I read other blogs 

I watch insta-stories 

Most of the time they are people half my age and in a different season of life. The have little children, flawless skin, tones bodies and can get away with clothing I am not sure I qualify to wear any longer. 

I’ve always been very aware of my appearance. I’ve followed trends and usually tend to lean more towards the traditional than the trendy.

However in my current season of life I am not confident. I am leary of the items I would have not hesitated to wear 5 years ago. 

My daughter would tell me to “STOP IT” immediately and would say “who cares what other people think, wear whatever you want.” 

Case in point:

I went shopping 2 weeks ago. Looking for a dress(es) for a wedding we are attending this weekend. 

I’m not a shopper. I don’t like hunting for the perfect thing to wear. Strolling the mall, wandering through each and every woman’s store browsing contently for hours make me crazy.

Please, just the perfect dress pop out of the rack, on sale and in my size.  Let me me have a pair of shoes in my closet already as well as the perfect accessories.

I had dresses in my closet that I could have worn but the wedding was a little swankier than my closet was. 

Ok.

I had a plan.

4 stores I thought I would find a dress without too much time or damage to my bank account.

Store #1. 

Nothing 

Store #2.

Nothing

Store #3

A couple of options and here is where I struggle.

What I would normally gravitate to is not to be found. 

Everything is shoulder less.

Now my shoulders are not the issue but my arms and neck/chest areas are not 30 anymore. You people my age (52ish) know what I’m talking about. Skin sags where it hasn’t always sagged. There are spots on my skin, that for the life of me, I don’t know where they came from. However I do recall baby oil and foil tanning bed being in my 20 year old history.

I grab a couple options and head to the dressing room. 

The lights. Good grief. You would think stores would want you to look better. They might sell more items.

I have 4 options in the dressing room.

Am I the only one who sends pictures to their husband or friends needing encouragement or an opinion?

Thankfully Steve responded back with his opinion. He knows that sometimes I will go with his pick and sometimes…… not so much.

Two!

I narrowed it down to two!

I couldn’t decide so I bought them both. I would try them on at home with shoes and such and bring back the one I didn’t wear. 

I am not accepting the aging gracefully garbage that is put out there. It’s hard people. As much as I want to be ok with the new me at almost 53, I’m struggling.

Those perfect looking bloggers or insta-gram story people might need to be deleted from my daily views. 

I did go shoulder less and felt pretty good. 

The guy next to me gave me the thumbs up, you are beautiful speech which didn’t hurt at all.

Now I’m not looking for the “atta girl” speech about how at any age we should feel beautiful. 

That’s crap 

However I am trying to embrace the season that I am in right now.

It’s a pretty good season.