The Odyssey Of Tight Curls.

Dear Journal,

This week hasn’t been too good for me. Reasons? Well, it’s kind of funny yet unpleasantly effective.

I haven’t written since Thursday last week and started to feel a gnawing sense of guilt in the back of my mind. I feel vulnerable writing this already.

Friday.

I didn’t write on Friday because I decided it was the time to take down my hair extensions. I’ve had it on for about three months. The roots were starting to hurt more than they should. The mysteries of 4c hair and extensions never stop amazing me. Plus, I had been wearing boots all week, and my toes were screaming at me for redemption. They felt like they were going to dislodge again. Since I didn’t want to simultaneously deal with two annoying physical pains, the hair had to go. I mean extensions. I had faux locs in and they got very tangled up.

I spent the whole night without batting an eyelid, staring at the TV screen, and tugging at my matted-up hair.

Saturday.

Watched a movie, The Hill, and cried from the opening to the credits scene. Developed a blinding headache from lack of sleep and crying too much. Cleaned up my mess and went to sleep till 5 pm. Worked on my assignments and took a shower.

Sunday.

Woke up at 8 am after ignoring 10 of my back-to-back alarms. Cleaned up my apartment real nice this time and got ready for a day out with Cyrus, our friend Sarah, and Cyrus’s mom. We went to a Korean restaurant and a karaoke place. The guy who attended to us was an acquaintance from school. It was my first karaoke. It was in a room that was probably soundproof, and we could only order appetizers in there. Cyrus placed the order. She did a great job because the appetizers were incredible. The remote and the TV controls were in Korean and four other Asian languages, so we had to get a crash course on how to use it and find popular songs in English.

I sang Party in the USA by Miley Cyrus, Up by Olly Murs, and not by my choice, by the way, Paint the Town Red by Doja Cat. It was incredible! I kept dancing like a little lunatic and my lowest score was 96. We had dinner after that. It was finally time to see what this ‘hot pot’ was. Turns out, we had to cook our dinner ourselves. I didn’t know that. Cyrus didn’t tell me!

Look, I didn’t say anything about it being a waste of money since we had to cook it ourselves. I’m all for the experience. I just didn’t trust any of us to do the cooking right. Don’t smile, it’s true. But it wasn’t a complete disaster so…

When we were done cooking and eating, the check was brought and it was about $117. Half smiling, I said “Woah, am I blind?” and found out immediately that that was socially inappropriate. Okay, before you crucify me, I thought it wasn’t anything major. If the tables were turned, I would just say “I know right?” to the customers and laugh it off. I didn’t know it was considered rude to comment on the check, in a non-offensive way to a waiter you’re acquainted with.

Your thoughts?

At the end of the dining, Cyrus drove us to my apartment and when I was about to get down, I realized I had left my purse at the restaurant. I would’ve let Amara, that’s the server I knew, give it back when we met again at school. But my keys were in there so we had to drive all the back. Typical me.🙄 I apologized to everyone. Cyrus is certain at this point that I have undiagnosed ADHD. But I really don’t think I do. I’m just very forgetful, tidsoptimistic sometimes, easily distracted, hyperactive, and zero-active interchangeably. Those are just flaws that I work on constantly if you ask me.

Monday.

My hair was ‘quarter-way’ taken down. So I put it in a scarf like I did on Sunday, and went to school. Nothing significant happened Monday, or I just don’t remember. Oh! We started to get more physical in this self-defense class I’m taking. I’ve started dreaming about the techniques we learn in class. I didn’t run up and down that hill Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday night. What I did instead, was stand in front of the mirror from 7:16 pm to 1:36 am unbraiding my hair. It was braided and connected to the locs extension. You can only imagine how bad my arms and back hurt. I went to sleep at 2 am after washing it and watching it shrink so much it looked like I had cut it.

Tuesday.

Got out of bed by 6 am because I knew it was going to be a LONG day. My hair was a tight curled mess that a comb through it would have me peeling my scalp off the comb. I was even out of conditioner. Ugh. Talk about being crazy unprepared for this. But I bought some curling products on Friday night in the city and was going to curl my hair and look good. I was late for my 8:30 am class. It took me about two hours or more, but I finally had defined curls and cute bangs for the first time ever! My curls weren’t dry and had some white residue but I didn’t care. I was extremely thankful for my friend, Emily who taught me how to ride a bicycle last October and bought me one two days later. I couldn’t walk all that distance so I rode there.

My curls were short but really cute! Everything was going great until the curling products I used started to flake. I had so many bits of circular sticky balls on my shirt, palms, and phone. I looked like I had the worst case of dandruff. I had to go home, change my shirt, and wash my hair back to shrinkage. I was devasted. Back to square zero, I couldn’t comb this hair. I just tried to curl it again and gave up finally, tying it up in a scarf. I missed my hours at work because I was back at the apartment and was late for my American Government class! I hated that day so much at that point.

But, it got better. I got two chicken BLTs from the cafeteria after the class. Then, my friend Mila who works there gave me free pizza, fried rice, and some chicken! Tuesday did a full 180! So, I went back to being breezy and jolly again. So, of course, I went running that Tuesday night.

Finally, time to talk about Wednesday.