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I was really hoping to get my hair cut today.

I had an entire Thursday off, and though I don't exactly have the nine inches of hair needed to donate my ponytail to Locks of Love (click for link), the edges of the bowl are getting a little ragged, so I called my niece this morning to see if she could fit me into her schedule. My niece is a twenty-five year old single mom, working full-time as a professional salon stylist, as she works hard to raise my nearly two year old nephew. Or is it my grand-nephew? How does that work again?

So I sent her a text from my cell phone this morning and asked if she was working. She seems to have a history of changing phones, so I included "from Uncle Jay" in my text, in case she didn't recognize my number, which has happened in the past. The response I got threw me a little bit. The reply said she was on her honeymoon until Tuesday.

I stared at my phone for a full minute, and tried to process this information. My niece, by her own admission, hasn't been in a relationship for some time now, so the idea of a honeymoon seemed unlikely, or even a secret elopement. I decided that, surely, she must be making a joke, so I replied back, "Honeymoon?", and continued on a confusing exchange.

"Yeah, that trip you go on after you get married! LOL"

"Married?!?"

"Uh, yeah!"
(long pause from me...)
"Ok, I'm very confused. I was just hoping to get my hair cut by my lovely niece."

"Well, I've never cut hair, but I could try."
(another long pause by a further confused me, until she replied again...)
"I just got this phone a month ago, and I don't have an Uncle Jay. Who is this?"

This is when I finally remembered that my niece had told me last time she cut my hair that she had a new cell number, but I had been too busy to write it down, or put it into my phone.
I sent one last text to "random texting honeymoon girl", explaining that I had an old number,
and that I was sorry for bothering her. She didn't seem too bothered.

After all, she spent 20 minutes texting me from her honeymoon.

I called my sister later and told her the story, and she didn't seem too happy with the idea of a surprise wedding by her daughter, and I had to remind her that it wasn't actually her.

As I thought about it later, it occurred to me that this sort of textual confusion could quite easily become embarrassing, if one thought they were texting a loved on, only to find out that they had been hitting the wrong contact. Perhaps even worse, if that contact was actually known to you.

Fortunately, I had only been in search of an honest haircut, so I managed to hang up with my dignity intact. Unfortunately, I never did connect with my niece, so I never got that haircut. Funny thing though.....when I finally got her new number, her voice mail said that she was out of town for a few days.

Wait a minute......

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