The Book of Me, Written by You: Looking in the mirror

This week’s prompt was to describe yourself, in agonizing detail, in your journal.  I went on for pages, since most of you know that I over share and talk, a lot.  Well, just so you know, below is the edited version.  I only share the choicest bits with my followers you know. Plus, there are only some bits that I feel comfortable letting the WHOLE world know.  There you have it; I censored myself just for you.

First off, if you can’t tell from the pictures on this site and my profile page, I am a pale girl.  I have not always been this pale, but my times of lying around the pool, running around in the sun, and in general going outside without sunscreen plastered all over came to an end a while ago.  Kids have made my life a bit crazy so I have not had a tan in nearing on a decade.  In addition you may notice that I have reddish hair, kind of a dark auburn.  I like it, and we will call it my color of choice. 

As for height I am on the petite side, just under 5’5” and fall in between my parents.  My feet used to be a 7, and then I had kids. Now they are an 8 ½ or 9 depending on the style.  Not something I would ever have dreamed of when I had kids you know.  I also have 2 beauty marks on the left side of my face.  One is on the curve of my jaw below my ear and the other next to my nose.

This was the best close up I could
get of my eyes. Yep, no makeup
on either...

If you are really good you would also have noticed that I have brown eyes in my pictures.  My brown eyes are not really brown.  My mom and I have the same type of eyes: light brown with gold rings in them. They are very unique.  When I went to the school of optometry in college they always had the students come in and look at my eyes, which always boggled my mind until I asked what was going on.  It also happened to my mom when she was in school.  You see, we have what are known as amber eyes.  This refers to the fact that our eyes appear brown but they actually have a golden hue to them, like amber and are among the rarest of eye colors in the world.  Mine have gold rings and a copper overtone and are not like a lot of the pictures you see of the near yellow eyes. The optometrist told me it is due to the fact that I have a higher concentration of lipochrome then others with brown eyes.  

I do have piercings, 2 in each ear. The first set my Grandmother Combs took me to get for my 11^th birthday, against the wishes of my parents.  The second piercing was done when I was 17 (I lied and told the lady I was 18), again against the wishes of my parents.  Yeah, I thought they were so old school, it was just an ear piercing you know. My mom didn’t get hers done until she was in her 20s so I guess I can see why the thought I should wait. Those are the only ones I have, by the way, and as of today I have no tattoos.

I have three scars on my face located on my chin, forehead, and right ear.  Since you can see them in pictures, I thought I would be best to talk about them.  They were all “fixed” when I was 13.  Talk about a wonderful time to have sutures on your face, 8^th grade, sigh. However, here are the stories behind them.

First off, I was born with a Preauricular pit on my left ear.  This is a congenital defect of the ear that occurs when the ear does not fuse correctly during formation.  No big deal really, most people never notice it and live their whole lives with no problems. I however had frequent infections.  The “pit” is a tube that goes into your ear and because of this can become infected. The surgeon closed it up and I have not had a problem since. I read recently that this may be an inherited trait, which I can believe as my first cousins daughter had one too.  She had hers operated on when she was 15.

On my forehead I had a particularly large chicken pox scar from when I was 5. It was very large, round, and deep. When I was in elementary school I was teased by many kids that I was actually Indian and not from Indiana because I already had my “mark.” One of my best friends at the time was Indian and she would always just yell back how she would take me as a sister.  They took out the scar and now I have a small thin line on my forehead.  Most people now do not notice that there is anything there.

Lastly, and the most impressive, is the scar on my chin.  It is my badge of honor for what happens when you goof off and don’t listen to your soccer coach dad.  When I was 5 we were dismissed for a water break during soccer practice. Well, you see the playground was on the way to the water fountain, and I just HAD to go down the slide on the way.  All I can remember is that someone yelled to me, I kept running turning my head to yell over my shoulder, turned my head back around, and BAM! I hit the steel support leg for the slide and slit my chin open to the bone.  My mother was the lucky one who took the crying, snotty, screaming me to the ER for stitches.  Of course what I remember from the ER was my mom (who was 25) spinning on the stool next to me because she was bored. I kept thinking that it looked like fun.

The stitches were bad, 15 in total, and they left a deep highly notable scar across the point of my chin.  The surgeon who fixed the other 2 repaired this one at the same time.  He did some fancy plastic surgery stuff on it that made it less sunk and more blended.  Yes, you can still see it, but it’s just not as noticeable like before.  In picture I no longer have a shadow cast by my scar on my chin.

I wear a wedding band and my replacement engagement ring on my left hand.  The band is gold with a braid decoration in the center.  The other is white gold with my favorite stone as the focal, a sapphire.  I tend to

wear a ring on my other ring finger as well.  Usually it is my Indiana University class ring, but I do change it to others when dressing up.  

To the side here is a picture of my right hand with my class ring on it.  It was a bit painful to put my hand into that position as I have developed swelling and stiffness in my fingers over the last several years.  My hands are tiny too. XXS men's gloves fit me just about right.  From the palm of my hand to the tip of my middle finger is about 6.5 inches.

Well, I think that is about it.  If you want to know more, or see the rest, you'll have to come over or see me around sometimes. 

See you next week for post 4!