From Mama Cass to Streisand....

so....um.....well....ugh....  yeah.... so....a couple years ago a couple of the young men at work who i have always been a mentor to came to me to complain about their new boss.    their boss was my equal.   i was very sympathetic to them as i already had pegged this guy for a shitty team-member.   so i gave the guys some tools and suggestions on how to navigate this guy while we figured out a longterm solution.  at the end of the conversation i could tell they wanted to tell me "something else".    i figured it was a question of corruption or something like that.   so i dragged it out of the guys as we had all survived a previous corrupt boss together.    well....nope...with much shame in their eyes i was told that this new guy walked around their department and talked about me all the time and in his short time with us had already given me a nickname... Mama Cass.  granted, in retrospect, i did weigh at least 373 pounds and had a propensity to wear bright colored flowy clothes.   and at the time i just acted tough and told the guys some insult about the other guy.  but it hurt.  it hurt real bad.  he was actually fired within months for "performance" issues...but the comment stuck.  i was embarrassed.  embarrassed because i was told by these young guys who i was so proud of being their "work mama" and i did not want them to know me as "Mama Cass".

fast forward to the last couple weeks... i have had more than one person come up to me and tell me that i look like barbra streisand.   papa, can you hear me?  sorry...i digress.... actually more along the lines of barbra ala funny girl.  most of these comments are from folks at work.   i have always had a big nose.  and if you are being compared to barbra it is not for your ears....let's be honest...   being a greek jew (on the same side) the cards have always been stacked against me...lol....but i think my former moon shaped face and full cheeks held my nose at a different proportion.   as my face has elongated and thinned out my nose has taken a more prominent position.  i am very aware of this when i really look at my face in the mirror.

while i would prefer to hear that i look like me, heidi, at this point in my journey as i struggle to adapt to my new body and image....i guess if people want to compare me to a notoriously skinny successful woman...i'll take it.