Is it Live or is it Memorex?

Since I was teen in the eighties the above picture is one I'm familiar with. Cassette tapes were the rage and we'd sit with our fingers on the record button just waiting for the new Amy Grant song to come on the radio (Saved by Love, released the summer of '88..) so we could record it for our own.

One company coined the phrase, "Is it live or is it Memorex?" for their cassettes, insisting they had the best quality.

Their question has been floating in and out of my mind for the past several months, with a slight change.

My new tagline reads:

Is it real or is it menopause?

Because, really. What is going on?

One day I'm merrily living life and then BAM! I suddenly look in the mirror and feel worthless from head to toe. My dreams and goals look like nonsense. My self image is still there somewhere. I can't find it though since it's being hidden by brain fog. If I do find it I certainly can't talk about it because my words come out all befuddled.

Oh hormones, I want to quiet you with salt and vinegar potato chips. And a bag of chocolate chips (because every good woman keeps these on hand knowing they aren't just for baking). A salty soft pretzel would be good right now. Bring on the carbs and sodium.

Instead I remind myself that it isn't real. None of the perceptions I have about myself on these days are real. I've also learned not to make decisions on these days or do any important work. The work and decisions can wait.

So I take extra care in my appearance, putting on actual make-up and fixing my hair even though I'm working from home. I take my Vitamin B6 and slather on the progesterone cream knowing that in a few days this hormonal influence will leave me and seek out the next woman in her mid-forties.

Signed,

The Girl in Stretchy Jeans

Comments

Selling items on Craigslist and common scams

I'm selling a couple of things on Craigslist. I've done this a few times before and always, the first interested parties I hear from are scammers. This time in my listing I specified that I will not take money orders and asked that scammers not contact me. Here's the first interested party that I heard from: mr robins journeycristina@gmail.com Is it still available for sale... I replied: Yes it is. Here's the second contact from the first interested party. Note that the name of the sender and the email of the sender are different than the ones from the first contact: Clyde Wright fisherr.mattyy@gmail.com Hello, Thanks for the swift response, just to let you know that am okay with the condition and price of the item, am ready for its purchase and my form of payment will be by sending you Check via UPS next day delivery. I'll be responsible for the pick-up and the pick up money will be included in your payment to avoid delay and to enable pick up company to s...

The Tool Box

I can hear my husband clanging tools around in the garage. He's going through his twenty-four year collection and putting together a tool box for our twenty-two year old son. Gulp. When did we become parents of an adult who is able to move out and live on his own? He's coming home tomorrow to collect the furniture he's chosen from our house and some other things. He's been gone for a few years but has always come home for summer and holidays. This time it's permanent. There won't be any more summers at home. I won't have to tiptoe around while he's still sleeping. I won't have to chase him out of the shower because he's been in there for a very long time. I won't have to buy Cooper cheese or boxes of Macaroni & Cheese anymore. The tool box Wayne is putting together for him will last him many years. He'll hang pictures, tighten bolts, and fix small accidents with it. It'll stay by his side as he begins new chapters...

choose your own way

While I was being a good wife this morning, completing the one task my husband asked of me (using the squeegee thing to push melting snow and ice out of the garage after he left for work), I had time to think about life and all of it's stuff. I haven't had time to think or write much over the past year due to life, but I have a few moments now....so let's think. We live. We die. We go to heaven or hell. That's the cycle for each of us. But it's our choice. We decide in advance where we will spend eternity. I am woefully tired of the They are partying in heaven together posts each time a celebrity dies. Because they probably aren't. As Christians, we trust the Bible is true. If we read it and believe then we know, by their fruit, if someone has a relationship with the Lord. Not by how funny they were or how loved they were or even by how kind they seemed to be. Their influence doesn't matter. Their popularity doesn't matter. In the end, all that mat...

Suzanne Schaffer

Search This Blog