Annie's Hair Shop

This is Annie, owner of our neighborhood Annie's Hair Shop which is 2 blocks away on Eastlake. I was way overdue for a haircut and love that I can usually get one within 24 hours of when I decide it can't wait any longer. (as long as it's wed through sat). Annie is French, and likes to talk (maybe that's a requirement of hairdressers?). Today I found out what brought her to Seattle. She was born and raised on a farm in France near the Swiss border but hasn't lived with her family (on purpose) since she was 15. She came to Washington D.C. when she was 18 and except for 2 years away at school in France, spent the next 10 years as a nanny there. She loved this life: room and board, and then when you had your days off, you were FREE! To go to D.C and socialize, see museums etc was the perfect life. (No she didn't have a camera and stash away rolls of negatives...like Vivian Maier!).) If it paid more, she might still be a good nanny. Her last family was very good to her, paid her for time off and encouraged her to take trips when they were away on a trip of their own... that's how she traveled to Seattle. (she liked to carve and was told there were wonderful carvings to see in Seattle -like totem poles etc, ) She got disillusioned with D.C. because if "you weren't a lawyer or a government worker, you were not respected." A Nanny wasn't respected. She wanted her own business so took a government hairdressing course at night, but hairdressers weren't respected there either. She liked Seattle, it reminded her of the beautiful countryside she lived in as a child, and she came here to buy a house, fix it up herself with her considerable carpenter skills, rent out part of it, remodel a room in the back with separate entrance for her hairdressing shop, and be respected with her own business. She thinks people in Seattle are more genuine. She likes to go camping with her dogs. She doesn't go back to France often, but has toyed with the idea of living there again, until she visited her family last month for the first times in 10 years, and was reminded of all the things about France she doesn't like. "The French are sexist pigs, and much too pretentious and not all all progressive." Where else would some people decide that meat from animals who haven't been stunned before they were slaughtered tastes better? (even tho there is a law against this)??!

I took this picture out in her yard with one of her 2 little white "children", Daisy, because Annie is also a wonderful gardener and it's a treat to walk through the garden to get to her shop. I'm glad she's happy in this neighborhood! And I'm happy with my haircut!

Am attaching a OneStreet tag because it's on Eastlake, one of my OneStreets.