The Ghost of Me Future?

As I walked up to my bus stop this morning, there she was, looking me up and down, puffing away on her cigarette. So I, in turn, looked her up and down.

What did I see?

I saw a dumpy woman, with dyed blonde, frazzled hair and a face that held decades of stories, and few of them good. It was puffy and jowly, with the kind of wrinkles one can only get from 40 years of daily pack-a-day smoking and cheap liquor. Her makeup was overdone and her lipstick was already feathering. She was dressed in a faux fur leopard, shapeless, hooded coat with brown leggings tucked into black flat lace-up boots and had on a bright orange-ish red knit pompom hat. As she puffed away, I could see the tacky gold rings on every finger. And as she saw me watching her, she pulled her enormous cheap black movie star sunglasses out of her cheap-looking red canvas bag..

I felt like I was seeing the Ghost of Me Future if I don’t change.

What did she see, I wonder?

She saw a tallish young professional dressed for work, fresh out of the shower with long shining black hair, perfect, understated makeup, business-length nails with clear polish and a total of 3 silver rings and a beloved Movado watch. She was wearing black boots with 3-inch heels, slim, black, boot-cut trousers, long black fitted jacket, a turquoise v-neck silk sweater with matching necklace and earrings, and a long burgundy wool coat with fox fur collar framing her unlined face and sparkling pale green eyes. The young professional pulled her new book out of her red leather Tod’s look-a-like tote bag to read while she waited for the bus.

The thing that scares me most about this is that she might have seen the Ghost of Her Past. And I think I saw it in her eyes before she put on those glasses.

Time to think about those New Year's Resolutions, I guess.