flying naked

I am in the process of growing my hair out.

I think.

It's still in the very early stages, by which I mean it's still quite short.

The thing that I am going to really miss about short hair, though, is waking up to seeing this
in the mirror.

See, Sonic the Hedgehog is my very favorite video game. Ever. In fact, I thrill to the sound of my nephew, Ollie, asking me to play it with him. I also try not to hog the controller too much, but it physically hurts me inside to see him just skip over a whole cache of coins--or worse a man up! He will sometimes put those little super fast boots on and just fly through the whole stage, ending in record time, sure, but not even giving himself a fighting chance at the bonus level.

I have heard more than once, Jessic, can I play now?

I will say, however, that a term he coined for the game is genius and hilarious. He's my nephew, so what did you expect? When Sonic has not one coin left to his name, having lost them all by some brush with death, and now making it so that the next brush with death will end in actual death unless he can add some coins to his life supply, Ollie calls this flying naked.

His exact words were, Uh-oh Jessic, you're flying naked!

And Lyric (his sister, my niece) and I cracked up.

In fact, that isn't the only time Ollie has mentioned naked and Jessic in the same sentence, sad to say. When he was about three, I was doing the National Tour of the Will Rogers Follies. We were in Naples, and my brother Jason, his wife Darby, and Lyric and Ollie had come down.

Now, we wear some costumes that show some skin in this show, let's be honest. There was one particular number called Jewels for Mrs. Rogers in which all 12 of us ladies paraded around stage dressed in these elaborate gowns covered in Swarovski crystals and looking like a million bucks. In fact, when Will Rogers Follies first opened on Broadway, that scene was the most expensive to date. Anyway, I was the Sapphire, and my gown hung off me in a toga-like drape. The truth of the matter was that I did have a nude unitard on underneath, but to the audience, the skin to dress ratio might have looked a little unbalanced with skin coming out on top.

After the show, we were driving to get some food, me sitting between the kids in the backseat. Darby was asking Ollie what his very favorite part was, and he took some time to ponder his response. Since he was all of three, I wondered if he remembered any of the scenes at all.

Um, turns out he did.

Finally, Ollie blurted out, I liked it when you were naked, Jessic.

Just like that. My little innocent nephew not only thought he saw me naked, but also liked it.

Oh man.

I told Ollie to look at me and explained to him in no uncertain terms that he did not see his Aunt Jessica naked, dancing around on stage. You understand, buddy? I asked, envisioning years and years of therapy for him down the road, unless we got this little misunderstanding cleared up right now.

He nodded, but I couldn't help but notice the faintest little smile playing around his lips.

Of course Jason and Darby thought this was hilarious. And I really can't blame the little guy, like I said a lot of the costumes were designed to make us look pretty close to naked.

But. I. Wasn't. Naked.

Oh, but all that to say that I love Sonic the Hedgehog and don't mind paying homage to him with my hair every once in a while.

And I am really glad that I don't have to ever be flying naked in real life.

Um, or on stage.