April | 2010 | Yakety Yak

Vanity, Thy Name Is Woman

April 10, 2010

I haven’t been feeling very good about myself lately. Although it shames me to admit it, much of my low self-esteem has to do with my suddenly and rapidly aging appearance. All I see when I look in the mirror are the jowls and sagging eyelids. It doesn’t help that I’ve also been having bad hair days every single day for quite a while now…

I don’t have a huge ego, and never thought of myself as a great beauty, or anything like that. In fact, I’ve always been quite insecure about my looks, especially because of my tendency to carry some extra pounds. However, for a long time, I did at least feel that I didn’t look my age, and was very grateful for that. But, lately I’ve been feeling like an old, fat hag.

Yesterday I received a compliment from a young man (forty years my junior) that did my heart (not to mention my battered and fragile sense of self-image) a lot of good. His Freshman Seminar class has been spending a fair amount of time in the computer lab, so we are pretty familiar with each other, and get along quite well. Still, it took me by surprise when Mr. Freshman greeted me with, “Hello, beautiful.” He took his seat across from my desk and went on to say, “You know, you really are very attractive.” I could have wept with gratitude. What a wonderful pick-me-up! Thank goodness for small favors and kindnesses that come along exactly when you need them most.

Moving right along… Here’s a real beauty.

My baby (Leigh) turned 22 yesterday. I can hardly believe it.

I also want to post these photos of a bird nest that was built in a butterfly net I keep on my back porch. The porch (it’s more of a mudroom, actually) is enclosed. The birds were getting in through a gap at the bottom of the door.