my face for 2013

I turned 51 10 days ago.

Surprise, surprise!

I re-grew the beard I shaved off in 2007 or 8 this year:

I shaved if off  because I was a school bus driver then and thought that the kids would think I was OLD, since it was already getting "frosted" with white, as was the hair on my head.

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It took me awhile to realize that they would think I was OLD no matter what.

I have had a beard or a goatee or a mustache most of the life I’ve been able to grow facial hair, and I like the look, personally.

My hair began graying in places-mostly in the front, as you can see, when I was 24, so it’s not a great shock that the rest of my head is getting umm, snowy.  Well, it was kind of shocking , a few summers ago, when my friend from Japan came to visit and took pictures of me outside – I was kind of shocked at how grey I looked in the photos – usually I just see myself in the mirror, inside, and was/am sort of "oh wow" about the new "look".

I got a note awhile back.  I posted pics of myself in my teens, 20’s, and 30’s, skipped ten years of the 40’s for no particular reason, and posted pics of my 50th birthday.  That note said (and how pleasing was that?) that I got better looking as I aged.  I think it’s true myself, but to have someone else tell me that – well, it made my day!

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Lately, when I’ve gone shopping for food, I’ve been doing something I saw on TV.  It was in "Two and a half men", ironically, but one character said to the other that supermarkets were a good place to meet women.  They all think we guys are sort of helpless in the kitchen anyway, so the one recommended to the other that he should ask women questions about cooking or veggies, or whatever, the point being to get them to talk to you.

I have to smile big time, because it works.  I’m not trying to pick anyone up – I’m too dammit poor to even think about it, but I do like talking to women, and the response has been, well, really gratifying.  In fact, when I was at Trader Joe’s this morning, one of the ladies I talked to, a store employee,  kept talking to me and smiling, and asked my name, and said she’d look for me again.

How could I walk out without a smile after that?

I like my 2013 face; what about you?

 

 

 

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