'bike messenger knocked me down'

this is a leftover post from friday night:

i'm in slacker low key friday night mode - in for the night by 9pm as i have a dumb teacher standardized test to take tomorrow. bleh. talk about putting a damper on a weekend. part of me wants to go to sleep now and try to catch up on some ZZZs but part of me is still kind of restless. last time i felt like this i did a face mask and took this freaky picture of myself:

i think it's creepy but i like it 'cause i look kinda like the joker but when i showed jill it freaked her out because she said i looked like a burn victim.

one of my students cornrowed my hair on friday afternoon. it's been ages since i've had my hair braided; cheri or my kids used to do it all the time when i was in VA. it has struck me over the past couple days as so peculiar that braids on a white girl in NY are at all unusual. i've had double takes, comments, compliments. it makes it seem provincial here, and backwards from what i would expect, and i really don't get it. what is most curious is something that has been said to me three times by three complete strangers: "i like your hair like that." as opposed to what - how they usually see my hair … when they have never seen it, or me, before? i'm probably just being too picky about words - surprise. semantics always get me.