Scary Me and Anxious Me
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table4five
In honor of “Self-Portrait Tuesday”, I decided to show you something I’m calling High School Horror-this yearbook photo of me from my Sophomore year. Oh. My. God. WHY, why didn’t anyone tell me how HORRIBLE this spiral perm looked? I wanted one so badly, and I was so excited when my Mom took me to Regis at the mall to get this. But the hairstylist never said anything about any kind of hair care products. I vaguely remember her telling me to scrunch it dry with a towel and then leave it alone. I know it was 1982, and pretty much the only styling products available were mousse, gel and hair spray, but couldn’t I have used some combination of them to make this look less, I don’t know, BOZO THE CLOWN? God! There was also an absence of eyebrow maintenance, teal eyeshadow, and frosted pink lipstick. I can’t believe I left the house like this.
I do remember loving that angora sweater, and notice the teal polo shirt with the collar tucked in? That was very important at my school. I’m sure I am also wearing Levi’s 501s and brown Bass loafers. And tiny gold hoop earrings. No glasses either, although I probably needed them at this point, I was just so self-conscious as it was, there was no way in hell I was adding glasses.
So that’s Scary Me, now on to Anxious Me. Tonight we are driving to a dinner at my Aunt and Uncle’s house for a gathering of all of my cousins on my Dad’s side of the family. Between the four of us we have nine kids, including a baby even younger than Kaitlyn. Don’t get me wrong, I am definitely looking forward to this, but it also kicks my anxiety level into high gear.
When I am in social situations, I get extremely anxious. The more people there are talking, the more I talk, until I’m talking a mile a minute getting myself more and more keyed up. I also have the unbelievably annoying habit of not waiting until the speaker is finished before I jump in and start talking. It is the absolutely WORST habit, I know. And I hear myself doing it, but it’s like I can’t stop. I know I’m interrupting, but something short-circuits between my brain and my mouth and I just have to talk.
I give myself little pep talks to try to prevent this from happening. I tell myself to stay calm, to breathe and most of all to let people finish their sentence before I start talking. It never works.
So wish me luck, please. Here’s hoping I don’t come home a nervous wreck.
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Hello and welcome to Table for Five! I'm Elizabeth, and this blog started in September 2005 as a way for me to participate in the Mommy Blogging community. I'm married with three terrific kids-boys ages 11 and 9 and a 2 year old daughter. Things I love include my family, coffee, Diet Coke, TV, reading, and Target.
Please contact me at table4five AT gmail DOT com if you would like to discuss anything I've posted here, place a text or button ad, send me a product to review, or provide a guest post. Thank you for stopping by!
I think you look great in that picture. It’s funny how we have such our own issues about how we look(ed) — but everyone else thinks we look just fine. (I do it too.)
Good luck tonight. I am sure you will have a great time and everyone will be so impressed with you and your family.
You were adorable in that picture!!! What are you talking about?
I agree, that I’m sure that you and your gorgeous family will have a good time tonight. People probably just think you are fun and bubbly.
You look cute in that pic. Someday I’ll dig out my gothic period in high school. Then you can be properly horrified.
I can’t stop interupting either - it’s terrible but not as bad as you think. It’s worse to have big spans of silence in the conversation. So I prefer to think - I just like to keep the conversation moving.
Aw! I think you look sweet!
Wow. I’m so with ya. If I could destroy all photos of me that existed between the ages of 13-17, I would!!!
Also, I love the American Idol olympics thing below! Hahaha, that’s so funny.
Bonne chance at your family dinner thing. Just eat a lot, maybe that will stop you from talking so much.
Oh, I know how horrible it is to grow out a perm. I think that picture is great, though, and the first thing I noticed was the teal polo shirt with the collar tucked in.
Good luck tonight! I hope it goes well.
No, but before you finish, let me just tell you this….See, I do it too, all the time - it’s worse when I am nervous.
And I am very critical of eyebrow’s and I must admit yours don’t look too bad in that picture. Perhaps I come from a hairy people, but really - not so bad.
And the Regis ref had me laughing out loud. Regis was the Shit in the early 80’s - cause I totally had some feathered hair from Regis me own fine self.
Hahaha Regis! I remember it well. And seriously Elizabeth, based on that picture, we may have been separated at birth. I’ll be posting some of my own soon. It’s eerie how much we looked alike in the 8th grade.
Social anxiety sucks. I feel for you. All I can say is try not to focus on it if you can, that always seems to make it worse for me. Although most of the time I just end up dwelling on it after the fact rather than before.
I think you look great in your picture — reason? We all look that way in our school pics…you know, anxious, nervous, self-assured-ish in a slightly “I don’t know about this” kind of way. Anything and everything is exciting and turmoilish and oooo, it’s all so adolescent.
I know I’m posting way late to wish you luck at dinner but I just know you didn’t interrupt at least once. That’s progress! Go Elizabeth!
Hope things went well at the family dinner. I do that jumping on people’s talking too and then I feel horrible about it when someone points it out to me later.
Oh, and you were cute in that picture! Your eyebrows looked fine, actually.
I might as well market a shirt that says, “Sorry for interrupting, but…” Seems like I’m not the only one who does it, knows it, and can’t stop. Phew.
I think you’re so CUTE in that pic. I would have killed for curls, perm or no. I tried, believe me I tried. This epic flatness was not achieved by hair that would take to perming.
Hehold another victim of the spiral perm. God. It does NO ONE any favors.
Compared to my sophomore picture you look like Heidi Klum! I had a frickin’ mullet. I kid you not. I was awful.
Elizabeth, you were a knockout as the 1980s go. Seriously.
I’m at one extreme or the other in social situations. Either I sit there like a bump on a log or I can’t shut the f up. But I hope you had a pleasant evening, and I’m sure you were just fine.
I know that interrupting thing– sometimes I get afraid that by the time there’s a break in the conversation, I’ll forget the thing I wanted to say.
Lord knows why I think my conversational contributions are precious enough to warrant interrupting someone else– sometimes I can’t help it.
And I become a motormouth when I’m nervous, too. Unless I clamp my mouth closed, that is.
It’s tough when I annoy even myself…
Good observation, your ideas are right on.
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