hairdresser wisdom
I was getting a blowout the other day, and asked the woman doing my hair if she owns the business. She said yes, and I replied that it must be hard, owning a business. I won’t soon forget her reply, which was along the lines of,
Hard, yes, but everything is hard. Even doing nothing is hard; your bones start to ache.
Maybe, after hearing this, something in my subconscious drove me back to Dostoevsky. I’ve picked up Demons after 6 or 7 months away from it, and I must admit, I can’t remember who a single one of these people are. And to think I was writing my dissertation on the damn thing! I do feel like an idiot, listening to the audiobook to refresh my memory, making character maps (Russian diminutives are so awful)… I’m not quite as bright-eyed as I was when I first picked up Crime and Punishment at 16. I know that Demons is a slower read, that Part I is heavy on the introductory material, that the plot will soon thicken. I may have a sieve for a brain but I remember that much.
And I feel passionate again. I’m checking shit off my to-do list. Walking through Wapping listening to Scissor Sisters, the lady at the post office called me princess, gin and tonic to make the reading go down easy, I finally tried scampi fries and, honestly, I kind of get it. It’s not all so doom and gloom. Nine-person friend holiday on the horizon - that’s something, I don’t know how exactly but it will be memorable, I’m sure. I’m pencilled in for two more pub gigs; now if the music thing works I’ll never have to write another day in my life. I will, though, of course I will.