…more accurately, I would say I have been “defunct.” (That’s a great Scrabble word, by the way–I speak from recent personal experience.) After the third or fourth major thing went wrong in my life last year, I decided (amidst the angst) that this was a great opportunity for me to really examine the effects of adversity on all aspects of my life, both external and internal.
The bad news: Hair really can fall out from mental stress! Seriously. And I am now being paid back for all the decades I have spent wailing about the total unmanageability of my thick, heavy, curly mane of hair. My hair is much quieter now, and sadder. Happily, it has also stopped falling out which is good for many reasons, the least of which is that I’m sure all those Drano treatments on my household water pipes to get rid of the massive clogs of MY HAIR lodged deep in them (it had to go somewhere, eh, since it was no longer occupying my head..?) were not good for them.
The good news: Having given up many expensive spa-type beauty treatments in my quest to trim my budget to manageable proportions after my contract job ended at the end of the year, I have discovered that I don’t really look that bad without a French manicure, waxed eyebrows and blonder highlights. Now, the fifteen or twenty pounds I have put on due to the utter inactivity forced upon me by the two herniated discs I acquired in my back (I told you—last year was fraught!) is unavoidably unattractive, given that it is not only pounds I didn’t need but a very flabby set of pounds. But the series of cortisone injections in the spine I am currently in the midst of appear to be slowly but steadily repairing the problem, so hopefully I will be soon able to stop laying about the house watching my fingernails grow and contemplating the need of my walls for a nice new coat of paint and get some actual exercise.
I am slowly emerging from my shell of utter self-absorption and attempting to reconnect with the world at large–I’ve noticed already that my perceptions and resultant opinions about some things have radically altered, as I rediscover what’s been going on while I’ve more-or-less been away. But I am still pretty uninformed, fact-wise, so I’m not quite ready to venture any global or radical commentary just yet. The last thing I need is for more hair to start falling out..!
I’m posting here for the first time (cue the balloons), but I wanted to say I’m a great fan of your work. I was introduced to it recently, and love how objectively acerbic it is. Sort of like a grapefruit on a spaceship. I hope you feel better soon, and that the prospect of commenting becomes less daunting. I dare say you have been missed.
Grapefruit on a spaceship…I am SO using that somewhere soon.