“I Feel Bad About My Neck” by Nora Ephron

A few months ago my friend Noelle and I decided that our must-have accessory for spring was a pair of “hostess pants.” These would be the kind of pants that Betty Draper or Laura Petrie might wear to throw an elegant dinner party in their own home with iceberg wedge salad and martinis. The pants would have a sash at the waist and the pant legs would flair at the bottom. A few days later, I bought my first pair of midnight blue evening hostess pants and immediately fell in love with them. Unfortunately, I forgot that one should only wear hostess pants in one’s home. I wore them to work one day, and as I was walking across the parking lot I tripped over one of the pant legs and fell flat onto my hands and knees. Picture blood and bits of gravel sunken into both. A woman much older than me, happen to be riding by on a bike and stopped to help me. She said, “Falling when you are older is not the same as when you are a kid, right? You should go home and ice.” Suddenly I am a person who needs to ice her limbs. How did this happen? Growing old take a lot of work and that is the theme of Nora Ephron’s wonderful book “I Feel Bad About My Neck.” Published in 2006, six years before her death at the age of 71 of leukemia, this book is a collection of essays about aging. She explains the importance of manicures and blow drys as well as men who disappoint her, parenting and the telling contents of a woman’s purse. She even talks about falling out of love with her long-time apartment building, The Apthorp. This collection of essays is pure Ephron and cannot be read without laughing out loud.  To purchase this book on Amazon click here.