...I ain't what I used to be.
So the mirror is giving me quite a show lately! Up until a few years ago everyone always commented on how young I always looked. Back in the day of my teaching career parents would marvel at how young I looked, saying I looked like one of the students. After I left teaching and became a mom the exclamations continued: "Your thirty????? Thirty five???? No way!!!" , people would always say. I was carded at every store and restaurant and would roll my eyes, while secretly cheering on the inside. Well, my friends, that gravy train has passed.
What started as an attack of a few random gray hairs has become a full frontal assault on my head. My own son has started to comment on them - yes, the son who can rarely hold a conversational exchange with me will wax poetic about the funny colored hairs on my head that "stick way up". My daughter will shake my legs and comment, with a giggle, how "jiggly" they are (mind you, I run about 20 miles a week) and point out my wrinkled knees. The creases in my forehead, once only appearing when I was befuddled, are now a permanent fixture. Trust me - I"m not confused this often!! And things are starting to sag - things, my friends, that shouldn't be sagging. Gravity is a cruel, cruel thing.
So what to do? What to do? I know I won't jump on the plastic surgery boat. I don't want things injected into me or sucked out of me. I can't imagine any kind of face lift - it always looks so obvious and just delays the inevitable. I don't own any beauty creams or anti aging formulas. Again, it just seems to be a waste of money trying to hold something at bay that will come no matter what. But the hair - oh the hair! I'm not ready to be gray. I think it's time to consider some color. I've never colored my hair (except for one time after an unfortunate "sun in" incident back in my 20's) and dread starting. I keep thinking it's going to be so dang expensive and I can never figure out what color to try so I don't look freaky. Do I go the expensive salon route, or try to do it myself at home? I can barely figure out how to wash, condition, and dry my hair, let alone color it. And I"m so cheap I usually don't hit the salon until my crazy curly frizz begins to resemble that of those small troll dolls. How to muster up the cash to pay the colorist every six weeks? I guess I"m going to have to think about this one a bit longer, and perhaps put "hair color" on my 40th birthday gift list.
To tell the truth, I'm really not that vain of a person. However, this aging thing takes some getting used to. I'm working on coming to terms with my changing appearance, and trying to accept much of it with grace and even some pride - because hey, this old gray mare has been through quite a lot out there in the fields. This body has grown 2 humans, given birth (the old fashioned way, and the surgical way), and nursed them for a year each. It has also donated an organ. I'd say this workhorse has earned her oats and should take pride in all the scars. My husband, God bless him, is always saying how much he loves my wrinkles and my gray hair - no seriously! He says it's exciting to see that we are, indeed, growing old together. I know it's his way of telling me that he loves how I look at any age and will think I am beautiful no matter what - but don't be fooled. It's also his way of softening the blow for himself. After all, he has WAY more gray hair than I do...
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