Laughter is the best medicine

Poor Esperando. He came back from Vancouver and right off the bat, Dama de la Casa said “you need a haircut”. Dama de la Casa said, “you are meeting with the Governor and we do need to cut your hair, but I am getting ready to have a nervous breakdown first.” She explained that she had been way too busy, that she had no clue when anything was going to happen, that the servants had secret knowledge about things like when a guard would be on duty or not or the house would have water or not, but that she felt totally clueless. She laid down on the bed in utter exhaustion and tried to imagine how she might restructure things to make them seem more manageable. He came and laid down beside her and told her his life was no bowl of cherries either, and she was just one of many other potential breakdowns on his list. He wanted to know if they could both go to the looney bin together, and she said yes that would be fine.

After about 20 minutes of resting she said she now had the strength to cut his hair and they should go do it because he was leaving the next day. She didn’t want him to look unkempt for such an important meeting with the Governor.

They went into the bathroom and fell into an animated discussion of life as she used the electric shears to form his hair into a trim shape. She told him how difficult his hair was to cut as he had a very uncooperative cowlick, not to mention the clippers seemed to trim unevenly. After about 20 minutes she had him looking pretty good and just needed to touchup one small area. They were carrying on a lively discussion and she felt less like she was going to have a nervous breakdown. She was so close to being finished that she didn’t really look at the clippers. As she trimmed away he noticed the No.4 trim guide that maintained the ¼-inch long length of his hair was lying next to him on the counter, and she realized after cutting 6 inches of hair that a lot of hair was coming off of his head. Then she realized she had actually trimmed a 2-inch wide, 6-inch long swathe of hair down to his scalp. They both began to laugh and cry simultaneously—poor Esperando he now looked like some serious gang member. What would the governor think? She did know all that laughing made her nervous breakdown go away.

The morale of this tale is always take your haircutting responsiblities seriously and don’t get lost in deep conversations until you have finished your work.