28 july 2021
Big news first- we finally decided to start veiling.
Veiling is the practice of covering/hiding one's hair, often with a scarf or other cloth piece, but sometimes with hoods, hats, or whatever else happens to be available. This is something we've wanted to do for a while but were nervous about because so many people assume it means you're Muslim, which we aren't and don't want to mislead people. Veiling is a practice that's not limited to Islam- it's appeared in just about every culture in some form or another. It can be religious/spiritual, practical, personal, and just about any other reason. People do it for their beliefs, to protect their heads and hair, for comfort/privacy, as a show of respect, as a fashion statement, and many other reasons. It gets associated with Islam because it's fairly visible there, but that's far from the only veiling practice out there. In our case, we've wanted to do this for years. It feels deeply right to hide our hair for reasons I can't articulate very well. It takes a very visible part of us and makes it private and almost sacred to us, something very few people get to see. It feels important and like it just "clicks." On top of that, there are a few practical reasons- it helps keep us grounded and acts as a pressure stim, stops us from picking at our scalp (ah, dermatrillomania- I swear no part of our body has avoided being picked at), and prevents scalp sunburns. The main reason is making a part of our body private to us by choice, though. There's something that just feels right about it. It makes looking in the mirror more comfortable. As an added bonus, there's a lot you can do with fabric and style choice to change your appearance! Currently using a relatively small square in a common bandana tie with the ends tucked under, but there are a lot of other styles you can veil in. Using this one right now because it's godawful hot outside and there's no way we're wearing anything heavier. It's what, 105 F today? It was 107 the other day, and 115 a few weeks ago. This summer is one of the hellish ones.
Also, FYI to anyone else veiling- your local thrift shop probably has a lot of cheap, cute scarves. Though the objects in our local shop told a sad story today- breast cancer awareness headscarf, used hospital bed, and various medical items. If the person had a home hospital bed, that's not a good sign for their survival. Rest in peace, stranger. Cancer is hell.
In other news, we finally finished organizing our bookmarks onto a sub-page of our homepage, which is already making them easier to find and nicer to look through. Everything is nicely sorted by category and color-coded with navigation shortcuts at the top and a few sub-subpages to spread things out. Looks good, just need to tweak the CSS a little because the horizontal rules are way too bright and the whole thing could be improved even more. Regardless, it's working great and has what we need. Let us pare down the bookmarks too! That was much-needed.
Less happy news, our mom is talking about declaring bankruptcy again. I think she means it this time, which is alarming because a) she's our mom, and b) we're living with her to get through college. Whatever she does, we're sucked into it in some way. Frankly, we're scared at the prospect. I need to research it and see what all the implications are because I'm less scared if I have some idea about what's going to happen.