Winter woes will give way to Holiday cheer
‘Tis the season to be…….coughing? Those may not be the correct lyrics, but unfortunately it is the undeniable truth. This week I not only found myself lying on the sidewalk after an embarrassing fall, but I also found myself a little under the weather. That’s when I decided one underlying rule: fashion (and self-hygiene), does not exist when all your words end in “guhh.” You can deny it, yes. You can fight it, yes. But there’s no lying that at one point in time you’ve found yourself in a pile of tissues and in a bath towel you’ve lived in for the past three days.
It’s not just the pile of tissues that questions your level, or lack there of, hygiene. It is also the fact that your leg hairs could be donated to Locks of Love and let’s just say you won’t be wearing a tank top any time soon. Actually, showering in general has become sparse. Unless you’re using the steam as a decongestant – in that case a chore that already took too long has now turned into you taking breaks during your make-shift sauna (and by breaks I am referring to leaning against the wall in your shower and/or sitting down, depending of course on the seriousness of the sinus issue). After you finally muster up the motivation to get out of the shower you may or may not have the strength to do your normal after shower activities, i.e. put clothes on, brush your hair, lotion, face cream, moving…ya know, the basics. So now your rat-nest-haired, scale-skinned, towel-wearing self looks far from fabulous.
Even simple tasks turn into a hassle. You know you’re sick when brushing your teeth turns into you holding a toothbrush with toothpaste on it in your mouth while you sit on the ground next to your bathtub on the phone with your mom while you use the other end of your toothbrush to stir your EmergenC……Oh. That’s never happened to anyone else? Yeah, me either….my, uh, friend told me she did that once. Weird. Let’s move on, shall we?
We sacrifice fashion the most during cold and flu season. During no other time would it be acceptable to wear the same sweatpants for four days straight without even a consideration of changing. Also, there’s just something repulsive about wearing a bra when you haven’t actually tasted your food in weeks. This is the time where people find it acceptable to tell you how terrible you look without you being able to get defensive. ‘Tis the season for “are you feeling okay? You look terrible.” (angry face) Reply: “I know, I’m sick-guhh.”
Being under the weather is far from a boost to your fashion ego. However, the upside to being sick is you feel truly blessed for all the people around you that care about you. All the soup offers, the texts, the windshield scrapings, the “here, let’s throw away the tissues, they’re starting to cover your bed.” Also, this is the very rare time when you actually finish a tube of chapstick before you lose it. If that’s not winning, I don’t know what is. Before you know it you’ll be decking the halls with Christmas spirit instead of tissues.