Oct. 21, 2006

Today I got a surprise call from Jill. Somewhat apprehensively, she told me that her sister was out of town for the weekend and her mom was the only person helping with her hair for the dance that night. She was wondering if I could come over to help her out. I said sure, since I had nothing to do all day. We decided that I would go over around 3:30PM. Jill was so excited that I was able to come over on such short notice.

When I arrived at the house, her mom (as usual) was waiting by the door. Her and Jill were staring at each other, not saying anything. Jill's mom seemed to feel somewhat left out since Jill asked me to help. Jill told her that she could still come upstairs and help out, but her mom just smiled and said it was fine. Jill was trying to brush her freshly blown out hair from her face. She raced upstairs and I followed. She had 2 culring irons and a straighten plugged in. I asked her what she had in mind, and she told me she wanted big curls. She grabbed a chair, and I got to work.

While I was curling Jill's hair, we had a chance to talk a bit more. I told her stories about my roommates and living in a sorority house. We also talked more about cheerleading. She said she missed it a lot, but would still not rejoin because of the girls and the coach.

I was also confused about her family situation, and she explained that her older sister had a different father than her and her brother.

Jill sat fairly still the entire time. Frequently, she brushed her bangs away from her face, but she was not uncomfortable. I told her to let me know if she wanted me to change something or if she didnt like it, and she said everything was great. During my entire time there (about 3 hours) Jill never once mentioned another girl-friend besides her sister. She did talk about her boyfriend. They were planning a romantic dinner for two at the house before the dance. She talked about how she sometimes gets frustrated with her boyfriends mom.

The other thing that stood out to me were the pauses in our conversation. I love to talk so it was no problem to share my life with Jill, but our conversation had pauses where absolutely nothing was said. This happened before with Jill, and instead of me dominating the conversation, I wanted to see how she would react. She seemed comfortable and would often make a comment related to our last topic of conversation. Understandably we cant continuously talk for three hours, and I took these pauses as a sign of comfortablility. We didnt have to talk all the time.

While finishing Jill's hair, she seemed a little nervous as she looked for boby-pins and makeup. After I pinned it back, she smiled widely and was really excited. I put on her makeup and added the finishing touches. She was even more thrilled to see herself so dolled up because she normally doesnt wear any makeup.

She excited put on her dress and the shoes we had bought together last week. She checked herself out in the mirror for a couple of minutes, still smiling. I asked her if she needed me to do anything else and she said everything was great. (That made me happy!)

We cleaned up the bathroom and headed downstairs. Jills mom was waiting for us in the kitchen. She made Jill spin around and show off her dress. We took a couple of pictures, then Jill called her boyfriend to make sure he was still coming over on time. I had to get back to campus, so I said goodbye to Jills mom, gave Jill and hug, told her to have fun and take lots of pictures. She smiled happily and said she would.