Ice Skating and Haircuts

We return to February 1996 in Noblesville, IN for some young adult angst, ice-skating, and a haircut.

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Music
Intro and outro: Chilled Acoustic Indie Folk by Lesfm
Embrace by ItsWatR
Rush by Roman Belov
All music from Pixabay

Transcript

Hi. This is Ginger Johnson and you’re listening to Past Perfect: A Podcast.  

I decided this week to go to my journal vault and randomly pick a journal. I got 1996 and when I turned to the first week in February, I had to laugh as there’s a recurrence of themes. Bill and I hadn’t yet been married a year. 

1 Feb 1996

It’s funny to think of all the outside changes I’ve been through—such transitions!—and yet I’m the exact same person with the exact same problems. I still get depressed and feel melancholy. I still get down on myself—especially after a major transition—like now.

We’ve moved to Noblesville and I have no life. I really like it here—I love our apartment and our neighborhood. I know Bill likes his job. We’re closer to Indianapolis. But I have no friends out here and I’m really kind of lonely. Bill leaves for work at 7:00 and gets home at 6:00, so there’s very little time that we get together. It wouldn’t be so bad if I just had something—anything—to fill up my life, to fill up the time that seems to stretch endlessly on. It’s terrible to wake up in the morning and have no idea how you’ll be able to fill the minutes and hours that stretch in front of you. 

Maybe next week will take care of that—maybe I’ll be asked for an interview with IDG Books. I need to keep looking for a job, but I just don’t know where to start. I guess I could go register to be a temp, but it would be difficult, because I don’t have a car to get anywhere and the pay from a temp position certainly wouldn’t facilitate getting one quickly. 

I’ve got to do something though. Maybe I’ll start transcribing my journals. That might help me when I go to grad school. If I get in.

I’ll also walk over to get a local newspaper. Maybe I’ll see a job listing in there. And I’ll make some gingerbread spice cookie dough.

—Later—

I did start going through my journals, but I went back to my very first one and I saw what a dork I was. . . .


3 Feb 1996

Saturday. Got up this morning around 8:00. . .we got ready, went to the bank . . . we went to the library and car–shopping. We also went to an arts supply store and bought four tubes of oil paint and a drawing pad for me.

The best part of the day was when we went ice-skating in a big field by the side of the road. There was a stream that fed the field and obviously flooded this field during the thaw of a couple of weeks ago. It had frozen over, but much of it was covered in snow. There were a bunch of trees at the edge of the field and some railroad tracks with a train standing there. The sun was going down and it was really pretty. The ice was kind of rough though, so I didn’t do that well skating, but I had fun. After I took off my skates, Bill dragged me around while I was sitting on the broom. I wanted to go skating because sometimes I feel like life is passing me by and I just sit on my couch and read about it. I don’t take too many risks anymore. 

6 Feb

I decided to get my hair cut today, partly to cheer me up and partly because I haven’t gotten it cut since August. I called and made an appointment and she absolutely butchered my hair. There’s nothing left. I look like a newscaster. I look like a country star. I look like Rod Stewart. The only problem is that I don’t know how to fix it. It’s so awful. It looks terrible. I feel like ripping all of my hair out piece by piece—that’s how agitated I feel. It’s so short there’s no way to fix it. I HATE IT!

8 Feb

Got my hair fixed yesterday. Looks like the wife of a Russian potentate’s coif. Will have to work with it.


From my quiet office to your ears, wishing you good haircuts and pleasant ice-skating. Until next time, be well and let your light shine.