{"id":504,"date":"2017-01-13T21:21:00","date_gmt":"2017-01-14T02:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/?p=504"},"modified":"2017-01-13T21:21:00","modified_gmt":"2017-01-14T02:21:00","slug":"keep-me-in-the-dark-please","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/?p=504","title":{"rendered":"KEEP ME IN THE DARK, PLEASE!"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Let me take you back to 1964 when this southern girl didn’t have a nose full of hair and didn’t need lip liner.\u00a0 But as you can see fromthe photo above, I was trying mighty hard to be alluring just the same!<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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My latest book, HALLEY, awarded 2015 Jefferson Cup Honor for Historical Fiction, awarded the Moonbeam Silver Medal for Young Adult Fiction,\u00a0 and awarded the 2016 Frank Yerby Award for Fiction.\u00a0 Available at: NewSouth Books:\u00a0www.newsouthbooks.com\/halley and Amazon<\/strong>.<\/h2>\n

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Recently I was reading to one of my grandsons and, instead of hanging on to every word of the story, as usual, Isaac was staring up at me.\u00a0 When I paused to turn a page he said, \u201cGrandma, do you know you have hair up your nose?\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Lord!\u00a0 My grandsons are joining the army of people feeding me information I don\u2019t want!<\/strong><\/h2>\n

At one time, it was mainly TV commercials pointing out that I might have unsightly, yellowing teeth and nobody has had the guts to tell me.\u00a0 Or maybe I had underarm odor that I was totally unaware of (Fat chance!).\u00a0 Then there were those unsightly bulges that I hadn\u2019t noticed (Really?\u00a0 How could you not notice?).\u00a0 And panty lines\u2014I never realized how repugnant these were until the commercials aired.\u00a0 Silly me\u2014I thought those lines meant my pants were too tight.\u00a0 Then \u201csenior\u201d health bulletins joined the information overload:\u00a0 \u201cDo you notice that people seem to be mumbling more than in the past?\u201d \u201dAre you having to go more frequently?\u201d\u00a0 \u201cDo you fall more often these days?\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n

YES, and I can\u2019t get up!<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Then my sister joined the chorus.\u00a0 \u201cWhy do you have those bags under your eyes?\u201d she asked one day when I was showing her some knitting I was working on. \u201cWhat bags?\u201d I answered.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

That\u2019s STILL my story, and I\u2019m sticking with it.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Then there were make-up problems I didn\u2019t know existed until well-meaning people filled me in.\u00a0 A while back a friend asked which lipliner I used.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t use lipliner,\u201d I said.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

She looked at me as she might an alien from Mars. \u201cThen what do you do about lipstick \u2018bleeds\u2019 into the vertical lines around your mouth?\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u201cWhat lines?\u201d I asked.\u00a0 Of course, as soon as I got home, I checked.\u00a0 Sure enough, there they were, like offshoots from the San Andreas Fault.\u00a0 I\u2019m certain they hadn\u2019t existed until she mentioned them.\u00a0 In fact, that is the theory I\u2019m going with!<\/strong><\/h2>\n

As if I don\u2019t have enough real problems to deal with, people are making them up out of thin air! Hardly a day goes by that well-meaning people add to the list.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

So here\u2019s my resolution for this new year\u2014Don\u2019t take on problems other people create for you.\u00a0 Stick to the ones you don\u2019t need help finding.\u00a0 There will be an adequate supply, trust me! For instance, what to do about hair that increasingly has a mind of its own?\u00a0 Nothing\u2014mousse, hairspray, styling brushes, or expensive styling gels\u2014will make mine cooperate.\u00a0 How to keep doctors and other health professionals from preceding or ending each statement with \u201cat your age\u201d\u00a0 or \u201cconsidering your age.\u201d\u00a0 How to avoid listening to people on the extreme left\u2014or right\u2014politically, and being informed of all the latest conspiracy theories going around.\u00a0 Can\u2019t we just meet in the middle for a change?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Sometimes being \u201cin the dark\u201d is a good place to be.\u00a0 For sure, it saves me from lipliner!<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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Let me take you back to 1964 when this southern girl didn’t have a nose full of hair and didn’t need lip liner.\u00a0 But as you can see fromthe photo above, I was trying mighty hard to be alluring just … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=504"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":508,"href":"http:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504\/revisions\/508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}