I forgot to wear my hat...

First, understand that I LIKE hats.  I've been wearing hats for as long as I can remember.  I grew up in the vineyards just outside of Lodi, CA in a little place called Acampo.  We had a postage stamp sized farm because my mother, raised on a working ranch as a girl could not leave her 'country-girl' roots behind.  On the one to two acres that made up the property there were various fruit trees, vegetable gardens, a HUGE strawberry patch, a chicken coop, a bird aviary, and the pasture.  The house wasn't huge, but it wasn't small either.  It was, really, perfect.  Idyllic I daresay.

I spent my summers and free time playing in the vineyards with my brother and mates from the ranch just down the road from our place.  (we could see their horses across the vineyard that separated our properties).  This meant I spent a lot of time outside playing baseball and the boy's favorite, War.  You needed a hat.  So, like the rest of the children I played with, I wore a baseball hat.  I gave up baseball hats for a while in the 80's, when other more fashionable hats caught my eye.  But I still wore my hats.  And after a time, went back to them.

I always have at least two of them tucked away... usually a few more than that.  I have three in rotation right now.  :)   And usually, especially since my hair has been going through one of those awkward, in-between stages, I wear one of my baseball hats.

...today I forgot.

It might not seem like such a big thing.  Some might even argue that, well, I look much better without a hat on, especially a boyish baseball hat.  Honestly though, it's only convention that makes them 'boyish'.  They're a highly functional hat in terms of design.  I love 'em.  When I have a migraine, my baseball hat offers protection from the light.  When it's windy my hat keeps my hair from getting all in my face and mussed about.   It keeps the wet off of my glasses.  ...and I can hide behind them.

I mentioned to a friend recently that I have a knack for actually seeing what's going on around me.  (okay, I'm a little nearsighted in some aspects of my life, but that's a story for another day)  If you've known me long enough, you'll have picked up on how often I have dark shades on.  I wear them a lot.  Hide behind them.  I'm more introverted than folks think really and often observe what's going on around me carefully.  The hat offers protection in the same manner the glasses do... putting up a tiny little barrier between myself and the world.  I become anonymous in hat and glasses and vanish easily into the crowd.  Makes sense that I'd find comfort standing behind a camera.  ;)  The photographer is the invisible artist.  Our art lives and breathes through our eyes and what we 'see'.

So...knowing ALL of this....   I forgot my hat today.

I can't hide.

thank goodness my hair is reaching a non-awkward state and is almost acceptable today.  thank goodness my skin is hydrated and pink and flawless.  I may no longer have the face of a sixteen year old, but I certainly don't look my years either.  I've no grey hair.  My eyes are bright and clear, and I'm told that I have a pretty face.  All in all, nothing to really worry about hiding.  But I don't like not having my hat.

I want my hat dangit.