Happy Buy Nothing Day, everyone!

So I did it - I cut my hair for the first time in seven years. It actually threw me for quite a loop. Hardly anyone at school noticed, but I was in shock. You know when something really big happens in your life, either good or bad, and for about 24 hours that thing is always present in your mind? Whether you're talking to someone or brushing your teeth or whatever, that thing is always present? Well, that's what it was like. For the first day I had a physical sensation on my back where my hair used to cover and now doesn't. I couldn't sleep or anything. I was a mess.

But now I like it, as I knew I would. It's still just above my elbows, long enough to put up for historical stuff, and it's so much easier to deal with. I can actually leave it down and only brush it twice a day, which was impossible for years. Maybe I don't stand out from the crowd as much as I used to, but I think you can't rely on appearances to make a statement. I think a lot of the kids who dress goth or whatnot are just doing it to be different, but it's pretty pointless if they're not different on the inside. If your character is unique, you don't have to dress so everyone stares at you. Your dress should reflect your personality, not define it. . . Okay, I'm done lecturing now.

I actually liked going to the Princeton Model Congress a lot. Even though we were in Washington DC, only two hours from home, most of the kids there were from New Jersey or New York. They were mostly from private schools and looked like future CEOs and lawyers, which was a little unnerving. Although I did make friends with most of the girls in my committee, my opinion of New Jersey has dropped significantly. I had some kid telling me my bill wouldn't work because coal mining was a great job and all the people in Appalachia want to be coal miners. Later he was very seriously telling us about how bad poverty is because it reduces you to eating beans. I wanted to stand up and say, "Beans? You are from New Jersey, you think coal mining is a great job, and the worst effect of poverty you can imagine is eating beans? I like beans!" I didn't, though, because you can't say anything except when the chair calls on you.

My suit was a hit. I ended up making it from a pattern I got from a thrift store, bringing my total expenses on it to about $4. I don't think anyone would have noticed I made it myself except that I was finishing the jacket hem on the bus ride up. Everyone seemed to think it was wonderful. It was a great group that went from our school - maybe it was a defense mechanism against all the New England prep schools, but the twenty-five of us really bonded. There were only five girls, too, so the boys seemed to regard us as something of a valuable commodity to be protected from the New England boys. (I'm not complaining . . . )

I'm having to force myself not to get out the Christmas stuff until Sunday. I've been itching to look up the words to "Un Flambeau, Jeanette, Isabelle" all day. But I know I'll get sick of Christmas if I start it too early, so I always wait until the first Sunday of Advent. (I may be more Quaker than anything else now, but they'll never take all the Episcopalian out of me.) I feel a rant on commercialism coming on, but I'll save it for later. See last year's if you really want to.

November 17
December 3