It's Not Me, It's Just Thursday

TODAY WE ARE EARNING:

"PRETEND YOU ARE SKINNY & BEAUTIFUL" BADGE.

This Sunday we leave for our Annual Thanksgiving in Sarasota trip. Family is together, cousins, aunts, uncles. There's a beach there. Ordinarily I love the beach but this year I am terrified. I've been MEANING to lose some of the weight I've been steadily gaining. You get busy shuttling, emergency shopping for something your kids "just forgot!!! I neeed it tomorrrow!" and the likes. All mothers, I don't care who you are, will do what needs to be done and pay less attention to self and one day be trying on clothes in a 3-way mirror and be gripped by the terrifying notion "Mom Butt!!"

Today I am in that classic school nightmare where you realize you have a test that day and you haven't even cracked open the book. I leave in 3 days. It's unlikely I will lose 30 lbs. or even three by Sunday.

I'M NOT A HAG, I JUST PLAY ONE ON TV.

Remember I do not glamorize for the morning routine of getting girl to school and dog walked. As my porky, unkept self is driving past the grocery store on my way home, a brain balloon floats up reminding me of 5 things I need. It's 7am on a wednesday. I'll be perfectly invisible.

Evidently I am not and there must've been a recent "love your customer" training session because every chirpy stock dude makes a special point to say "GOOD MORNING MA'AM! FINDING EVERYTHING YOU NEED?" I get haggier & heavier with every greeting.

IT'S AS BAD AS BRA SHOPPING.

The best I can do at this point is not GAIN any more weight before sunday, thus flavored zero cal waters might be a useful tool. Do I want vitamins? Minerals? Strawberry? Açai..with anti oxidents? Kiwi Lemonaide with memory fiber? Blueberry with vitamins but not minerals? Wild Cherry with an underwire? 36 C Rasberry that will cross your heart? Front snap with cleavage booster watermelon with aspartame and back fat control? "GOOD MORNING MA'AM! FINDING EVERYTHING YOU NEED?"

IF ONLY I WAS AS THIN AS THE SKELETONS IN MY CLOSET.

Scurrying past the magazine aisle another brain balloon ... airplane reading. I grab a "BE GAUNT IN 4 HOURS!" magazine about motivating to work out and diet. Clearly reading it ON the plane on the way to the beach will not get me thin... but those who can't, read about those who can and did.

MAY THE FORCE FIELD BE WITH YOU.

My route takes me in the direction of the donut case. I am playing with fire if I get within 2 aisles of it so I make a sharp right so as to avoid the gravitational pull. My hair is reacting with a static electricity-like reach in that direction. I manage to escape one temptation at a time walking past the bread and muffins by using the "Dionne Warwick Method" of diet control ... sing it with me now: "WALK ON BYYYYY." Just when I thought it was safe, I come face to face with Mega Monster Truck Rally 'Family's Visiting!" 46 Croissant Superpower Pack... Two for One. "WALK ON BYYYYY."

TRUE CONFESSIONS IN THE CHECK-OUT AISLE.

As I evaluate my 'obviously you are trying to lose weight' purchases, I opt for the Non-Judgemental Self-Scan because I just don't feel like being sized up by a check out clerk. If I was a check out clerk, without a doubt I would be analyzing the combinations people are buying and trying to piece together what they are about to do. God help the clerk that would comment on today's purchases. I could not be responsible for my actions so I Self-Scan. Plus it's fun to see if you can scan like a professional - and I'm fascinated by the infrared light ray mechanism that can read lines waved in front of it.

Sidenote - leaning to put an item in the farthest bag does not qualify as a workout.

WOULD YOU LIKE PAPER OR PLASTIC SURGERY?

When I'm ready to pay, the infrared magic light ray machine asks "do you qualify for a senior citizen discount?" DOES THE SCANNER READ WRINKLE LINES?? WHY DID IT JUST ASK ME THAT?? I must've yelled that out in a blind panic because the attendant pipes in "it's Thursday. Every Thursday is senior discount day and it automatically asks that." It's a milestone when you stop getting carded and I thought I'd skidded in to the next stop on the road to ruin. Whewh!

I'm already swimming in the surf of self consciousness over my burgeoning "beach ready" body, at least I can still pretend the wrinkles aren't calling the shots yet... it's just thursday!

I am a Dashboard Beauty Queen

TODAY'S BADGE: BEAUTY ON THE RUN

My clock system is precicely the same as before I had kids. 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour.. 24/7/365..four score and 7 years ago..

Remember the non stressed day of waking up, warm soothing shower, leisurely make-up and hair session. I mean really going at those lashes to lift and separate and add volume, not that you even needed it. You worked, you went to the gym maybe dinner out, you watched a little television trash, little girlfriend gossip hour, you slept a full 8 hours.

Clock is the same. What has changed is the amount of things I must cram in to that same clock. I don't think I even need to detail that, because you've got your own blend of 1,001 things ready to spew.

Doing double & triple time, we combine what we can. We write thank you notes between texting, while waiting at piano practice, we watch TV on the treadmill while marinating steaks, we return mom's call in the hardware store comparing paint swatches and having a key made. We are making a mental grocery list while having...yoga class. Never are we doing one single task at a time anymore. NEVER.

Smart moms scrounge out more time in the car, which is fraught with idle moments at stop lights and carpool lines. Until they invent mobile trunk washing machines and appliances, the car becomes a mobile office where we sign papers in the carpool line, map out the week in the drive through pharmacy, and jot to-do lists at stoplights, make appointments, check statuses, return calls.

Now, I don't know about you, but it used to be, back before all this motherhood business, when I had nothing but time, and could spend it in the mirror, all I really needed in my glorious youth was lip gloss, a wink and a smile in the mirror before strolling out the door. Now, with minutes at a premium, I have zero time for beauty, unless I wake up earlier, but what about beauty rest?!

Seems when I need glamour regime time the most, my commute from the bathroom mirror to the front door gets longer every day, patching up crows feet, spackling in laugh lines, caulking in frown lines and restoring dark circles to their 'natural' luster.

Thus, I have outfitted my car with a custom

7 POINT DASHBOARD BEAUTY SYSTEM

My very own spa on wheels:

1. The glove compartment is a station where I can put on a fresh hair tease and get spritzed.

2. Ashtray holds an assortment of ponytail holders and clips

3. Arm rest holds a lotion and fierce variety of nail polishes. Stoplights are for painting, driving is for drying, at position 10 and 2 on the wheel, with air setting on high wind velocity. (On a nice day, the window and sunroof are ideal...but watch the hair.)

4. My cup holder stores an adorable travel mug stocked with eye liner, mascara, lip liner and plumper.

5. The visor comes complete with lighted mirror for up close work.

6. I can monitor my age in the gray-view mirror.

7. I haven't gone as far as shaving my legs at a stoplight, but I have the razor in the lower compartment of the armrest, along with deodorant and a toothbrush... it's really only a matter of time...or lack thereof.

Have I become a dashing dashboard beauty? I don't know about the beauty part, but the dashing part is spot on.