My sister-in-law Eugenia, up and got married the day after Christmas. She’d been fixin’ to do this for many months. Why she felt compelled to try and trump Santa Claus and Jesus Christ was beyond me, but hey, I suppose when you’re in love, you’re in love. I am sure the 5th time will be the charm.

Anyway, Eugenia, her Momma and her best friend Inelle have been working on this thing for months. Tying rice all up, ordering cake, cleaning the burger wrappers and soda cans out of the truck, picking out dresses, frettin’ over the weather, the church, the guests, and pretty much everything else. You’d think after having done this four times already, they’d ‘bout have this whole wedding thing figured out.

On Saturday morning before the wedding, Ms. Eugenia and her Momma take all the “bridesmaids” out to have their hair “done.” Being as how this is Eugenia’s 5th wedding, she’s about bridesmaided out all her friends. Now she is using her daughter, my our daughter, the two daughters of her new husband, her best friend’s daughter, the daughters of her sisters, brothers, and the new man’s sisters. Nine bridesmaids ages 2 years old to 16. The oldest one being my daughter.

For all you men out there and women not from the South, having your hair “done” down here is not like getting a hair cut, or a permanent or anything like that. Having it “done” is kind of like frosting a wedding cake, or better yet, decorating the Christmas tree on top of Macys. It involves largeness. You might say, having your hair “done”, really involves having it overdone. Anyway, Saturday morning, they load these nine girls into cars and haul them down to Queen Frostine’s Hairport where apparently they will “do” young girls’ wedding hair for $15 a piece. The next time I saw my daughter she was looking like a Texas beauty queen. We are talking high hair. Big huge hair. Don King nirvana hair.

So where am I going with all this, and what the heck does it have to do with health care? Not a damn thing. The point of it is this is a very busy time of year and while you were running around like a chicken with its head cut off, then eating a big ‘ol holiday Who Feast and are now in a post holiday food coma, the U.S. Senate passed a nasty piece of health legislation that is going to reach into your pocket and a hairball of big hair proportions. While the nation is coming out of its holiday food coma and hangover the Senate and House will be trying to cram their two pieces of legislation together in a process called reconciliation. I would liken this to trying to put Kahlid Sheikh Muhammed in a dress. Ugly to begin with, a nasty fight in between, and even uglier when completed. Boys and girls, if this thing gets thing is done we are not going to be able to put a bag over its head and pretend it’s something it’s not. We need to work together to send the whole ugly duck back to the drawing board.