Oh, Say Can You See...

SUNDAY, JULY 3, 2011 3:49 PM, EDT

Oh, Say Can You See...

From the Musical HAIR, I'd like to share a few lyrics from the title song:

Gimme head with hair

                                                                     Long beautiful hair

Shining, gleaming,

Streaming, flaxen, waxen

Give me down to there hair

Shoulder length or longer

Here baby, there mama

Everywhere daddy daddy

Hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair

Flow it, show it

Long as God can grow it

My hair

Let it fly in the breeze

And get caught in the trees

Give a home to the fleas in my hair

A home for fleas

A hive for bees

A nest for birds

There ain't no words

For the beauty, the splendor, the wonder

Of my...Hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair

Flow it, show it

Long as God can grow it

My hair

I want it long, straight, curly, fuzzy

Snaggy, shaggy, ratty, matty

Oily, greasy, fleecy

Shining, gleaming, streaming

Flaxen, waxen

Knotted, polka-dotted

Twisted, beaded, braided

Powdered, flowered, and confettied

Bangled, tangled, spangled, and spaghettied!

Oh say can you see

My eyes if you can

Then my hair's too short

I know I've already shared today, but after a long, hot bath, I have a new-found sense of creativity, and the need to share some more. Baths have been a time-honored tradition in my family. Mama used to take such a scorching hot bath (and probably still does) that her skin would be bright pink afterwards. While some people might see this as a self-torturing device, Mama somehow passed it down to me as a luxury.

Yesteryear, I would use a soothing hot bath as a date preparation. I would soak in baby oil and bubbles, shave my legs, and enjoy a little Norah Jones while preparing for a run of the mill night out.  And later I would look at Nathan with rehearsed surprise when he commented on the softness of my skin, all the while making some comment about the good skin genes that had been passed down from generation to generation...as if it was all of God's doing.

My how things have changed. My bath cannot be quite as hot these days because chemo makes your skin rather sensitive. But I crawled into the tub anyway and let Calgon take me away...me and about 1/4 of my head of hair. Rather than lifting my legs out of the bath and seeing baby oil bead up onto my freshly shaven legs, I raised my legs out of the bath to find them covered in hundreds of 1" hairs...from my head! And while I plan to embrace my baldness, it made me realize that the interim period between shaved head and baldness might not be so glamorous. Here's hoping it's at least short.

And along with the skin sensitivity and the hair falling out by the hundreds, my scalp is sensitive. I can actually feel the tiny hairs falling out of my head! You remember those things at the science museum that had a thousand little silver pins in them that made a 3D hand or face when you put your hand (or face) into it...it came out on the other side. Well, that's kind of what my head feels like - like tiny little pins rubbing all over my head, plucking hairs as they move.

And then it hit me! This isn't just going to be the hair on my head! I mean, there is a little pleasure I get from thinking that I won't have to shave my legs for the next few months, and that they will be completely smooth, but when I think about losing my lashes, I get a little miffed. One might think that I would have the same emotion about my brows, but I don't. My brows have always been kind of funny - they are blond (like really blond) from the arch out. I've been penciling them for years, so there shouldn't be a whole lot of change here. But my lashes!? Ugh.

So today was just another reminder that I am not a whole lot of control of what is going on in my body. It's like pregnancy...with no present at the end. Unless of course you consider a life time of hot baths and beautiful lashes a gift, and then it seems like it's all worth it. Every last little bit of it.

Happy 4th!