Krista on One Street

"Hell yeah!" Krista said when I asked her if she was brave enough to give me a buzz cut. She works at Bishop's Barber Shop on NW 21st Street. Her favorite book in the world is Geek Love, by Katherine Dunn; she has a large graphic with two young lovers and the name of the novel tattooed on her upper right arm. She loves sci fi and fantasy novels, but she hadn't heard of Ursula LeGuin. I explained about the One Street project and she thought it was brilliant and said she'd have a look at LeGuin.

She just came back from her vacation in northern California. She's a native Portlander (well, Vancouver, Washington, really, but it's almost the same thing), and she loves it here, but if there's one place even better than this, it's California. "You can have all those cold places with snow and ice," she said, "I hate extremes. Hot weather? I just turn beet red and feel like I'm gonna die. I hate it. So there aren't a lot of places I'd like to live, but I have to say, California's got an edge to it. Where I was staying, they have an alarm that goes off every day at noon. They call it the Stoner Alarm, it's to wake up all the people still lying around in bed, stoned from the night before. But the best part," she went on, so enthralled the buzzer was flying and hair was whirling around us, "was driving back through the redwoods. You just can't believe it. They're so amazing, I was like, 'Holy shit,' pardon my language. I had to pull off the road a bunch of times and just get out of the car and look up, and up, and up. Every one of those trees is a miracle, really."

I completely agree. And I am now the proud owner of a buzz cut, #2 at the back and #4 at the top. Krista's opinion when we finished? "Totally cool. I love it. As long as you've lived, if you can't have your hair the way you want it now, when can you? You've earned the right to do any damn thing you want, and if anybody doesn't like it, I say fuck 'em, excuse my language."

I went in with a plan to get a new haircut and then blip myself and the haircutter, like Dotty did earlier today. But once I got talking to Krista, I found her so adorable I couldn't be bothered to blip myself. I put the planned shot in folio where it can sit for a while before I delete it, but this: this mischievous, slightly wild, deliciously joyful young woman--swept me away.

I think Frank's visit emboldened me. If he can walk around with a raccoon on his head, why shouldn't I get a buzz cut? I never have liked my hair, and my favorite thing to do with it is just buzz it all off and then sit around and rub my head. It's like cut velvet when it's that short. Stroking my buzzed head is the only pleasure I've ever had from my hair. Well, that and talking to Krista. The whole hair thing was a wonderful excuse to find her.