news flash!

Swimsuit shopping is no less mortifying or depressing here than in the states. (Duh.)

I'm a smart woman. I know that I have the same body I left the US with in February... (admittedly minus a few lbs...) So why is it that I was actually looking forward to shopping for a suit for our upcoming trip to Italy here in Zurich? Did I think the general beautiful-ness of the people here would some how rub off on me? Did I think that a $325 suit would hold the key to a beautiful bod?

I honestly don't know what I was thinking. But I do recognize it as similar to a life-long 'dimentia' I have 'suffered' for as long as I can remember - it goes something like this: many mornings when I awaken I somehow think/dream/believe/hope that I will have been transformed into a supermodel/ideal woman/someone else with long, skinny arms, a waist, clavicles-that-can-hold-water, and a more reasonable/workable/practical-sized-bust. I finally smartened up about 10 years ago and took the full length mirror out of my bedroom as it was was not helping in this matter ...

But I'm starting to make peace with all this body and age 'stuff'. I am. Kind of. I'm trying. Really. What choice does one have? I'm looking 40 in the eye and I can still turn a head from time to time. Other than the arthritis, herniated discs and headaches, I feel pretty good and when I actually take the time to put myself together I can even look good. Why just the other day, someone called me 'Norma Jean'. Now that compliment could last me several weeks... Of course, my pseudo-confidence is much more likely that I realize I could be the mother of most of the 'chippies' on the street and that takes some of the pressure off ...

Speaking of chips ... Have you ever tried to make nachos at home just for yourself? A one person serving? (I just made some for myself because the overly generous people who came over last weekend left a 800lb bag of chips, limes and 12 different kinds of salsa - what was I to do? They called out to me) It's not easy, is it? Because you really can't make just a little bit. You need to spread the chips all over the cookie sheet and then add the meat, beans, cheese, peppers, onions, more cheese, what have you ... and it just doesn't look right unless that whole damn tray/sheet is full.

Now you know in your rational mind that there is no way you can eat all this food. And it's not a matter (this time) of your eyes being bigger than your stomach. It just needs to be this way. You'll save the left overs. You may save them, but you also know that they will never taste as good as they did the first time and that nachos, unlike mom's goulash or lasagna, do not get better when the tastes have time to 'marry'. Face it, the chips get soggy, the cheese does not re-melt as well as it melted and you may as well have just thrown the whole tray away after you stuffed yourself the first time.

I don't know why you may have saved the rest of the nachos. Perhaps you have one of those Pampered Chef stoneware trays that are supposed to make things crispy not soggy when reheated. Maybe your husband is out of town and he loves nachos and you know he'll pretty much eat anything or maybe you are just like me. A frugal/thrifty yankee. (a Red Sox-loving yankee) I was reared a yankee by yankees whose people were yankees that begat yankees and so on ... it goes back a looooong way, ladies and gentlemen. I just can't seem to shake it sometimes.

From saving left overs until they have become a petri dish experiment in the refrigerator to balkng at the insane amout some people will pay for a bathing suit to missing Marshall's like you wouldn't believe - I'm a New Hampshire farm girl through and through and chances are, I'll be wearing my 3 year old, black and white polka dotted swimsuit in Italy this year. And I'll be looking damn good. (for an old broad...)