The Curious Case of Tricia Quinn

Last weekend was Halloween and my 55th birthday. Bill and I had been invited to a wedding reception/costume party, so we had to come up with some costumes. After taking into account the various pieces of clothing already in our closets, we decided that the cheapest thing to do was to go as Hermione and Professor Snape from the Harry Potter books.

So here is the unlikely couple! By the way, I'm wearing a school uniform from Catherine and Billy's grade school. For the record, this is not Catherine's old uniform. She would have never worn a size 14 Girls in grade school!



Our daughter, Catherine, had to dress up to go to work. She went as a cat.





I really like this picture of Catherine and me.



This is the best picture of Bill as Snape and another cute one of our "Cat."



Here are our good friends, Rob and Roberta Billingsley. They had a tailgating party. Roberta and I guess Rob, too, love any occasion when they can dress up.



Here I am with Robbie and Bill.



Bill was having a bad hair day.



The saucy pirate's wench (queen) is about to attack poor Hermione. Snape is oddly amused.



In retaliation I got out my trusty wand and cast a spell over the queen's dagger.



Finally, Harry Potter (Ryan Billingsley) showed up.



Whatever is Bill doing?







As you know from my last blog, apparently I do not appear to be my stated age. However, even I was somewhat shocked when I saw the Halloween pictures of myself. I said to myself, "I look like I did in high school." So I dug up my old senior high school pic to compare it with one taken 38 years later (which was blown-up and hence a little fuzzy--no avert attempt to airbrush fine wrinkles). I think the real secret to growing younger is to resort to a girlie hair style. And because my hair never holds a curl for very long and has a pronounced cowlick, my repertoire of hair styles is extraordinarily limited in scope. Add to that a Catholic school uniform and a white blouse and it becomes pretty hard to avoid that deja-vu experience. My friend, Sharon, has noticed my hair has become darker over the years. That happened in the beginning on its own. I had never put any color on it until my 40s--highlights at first. When the highlights started to take over my hair like a tail wagging the dog I decided that I didn't like that much blond so I just went for straight, albeit semi-permanent not permanent, color. The other noticeable change is that my teeth have separated once again--so much for the braces and retainer! On the plus side, I have learned how to apply makeup over the years. Thank goodness! Of course, time marches on and there's no better reminder of that than sitting in a clinic for an hour getting an infusion of Reclast for old bones. Something that raises another question: if skeletons don't disintegrate over the centuries, why are my bones doing so in just a few short years? Hmmmm...