The Covid drowns the world. We are all self-isolating in one form or another. Climate change is upon us, racing us towards an iceless precipice of no trees, no fish, no bees. We're facing a world that can never return to the Before.
But my new obsession is my nose.
I had observed, like I do, that elderly people's noses shift and change and develop a personality outside of their faces. I look at their noses and think, did they always have this airconditioned honker with its pores open to the world which is at least double the size of a normal nose. I'd look at pictures of their weddings and/or youth and think: what the hell happened to their bonny wee noses?
I remember looking at my father's nose as he lay in his casket and being appalled at the size of it on such a small man. I whispered this to my daughter and she looked at me horrified. "My gawd Mum," she whispered back at me, "I think I've got his nose!" And we cracked up and had to move away for a while. Such are funerals. Full of trivia and weird hysterical thoughts in the midst of grief.
So, here I am looking at my nose and its larger appearance. I keep touching it. Long gone is the lovely retrousse of my youth. A nose I liked. A nose commented on favourably. But now? It's rough around the edges. I keep touching it. It feels like an enormous rough wart. Before it was silky. Well behaved. Fit for purpose. A good smeller. Now it has enlarged itself. Glowering down at my mouth. And there's nothing I can do about it
Please feel free to share your trivial and petty thoughts right here.
I hear you.
ReplyDeleteTrivial and petty as it is, I view nothing about my appearance with any favour.
Indeed vampirism has charm - the non reflective thing. I suspect I would be able to live with myself a great deal more easily if I didn't catch glimpses of the horror as I go about my day.
Yes, I hear you EC, I should just ignore this burgeoning bloom on my face and carry on.
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I hear you loud and clear and there is not a thing we can do about it, aside from surgery. Somethings become larger and other things smaller.
ReplyDeleteI'd never consider surgery. It's a matter of getting used to it. And old nose basically on a fairly wrinkle free face. Enforcing yet again, how the grave lurches nearer and my funeral can have people laughing, as I did, at this unbecoming outgrowth.
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I don't pay much attention to my own nose unless it is bleeding and won't stop. I had it cauterised at the beginning of this year and apart from one incident it has been fine, but I really can't tell if it is larger than it used to be. It still seems to fit on my face, but that is larger (fatter) just like the rest of me. My older daughter has my father's nose.
ReplyDeleteYes, my expanding waist is a good match for said nose. The Covid has not been kind to many of us, lack of exercise and savoir faire takes over.
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My trivial and petty thoughts are about whether my newspaper boy will deliver on time or not and if not, how long before the agent finds an alternate method of delivering them to me. Since the lockdown, this has been my morning obsession till the papers come.
ReplyDeleteI love how we have obsessions and routines Ramana. Mine is scrabble on line followed by a daily series of brain teasers. I am disgruntled if thrown off these.
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I only look in the mirror once a day -- in the morning right after my shower when I can't see a thing. Solves all my vanity problems.
ReplyDeleteBrilliant plan Tom.
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Check , check Tom good plan , I like it!
DeleteHilarious! Maybe, you should get sand paper and sand the rough edges.
ReplyDeleteOh Gigi, I am too delicate a creature for that, smelling salts please.
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I've heard that noses and feet never stop growing. I can't say for sure about my nose, but I know my shoe size had gone up in the past decades.
ReplyDeleteAnd our ears too apparently Mona, and finger nails after death which I find ewey. My feet are plankey too.
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Fingernails do not grow after death. The receding (shrinking) skin at the cuticle end just makes them appear longer.
DeleteSomewhere I knew that River, but it always sounds so horribly yucky - possibly hair appears longer too when the scalp shrinks.
DeleteNow we've started something quite creepy.
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With me it’s my neck, how droopy it is. I look at old photos of myself and think, why did I think I was ugly? I wasn’t then but now I am. In a culture that puts such a high premium on feminine beauty, it’s hard to just let it be.
ReplyDeleteIt is, and I kind of enjoy this obsession about one tiny bit of it as it distracts from the larger totally unsavoury bits.
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Funny! But I think I can top the nose. It is my ear lobes! lol They get longer and longer. So much so I have quit wearing earrings.
ReplyDeleteOh boy, so they built on an extension Ain't. And it sounds like they don't want any inhabitants. I'm glad I'm not alone in my focusing on these unwelcome changes.
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How about ears, I want to know! Dainty little ears with shell like transparency, holding tiny little earrings. You think noses disintegrate. Ears I tell you are worse. Lobes grown down to my shoulders from all those dainty earrings. And eyes! Look how they are receding and grown rheumy. And...
ReplyDeleteWhoa there Nelly, That's far too much to "rheuminate" on. Kill me now!
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The ears as well. I have noticed on older men. Long long ears.
ReplyDeleteYes, and how men look more like old women as they age and vice versa for the women looking like men. Hormones, I suspect, lack thereof.
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I've just posted the most trivial post ever, a small (truthfully., large) current obsession.
ReplyDeleteMy nose was big to start, I'm not sure if I should despair that it will eventually be enormous or be relieved that I'm used to it!
Not once has my nose been commented on favourably! hahaha
DeleteOne of my dear friends, Kylie, now RIP was really concerned about his feet enlarging as he aged. He was very tall and his future imagined body was this huge head on a shrunken body with clown feet. We all have our horror visions. :)
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It's really better to look in the mirror with your glasses off. What I don't like so much is the way my face had settled into a grumpy sort of look, tight-lipped. But it's just my resting face! Gravity has taken over. One of the advantages of a mask is that people can't see it now and don't assume I'm mad at them when I'm actually pleased to see them.
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing kind about aging. It is horrifying to watch myself slide into looking old. I can't say that I focus on my nose much, though, but am distressed by how very loose my skin has gotten. What the hell?
ReplyDeleteThe strange chin hairs. OMG. The strange chin hairs. They are plucked away, and you forget about them for a couple days. Then suddenly, you get up, you are looking at yourself in the mirror, and there yet another stray chin hair popped up in another strange place. And wrinkles? The most discouraging thing is that I am unable to find a cream that works. They all make my face break out. The only thing worse than wrinkles is zits AND wrinkles. Anybody else getting thin hair? I don't mind getting older, but I really find that I mind the bs that's going along with it.
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