Pardon my French: I redeem myself

Sometimes the world finds little ways to reward me, small things that might not mean anything to the next person, but that put a smile on my face. For example, on my walk to work, I pass a men's dress shop every morning, and the proprietor owns 2 beautiful golden retrievers. Some mornings they stand in the doorway and watch me with big doe-y eyes as I pass by. It always puts me in a cheerful mood, ready to take on another day at work.  

Today, I had another pleasant occurrence. I've been looking for a place to get my hair cut in this new city of mine. I started by asking around at work but the places my co-workers go are way out of my price range. Well, I mean, I could pay $80 for a haircut, but that's just not how my priorities fall. So I went to the internet and found a cute dive in my neighborhood. It's only a notch or two above Supercuts, but it got rave reviews online, so I figured, what the heck. If I get a really botched cut, then I can go to a fancy salon and pay the big bucks to have it fixed. 

Well I was going to go yesterday, but I chickened out. Today, I was still on the fence, but somehow, without consciously making the decision, I found myself walking to the salon rather than straight home. Turns out my feet had the right idea. The place was empty, so I didn't have to wait, and the stylist was friendly, but not overwhelmingly chatty.

When we did get to talking she asked what I had studied. When I mentioned French, she immediately switched languages. Turns out she's from Morocco and her husband worked for the Moroccan embassy in Switzerland before they moved to the states.  She had and interesting story and seemed pleased to speak with me even though my French is getting rusty.

When I was living in Montreal, I used to have to psyche myself up to go get my haircut and prepare to converse in French. Funny how when I'm deprived of it, I have a whole new appreciation for it. And I never would have thought that my French hair-salon vocab would have come in handy after leaving Quebec. Just goes to show that you can never know the future has in store.

So I enjoyed some well-deserved pampering and French conversation for a very reasonable price. The haircut is adorable, and I look forward to going back. Sometimes I feel like the stars align just so to make my world a happy place.