"We are all here for a spell. Get all the good laughs you can." — Will Rogers
I was staying at my daughter's home while my son-in-law was traveling for work. Her new baby was two months old, and with two brothers, ages two and four, I was trying to get a head start on the day. I wanted to get showered and dressed before the children were awake at seven.
As I rubbed hair gel into my damp hair, I was dismayed to discover that I still had shampoo in my hair. I turned on the shower, rinsed my hair, and towel dried it for the second time.
As I began to gel my hair again, I discovered that I STILL had shampoo in my hair. I tried to figure out why this was happening. Maybe her shower head was not strong enough to rinse out the shampoo, so I decided to head to the kitchen to rinse my hair once more. Maybe the more direct pressure would solve my problem. I felt the minutes evaporating, knowing that my wish to be ready for the day before the kids woke up was disappearing.
As I tried to explain the problem to my daughter (who is not a morning person and was enjoying a few precious moments of alone time!), she was puzzled and thought I wanted HER to rinse my hair. No, I just wanted to be sure that it was okay with her for me to rinse my hair in the kitchen sink (something I did frequently while growing up in the sixties). I made sure to rinse long enough to get out any lingering shampoo and returned to the bathroom. As I squirted the gel into my hand, realization finally dawned!
The blue travel bottle that usually holds my hair gel had shampoo in it instead of hair gel. (And the reason? Why, that's a slice I'll save for another day. Another mystery and another story.) I chuckled with laughter knowing that I had been putting shampoo on my hair each time instead of hair gel.
And when I told my daughter about it . . . she commented that my hair had looked really "different" the day before. Although I hadn't noticed the suds, I did notice having difficulty styling my hair. But when you have three boys, four and under in the house, your hair takes a back seat to more important matters.
I've laughed every time I think about this morning even though it happened almost a month ago. Some mistakes make for good laughter.