First Impressions

First impressions. I have been displaced from life-as-I-know-it a lot lately and I've been meeting a lot of new people.

First, there was  New Job #1. A job that required a hair net and a visor to compliment the dull brown uniform. If you are young, you can pull off the look.

Take a 50 year old face, pull away all hair and any other distractions (no jewellery was allowed) and there is no disguising the fact. I looked in the mirror and saw 'old' and 'ugly'.

All I could hope, was that I would not see anyone I knew while I worked there. And if I did, I deluded myself into believing that they would not recognize me.

I hoped not to make any impression there. First, last or anywhere in between. Please (I hoped), let me become the wallflower that no one sees!

Thank goodness the hours of that job didn't allow me to continue working after I was hired at New Job #2. I ceremoniously threw away my hair net, washed and neatly folded up my uniform and visor ... and returned it to its rightful owner.

The end.

Then came New Job #2. One more chance to make a good first impression.

First thing I did? I told them everything that I could not do. That dazzles people every time.

Then came the easy part. Getting dressed for work. I have a new hair cut that I thought was working for me. Then I would get home at the end of the day, look in the mirror and think to myself "Oh no! This is what people have been looking at all day?" I puttered with my hair every morning. Every night I came home with the same bad hair look.

Dressing for work should have been easy. 'Casual' is the rule of thumb over the summer. I have casual work-around-the-house or work-at-a-diesel-shop kind of wardrobe. Then I have my going-dancing clothes. Not a lot in between. I juggled around what I had and realized (after I washed it this past weekend) that I had worn a shirt with a hole in it; a T-shirt that was too small; and a shirt that was new ... but added an extra ten pounds to my 'look'. Fail.

This was all good and fine. I got over it. I would work on my hair. I would dig through my closet to find something that was more suitable to wear. Then I looked closely in the mirror. And what should I see? But an inch long, dark black chin hair. Ewww!

I plucked that one, found an extra white one which was a little less conspicuous and even managed to find a few long, white mustache hairs glimmering in the mirror. Oh. My. Gosh. I had been seen in public ... trying to make a good impression ... and I was sporting facial hair that I was oblivious to?!?

I'm getting over it. I can only move forward from here. It will be fine.

Then I looked in the mirror again this morning and found one more long, dark chin hair (this one only half an inch long). Where do these things come from??? Do they grow over night? Are they triggered by stress? Why are they dark again, when for the past many, many months they have been white (okay ... gray) and almost unnoticeable??

Well, it is time to pry myself away from the computer and go clean myself up to try and make a good fifth impression. Today will be five days on the new job. How many days do I have to try to rectify that first impression?

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.