Recently in Vanity Category

Friday I ended my 12-year run at a large academic medical center in New York City. I started out as a nurse in the ER after moving into the city to live with Jeff and continued through the hospital as a nurse in the cath lab then a research coordinator and then slowly falling into more managerial and administrative jobs. I finished with three years of a directorship under my belt, an MBA, and some great experiences. The thought of leaving made me sick to my stomach...the idea of a sense of belonging, of knowing my environment, of the safety of where I was and what I knew.

But I need more and I need to see what is on the other side of the grassy hill. In my quest for being better this year, I've tried to embrace risk both personally and professionally and so I decided it was time to seek other adventures.

I'm taking two weeks off then jumping head-first into a corporate consulting gig that will have me whirling around the US most of the time. Something so completely different and foreign to anything I've know before but I'm not only thrilled and excited but strangely less anxious and panicked. I take this as a good sign that I'm on the right path.

My main complaint about everything related to myself is that I'm always 3-5 years behind everyone else. Fashion-wise, professionally, emotionally, financially, and usually pop-culturally. Flickr's 365 Day Project where each member takes one self-portrait of themselves and posts it each day for a year has been going on for years on the 'net and Blog but I've only just discovered the greatness of Flickr and these kinds of group projects that much smarter people have not only done but grown so tired of, they've moved on to bigger and better things.

With the impending new job that promises 4-5 days of traveling around the US each week, I'd been thinking that I had a great opportunity to re-infuse this blog's horrifically lagging boredom as well as give me some focus and direction. I think pairing my travelogue with the 365 Day Project makes great sense. I just didn't want to wait until January to start so I'm starting today, inspired by some really great photography on Flickr. Let me be the first to say that I'm under no illusions that I'm a photographer, have any sense of style or composition, or understand the essentials of photography tools to be able to be anything but be another blade of grass in a really big yard. That's my cop-out.

Still, here we go:

My first day on the 365 Day Project

Proof that I not only lost the weight but actually walked around on the Big Gay Cruise in a skimpy square-cut suit. I'll say that for as little suit as I had on, there were a LOT skimpier suits than mine.

I'm thinking this little number.

Self portrait, July 2007

Two pieces of pizza to soak up the suds and then two beers at each stop along the crawl Saturday and when I get on the scales this morning? Not an ounce gained. Word.

That being said, I started my high intensity interval training (HIIT) this morning. What. The. Fuck. I almost threw up in the shower afterwards. That isn't right, right?

Ooooh, shiny.

Saturday night at Jeff's Mom's birthday party:

Uncle Buzzy, Jeff's 90-something great uncle who hasn't seen us for a while:
"Wow...you got big. Jeff must be feeding you well."
Me: "Uh-huh"

*format stolen from someone’s blog because it was too perfect to pass up for this event.

Vanity: Holy Shit!! Are you kidding me with this? How can my hair look this bad after I just got it cut and relaxed?
Beau: I know, I know. Totally fucked out of $125 to look like this.
Vanity: I’m embarrassed to be seen with you. It hasn’t looked this bad since your 7th grade school picture.
Worry: What will people think? Everyone is totally looking at us.
Beau: Jesus….I know, I know. We need to consider our options. Probably can’t get another appointment until next week and that’s a whole weekend of Harrisburg in-laws for the holiday with this. I’m just going to wear a hat.
Vanity: No. Way.
Spontaneity: Ahhhhhhhhhhh. I’ve got an idea. Where’s Resourcefulness?
Beau: Resting from the day at work. He’s around someplace.
Spontaneity: We need him. We’re cutting our own hair tonight.
Vanity: Say wha?
Beau: Huh?
Worry: Oh good Lord.
Spontaneity: Find Resourcefulness and Beer. We’ll take care of everything.
Beau: How bad could it be?
Worry: Bad bad. What if it looks WORSE? They’ll be no correcting it until next week and then you know Pride is going to jump in and not let you go back to that hack and force him to give you a better cut.
Vanity: But my God…we’re going to be around a shit-load of people this weekend. What to do, what to do.
Resourcefulness: Got a beep…whattsup?
Spontaneity: Grab Beer. We have work to do.
Beer: I’m here.
Spontaneity: Bring friends.
Worry: I don’t even know where to begin. I need to go find Fear.
Beau: I’m totally out of this whole thing.

Ten minutes later:

Beau: Hmmm….
Vanity: Hmmm….
Worry: I’m not even looking.
Spontaneity: We should bleach it white. Wouldn’t that be cool?
Worry: Oh God.
Beau: I’m thinking we’re done for this round of being left home alone.

I confess that for all my worldly, 34-years of hanging around, I'm still Wonder Bread. I'm an unexposed, sheltered white boy from the flatlands of Ohio and there really isn't too much that's not whitebread abotu me...except my hair. I have brotha / sista hair. It's dry, course, kinky-curly, and the bane of my existance. Since college, I've kept it short-short so I didn't have to deal with tha afro-qualities of it. Big hair just never fit into my self-image. Consequently, since there is very little I can do with my hair style-wise, it get's pretty much left alone.

But like a good sistah, I got myself to the beauty parlor today and got a relaxer treatment which I hadn't done for years and years. Nothing like a pale white boy getting the funk down because he has sucky hair.

So I snap this pic tonight and realize that while the hair doesn't really look all that different, it does hae a certain, Superman-like quality to it. So I'm keeping it for a while.