Beard Deconstruction Project: Stage 2

Oh my...

Yeah, so Stage Two was probably the worst: The Free-Floating Chops. This was an off-the cuff suggestion by a news anchor-co-worker of mine. When he suggested this, it reminded me of a friend of a friend who had sported this for a short time. I remember all of our friends' reactions to when he showed up with this thing living on his face. We were all so angry at him for being so awesome, and I wanted a taste of that.

The day at work went as horribly at I looked. Avid randomly froze and crashed and didn't come back that day, so we were down to one machine for three of us. It sucked. The saving grace of the day was the comedy, discussion, and special visits that the -do Project brought to us.

After the workday, I called my brother Mark and told him I was stopping by to see him--or rather, so he could see me. I believe the phrase "Dude, you gotta see this shit!" was uttered at least twice during our conversation. In my haste to share the ridiculousness of my current look with him, I forgot that he also has young children. I could only hope that adorable little apple of the Tauzin family's collective eye would not turn and run away in horror when "Uncle Dahs" showed up looking a bit creepier than usual.

Thankfully, after seeing me in this state, Kylie didn't run away in tears. (Above is a pic from what I imagine is her perspective.) She actually gave me a big hug, which immediately made my day. She also had the grace to not mention my look at all, which she may or may not have found personally reprehensible. She's that classy...even at two and a half years old. And I'm still hoping that I didn't mentally scar little 2-month-old Mason...

Mark and his wife giggled at how strange and unique they think I am while Mark's in-laws thought it "didn't look that bad".

This is me, "tucking it back".

From there, I went to volleyball. That's right. I went to ANOTHER public place looking like this. There were a few questions about the new look. Now, I only see these people once a week, so not many people knew that this was a jok-- ...um...project. Accordingly, a couple of them gave me the "nice new look" courtesy comment. But there was one True Believer among them who knew what was up. And for that, he gets his own paragraph shout-out.

At the end of the night, D.J. (the aforementioned The Tauz Fan) struck up a conversation about the process. He admitted that he'd not only pondered my proposed undertaking, but had gone so far as doodling little beards at work and eliminating portions of them in phases with his White-Out pen. This made me inexplicably happy. And even though he didn't make an official suggestion, I appreciated it all the same. Word.

I came up with this...it's me mimicking motorcycle handlebars. Cuz it kinda looks like a handlebar moustache. This is how I ended my day. Tomorrow...I pay tribute to another rock pioneer...WITH MY FACE! Stay tuned.