Juxtaposition

Robin has been on Prednisone for about nine months now.  Prednisone is a very efficacious drug to use when the body is beating itself up. It also has many awful side effects.  Among those are weight gain, mood swings, cataracts and hair loss.  The list goes on, but those are the ones that Robin has experienced so far.  The mood swings have been the most difficult for me to deal with.  As a woman the hair loss has been the most trying for Robin.

At work the other day, we went to Old Spaghetti Factory as a group for lunch.  There were about 20 or 25 of us.  I accidentally ended up at the head of the table.  As our waitress approached the table I heard her remark, “My, what beautiful hair you have.”  I thought she was speaking to the young lady seated next to me.  The young lady was looking at me, and I realized the waitress was talking about me.  The waitress went to make a comment along the lines of, “It is amazing how many of the guys that come in here with long hair look like they stole it from a fashion magazine.”  Or something along those lines.  Of course, this amused all the folks at the table, a few of whom have teased me about my long hair in the past.  There was some more teasing afterwards when we returned to the office.  I have broad shoulders and it was all in good fun.

When I arrived back at the hacienda that evening I was telling Robin about the amusement created by the waitress.  She remarked, “That’s funny, because I was thinking about your hair today.”

In past when she has been lamenting her hair falling out, I have made remarks along the lines of, “If I could, I would let you have my hair.”  I am genuinely sympathetic of her condition and anguish.  My remark was meant in this sympathetic vein, but they have not always been received as so.  Can I reference the reader back to mood swings?

“Oh,” I replied, “why were you thinking of my hair?”  I was half afraid to hear her answer, as I had an inkling of where her thoughts had been.

She answered me, “I was just wondering how you would react if you lost all of your hair.”

How does one answer that and not step in a mine field? “Well,” I said, “I probably would not look as good as James DeBose, but I would give him a run for his money.”