I lost a friend yesterday, a friend I have had for no less than eight years. It's name was Remington, and a better hair dryer I have never known. I received it as a hand-me-down from my mom when I started high school (actually I took it from her because I liked the power it had in its blow). When I went away to college it came with me, this little Remington saw many parts of the world, and it stuck with me on my good hair days and my bad.
When I moved away from home my mom offered to buy me a new hair dryer. Every time she made this offer I said "no it works just fine and I like it, no need to waste money on a new one!" But I should have known.
I should have known that our time together was growing short. Just this August I had to borrow electric tape from my dad, after I got a small electrical shock from some exposed wire in the cord. I gave it a little red electrical tape "band-aid" (that's what I was calling it). Everyone thought I was odd... why wouldn't I just get a new one?? The thing is that this dryer just got the job done.... sure... the back filter was exposed so sometimes my hair got caught in the little fan in the back... sure there were places where it had melted on a curling iron... sure... most of the lettering had worn off... sure when I ran it it kinda smelled like it was burning... the point here is that over EIGHT YEARS I have had the same hair dryer and man was that thing awesome.
The day before it died I was getting ready for work and it started sparking at the point of connection between cord and device. I moved it around and realized if I held it a certain way I wouldn't have that problem. Risking lighting my hair on fire, I finished drying it making a mental note to pick up more electric tape on my way home... alas, I forgot... The next morning, drying my hair again, I forgot about holding my Remington at the right angle and it began sparking and sputtering again. I pulled it away from my hair long enough to see it spark, catch on fire for a brief second and finally the cord halfway detached from the dryer and the device shut itself off.
My hair dryer is dead... I find it a personal triumph that I was able to keep something like that for so long... yet, at the same time I feel like I lost a little part of myself. You know you live in a materialistic world when someone says they will miss their hair dryer, but I will. I decided against burying it (yes... I really did consider this) and instead decided to tell of it's heroic last attempt to save my hair. Thank you little hair dryer, you rocked.
(as a side note I always think it is a good idea to treat technology with respect and kindness... I always thank vending machines, when I throw my phone or hit my computer I apologize and I write obituaries for my hair dryer... all because one day if technology turns against us (if any of you listen to Dane Cook this is a quote from him) I am hoping the machines will peek their heads into my office and whisper "thanks for the candy" and continue on their merry way of world domination.)
