Recently, however, I have started one activity I've never done, that has been available for me to undertake for roughly two decades. I have decided to grow a beard. I've always observed bald patches whenever I let a couple of days go by without shaving, so I feared how it would go, but so far the reception has been fairly positive. Kathy was somewhat alarmed at first, and for the first week, she found the growth scratchy on her face. Since then, however, the hair has softened and she's grown to like it, though lately her smiles when she looks my way sometimes make me feel like she's doing her damnedest to suppress a laugh.
I last shaved the Friday before Christmas, so it has accumulated about 2.5 weeks of growth. I have no idea whether I'll keep it, but I do plan to let it fill in. At that point, I'll post a pic, but in the meantime I figured I'd show you how I don't look. Here's my usual picture at RateBeer (taken in Rostock, Germany the summer of 2002):
And here's how my friend CapFlu, upon hearing that I was growing a beard, Photoshopped (I love verbing nouns) it:
I may end up looking just like Mr. Flu's artwork suggests, but I think I'm still a couple of weeks (and a tattoo) away.
