Wrinkle that Forehead Proudly!

I don't mind telling you, I no longer strive to be Superwoman! Or Wonder Woman either, though I like the bracelets. Right now I can name probably 20 women I know who do more than any one human being should do on a daily basis. Among the duties are driving kids in carpool, working full time, cooking meals, grocery shopping, caring for aging parents, home and/or car maintenance (whether or not there is a spouse), accountant, nurse, fashion consultant, the Dear Abbey of her circle, Sunday school teacher, travel planner for the household, and the list goes on and on.Which brings me to my day's topic. Why is it that for some, all of that accomplishment and service is not enough? Now the pressure is ON to inject poison into your forehead and inflate your lips like an innertube. And don't be happy unless your teeth are blue-white and all curvular areas of your body are symmetrical.No offense to the board certified plastic surgeons out there. I am grateful to the ones who carefully removed my previous skin cancers and saved my life. And I'm especially grateful to the ones who are skilled at healing the disfigured and helping to restore their confidence. I do believe there are very good reasons for plastic surgeries and would like to go on record as saying so.That said, it is a peeve of mine to see stars on television whose eyebrows don't lift when they laugh, or who have to cover their mouth when they smile because their lips don't move. (Anyone see Priscilla Presley recently?) And if I never saw another puffy mouth again, my life would be no less rich.The other day as I was putting on my makeup and dabbing it here and there with wrinkle-filler, I came to the conclusion that my looks are not as distinctive as they once were. There seems to be a phase of life from about age 3 to the late 30's when we each look very uniquely "us." Think about it. Newborn babies look very much alike, and continue to look alike until around 6-12 months. Oh yes, you can tell them apart, but they generally all have smooth skin, button noses, little round faces, little to no hair whose color is yet undetermined, they don't walk and they all dress alike. Then there is the other end of life. Elderly people all have gray hair, most wear glasses, the skin is wrinkled, and they dress alike. If God had a reason to bring us into the world as look-alike babies, I trust that he has an equally good reason to take us out (should we live long enough) as beings with the experience of life written on our faces.
I'm not a Jamie Lee Curtis, cut-all-your-hair-off and let-the-gray-hang-out kind of earth mother. On the contrary, my philosophy has been and will continue to be that if you can spray it on or rub it in, it is fair game. (Thank you, Miss Clairol!) But when I think of my precious grandmother whose wrinkled smile and hearty laugh could light up a room, poofing the lips and pulling my face up into a knot seems far less important than bringing light and encouragement to other people. I would rather my epitaph say something like "She was really neat!" than "Her eyebrows never moved!"
So to all of the Wonder Women out there who feel any less important because you may have circles under your eyes from lack of sleep or your lipstick feathers more than it used to, I lift my bracelets in salute! You earned every bit of it and I hope you will wear it proudly! (Unless of course there is something you can easily rub in or spray on...) ;-)

My Life Offline... For Almost a Month!

O.K., it has been exactly five weeks to the day since we moved. Only eight hours in nearly 100 degree heat and we were in the new place. I have to say the guys at Full House Moving were simply the best movers I have ever had, and I have moved homes and offices more times than I care to count. If you're in the North Dallas/suburbs area, I highly recommend them. I would like not to recommend the phone company with which we were forced to sign on because they are the only company that services our area. We were very happy having our telephone and DSL service with Verizon. We found them to be prompt, efficient and responsive. Then it came time to switch. Being ever the administrator, I carefully orchestrated our switch for phone and computer service so that we would have minimal, if any, interruption. We were given a new phone number and it was hooked up the day we moved, as planned. Not so lucky with the DSL connection, but I'll get to that in a minute.It seems we live in a suburban area that is long distance from any surrounding areas including the neighboring suburb we just left. And it was also long distance to call anyone around here. Knowing that I had not had to dial a "1" before calling the previous home owner, I called the phone company to see what was up. It seems I could add extended local calling for an additional $10 per month. Not my favorite answer, but one I could live with. Oh, and in order to add that feature we would have to change the phone number again. Fine. Gritted teeth. And there would be a $38 charge to change that which I flatly refused to pay and was finally assured would not be billed to our account. I know, this is becoming a long story. Well, it took a solid seven days in a row of me calling this company and wading through the automated menu to get to a human being each time. After about five minutes of that, I would finally be greeted with "Hello, this is [name], how may I make you a very satisfied customer today?" (Try listening to that for the seventh day in a row!) My response was usually something like, "You can if you can get my phone number to successfully switch to the new one like it was supposed to a week ago!" At one point I even said to one of the Helpful Happy People, "I heard this company was bad, but I could never have even guessed how bad it could be!"O.K., so we finally got that all straightened out (of course I haven't received the bill yet). In the meantime, we received the modem for our DSL. My husband the IT guy was anxious to get it all set up so got busy right away installing it. One catch. They sent us a dead modem. No power. None. Zilch. We couldn't even use slow old dial-up because, guess what, no modem! So began a whole new series of "How can I make you a very satisfied customer today?" calls which finally ended in my saying "Please cancel the order for DSL!!!" That night we received the new modem on our doorstep and I now keep receiving computerized confirmation calls and letters saying that our DSL is officially up and running. Why am I rambling on about my "poor me" experience? Mostly to vent, I'll admit. But also to say that even the best laid plans go awry sometimes and you have absolutely no control over them. I hear so many people beat themselves up over things that go wrong when things just GO WRONG sometimes. As ludicrous as my story was, there is absolutely nothing I could have done about it. It was a comedy of errors from the beginning and that company just couldn't make it right. (I predict a short future for them, by the way.)On a lighter note, we are very happy in our new home! The phone and computer problems are finally behind us (I hope!) and we are enjoying a new beginning! We have room to breathe, my daughter happily circles the first floor (around and around and around) and life is good. By the way, I just checked out a friend's new blog today: http://antiquemommy.blogspot.com/We are both Moms of toddlers and in our 40's. She is very funny. Check it out for yourself!