What 2 Do When You're Feeling Old

No seriously, what do you do? I left the question mark out of the title. Now it looks as if this is an advice column. You all probably thought I would impart some kind of wisdom. Well it won't be the first time you're ever wrong and (I can't help myself!) it won't be the last!

So here's the skinny. I wanted to change my avatar on twitter. This means a new picture which for me is an experience similar to water boarding. I am freakishly unphotogenic! I dislike 99% of all pictures taken of me. Maybe its that I prefer to live under the illusion that I look better than I really do! Welcome to the party in my head! So I put on a bit of makeup and got out my trusty Mac to take a picture with a nifty little app called Photo Booth. I took 16 pictures. Some with my glasses and some without.

Then the real fun began as I went through them to see if there were any I liked. It was like the elimination judging on America's Next Top Model except that all the judges in my head were the equivalent of Simon Cowell on a bad night of Idol. I saw some things I don't usually see when I look in the mirror. I began to see changes in my face. What I saw were the effects of gravity that my face has been exposed to for these 53 years. Not a lot but enough for me to take notice.

In the evening my unsuspecting husband came home. I told him about my venture in photography. He thinks I am crazy but he's known that about me for a very long time and yet he stayed! When he asked about the pictures I voiced my fears out loud. " I look old" is what I told him with a few tears in my eyes. My husband was great. He said and did all the right things. Still it didn't help. He's good at denying. He denied his receding hairline for years!

So what did I do ? Basically I went to sleep and woke up the next morning minus the monkey on my back! As I drifted off to sleep I admit to fantasizing about a plastic surgery procedure that didn't involve knives or injecting poison into my face. The fantasy also included me having enough money to afford this new procedure . That's how I know it was a fantasy! I guess that we're all going to have these moments. Short of plastic surgery there isn't a damn thing we can do about it. So be nice to yourself. Forgive your face for what its about to do.