I'm not trying to raise the bar or be an ambassador for MI. But I do know I feel better mentally and physically and feel better about myself if I take care of my grooming, wardrobe and physical appearance. So I'm probably more in agreement with MotownJohnny than others might be.

When my mother was my age, she'd been an invalid for at least 5 years due to mental and physical health problems. One day she announced she was old -- she wasn't -- and she wasn't getting dressed. She didn't get dressed for weeks at a time. She didn't leave the house. If she wanted to leave or had to leave for a doctor's appointment, then bathing, combing her hair, finding matching clothes, getting dressed, putting on shoes became a huge ordeal. This pattern went on for years. She went to in-patient treatment three times and she'd come home and not get dressed again.

It made a big impression on me. As a result, I get up no matter how bad I feel, even when I had broken bones, and I bathe, take care of my complexion, do my hair and get dressed. I wear casual clothes around the house and to the gym. I like to get dirty doing yard work or housework or exercising hard. Those clothes get worn once and then washed.

But if I'm going somewhere, even the grocery store, I step it up a notch. If I'm engaging in business, I wear business attire, although I don't own a dress or high heels and I wear very little jewelry. But I have some high quality pants suits and separates, silk shirts and leather flats. It's all comfortable.

I do it for me. It makes me feel better. And even though it's unfair because people shouldn't be judged on shallow things yadayada I know I get taken more seriously and treated better because of the way I present myself. I hope I don't ever get to the point where I announce I'm too old or too depressed or too sick to get dressed. I don't want to repeat my mother's downward spiral.