What I've been up to

So here is a picture Eric took of me today with his (gasp!) iPhone:

Of course, it's the end of a long work day, my makeup has rubbed off, and I'm sitting inside Gloria, the minivan. But there are a few things you can see here that are different about me (other than the crows feet):

I've colored my hair a bit darker than it grows, and I've a tiny little sparkle in my nose.

You may wonder if there is trouble in paradise. The girls at work think I've lost my mind. They only see me in my professional role, and have no idea that there is more to me than a mommy/midwife.

Truth is, that way back when I was a little girl, I remember seeing Indian women who had jewelry in their noses. I thought that they looked so exotic and beautiful and feminine. Just like the lady I so vividly remember who talked with my mother at an English Country Dance. As they conversed I was entranced by the ivy that wrapped so beautifully around her delicate wrist. It was the first tattoo I ever noticed and the most beautiful, as well. Isn't it interesting the things that make impressions on us when we are young?

So I've wanted to do this for years, decades even. About eleven years ago I made a list of things I wanted to accomplish in the next year, and then in the next 5 years. I went on with life and then found the list a few years later - do you know there was only one outstanding item on the list? With this in mind, I started a new list. Getting my nose pierced was one thing on it. I plan to change the jewelry to something a bit more subtle once it is healed. But, just as with earrings, it seems there is "starter" jewelry you wear in the beginning.

There are few interesting things I've noticed since I did this last Thursday (ooh- a week ago). A)the ladies I work with don't have any idea about my real personality B)Neither my son or my mother seem to have noticed C)There are at least two other mom's at Liam's church pre-school that have visible facial piercings and they don't look creepy or weird at all.

Perhaps the this whole post is frivolous, but something even more frivolous is my excitement not about the republican national convention broadcast tonight, but the first episode of 90210! It's strange to say, but it's like an old friend is back in town.

One last cool thing that's going on in my life right now. Yesterday I was piddling around in a tiny little antiques shop a few miles from home, when I found something that looks a lot like this:

This is a birthing stool from the early 1800s in America. Women sat on them, pulling upward on the handles as they pushed new life into the world. Despite the fact that I thought I was fed up with midwifery and working in women's health, I'm captivated by this odd little chair I found in a backwoods antiques market. I want the thing so badly. I feel like it is a link to the sufferings and joys of countless women and the midwives who attended them in their travail. I think I just have to have it. It seems like a ridiculous thing to spend money on, but then so is jewelry in your nose.

I'll let you know if I buy it.