We were driving in the car on our way home after viewing ‘Prime’ with Uma Thurman and Meryl Streep. The male lead is played by Bryan Greenberg. Both Alison and I said we didn’t really believe him as the character. There wasn’t anything wrong with him per se, but we just didn’t dive into him the same way we got into Uma and Meryl. Alexandra said that the part she didn’t believe was that Uma’s character was only 37. She thought that she looked around 50. Alex, being 15, might not have the best idea of what 37 and 50 look like, but it opened a great discussion about what real people look like as apposed to people that have had tons of plastic surgery. At some point in the conversation, I slipped away in my mind and started contemplating what I would look like in a few years when I hit 37 and would Alex think I looked 50? How many crows-feet would I have around my eyes? Would I have more laugh wrinkles than I do now? If I keep losing weight will I get all saggy and need one of those surgeries where they cut off huge folds of skin? Would I have scar lines all over my body from surgery? What if I picked a bad surgeon and he killed me while I was under? And what extreme ugliness would I have to look at in the mirror in order for me to ever even think seriously about having plastic surgery? And why does my daughter think that people with wrinkles or slightly saggy skin on their arms or necks are ugly? Where have I failed?
And then suddenly, Alex says really loudly from the back seat: “It’s too QUIET in here!”
I jumped. Alison jumped. And then we both started laughing. Really hard. So I turned on the radio to a station she likes. She started singing, kinda loudly, I hummed along for a minute but then started wondering if Alexandra would age well and if she’d think she needed to get a boob job or liposuction at a young age. Just about the time I got to the part where she was 17 and wanted me to help her ask her dad if she could get fake boobs installed, she yelled: “This is not what I meant! THIS IS TOO QUIET TOO! I need you to talk to me. So – TALK.” But I couldn’t stop laughing. Alex said: “We can even keep talking about wrinkles if you want!”