For a long while now, I've wanted a nose ring. Well, just a little tiny stud, anyway (or a BIG stud -- woo, baby!).

Finally (well over a month now), I went to this funky little place on Colfax and had it done. It wasn't really all that painful. I compare everything to childbirth, and this was a distant second in the pain department. If I had to pick the worst part (ha, PICK!), it would be the redness. And keeping the swelling from being too outrageous. It's mucho better now, and I love it, really. Very cool in my book.

But, this is not the point of my post.

The point has been the reaction of The Women on my street.

The Women on my street conform to society. The Women tend to drive what they are supposed to drive, join the country club's they are supposed to join, enroll their children in schools that most people can't afford, and take vacations to places most people have never heard of. Some work outside of the home. Some stay home (and kill birds, but that's another story). I have not a problem with any of this - until they stop making independent choices and merely base them on what they believe they 'should' be doing. I have a neighbor who denounces all other music that her husband doesn't like. How boring! I love a lot of music my husband doesn't, and vice versa. (He's got some coughGREATcough Pakistani chant music if anyone is interested ...)

Mostly, I get the impression they worry about this younger broad on the other end of the street.

You know, the one that is at least 15 years younger than everyone on the street. They are constantly on my ass about this being 'my starter marriage' and how they know what it's like to be me. (Hells to the no, with a side of not really!)

I'm the one that could care less if she's in the country club or what kind of car she drives. I stand up to my husband when he's the bully and call him names. I listen to my own music. I'm the one that refuses to put on makeup to go to the grocery store, and the one that chooses to .... (gasp!!) ... pierce her nose.

The conversations since then have been nothing short of entertaining:

BirdKiller: HDW, did you pierce your nose!?!
HDW: I did!
BirdKiller: I, um, just wouldn't have predicted YOU would been the kind to do this.

Ah, yes. "The kind". She must mean the independent thinking kind?

At another party, weeks later:

FemiNazi: You pierced your nose!
HDW: I did!
FemiNazi: Why would you think that looked good?
HDW: Why would you think your haircut looks good? It's all a matter of personal taste.

(meanwhile, her husband's tongue was wagging)

Seriously.

If this entire planet was full of people who did and looked the same, how BORING would that be!! I have a cousin who spent the majority of her early 20's living in a beat-up VW van, living down by a river (insert Matt Foley jokes here) and making macrame purses to sell outside of Bailey, CO. She had dred locks and hippie clothes and smoked a lot of weed. My Bapist family was in an uproar! How could she DO this? I was so proud of her. She knew early on who she was and she embraced this. How many of us can really say the same?

It's true. I don't believe a person on this street really and truly knows who they are. They haven't dug deep and found any substance. I know this. I have tried to have in-depth conversations with them. It's just not possible.

So - I'm 'the kind' to have a nose stud. It hasn't changed the fact that I still say "please" and "thank you". I'm still who I am, just with a little added decoration. My husband thinks it's sexy. My friends (who have noticed, actually) think it's fantastic.

I wish I would have known this about myself early on. I wish I would have cared less what people thought, and really just done my own thing. Better late than never, I suspect.