Operation Eyebrow

For some reason this week, I have been thinking a lot about my own aging process. It's natural. I'm not upset about it, just observing what is happening more than anything. I have a friend at work who is just a few years older than me and we have talked a lot about this subject because we are facing some of the same changes. We have also both realized that we are "Middle Aged".

When I used to think of Middle Age, I always thought of my parents. It has been startling for me to realize that I am now the age my parents were when I was growing up. At work, I am in the middle. Although I am a recent graduate, I am still in the mid point of my career vs my co-workers who are at the very beginning of theirs or other co-workers in the office who are approaching retirement. Even without that realization, I only have to look in the mirror to see the changes of time upon my face; the wrinkles around my eyes, the tendency of my eyes to look dark when I don't get enough sleep and "parenthesis" around my mouth.

For the most part, I am ok with it. I figure that this is part of life. The lines on my face, the stretch marks on my tummy, are reminders of the life I have lived, the things I have done, the things that have made me smile, laugh or cry. I have earned every crease. My friend from my office and I have discussed what things we should and should not do to fight the ravages of time. We have ruled out Botox, liposuction, microderm abrasion and chemical peels. We share interesting things we read about beauty and discuss the ridiculous things we women think we have to do to be beautiful. We have discussed a lot about how true beauty is not our outward appearance but the character and the beauty inside us.

So, is it wrong to put forth a little effort into our appearance? I don't think so. I am by no means a high maintenance gal. My goal is 30 minutes from shower to ready to go which includes 10 minutes to shower, 15 minutes to dry and curl my hair and 5 minutes to apply a little makeup.

Lately, Kris and I have been lamenting a little bit because we both have a similar problem. Our Scandinavian heritage, while it gave us our pretty blue eyes and creamy white skin...it neglected to give us any color in our eyebrows and eyelashes. The bare minimum I would ever do on a given day is to wash my face, brush my teeth, flip my hair up in a clip and put mascara on.

Kris and I have a new mission however. I call it Operation Eyebrow. We are learning that darkening eyebrows is very tricky. Do it wrong and you end up looking like you are going to be a circus clown or a mime on a Paris street. I don't know if it was a good thing or not when another coworker asked me if I had done something to my eyebrows. I told her I had used a pencil to darken them and she told me that they looked great. But I still felt like maybe I had gone a bit too dark. Kris's 16 year old daughter told her one day that she still needs more practice.

My eyebrows are taking more time than my allotted 5 minute cosmetic slot. I hope that as I get better at it, it will take less time because I absolutely draw the line at getting my eyebrows tatooed on.