hairtie saga

i don't really know why i'm inspired to tell you the following...but oh well.

i'm one of those people who don't change things up alot. for instance, i'm not one of those girls who has to change her purse to match her outfit. i easily get into the habit of wearing my black old navy flip flops everyday. i would like to wear the snazzy earrings i own, but i just don't find the time to switch out my silver studs. hairties are one of those things that don't change much.

every once in awhile, there comes a time when i need to replace a hairtie because i've either lost or broken my other one after several weeks of use. once i get that new hairtie, its either on my wrist or in my hair, day or night. back in high school, i had this one hairtie that was a faded orange...a little overstretched from over two years of use. you see, once upon a time, this hair tie was an offensive shade of the neon variety and, of course, didn't go with anything. following my usual trend, i'm not one to make sure my hairtie matches my outfit, either (thats why it would be wise to go black when selecting my next hairtie).

in the afternoon rush of getting ready for cross country practice, i snapped one of my dependable hairties. one of my teammates had an extra one that she let me "borrow". you might have guessed, but this was indeed the neon orange hairtie. i took it, fully expecting to give it to her the next day. however, after practice, it naturally went back on my wrist, ready for my next moment of need. only that was the next day at practice. well, this cycle continued until she finally told me that i could keep it. as i mentioned earlier, i had that hairtie for an obscenely long time.

but one fateful day last summer, when i did a back dive off our dock, that faded orange hairtie had become so overstretched that it popped off my wrist without me realizing it. now somewhere below, it lies in its watery grave. i haven't been able to keep one for more than a few weeks since, and i've lost numerous other things to the waters of keowee since then.

my ability to hang onto hairties is quite opposite of my relationship with sunglasses (which is just not economically sound in the long run). while i was at camp, i stepped on my new pair and was in need of another. i've gone through at least four pairs just this summer. well, after my first three falling apart or getting crushed, i decided it wasn't worth dishing out $10-12 for a pair that would prolly end up getting lost or broken anyway. so i searched for the cheapest i could find...and found a pair of these sporty, periwinkle, "unisex" glasses for just $5 at wally world. i actually was able to keep them for an entire month and a half...even as i bounced over waves on jet skis and jumped in to the lake to help kids into their skis. it was amazing. but it wasn't meant to last. the other week i commented on how long i had managed to keep them, i dove in with them on top of my head. needless to say, they disappeared faster than i could react. down they went, to rest in peace with my worn hairtie and all the other objects i've lost.

i don't know what kind of lesson you can get out of this, but it seems to me that i can guard things better when they're either cheap or free. or maybe i should just stop diving in with things i could lose.