We took this picture last night and I cant believe I'm posting it.   The person who took it told me that I looked a mess (I have looked better) and I'm standing between a 26 and 21 year old.  Normally the pic would've been deleted and I would only have been taken after a change of clothes and the hair was done. But for the first time I didn't care because  I realized something, this pic isn't about me.  The pic is about Jason (on the left) who I haven't seen in 3 years and Tre (a new friend) who just turned 21.  I realized after looking at the picture I was genuinely smiling (not a picture taking smile).  I was happy to be hanging with Jason for the first time in 3 years and happy to be celebrating Tre's 21st birthday.  For the first time ever I took a pic and wasn't worried about looking like a magazine advertisement.  And I owe it to Jason.  The day before we were talking about pictures and he said to me "you're not going to look fabulous in every pic you take, I don't".  Now coming from Jason (who's worse than me on the vanity scale) that was deep!  I got my hatred of taking pictures from my mother.  She hates to smile and will go into Sean Penn mode if you take her picture without giving her time to prepare.  But at 59 she is taking some of the best pics of her life (in order to preserve the peace between us I wont post any of her FOR NOW) and she's smiling in them.   I guess it's finally hit me, THIS IS WHAT I LOOK LIKE, not a Versace model but I clean up quite well.  Oprah says it all the time, "the older you get the more comfortable you get in your skin" and my skin is older than anybody else's in this pic and I wouldn't have it any other way.  That being said don't expect to run into me looking a mess or that I"ll start arriving on time (I normally change twice before I can leave the house) but I guess I can give myself a break sometime. 

Thanks Jason!  Happy Birthday Tre!