It’s A Brand New (Hair) Day!

 All she’d wanted to do was cover up a few gray hairs.  “Brazen Brunette” was her choice-she liked the color and she loved the name.  “Change your hair and change your life!” was the promise on the box.  

Did she  have any idea of what was in store for her after the final rinsing- and those few silver strands were magically gone?  Evidently not.  Feeling strangely empowered the next day as she went to work, she told herself she should have colored her hair months ago.

Granted, she knew her job at the A to Z  Alphabet Soup Company  was only temporary, but still,  there was no reason to have to put up with her boss-slapping her hard on the back every time he told one of his humorless jokes-all the while laughing himself silly.  Had it been a day like any other, she would have kept quiet.  It was not a day like any other though-today she was a “ Brazen Brunette!”  Just a simple “Stop hitting me!”  should have gotten her message across, but instead she slugged him hard enough to send him to the floor.  Keeping her job hadn’t been an option after that.  Luckily, she had a small amount saved for a rainy day. 

Maybe it was the shock of what had just happened that made her do it, or perhaps it was this new sense of boldness she felt- she waltzed right into Nordstrom's.  Never in her life had she spent more than 50 bucks on a dress- and now she found herself standing at the cash register with a gown that set her back two thousand dollars.

On her way home, she chided herself about her extravagance, but she was pleased too-it WAS a really great dress.  Paying off her credit card would happen some day, and she simply wasn’t going to worry about it right now.  Quite by accident, as she was letting herself off the financial hook she was on, she noticed a fancy new restaurant that had recently opened.  Reservations not required.  So it was settled.  Tonight she was going to celebrate the end of her dreadful job and awful boss, and the start of the new life that was waiting for her!

Unusually giddy, she made another daring decision.  Venturing into her hopelessly cluttered closet- armed with nothing but optimism- she found them, and put them on  for the first time in years…

Wearing her long lost  5” stiletto heels, bought for a Halloween  party she’d gone to once, and her new $2000  dress,  she was  full of self adoration that evening-and  failed to notice a flight of stairs just off to her right.  X-rays, taken an hour later in the emergency room, showed that no bones were broken.

Yes, she reflected, as she eased her bruised body into bed that night,  her first  day as a “ Brazen Brunette”  had pretty much been a bust.

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Zig zagging down the beauty aisle of the local drug store the next morning in search of a solution, she had to smile at the irony of  it all  ( how she wished she could slap someone hard on the back right at this moment while she shrieked with laughter) – being a “Brazen Brunette”- for just one day- had given her more gray hairs than she’d started with.