"One does not act like a Mormonk. One becomes one." ~The Mormonk

I'm officially starting to feel weird.

I'm over halfway done now. AUSTERITY marked the halfway point between the two full-moon festivals, and the second full-moon festival is when I'm going to let my hair start growing out again. Ten days later, I shave the goatee off and go back to being normal.

Well, OK, "normal" is a relative term.

Anyway, this morning as I shaved, I thought about what it would be like to finally shave off the goatee, and I actually started to panic. Apparently, I've become attached to it. I don't really like it, I prefer to be clean shaven; but actually shaving it off kind of spooks me.

The second thing was that I went to dinner without time to change out of my work clothes. It might be the first time I appeared in public without my robes since INITIATION, and it felt weird. I felt kind-of naked. Of course, I looked relatively normal to everyone else (again, "normal" is relative), but I felt like I wasn't dressed. Maybe sort of the same way you'd feel if you wore jeans to a formal dinner.

I'm going to miss being a Monk, when the time comes. Today is probably the first day I could really say that.

I really want to get the 'smile' experiment done before I finish. Wish me luck. No, I've never explained the 'smile' experiment, but I'll let you know more about it some other time. I'm tired, I'm up past my Monk curfew, and I'm going to bed.