Superman had his phone booth, Wonder Woman had her spin, and Cinderella had her Fairy Godmother’s wand.  Within a matter of seconds, these drab, normal nerds became fabulous.  Who could forget Superman’s blue eyes and matching well-filled spandex, or Wonder Woman’s boots and lasso, or of course Cindy’s gown and crystal pumps?   Their plain clothes and dreary complexions were replaced with strength and beauty.

I believe we Real Women go through the same sort of transformations on a daily basis – but we do it in reverse.  We need our strength and beauty for our public personae’s, and then happily go through a reverse make over when we get home.

For most of us, we get up in the morning and get dressed, do our hair, and look pretty darn fabulous when we step out the door to go to our jobs, school, whatever our destination.  At the end of our day, we can’t wait to get home, put our hair up, take off the make-up and throw on our sweats.  This conversion can happen faster than the wave of a magic wand.

My mom used to say she didn’t understand why young women would look so nice going to school or work, but then when they came home to get ready to go out on a date, they dressed down into “ratty old jeans.”   I guess I can see her point in a way.  My husband leaves for work early, when I’m still in my jammies.  When I get home in the evening, I’ve either been to workout and look pretty frightening and sweaty, or he sees me looking nice for about 5 minutes before I do my spin and transform to schlubby girl.  He never gets the benefit of seeing professional put-together me.   As a girl, I was fascinated to watch my stay-at-home mom stop whatever she was doing minutes before my dad got home from work to brush out her hair and put on lipstick.   Now I’m doing the reverse for my hubby.

Sure, there are a few of you R.W’s out there who are always fashionable, and always look great.  You know who you are – the ones who look like the Flashdance girl in your torn shirts while the rest of us look like we’ve been camping for three days.  I try not to hate you natural beauties.  The rest of us can only manage to look like a runway model for a few hours each day.

As much as I may feel a twinge of guilt for my husband because the rest of the world gets to see a Cinderella Wannabe and he gets Cindy the tattered maid, we women need our downtime.   There are a lot of nights that I can hardly wait to crawl into my comfy clothes and let out my long “aaaahhhhhh…”

We spend long hours acting as Wonder Woman,  protecting our loved ones,  fighting bad guys and looking amazing. By the end of the day, our Shroud of Magnificence needs to be let down.  We are still fabulous of course.  But we are comfy, relaxed, and ready to revitalize.