About Face

 

 

I got new glasses.   I have basically worn the same frames since I started wearing glasses when I was eighteen.  I have equated changing frames with getting a face lift.  I knew that new frames would change the look of my face and until now I was not prepared to do that, but I felt compelled this year to make a change.

The process of picking new frames was daunting.  I’m sure I tried on at least fifty different frames.  The frames I ended up with were the third pair I tried.  The process went something like…

(Pair I picked) “Oh these are okay….

Try on about 10 more. 

(Try on the pair I picked) “I do like these…”

Try on 10 more pairs

(Try on the pair I picked) “These work well with my face.”

Try on 10 more pairs, “I don’t like these as much as I like that one pair.”

(Try on the pair I picked) “I like them but what if I hate them in a few years?”

Husband: “In a few years you will be a different person, so don’t worry about it. These fit who you are right now.”

They were pretty deep words for just picking out glasses and I knew he was right.  Right now I am not the same person I was when I first picked out those wire frames when I was eighteen.  I like to think that I am better.  I am wiser, more confident, and more mature.  Hopefully in another few years I’ll be even better.

 

 

If you notice I changed the look of my blog.  Last year was the peaceful and contemplative year.  This year is the exciting full of bright and positive things year and I needed something bright and positive to go along with my new adventures.    

 

Birthday Fun!

Yesterday  we went out and celebrated my 35th birthday.  For a January Saturday afternoon the weather was absolutely marvelous.  Our first stop was a restaurant called Wedge + Fig.  Since the weather was so nice we sat outside in the garden (with some help from the heaters of course).

Some girls like a big slice of cake for their birthday, but I'll take a plate of cheese over cake any day.

I highly recommend the Midnight Moon cheese.  Our waiter said it would be cheese perfection and he was correct.  I also had a yummy panini.

After our meal we went to aka music to looked for used cds.  I was lucky enough to find a used copy of the Pan's Labyrinth soundtrack. Maybe they knew it was birthday.

After searching for used music we searched for used books at The Book Trader.  I found two books to add to my collection.

Next we went to the Arden Theatre Company's performance of Cinderella.

The play was fantastic.  It used a mix of LED screen, live actors and shadow puppetry.It was a modern retelling of Cinderella.  Her father does not die and Cinderella is just as much at fault for treating her step-mother and step-sisters poorly as they are of treating her with injustice.  Cinderella and the prince become friends because he dresses like a commoner and spends time in Cinderella's garden.  They have a fight and he leaves in a hurry droping one of his shoes.  Later after the ball (The Prince doesn't recognize Cinderella in Princess clothes) when he goes searching for the girl to fit the glass slipper they end up exchanging shoes which was a fun twist.  The play used music from Mozart throughout and Mozart was a character in the play.  He was the Prince's friend.  At the end of the play they allowed the children to ask the cast questions.  One little boy asked Mozart, "Why does your hair look like it was struck by lightening?"  The actor replied

"Well, when you're a genius you don't have time to do things like comb your hair." That made me smile.

We ended the evening with some coffee and dessert.  It was one of my most favorite birthdays ever. 

 

Today, which is my actual birthday, I decided I wanted to have a bit of a rest so we had breakfast at the Pop Shop and then I went home for a full day of watching Dr. Who.

Through the Wardrobe

When I was a young girl I had a small wardrobe in my playroom.  There were many days when I would climb inside, close the door, sit on the floor and lean against the wardrobe’s back wall.  Each time I wished so hard that the wall would dissolve away and I would find myself in Narnia.

Today I turn thirty-five.  Say it with me…t-h-i-r-t-y-f-i-v-e…doesn’t that sound so…grown up?  Don’t you think of someone who is thirty-five as an “adult?”  Somehow my brain cannot compute this information.  I looked out of my front window this morning.  It is my birthday after all.  There was hope that perhaps the TARDIS would be out there in my front yard.  The Doctor would be waving up at me (donning his best bow tie) and say,



   “Happy Birthday Sarah!  Now where do you want to go?”  Then I thought, is that really what someone who is 35 should wish for their birthday?  Shouldn’t I want a nice pair of slacks or a nice purse (and not the cool bottomless kind like Hermione).  As my birthday fun treat I was given the opportunity to go to the Arden theater to see their (children's theater) production of Cinderella.  I repeat, a children’s theater production, not very adult at all.  The other day I was having a conversation with someone about reading certain kinds of books and I said,

“I don’t like reading books where the characters are suffering the whole time…oh unless a dragon or maybe giant robots or something cool that is the cause of the suffering, then that’s okay.”  Dragon’s and giant robots are not thirty-five sounding.

When I was a little girl I started using my imagination to cope with sadness.  Awkward, odd and often made fun of I used to pretend that a man talked to me through my mirror.  He was from another world where I was a princess who was stolen away and placed in this world for protection (Can you now understand how I felt when I first read Harry Potter? It was like finding a soul mate).  On my sixteenth birthday I would have to go back to my kingdom and fight back for my throne (using an awesome magic sword).  The man was my advisor who kept me updated on what was going on in the other world and I would often lament and pour my feelings out to him about how lame I found this one.  Those classmates could mock me all they wanted…I was secretly a warrior princess so…in your face!  To this day I still find imagination to be a reliable coping mechanism though I no longer secretly talk to my mirror.  Instead I loose myself in the stories of others.  Stories about flying around with Time Lords, or drinking vials of metals that will give you special powers, or solving crimes and/or puzzles because you are super intelligent, or being the chosen one who can save the world, or having dragon companions who you can talk to telepathically, just to name a few.  I have also been known to write stories of my own about dreams delivered by spiders, a weird train that takes you to a spectacular place and doors that can only be opened by carving special keys.  It seems at this point to be who I permanently am, an adult who has somehow still been able to retain the same imagination that she had as a young girl and I can only believe that on my seventy fifth birthday and beyond I will still look out of my window hoping for the TARDIS and still believe that perhaps the wall within the wardrobe will finally disappear.

I have great friends who purchased me fantastic birthday gifts!  No slacks here, just an amazing TARDIS hoodie and a TARDIS night light.  Maybe I can use the night light to call the actual TARDIS...do I hear fan fiction?