Observant

I was watching "V for Vendetta" the other night with S, and there's a scene at the beginning in which Natalie Portman's character Evey sits in front of a mirror getting ready for a night out. She's sitting there, brushing her curly hair.

"That's so fake," I said to S, all-knowingly. "People with curly hair don't brush it."

S is used to this. He asked me, while we were packing for San Francisco this spring, if I was brining a hairbrush. "Uh, no... I don't brush my hair."

"You don't? What do you do?"

"I comb it when it's wet in the shower, and then I lift it while towel-drying." I demonstrated for him the next time I washed my hair. If I take a brush to my head, it's Frizz City, and my hair, inherited from both my parents, has fairly loose curls which take a bit of coaxing with curl creme, mousse, and air-drying or diffusing. Trying to straighten it completely is a total time commitment, one which I do not undertake often, though my sister does quite frequently with her similarly textured hair.

Then, on Sunday we had family over for a fun afternoon, and in the evening, S popped Star Wars Episode 3 into the DVD player to watch with my little cousin Nick while everyone else played volleyball and talked.

My sister walked through the family room during the scene where Natalie Portman's character Padmé sits—you guessed it—brushing her hair.

"No way!" Andrea said. "She would never really brush her hair!"

"I know!" I replied.

"That's ridiculous."