Cold cream

But Sally wiggled out of Maggie’s arms. She went closer to the sink and turned the jar around so that the label faced out where she could see it.  The three glamorous women on the label smiled seductively back at her.  Sally smiled.  Maggie thought she was trying to match their expressions…which was something for a seven year old redhead to do, but she managed to achieve at least little girl coy with her look.

“Ah, that’s us, isn’t it?  You, Lulu and me.  Blonde, redhead and brunette.”

“Momma!  Yes, that’s us!  Did you think of this before you had us in your tummy?”  Lulu peered through her glasses, her big blue eyes sparkling with mischief.
Maggie stood slowly. How to answer this?

“Yes. Your father and I planned on having two beautiful girls, one with lovely blond hair that curled better than Shirley Temple’s hair and the other with flame red hair that danced gloriously in the summer sunshine. Yes, we planned it quite well.  Of course, I had to be the brunette, to make things even.”

Jergens cold cream

“Am I going to be beautiful when I grow up, Momma?”  Lulu stood slightly behind Maggie as she rinsed her face in the bathroom sink.

Maggie turned to her daughter and smiled. “Of course.  You’re beautiful now. What makes you think you wouldn’t be beautiful in a few more years?”
The child reached up to the sink and snagged the pink lid to the cold cream jar. She looked at the top then turned it over and found a dab of Jergens there.  Lulu touched it with her index finger then applied the goo to her cheek. By this time, Sally had joined her, standing slightly behind Maggie, but all three were in range of the mirror.
She watched as Sally boldly stuck her finger into the white jar and scooped out the tiniest amount of cold cream. She applied it to her cheek, smeared it around and grinned up at Maggie.

“Oh, my beautiful girls!”  Maggie knelt and hugged them both.  “Here, let’s get this rubbed into those rosy cheeks of yours and then off to bed.”

On third thought

Another one of those eye-opening showers this morning. I kept thinking about the times I should have kept my mouth shut rather than express my opinion because my opinion was invariably met with far more than eye-rolling. In fact, quite a few people have excluded me from friendship because of what I think and feel.

Some of the times I actually do regret what I might have said to a particular person about something I knew to be wrong. Lots of blindness when it comes to what is right nowadays.  And I've said so.  And thus lost people who had been friends.

But, ya know what?
After years go by and the truth turns out to be exactly what I said, no one has come back and apologized.  And, of course, I had nothing to apologize for.

And doesn't that make me sound like a raving bitch?

Yes, yes it does.

On my tombstone, I have already declared that this should be written in granite:
                                She was right.

You know that Mermaid Arms story? The one I've been writing forever? Yeah, that one

There is a slight problem with the Mermaid Arms.  I will attend to it. All I need is another month.
The conference is this Friday.

Crap!

More True Confessions

You know that book I've been working on for seven years?

I'm just about ready to write the last chapter...but I can't get all excited yet because I have to glue all the miscellaneous parts together. God knows how long that will take, but I am giving myself until the middle of March to do it.

 

The Mermaid Arms...remember that title.

 

 

What's new?

Come down the Jersey Shore to meet and greet some of your favorite authors! Great fun, great people.  As it happens, I will be there. I'd love to meet you.  We will all have copies of our books available for purchase.

More snow

Second Monday in a row with a snowstorm causing havoc around Central New Jersey.  There's even more snow in New England.  It was covered by rain, now it is below freezing again and the roads will be sheer ice.  Our driveway, cleaned with the snowblower, is a skating rink.
Do I have to remind you of how very much I detest snow?