Rain, Snow, Sleet, and Hell

I love living in Utah.  I feel like laughing at Utah two posts in a row may give the impression I don't like it.  I do.  The mountains are gorgeous.  My friends are great.  My job has a lot of perks.  So, if you happen to be from Utah, don't be too offended as I make fun of you for a minute.  It's okay.  We have the same problem in Idaho.

I am currently teaching about the water cycle.  We go through a zillion words that all end in -tion: evaporation, condensation, transpiration, percolation, accumulation, and on and on.  One of the kids' favorites is precipitation.  It's one of mine too--first, because they actually know what I am talking about (because they have seen it), and secondly because it appears no one in this state seems to be able to say the word hail and it kind of makes me giggle.  Secretly.

Class usually goes something like this:

Me: "Who can name one of the forms of precipitation?"
Kid 1: "RAIN!"
Me: "Yes!  Rain.  What else?"
Kid 2: "Snow."
Me: "Yep, we didn't get a lot this winter, but definitely snow."
Kid 3: "Sleet."
Me: "Sure!  What is sleet?  Yeah, kind of a cross between rain and snow.  Kind of slushy."
Kid 4: "Hell."
Me: "WHAT?"
Kid 4: "Hell."
Me: "Um...hAil?"
Kid 4: "Yeah...hell, those frozen things that come down and they can be as big as a baseball and, like, hit you in the head."

Right.  Rain, snow, sleet, and hell.  The four basic types of precipitation.

It's not quite so bad when it's thrown in with other words like rain and snow, but last time I went home, they sang "We'll Sing All Hail to Jesus' Name" in church.

Now, having mentioned Idaho is just as bad as Utah, it won't take long for you to figure out why I was laughing so hard I was almost crying while my mom was elbowing me and giving me that look she would give me when I was a naughty kid.  (Although I could see her laughing too...)

The best part of the whole thing was that we were the only people in the room who seemed to notice anything was funny at all.

Embracing My Hair-itage

Last Thursday I woke up late.
Very late.
I can't even blame it on my alarm this time.

It was entirely my fault.  Every last bit.
I guiltily admit that I stayed up late reading The Hunger Games.

Yeah, I know I'm a little behind.
I should probably remind you that I waited until all seven Harry Potter books were out and then devoured them all.

While reading The Hunger Games, I kept waiting to get to a good stopping point--the end of the chapter, a break in the action, a bit of a wrap up for the evening--but found there just wasn't one.  I think everyone knows that feeling of, "I'll just read one more page...."

So I kept reading.  One more page.  And then another...and then another....

Until I realized what time it was and reminded myself of what it would be like in the morning when 34 kids were all coming up and asking me questions or telling me they didn't get math.

When I finally did go to sleep, it very definitely wasn't a long enough night before that alarm of mine went off and--despite my best efforts to try to look better at work this year--there just wasn't going to be enough time to do much with my hair.  In fact, because I had slept with wet hair and my bangs had dried funny, there wasn't much at all I could do with them.

Except the Utah poof.

Is that a good look, or what?
I mean, you could hide an afternoon snack in there!
Why didn't I think of that?!

I think most people know what I am talking about when I say "Utah poof."  I spent a good chunk of my junior high and high school years making fun of it.  We had special names for it in my family.
I mean, the look is something of a cross between the Cone Heads and a baby volcanic eruption just waiting to burst from the unsuspecting person's head at any given moment.

All the way to work I kept thinking about how embarrassed I was that I was going to spend an entire day in public like that.  I mean, this wasn't even one of the smaller poofs.  It was the mini-volcano.  Imagine what my family would say!  (I did have some consolation knowing that at least they wouldn't see me.)

I considered everyone else.
Maybe I'll just avoid people, I thought.
(Right.  Like THAT was going to work....)

Imagine my surprise when I walked in the room and three kids said, "You're hair is different!  I like it," and "You look good!"  and "Miss Waite!  I like your hair!"

It got increasingly more strange as someone interrupted math to comment on how nice it looked.  I mean, I know they wanted to stop talking about measuring angles, but still...

And if that weren't strange enough, at least one adult said she liked it and I should do it again.

And there you have it folks.  The day I guiltily poof my hair and run out the door, ashamed to show my face in public is the day I get five (count them, FIVE!) compliments on my hair.

I'm not sure I've even gotten five compliments about the same thing in one day EVER.

This is exactly how I felt...Minus the six Grammys.

What can I say?

There are only a few options possible:
1.  These kind people saw my tired, fell-out-of-bed look, felt sorry for me and decided to compliment me to make me feel better.
2.  Living in Utah, these nice people are so used to this look that they thought it looked good.
3.  My hair actually was stunning, and I should demonstrate my Utah Pride via my hair more often.

Yep, this was me Thursday.
Without the movie star makeup, of course.
And looking like Hilary Duff...

I don't know the answer.  I mean, if Adele and Hilary Duff are pulling it off, it can't just be Utah, because they are about as Non-Utah as it gets (except for Lindsay Lohan, of course, but I'm pretty sure she's a strictly bangs kind of girl).

So, who knows?  Perhaps this is my true "hair"itage (as my friend Linsey put it), and I should just embrace the beauty of it.  It could come in handy.

After all, if the thing erupts, it would really get my kids' attention....
And, eruption or not, it kindly adds enough height to make me at least 5'2".

I think that's worth something.

Besides, if I really do look that good, I may never have to wake up early again.
And if you know me, that's worth more than the rest of it put together.