serious note, the food was pretty good—and huge portions—but I was a bit intimidated by the stylishness of the clientele and by how loud the place was (especially after the staff decided it wasn't loud enough and turned on some music). And there was this weird bit when the waiter put his hand on Sonya's back and called her "sweetie." (Something like "Are you done with that plate, sweetie?") He did it again with Kam a few seconds later. I think everyone was too surprised to really react. To me, it sounded like the way one might talk to a small child who one was close friends with. I suspect the waiter had been lulled into a false sense of intimacy with us by having served Ethan on previous visits, or something, but it felt very inappropriate to me (both the term and the invasion-of-personal-space touching), and I got the impression Sonya and Kam were none too happy about it either. Though I may've reacted more strongly than they did, I'm not sure. (The waiter also put his hand on Cameron's back a little later, but didn't call him sweetie.) (When I mentioned this to my co-workers the other day, they suggested that perhaps the waiter was gay and thought we knew that, and so figured he was non-threatening. I'm skeptical, but I suppose it's possible.) Interesting, though: I kinda like it at diners when motherly middle-aged waitresses refer to me with similar endearments or lightly touch me on the shoulder in passing. But even there I'm not sure I'd like "sweetie" per se, at least not in the tone this waiter used, and the hand-on-back for a few seconds might be a bit much, and I think a young man saying "sweetie" to a young woman has different power dynamics anyway.)
But I was going to talk about my hair. In particular, I had been thinking that there were no extant photos of me during my red-hair phase, but then Simon sent us some, and Mary Anne posted them. So you can see for yourself how it looked.
I don't think there are any photos of my new stylish haircut yet. I'll have to try to remember to ask Kam to take some before she leaves town.
