What happened to me?
Judy Conlin
The whole world knows that I’ve been sick because I have been complaining about it since my first symptoms. I can’t stand being sick. I’ll take it for a day or two, but after that I want to be done with it. This has gone on for weeks. I’ve been mostly confined to quarters and I cannot stand that. I want to be out and about doing my thing. I found out that a long illness is anything but restful. Daily washing, fumigating, and disinfecting all clothing, dishes and daily use articles fill up your days and then, of course, there are the cats, who don’t care if you are ill or not. Their wants and needs must be met. Therefore, when I got the all clear to finally emerge from my cocoon this week, I was delighted.
I rose early Tuesday morning delighted to be going out into the world again. My first meeting was with my theater group. I was excited and happy as I took care of the cats and had breakfast. I had lost some weight during my ordeal so was looking forward to seeing how much better I might look without so much bulging. Nurse Judy, my critical alter ego, was peeking around corners at me with a gaze that was both horrified and unbelieving. I ignored her because she never once has given me any kind of approval.
I picked out an outfit, deciding that pink would be a lovely way to start my new healthy life. I had a nice mauve jacket to go with the outfit; I was proud that nothing was too tight. Well as they say, ’Pride goeth before fall’,. When I went to button the jacket, I had to let it hang open. The buttons needed to be moved over about 4 inches and each shoulder extended beyond my mine by about an inch or two. It felt like I had dressed up in my mother’s clothes.
It wasn’t until I sat down at my dressing table that I learned the reason for Nurse Judy’s scandalized stares. Who was this person staring back at me? Her face was emaciated, but she had huge black bags under her eyes. Her skin was pasty white and every wrinkle looked like a huge crevice. This face had never been a beauty but at least I had always recognized it as mine. Who in the world was this pretending to be me? Nurse Judy had her hands to her head in horror.
This wasn’t the worst of it. The worst part of it was my hair which hadn’t been done in a month. I had tried to wash it and put mousse on it as I had been instructed. The result was frightening. There were a few curls sticking out here and there. There were straight stringy clumps, which at first I began cutting but then realized this would be impossible for my hairdresser to fix. I tried putting cute hair clips in. They wouldn’t stay and the bright flowers against this mess looked frankly completely out of place. The only hair band I could find had cat ears on it and that only drew more attention to what I was trying to cover up. I resorted to pinning the whole mess into a messy updo.
The curls and the stubborn straights refused to be pinned down and stuck out wildly at all angles. I guess I could have lived with this but there was a far worse problem. I must admit I am not a natural blonde. I always had black hair, but my hairdresser works hard to keep my hair a much less harsh blonde color. A month without her ministrations had left me looking like a calico cat. No, that’s not right. Calico cats are cute. My hair was a medley of black, grey, white, blonde and orange. No matter how I twisted or pulled it there was no way to hide this mongrel hair.
I searched the house for a headscarf, a bandana, a ball cap, anything to cover my head. In a house full of everything there was nothing that would do. I finally took the hat that I wore as Miss Marple in a play and plopped it on my head. It covered up some of the disaster and I raced off to class.
I know my friends there must have been aghast at my appearance but before they could say anything I warned them not to laugh. This was an emergency measure. They politely tried not to focus on my head, and we got through the day.
Today I am going to have my hair colored. (Please don’t tell). I really don’t care what color it is, but I will insist that it all be just one color.
Take pity on me. It’s hard to keep up appearances when you’re old and have been sick, but I am trying. To be perfectly frank, if it wasn’t for Nurse Judy, I’d just let it all go.
Hoping to be prettier soon.
More later,Judy
www.nursejudyinfo.com
