Less Hair Day

October 19th, 2004. That's the day I got a haircut. Now I don't want to talk trivia in my blog, but that haircut ended 14 years of pony tail for me. Amy had been coaxing me for months that The Time had come, and I just got sick of the look. And the shampoo bills. (Ha.) Plus change was in the air, with us becoming parents and all.

The next two days I was at a conference for computer geeks, specifically, computer programmers who claim to care about Microsoft's web services technology. I like to go to conferences like this every year or two just to keep a feel for what's going on in the community of my chosen career, what the Microsoft dudes actually look like, etc. It was actually interesting because the first keynote was by a really-smart-guy from Sun who basically said that all of the web services specifications being developed by the really-smart-guy from Microsoft (who spoke later that day) were ill-conceived crap that would end up on the garbage heap of irrelevant software specifications. I'm inclined to agree, but it was fun to see the defensiveness of all the Microsoft heads after that bomb started things off.

What's it like to be at a conference for programmers? Nerds everywhere, of course. Three women in the entire room (they looked bored, even the one from Microsoft). Lots of nerdy jokes about nerdy things. I'm being harsh, though. There were some really really smart and witty people there. The guy developing the above-mentioned crap is probably one of the smartest people I've ever met. He used to have ridiculously long hair that looked, um, ridiculous, too, but he's buzzed it recently. Not good: this left me with the worst hair in the room. Not even the guy who clearly didn't care about showering could compete with the spastic curlage I had going on after undergoing Amy's scissors the night before. Not to blame Amy, though. As I told her, I like the haircut, I just don't like my hair. (I think she thinks that's too nuanced.) Anyway it's calming down now, adjusting to the new lack of weight.

I've noticed Eli's hair is starting to grow. I wonder if he'll get Dad's curls or Mom's straight do. Doesn't look like it will be red like his cousin's, that would have been exciting.