I Went Plastic

By Mary Alford-Carman

I can’t believe I did this. I didn’t really go plastic, as in plastic surgery, but when I was offered a “filler” called RADIESSE (to be in a training session at a local plastic surgeon’s office), I jumped at the offer. As much as I’d like to think that the aging process doesn’t bother me, the cold hard truth is that sometimes it does. So I went with the quick steps of a 16-year-old girl at the prom, looking for the fountain of youth, or at least a stopwatch to check the wrinkles for a while.

If you have any kind of major aversion to needles, this isn’t the thing for you, but I’ve been through worse and this was a cake walk. I watched as one side of my face was softened like a real-life photo shop of special effects, and then viola, the other side matched. My cheeks looked fuller, the laugh lines around my mouth were almost nonexistent, deep laugh lines were gone, and I could still smile and show expression when I laughed, smiled or frowned. Of course they told me that roughly $700 worth of product was pumped into my face. It took that much to make me look…um…less lined. Whoda thunk?

I went home feeling fantastic and new. My husband rounded the corner when he got home and just said, “Wow!” Good enough for me! He didn’t have to trade me in for the younger model just yet. But mere days after I’d gotten filled in, at the Flea Market buying my son a toy truck, the vender said, “Yes ma’am, all the grandmama’s can’t seem to resist their grandbabies.” He is still alive, although I debated for a moment as to what would be his demise.

In spite of the vender’s comment, I catch myself looking in the mirror and going, ‘Not too shabby girl!’ I feel good about it and I don’t think that I look fake. I did it because it was free and I was curious, and I have a four-year-old son and I’m 51. Trying to keep up with the younger moms and my son is exhausting enough without looking it. It would be very easy for me to get “addicted” to doing this at the end of a year when the RADIESSE loses its battle with real time and the real me. We’ll see, but in the meantime, if anyone has any more freebies they want to send my way, game on.

What's on your Bucket List?

In my “It’s on the List” column this month, I trashed the ubiquitous bucket, or life, list. Supposedly it’s the list of all the things we want to do before we die, usually quite outrageous things, like find the bucket of gold at the end of the rainbow, climb the highest mountain, sail the ocean solo. I took issue with them, preferring my daily reality to pie-in-the-sky stuff. What say you?

Have you read the blogs where people list the things they've already done: "re-learn French, Mandarin," "Climb the Eiffel Tower," "Run the NYC marathon." I especially love these arrogant ones, where the resume becomes the list. You've got to wonder about those people. Let's keep it real.

What’s in your bucket?

Do you think you’ll tick them off?

What’s on your daily bucket list, your real-life one?

Support your Local Independent Beauty Rep. Now. Or she'll keep calling.

Okay, okay, I know December’s essay “Death by Makeup” was snarky. Possibly even mean-spirited. I have friends who are Indie Beauty Reps, so my intentions were not to skewer them all. My intention was to examine my response to the whole industry and have a laugh about it. I enjoy makeup, have no quarrel with being feminist and wearing makeup. I quarrel with pushy salespeople, and especially those who I feel are just using me to make a dime. I take issue with women who look down their perfect noses at me and my pores. I vote for building each other up, seeing the good and ignoring the bad. We are not meant to be celebrity-like airbrushed facsimiles of human beings.

I want some cosmetics products that say pro-life, pro-aging, pro-wrinkles, pro-feel good, pro-beautiful on the inside, pro-creative, pro-you. I’m sick of the anti-wrinkle, anti-aging, anti-biotic, anti-septic stuff. (Especially now that I’m coming of a certain age.)

Have you had an interesting encounter with Indie Beauty Reps, or while being one?

What about makeup in general—hate it, love it?

Have you hostessed a party, and how did it go?

Are you okay in the skin you’re in?

Sending Sick to School

You could probably tell from my article about sending kids to school sick ("To Send or Not to Send") that I was fairly emotional about the topic. With flu season around the corner, I am stressed already that my children, God forbid, will get sick again. This school year I have already received 2 of those ‘letters’ even though we had sorted out the problem with the first that arrived. I really have broken a personal best! I mean, are we really at threat of being sent to jail because our children don’t live up to the system’s healthy expectations, or do you think like me that it is too extreme a threat?

I have on a few occasions sent them to school with a sniffle and quite honestly felt guilty, but what can you do? Someone somewhere has devised this grand plan of attendance percentages, and Mr. or Mrs. Jobs-Worth implements it, giving no thought to the reality that our schools are like public gathering places for germs to latch onto on another and spread the good word so to speak. Am I alone in feeling that this is an issue within the system that needs to be re-addressed? Anyone got any amazing ‘sick’ stories to tell? Or are you a teacher that has a view on this? I would love to hear from your side, too. Do you mind having sick kids in your classes, or would you prefer the parents keep them at home?

Our Schools are Cooking

By Dawn Tolson

Whilst I was writing my review of the children’s cookbook in our latest 4Gaby issue ("Williams-Sonoma, The Kid's Cookbook"), it occurred to me that there is something missing in our schools. In England we were taught to cook, yes I said it, we WERE taught to cook. Boys and girls alike, we all took basic cookery lessons. It was compulsory in the lower grades and then when you came to choosing your options (in the UK you chose your exam options in Year 9 which is equivalent to our 8^th grade), cookery or as it was called, Domestic Science, was a curriculum option. I wonder whether the obesity problem here in the U.S. could be reduced if we taught our children the art of cooking.

At present it seems easier to visit McDonald’s or Burger King for dinner and even fool ourselves that having apple pieces with a fried burger full of cheese and mayo is a healthier option. Jaime Oliver, world-renowned English Chef, started a foundation in the UK whose mission is to raise awareness of the importance of nutritious food and cooking to children and vulnerable groups. He changed the school’s meal system and has started this process in the U.S. I for one hope that he makes it to North Carolina!

What do you think? Do you teach your kids to cook?

Do you think a cooking option at school is a good idea?

How did you learn to cook? Maybe you were taught at school and it is just our ever-evolving school system that has changed; if so, what do you think of that?