Let's Call her High Maintenance Judith

Oh fudge, I see a faint haze of gray around my hairline.  This is not a random strand that I will grasp, look left and then right (as if I am about to shoplift) and quickly pluck (and toss).  This is several small wisps of hair.

I am turning the big 4-0 this year.  I am okay with getting older-chronologically.  I feel good.  I don't think that my spirit matches my age but seeing the gray makes the gap between the way I feel vs. how old I look widen--like a big mouth.  Basically it comes down to this..I don't have the freakin' time to narrow the gap and become high maintenance.

Prior to the shackle on my left (marriage) and the shackle on my right (kids), I did become very high maintenance--let's call her High Maintenance Judith.  (Nice girl who sounds like she is named after a librarian.)  HMJ, for short, was a young woman who spent hundreds of dollars a month on facials, massages, nails, hair services, product and waxing.  HMJ loved waxing--brows, bikini and legs--shiny and smooth like a seal.  HMJ didn't disappear when she got married, she just cut back.  Adding a line item to the Wang Family spreadsheet seemed hard to justify and would Mr. Ching Wang buy it?  Ab-so-freakin-not.  (Topic for later, but we Wangs live and die by the spreadsheet.)  HMJ didn't go away when Laurel arrived but rather another cut back--just a dedicated stance with hair--product, cuts and highlights.  But after awhile even that started to fade.  A new woman started to show.. that was the transformation into Low Maintenance JC Dubbs.  I am her.  (I knew when I became her when I started using my own spit to clean my kids' faces.)   I keep my hair simple--long, all one length that requires a mere quarterly visit to a nice Wellesley salon.  During the summer the occasional pedicure, but other than that, I have cut down considerably.

Most mornings I spend more time brushing Laurel's hair than doing my own.  I am lucky when I make time for lotion or chapstick. I don't even know where my tweezers are.  I keep my make-up minimal, hair and clothes simple and I can't remember the last time I accessorized.  HMJ would annoy the piss out of LMJC Dubbs.  At first it would seem okay, kind of like watching an episode of Sex and the City but 10 minutes in, my reaction is "Bitch Please"  I don't think she would like my snark either..it might make her cry.