I went to see a movie (docu-drama) about Hedy Lamarr over the weekend at All Saints Cinema.
It was my first trip down Gaines Street in Tallahassee in quite a while and I was impressed by all the improvements.
I went into a little café and got a delicious chai tea latte. The café was filled with students studying on their laptops — bookbags and books stacked around them. Other students were lounging and chatting on the little porch. All this pleased me as I have a long-standing love of students.
As I left, chai tea in hand, I told the porch sitters, “All the good kids are inside studying, and the rest of you are out here.”
This got a good laugh from them. There is nothing like a group of kids to make me happy.
The movie was in the old train station, which was another big plus for me. I have a long-standing love of historical buildings and all things old.
Nurse Judy, my thoroughly modern alter-ego, does not share this affinity with me. She doesn’t even like me much since she considers me older than the hills. Still there is nothing like being in a building with reminders from the past to make me happy.
After viewing the movie, I came to the conclusion that Hedy Lamarr was much like me. I am sure she had an alter-ego and that alter-ego was the beautiful Hedy of movie star fame.
The real Hedy was the girl who loved to invent things, a more serious behind-the-scenes person like me.
Now before you jump out of your seats pointing out that Nurse Judy has not now, nor ever has had beauty like Hedy Lamarr, I will tell you I realize that.
However, Nurse Judy believes she is a beauty, and lives her life with all the make-up, clothes and glitz of an old-time movie star.
I also know that I have never invented anything, let alone an undetectable navigation system to help guide torpedoes during World War II.
Still, I am the quieter, more serious side of our duo and use my inventiveness in my writing. We are a much tinier version of the star and the inventor but I believe there are similarities.
In the end, the star’s attempts to retain beauty by plastic surgery failed and her face showed the ravages of bad surgery. She became a recluse.
I tell this to Nurse Judy when she begs me for Botox and plastic surgery.
“We must not start down this slippery slope,” I say. “It can be very dangerous.”
I think about how nice it would be if Nurse Judy became a recluse, however, and even I am tempted to maybe give it a try. I look at my old ravaged face in a mirror.
There’s something about that old face that has weathered so much in this life. There’s something about those wrinkles that make me happy. I have a long-standing affection for that old face.
“I think we’ll keep them.” I tell her.
“Hmmmm,” she says. “We’ll see.”
More later,
Judy
www.nursejudyinfo.com
P.S. Hedy, the star, and Hedy, the inventor, Nurse Judy, the star, and Judy, the writer, all have at least one thing in common. They all were (and are) very determined strong women. We know how Hedy’s story turned out. We must wait to see how Judy’s and Nurse Judy’s turns out.