Wrinkles

I remember the time when I was pregnant with my first kid (including gestation period, that would make it about 16 yrs back) and watching the first appearances of TV Media ads (you know those where the sales people goad you into calling in).

There was this lady who looked to be in her 40s or 50s (or who knows, perhaps 60s) and she was all made up and decked out in her leopard print, skintight outfit with her hair permed and stacked real high. She was a Racquel Welch lookalike and was promoting something on TV but it was the way she smiled that caught my attention.

Her smile did not reach her eyes.
It looked as though she had had a face lift and she could only smile below her nose. I could not fault her glittering white teeth nor her immaculate Farrah Fawcett smile but she definitely lacked warmth.

I think of that picture of 'perfection' and compare it to me. Me, the one who has always smiled from eye to eye, cheek to cheek and now, wrinkle to wrinkle! Sigh. Now, it's crow's feet and eyebags galore. They've come to repay me for 41 years of smiling and laughing like there's no tomorrow.

I've never cared how I looked, grinning ridiculously, in pictures. Not until now anyway. It's always been important to me to keep smiling and laughing. Suddenly, since age 40, my eyebags, which have always been apparent since young, have grown so much in size, they can now hold my NTUC grocery shopping! (ok, lame attempt at joking while discussing this very dire matter).

I think of that lady in her leopard outfit smiling without letting her wrinkles show and realise that the use of BOTOX was not prevalent during her time but it is now. No one's going to care. No one's going to gossip. I won't rule out ever going that direction but I doubt I'll ever do it because I can't see myself wasting all that dough just to rub out my wrinkles when I can better spend it on my family or just do it the photoshop way. So a cheaper alternative for me, is to start learning to smile that leopard lady's way ~ that is, I'll grin, smile, laugh all I want, as long as it remains below my nose. (sigh, looks like this is going to be a steep learning curve)