A friend on FB liked something posted by someone else.  Now I know this other woman, even though we aren't FB friends.  I would guess her to be about 52 yrs old.  What she posted was a link to an article about gray hair, how fashionable it is with the young now and how women should feel proud of their gray, etc....   Her comment about it as she shared was "My gift to myself when I turned 50 was that I stopped dyeing my hair."
This gave me food for thought.  I dye my hair.  I have for 20 years now.  As I swam my laps I thought a lot about this.  Am I wrong to color my hair?  Should I just embrace the "natural me"?  However, as I considered what she said about how it was her gift to herself to stop coloring her hair, my one constant thought was "Honey, you should have gifted yourself that years ago."  For me, it's dyeing my hair that is my gift to myself.  I like my hair color.  If there's something you dislike doing so much that it's a gift to yourself to quit, then unless it's a necessity, why are you doing it?

I'm told that if I want to be a better writer I should write more.  The problem is that I'm not sure I should say the things that usually want to come out of my fingers when I sit down to write.  I'm not the only one who has noticed on Facebook (and other media) that people feel much more free to share more  . . . . um . . . strident? . . . . unkind . . . . less thoughtful  . . . type things when they are not writing to a particular person.  I wouldn't want to fall into that trap.  

Meanwhile, the dog is sitting on my bed in the other room whining because I'm not in there watching tv so they can have snuggies.  It's making me feel quite guilty as they've had a day mostly alone.  I shall go sit with them.  Maybe a doggie fix will put me in a better mood and I can try this again tomorrow.  

Follow-up to Long Weekend

Lessons learned by each of us:
Oldest Sprog - must use pill keeper to track if pills have been taken, memory is not enough
Father of Oldest Sprog - must not talk to oldest sprog when said child is not current on meds and most definitely should never ask if meds are current - even when you know they're not
Myself - move in with in-laws the next time this happens.

Long Weekends

As I sit here in church and listen to the babies cry and the toddlers scream, I think "storm must be brewing."

Then I think of my 18 yr old and his father who aren't speaking and think, "It must be a doozy."

Here's hoping the storm comes in and blows itself out soon before I am driven to drink.

The Boy

Our boy dog is 5 years older than the girls.  We came back from nearly two weeks gone and he seems rather listless, lacking in energy.  We had people living here while we were gone to tend the dogs, but I suppose the dogs had more time alone than they are used to.  I hope he perks up now that I'm back.  Soon, too, because I have that conference next week and I'll be gone for 3 nights.  The rest of the family will be here, but he's mostly just attached to me.

Vacaion

Do you drive faster on the way home?  I do.  I know I do and I tell myself not to (I already drive fast enough), but every time I come home from a long trip, I find myself flying down the last few miles of freeway at a speed I would not even consider on a regular day.

Friends and Invitations

Have you ever noticed that among friends there are the inviters and the invitees?  If you're one of the former, you know what I mean.  Are you the one that always has to suggest doing something?  Some friends never invite you round or suggest getting together.   Maybe they're the popular ones that have enough invitations they don't have time to issue them?  Maybe they're just lazy?  I don't think they do it on purpose.   At least not all of them.  Still, sometimes it can be hard to be the inviter all the time and never the invitee.  You feel like you're doing all the work.  You feel like maybe they don't value your friendship, that they're just too polite to tell you they'd rather not.  Jeez, can't you take a hint?  None of this is necessarily true, but there are days when you wonder "why bother."  Everyone likes to be asked occasionally.