Tuesday, February 23, 2010

More about the Weekend

Saturday afternoon I took Kevin to the barber shop for a haircut. I'd never gone in there on the weekend before, so I was a little unfamiliar with the procedure when almost every waiting area chair is taken. Usually I take him on a weekday evening when there is no or very little wait. I wasn't raised on the barber shop culture, being a girl and all. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about taking Kevin for a haircut, I just don't know those unspoken rules about waiting and whose turn it is.

A barber will finish with a client and call out "can I help someone," or "who's next?" For a second no one moves. I see all these people waiting, but no one is getting up. I look around, Kevin can't be next, we just got there, surely someone will get up. The barber calls again and someone does take his chair. I settle back and occupy myself with solitaire on my phone. Kevin is content watching the show. He learns by watching so sitting still in a barber chair is nothing new, he's a pro. Getting him to verbalize what he wants is a whole other ball game.

There's another woman who is jabbering a lot to her grandson's barber and to whomever will listen to her. I focus on my solitaire. A couple more chairs open up and get taken. I figure out some clients are waiting for specific cutters, others, like us, don't care. Another chair opens and no one moves and I guess it's Kevin's turn.

How much do you tip on a $14 haircut?

Fern skated at the Bowie Valentine Invitational Competition on Sunday. She participated in three events, her technical program, solo compulsories and with the large production team.

I thought she did a good job but was a little wobbly during her technical program, and didn't hold her spirals very long (skating backward on one foot, other leg parallel to the ice). I've seen her skate better in practice so I wasn't surprised when she got forth out of four skaters, disappointed, yes, but not surprised.

Then she did her compulsories. I thought she did great and videoed her with my phone. After she was done I asked her if she wanted to see the video. "No Mom, I was just there." I got a completely opposite response when I offered it to her coach. She studied it and beamed about how long the spirals were and that her sit-spin had eight revolutions. There was some kind of mix-up when it was time to award the medals for her event so we had to wait much too long to find out.

The large group event, the production team went well. I'd not seen it yet so I got to see it with a fresh eye. It is a 4-minute program where about 30 skaters do routines to songs with a jungle theme. Bowie's competition was the team from Piney Orchard. Their show had a "Family Game Night" theme and it was very cute and well done. At awards time, Piney got second, and Bowie took first.

Then, they got around to awarding the medals for the compulsory events. Fern got first place out of three skaters. Needless to say, I was just thrilled.


 

2 comments:

just me said...

I tip $2 on the $13 kids cut (D still qualifies). We always wait for Emina; she's the only one who can handle his pesky cowlick.

Sounds like Fern did about .500 on the skating... always room for improvement, but she's old enough to understand that.

Ed & Jeanne said...

You should have run right up onto the barbers chair...people hate confrontation...