ICE, POLITICS, INSANITY & OLD AGE

I TOLD YOU IT WAS COLD IN RUSTON!

For some reason Fox News has been on, non-stop here in Vienna. What started as watching the Iowa Caucas returns, drifted into Britney In-Sanity. I do not really like to watch the news as-nausem, but BC is Mr. Politco. Since the writer's strike, there is FOR SURE nothing on TV these days, so I surf the net and listen to the news with one ear while BC comments upon each and every political happening or non-happening. I will not comment upon the presidental race, but will leave that for BC. I normally avoid confrontation at all cost, so I hold my cards close to my chest and spare you my philosophy lecture.

When Britney hit the news again, I was saddened. Her poor children! I for one cannot believe Britney is so important that we need to know every detail of her sordid life reported on the national news. I usually refuse to watch it and do not discuss it with anyone. Just like any other black eye that Louisiana has suffered, she would be better off forgotten by us all. Her children though have not asked for this and I suffer for them when the latest details became public. What she doesn't seem to realize is that these children will live with the scars from her ridiculous behavior for the rest of their lives. GIVE THOSE CHILDREN A BREAK, Britney. GROW UP & be the mother you should be. The kids come first-way behind you and your selfish self absorbed life. For once, put someone else in front of you and your self-fulfilling-sad life. BE THE GROWNUP!

When I went to get my haircut yesterday, I was once again confronted with the wall of mirrors. It inspired me to write this little short story. My friend, Helen, told me this AM to just keep writing and it will get better. This is a subject that most of us women at least think about, so all you women-ENJOY!

Sally Ann slowly slipped her long legs out from under the cover. She pointed her toes toward the end of the bed in an effort to get the blood flowing and muscles stretched out. Her day had once again started early-certainly earlier than she had intended. For some strange reason, sleeping late evaded Sally Ann these days. Today was Sally Ann’s birthday and the number of birthdays that had passed was staggering. How had this happened! Sally Ann felt just like she had on her 21st birthday. Well maybe not just like she had, but certainly not the age she really was. Why just yesterday she had raked the yard, cleaned the house from stem to stern, and made a big supper for Jim Bob. Now maybe she did have to stop and get her breathe ever so often, but she had been really pushing to get all of that done. Well foot, she could work circles around all of those college girls and teenagers she saw at church every Sunday. Those girls could eat her smoke as she whizzed by them doing her daily chores. Girls today just seemed caught up in themselves or the rock stars and movie stars they all so idolized. They spent all of their time trying to figure out just how to avoid any honest labor and wishing for instant riches. Sally Ann had lived long enough to realize that those wishes were all in vain. They might as well just settle down and prepare for what life had in store. No matter what your intentions were, life just had a way of steering you right down the path you never intended. Truth be told, life had been good; there were no riches, but Sally Ann and Jim Bob had lived comfortably and even enjoyed some of the “good life” that these young ones so desired.

Feet on the ground, Sally Ann started the same path she trod every morning to the bathroom and then to the kitchen. There were days that Sally Ann felt like she could just put her body unto automatic pilot, sort of like they had in airplanes now, and just push the go button. Once Sally Ann had reached the same mirror that she had been staring at for more years than she could remember, she stopped and stared. WHO IN THE WORLD was that woman in her bathroom!! Sally Ann slowly recovered from her alarm as her eyes became focused and she realized it was just her own reflection. WHOA-what in the world had happened to the Sally Ann of the past and who had been changing her looks during the night?

As Sally Ann stood with her mouth open, she thought about just what she was seeing. The once firm skin had begun to slowly sag and now on this birthday there seemed a good chance that the skin on her face might just become the skin on her neck. The jowls were hanging just under the point where she should have a chin line and the skin seemed to all melt together into a glob of mushy hide. There were deep lines on both sides of her mouth that seemed to pull her lips down into a permanent scowl. Someone had once told her these were laugh lines. Well one thing was for sure, what had been so funny at one time had left scars that were not at all funny now. The lines beside her eyes were deep and etched the edge of her face all the way back to her hairline. They called these lines crows’ feet. Sally Ann thought she looked like an entire flock of crows had been tramping around on her face.

Well Sally thought, it must be time to get all of this fixed before she could no longer recognize the person in the mirror. She knew women in her small home town that had done just that. They had gone to some fancy “plastic surgeon” in the big city and had what was called a “face lift”. Sally Ann had seen a couple of these women right after they had “fixed” their faces. Why it looked like they probably couldn’t get their eyes closed at night. Sally Ann was not sure if she wanted that “surprised deer” in the headlight look, but surely there was something between floppy and taunt. She had heard that this hurt a lot for a while and you had to have time to recover. Sally Ann had her doubts about the “pain thing”. Who in the world WANTED to be in pain and would do something knowing it was going to cause pain? As for recovery or down time, who would clean the house, cook the meals, keep the yard up, and do the shopping? Jim Bob was a hard worker and Sally Ann knew he didn’t have time for any added chores. How could she ask him to take over her jobs so that she could look like she had 20 years ago.

Sally Ann looked back at the mirror one more time. She sighed and gave a little grin that reflected back at her. Well Sally Ann certainly wanted to look as young as she felt, but for today that would have to be delayed. There was too much to do and too little time to do it in. As she turned to walk to the kitchen and begin the daily routine, Sally Ann gave a little giggle. She would just run down to Wal Mart and buy some lower wattage light bulbs. After all if you couldn’t see clearly what was in the mirror and Jim Bob seemed happy, what was the hurry? Wrinkled and saggy the fact was that Sally Ann was just as young as she felt and today that was just fine with her.
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