Yay, this one should do it!

-----

Cesar Alvarez only had short hair twice in his life. Raised by his Spanish grandparents, during his elementary school years he had long hair, and the teachers complained to his grandparents, so they cut his hair.

"If you look up the meaning of my name, it means long hair or hairy," he says proudly.

So after the frustration of having his hair cut in elementary, he let his hair grow all the way down the back of his 5-foot-7-inch frame during his high school years in California. That length only lasted for a few years as he had his hair cut due to a lost football bet with his brother. Since he didn't have the $200 to pay the bet, his brother shaved his whole head.

"I just love long hair," he readily admits. "Even on my daughter, Isis. She's 8, and her hair is down to her mid-back. She likes my hair long too. Every time I say I'm going to cut my hair, she says, no. So it goes both ways."

Alvarez, a GCI Wireless tech, notes that people give him lots of compliments.

"Especially from a lot of women," he adds.

Having long hair is mostly a joy for Alvarez, although he does remember one day in California when it was very windy: "I closed the door, and my hair got caught in it."

He's also asked what Native American tribe he is from.

During a job interview, he said the company wanted him to cut his hair, and he answered that if he had to cut his hair, he wasn't going to take the job.

"They had to like me the way I am," he concluded. "I can't see myself with short hair ever.

"When I'm old, I picture myself as one of those guys you see around who are half bald with a ponytail. That's going to be me."

-----

The end!

Thanks!  That was fun.

I just read all four installments...g

That was great juri. Thanks for sharing. :)

Very interesting...Once again, thank you for posting it. I enjoyed reading them!

Thank you for sharing, Juri :) I enjoyed this article very much.

Did you type all that? ETA: I just checked. Thank you so much for doing that for us!

Anais

Arigato Juri-Chan!  ;D

Thank you Juri for posting.  It seems to be one of the more positive articles on long hair, except for the crack about short people, I've seen.  
Hope your fingers have recovered! 8)

You're welcome, everyone! I'm glad you enjoyed the article!

Iie, doitashimashite, Panpeus chan!


wrote on Jul 21^st, 2005 at 11:16pm:

Hope your fingers have recovered! 8)

They have, thanks! :)

wrote on Jul 22^nd, 2005 at 6:35pm:

Iie, doitashimashite,

What? That's not how I spelled "you're welcome" in Japanese. I guess there's an automatic censorship thingy.

Now... if you could only phonetically spell it for those of us who are Japanese challenged. :) and wish to speak with a less western accent.

Not knowing any Japanese, I have no idea what the auto censor program did to your post. Putting dashes between letters will allow you to spell the word and teach us!

I wonder if I should call this reply "mini Japanese lesson".

Anyway, I'm going to break up "you're welcome" into syllables. It's do-i-ta-shi-ma-shi-te. The "i-i-e" part is to make the message more polite so it basically reads, "no, you're welcome." In my Japanese class we were supposed to use "iie, daijobudesu" and that means "no, it's okay," but the native Japanese speakers in my Japanese calligraphy class usually say "iie, doitashimashi-te".

This might be a little confusing, but the pronounciation for "Iie, doitashimashi-te" is basically like this (and anyone is welcome to correct me):

Iie--long E sound with a hard A at the end (EeA)
Doi--rhymes with "toy" (doy)
ta--(tah)
shi--kind of like saying "she" but with a soft "e"
ma--(mah)
shi--sounds like a fast "shh". Sometimes the "i" is skipped over
te--(tay)

Put it all together and I think it might sound like "EeA, doy-tah-she-mah-sh-tay". That looks really weird, but it's the nearest I can explain without actually being there and pronouncing it in person.

Kind of pointless info, but yesterday when I was coming out of Borders, an elderly man held the door open for me and so I said "Thank you" and he replied with "Gomen kudasai" (I think it's said when entering someone's home). He probably thought I was a Japanese tourist and since I wasn't expecting anyone to use Japanese on me, I had this confused look on my face. Then he said "Sumimasen--iie, doitashimashi-te"(Trans. "excuse me/I'm sorry--you're welcome"). It was nice of him to try and communicate in what he probably thought was my native language so I didn't have the heart to tell him I spoke English. I ended up smiling politely before going on my way.  ^_^

That's really cool and thanks! 8)

Iie, doitashimashi-te!  ;)