Tommy Time

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the 1930’s 40’s, 50’s, 60’s and 70’s !! First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn’t get tested for diabetes. Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paints. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking. As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat. We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this. We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we weren’t overweight because WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING! We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K. We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem. We did not have Playstations, Nintendo’s, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms……….WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them! We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever. We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes. We rode bikes or walked to a friend’s house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them! Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn’t had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!! The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law! This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever! The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL! And YOU are one of them! CONGRATULATIONS!

You know people sometimes piss me off, some more than others, but I am a New Yorker, so I take it all in stride and keep going.  Anyway today, It was rainy, my friend called to tell me he had to put his cat to sleep and I couldn’t find my keys, not to mention I was hung over because it is a holiday weekend and my friends took me to the Eagle which smelled like a fat, white dude.  Anyway, I set off to work to find a client, that someone had referred to me, waiting outside my studio. 

Let me begin by saying, I generally don’t mind indecisiveness, but when indecisiveness couples neurosis, I get frustrated and say it with me people "pissed the F off".  So there she sits in my chair telling me to take more from the sides and showing me a picture, so I start cutting and she asks me to make it like the picture, I said "I thought that’s what I was doing!", she keeps putting her fingers in it AS I AM CUTTING IT.  I asked her if she wanted to lose a finger, because I could have cut her.  Then she asks if she can see the back, I didn’t even cut the back, so I hand the psycho a mirror.  Then she starts up again. I ask her what is she wants me to do, and she says, "I’m not a hairdresser I don’t know." 

Well listen, I gave her a great haircut the other day, and she didn’t know what she wanted then, and now she still didn’t know.  I ask you, How the F am I supposed to know??"  I wanted to rip her a new one and kick in her teeth.  But I took it all in stride and wrote a blog. If you guys don’t know this, I’ll let you know now. I have a lot of great, fun clients, but I cannot get rid of some of the crazy clients, they turn out to infect my life with their horrible, unhappy existenses and suck up my happy environment.  Go to therapy already, GEEZ.