Lights, Camera... Wrinkles?

 On the one hand, I hope you were able to catch the Christmas Doll Challenge livestreams before they disappeared because it sure was a ton of work. On the other hand, using my laptop webcam had the effect of making me look 50 feet wide and about a thousand years old, so maybe it's just as well if you didn't see it.

I know I could get a bunch of fancy cameras and lights and videos and use filters to make myself look younger, but I can barely handle the Facebook live process so I know I would never figure out how to hook all that stuff up. I keep hearing about how you have to go live on video or have a podcast to get ahead nowadays ~ that's the blog of today I guess, but this week has really challenged me.

My self esteem took a huge blow. I've actually lost about 30 pounds recently. Everyone was commenting on it when we were home for the funeral last weekend. And I've been doing this "glass skin" or "K Skin" Korean skincare regimen that takes a ton of time but gives your complexion a youthful, pearly, dewy glow. I felt really great, but then the webcam made me look like a pasty 2-ton troll, and I realized I still have a long way to go. I hit both Ulta and Sephora while we were back home and spent about a billion dollars on even more skincare products. Livestreams may just be too hard on my wallet! Maybe I will try podcasting.

The past few weeks have been exhausting and heart-rending. My husband's boss is still out of work, mourning his wife, and besides that being hard because they're both lifelong friends, my husband is totally buried in work. We found out we won't be able to go to the cabin for Veterans' Day because Jerry will be taking on extra work. Then this morning I woke up to the news that, after surviving a near-death experience and having a pacemaker installed in Italy, my stepdad is in the hospital here with sepsis. On a side note ~ Dad was life-flighted from Capri to Naples, had a pacemaker installed, and was in the hospital for two weeks and it was completely FREE. Italians pay the same or less in taxes than we do, just sayin'.

On top of all that, today we got a text from about a threat to shoot up our son's  high school.  He attends both regular school and a tech school and the tech school was locked down last week. On average, one or both of his schools are locked down for threats of violence at least once a month. It's terrifying and disheartening that we've decided our lives are worth less than the gun industry making money. The school, a beautiful building, was vandalized overnight as well. That's something else that happens constantly. We live in a deep-red county where Democrats don't even bother to run for office, so it mystifies me when people say the GOP is tougher on crime. We moved here from a deep-blue county where the only time the school was ever locked down was due to a bear in the playground!

So, anyway, I'm beat and sad and just frustrated. I hope things go better next week. Do you do a lot of videos or Zoom meetings? What's your skincare routine? Do you have any special camera tricks to take off weight and age? Please, let me know!