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I am such a sap.

Now that I have glasses, a just-cut crewcut, and have been wearing dresses (gasp!) to keep cool in the summer, I thought it’d be fun to dye my hair too. I followed the directions, mixed the dye and the applicator stuff, and squirted it on my hair. After about five minutes I realized that I was going to end up with the same hair and a dyed scalp that looked like a terrible rash. I washed it all out in time, though.

I told Kitey this story and she looked at my 1/2″ long hair and rolled her eyes and said, “Sage, all you would have HAD were roots.”

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Years ago I wrote in Coffee Shakes about being nasty to a parent who was hitting her child while screaming at her to “stop crying”. A reader wrote and advised me to take the same energy and direct it at complimenting parents who are doing a good job, which I’ve been doing ever since.

At the Kalamazoo library, I saw a little boy’s father and immediately felt dread - he was 6′3″, tattooed all over, with a stoic look on his face. (Stereotyping. I know.) The little boy was frightened by another child, and started to cry. This huge guy picked him up so tenderly and said, “Oh, sweetheart, were your feelings hurt? I bet that felt bad,” and snuggled him all over.

I went over and said in a quavering voice, “I just…wanted to tell you - how - how touching it is to see you be so sweet to your kid,” and then had to run and cry in the bathroom for ten minutes. I know. I’m such a sap.