It's a little like wallpaper...

...like when you decide to put a nice tropical stripe

on  your kitchen walls

and add a palm-tree border around the ceiling--

or some stenciling.

Then, a few years later,

after you've tired of the stripe,

you add a little sponge painting

and some sparkles.

Sometimes you do it yourself--

and risk a messy divorce--

and sometimes you hire someone else

to do it for you.

At some point you decide to sell the place

and you realize your walls are

hopelessly out-of-date.

So you begin peeling the layers off

and you can't believe what's underneath.

And you wonder why you went through

all that effort all those years

trying to keep up with styles

and what was trending now.

Maybe you should have just washed those walls

and put a little mousse on them now and then.

Today Clara, my Cali hairdresser,

cut my hair.

She said I'm 98% of the way

to my natural color--which, to my surprise,

is salt and pepper,

with more pepper than salt.

I'm quite pleased with the renovation

and I'm happy to say

my wallpapering days are over.