The Lady Of The House

It's a testament to my theater training that I can get through that without saying, "Thanks for torching the planet, Grammie. I hope you and Pop-Pop don't speed up dementia by using it too much!"

If your main consumers and boosters of your tech are at the end of their time on earth, uh, that's not a solid business plan. The public facing aspects of this tech are not in a good way.

Anyway. I put in extra volunteering time today because the air conditioner flooded the bathrooms and a whole floor in the main building. So some folks got the gallery tour of a lifetime because I felt bad that so much was off limits.

Lookit this wild bb i spotted at my sister-in-law's place. Mom was nearby.

If you're reading this, you've outlived Lindsey Graham.

But here's the thing: We've forgotten what 47 looks like on women's faces. I don't smoke and am pretty much an indoor cat. I haven't done botox or fillers or any procedures. When people start that stuff young it warps our ideas about what aging looks like. Everyone looks an uncanny 35-40.

Yes, genetics and all that, but honestly it's more that we *think* 47 is supposed to look haggard. 47 looks... fine! Just fine. Like a face, yanno? I've got sun damage, lines where people get lines, my neck is slowly headed towards my ever-dropping boobs. But this is far from the crone stuff young people fear.

I have neither the time, money, or emotional space to fight time and gravity as they go at my face. Maybe I'll hit my 60s and feel differently. But I've spent too much of my life already indulging ideas of beauty that have only ever tried to crush me. I hate that we're moving even deeper into a new "crush women with beauty standards" era.

It's nice to get a compliment. But it's also a little odd. Because it's something I play no real part in other than being alive. And also, people have been so bombarded with Demi Moore and Emma Stone and every Kardashian, that we have no idea what age IS.

It is *fine* to have all the work done if you want it. It is *fine* if that makes moving in the world better for you. (You cannot convince me that repeatedly sticking needles in your face over many years doesn't traumatize the skin, but that's for another day.) It's also okay to see if riding it out as you are is the way you wanna live.

I promise that as of this very moment looking 47 and gently starting to slide is perfectly fine. And less expensive.

My last thought is that if you laugh a lot when you're with people and do your best to keep a playful spirit at work, etc., people will assume you're young.

He teasingly said "they should get reparations too." Like, har har, what a joke.

So I looked him dead in the eyes and said enthusiastically, "Truly! From your lips to God's ear."