Lily on the Hill

Yesterday was my one year anniversary at my current job so today I decided to treat myself to a real salon hair cut and style. The kind where when I come back to work everyone tells me how much better I look (which is always appreciated but feels more than a little back-handed).

But my hair is not today's news. The woman who CUT my hair is.

Lily. She had some kind of pretty and thick accent....Russian? Swedish? Icelandic? Let's just say Slavic. She was pretty quiet the whole time she was cutting and so was I (believe it or not).
There was a ton of activity in the place among the other stylists. One guy was loudly complaining that his co-worker had given him advice on HIS hair in front of a client without being asked. Another employee kept stealing everyone's towels. THEN this super made up plastic woman the kind that wears fake eyelashes EVERYday and wears those giant Chanel sunglasses as an all day headband, was singing some pop song really loudly and twice as badly.

At that point Lily giggled a tiny bit and then I knew it was safe for me to crack up more and we both started laughing hysterically.

Lily: "You know....so much ees alwayss going on here. I sometimes just am quiet so my customer and I can enjoy the crazy, you know?"

Me: I totally agree. It's very entertaining here!

Lily: You know of Benny Heel? The comedian? The Benny Heel show, yes?

Me: Oh sure! I loved that show!

Lily: Me too. I have every....uh...what ees word...CD? no....

Me: DVD?

Lily: Ah...yes...DVD. I have them all. The entire stack (shows size of stack with her hands). He died all alone. He had a very mild heart attack, but there was no one there to help him so he died.

Me: I never knew that.....poor guy.

Lily: BUT it was beecauss he spent all his days at places just listening to everything....a bench....a bar....that's where he got his ideass for hiss shows.

That conversation coupled with another story she told me about a bitter divorcee who doesn't know what the word blonde means are the reasons she is my new stylist permanently. (hahah perm....get it?)

I love the fact that she might go home at night after cutting hair and relax with her giant stack of Benny Hill dvds. THAT's the kind of person I want cutting my hair.