Are you wearing that to bed?

Part Five I am a creature of habit. I had these routines that I did, and I always did them, no matter what. My life would be terribly messed up if I didn't follow each step, so I thought, and I think that way still. Every night before retiring to get my beauty sleep, I would follow this step by step routine. First, you take off your make-up, especially the mascara because you didn't want your eyelashes to fall out. This was my thinking at the time, I later learned that your eyes lashes just dry out and get stubby. Then, you wash your face with Noxema. Noxema, the new face cleanser that was available during my growing years, now I wouldn't be caught looking at it in the store, it's full of wax I've learned. Next, I curled my hair in plastic rollers. Yes, I slept with curlers in my hair every night because the wonderful invention of electric hot rollers hadn't been invented yet! Then, I would put this zit drying solution on all the spots on my face, even if it looked like a pimple might appear, that stuff went on my face. I looked liked some sort of spotted creature because they dried white. White dots all over the face. My mother would tease me when I would go to kiss her goodnight. She'd say, "good thing no one sees you like this." So when I was kissing my mother good night this one evening she said to me, "do you have to wear that stuff on your face?" Then Terry walked up to me and said, "you're not going to wear that to bed are you?" "Of course", I said, "I have to!" Off to bed I went, but not before doing my exercises on the hard wood floor. Every evening I would do these exercises on the floor and every evening Trudy would disgustingly say, "Do you have to do that every night? I get so tired of hearing you do that!" Oh, the lengths we women go to, to look good for the opposite sex. After I finished my exercises I climbed into bed to get my beauty sleep. I wish I still had that routine of exercising at night, but it promptly went out the door with the birth of my first child. I was abruptly awakened in the wee hours of the morning by these strange girls. At first I didn't know what was going on, then my mind knew exactly what was happening, my dream was coming true, and I wasn't sleeping! Then horror came to my face, "my face, my face, I can't be seen with this stuff on my face". Ahhh! They didn't allow me to do anything to help my appearance. The only exception would have been is if I wasn't properly attired, which thankfully I was. Then off to the high school we went. My sweet sister just kept looking at me and laughing her head off because she knew, and I knew, that I would be the object of much laughter when we got to the school. It was hilarious! I found myself laughing my head off too. Fifty girls not looking their best, and I was one of them, but I didn't care, I knew that I was going to be in the Tigerettes. Having your dreams come true didn't ever happen for me, but today they did! All of us found ourselves looking around to see who made the team. As I was searching, I discovered that Marsha wasn't there. I had mixed feelings. Part of me wanted her to make it and another part of me was okay that she didn't, but the hard part was going to be when I saw her in school in just a few hours. We were all asked to wear a special ribbon to school to let everyone in the school know who made the team. The ribbon was long, blue, and had been screen printed with the word "Tigerette" on it. As you passed the other girls in the halls who tried out for the team and didn't make it, you could see the hurt on their faces. It was a bittersweet day. I wasn't looking forward to my fifth period class. I knew that it was going to be a little awkward when Marsha and I came face to face. Marsha made light of the situation saying that she didn't really care if she had made the team or not. But I knew better, she really did care, and it was written all over her face. From that point on our relationship went downhill. She started ignoring me and talking with other girls in class and I found that I had lost a budding friendship. I was willing to let the friendship go, after all, I had other things to look forward to in my life.