Happy New Year

    And so after a full year of commitment the Vow of a Nazarite is fully at its close. At midnight January 1st 2013 I had my first drink of alcohol, a glass of Delirium Tremens. After that I enjoyed a couple Blue Moons and nursed a shot of whiskey. I did not get to sleep until four o clock this morning. I haven't done that in a good many number of years. It was so great to be with so many of my friends from different walks of life and celebrate the end of cycle and the beginning of a new one.
   This afternoon Amber and I drove out to L.A. for an appointment with a barber to shave off the beard. Unfortunately, he didn't show up. Amber being the amazing woman she is instantly jumped on Yelp and located a local barbershop at the Los Angeles Farmers Market. We went in and it was like going back in time to an old west barber shop. The young man was very cool and nice and we got right to work. He used clippers to trim down to the skin and we put the clippings into a bag for the final part of the vow which I will probably do this weekend. After the clippers I got a super fancy straight razor shave. The whole bit, too. The hot towel around the head and the cold towel at the end. I got some good smelling aftershave, too. Deluxe treatment style.
    I haven't seen this face in a long time. Its a lot skinnier than it's been in years and I remind myself of myself from ten years ago, but with a lot less hair on my head. I'm still plugging away at the Journey of the Book and now with my Apologetics Bible I'll keep busy for a good long while. This blog is coming to an end, though. The final part of the Vow will be recorded in my own personal account of the year. Here's to a new year and a new chapter of life.

I tried to remember to document the progression of beard, but I forgot after about three months. We did have some chronology though.

January 1, 2012. I had already been growing the beard over the Winter Break. I weighed 175 lbs.

 

    January 29, 2012. After one month the beard was itchy and I was just starting to run consistently. 

February 21, 2012. Around this time we were juicing a lot and I was running a mile every other day. 

        May 5, 2012  This is my favorite beard phase. I think if I got it this long again and was able to keep it cut regularly I could have a pretty sweet beard. I might try for this again in the future.

October 29th 2012.   My beard didn't get much longer than this. I do not have the genetic stability to get a good Moses beard. Its okay, though. At least I know I tried. 

    December 31, 2012. All in all I lost almost 40 lbs and went down two and a half pant sizes.

  January 1, 2013.  All good things must come to an end. The beard is gone, but this clean shaven junk is for the birds. I can't wait to grow back some face fuzz.

For now I'm off to discover if I prefer scotch over bourbon.....