Yesterday I felt like a prairie woman in a bonnet waving goodbye to her husband who was setting off in his wagon to tame a wild frontier and secure land, shelter, vittles. But really I was just standing in my driveway waving goodbye to Benson who was setting off in an Uber to travel to Mumbai and secure the keys to our Indian apartment, a mattress, bank account, local phone, electricity and hopefully safe drinking water.
I’m staying behind by one week and will continue to pack and scratch the dogs and eat avocados. While I’m doing that, God is busy ensuring I don’t land in India toting any airs in my carry-on .
It started last week when a man approached me, pointed to my grey hair and said, “I see you’re streaking.”
Statements he could have followed up with in order to make the situation cool:
“It looks great on you.”
“It looks so hot on you.” (Okay actually not that one considering, well, a lot of factors.)
“It’s stunning.”
“You’re stunning.”
“You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.” (Again, maybe weird.)
Statement he actually followed up with:
**Chews on doughnut
Anyway, apparently it wasn’t enough to really humble me.
After Benson and I (pretty dramatically, I admit) tearfully kissed goodbye in the driveway, we immediately began proclaiming our love via text, he from the backseat of the Uber, me from our balcony. We both just got new phones and he found a feature where he could take a picture of himself and the screen would display a lookalike emoji.
For reference, here’s a picture of us taken seven minutes prior.
His emoji looked very much like him and made me laugh.
What fun! Texting was cheering me up so I decided to snap a picture of myself and create my own.
Wait, what?
Oh, I get it. It’s mistaking my head scarf for hair. I removed the scarf and made sure to get my bun in the viewfinder.
I gasped. I no longer felt like a prairie wife sending her husband off but instead felt like the prairie grandmother wrapped in quilts, the rest of the family urging Pa to get home soon lest Grandmother die in the night.
At least pride will be one less thing to pack.
Categories: This and That
Stuff I Talk About 
The coworker you mentioned has said some of the darndest things to me about more than just my grey streak. More than one person who overheard the comment to you told me about it so that i would see that it was not just me. You handled it well. I think that you and your hair are beautiful.