Suzanne Rico is letting her hair down

Since Suzanne Rico was fired last year from her job as morning co-anchor on Channel 2, she has been traveling a lot — a move to Maine, a trip to Greece — and blogging about her gradual acceptance of a new, slower less-well-paid life. She's currently on an extended trip through Argentina with her husband and two sons and revealing in the blog that she hasn't cut her hair in more than a year and has quit Botox. Plus other observations on her old CBS life:

When the Botox paralyzing my facial muscles started wearing off last spring, I admit I was a little scared. Not scared like “this is a robbery” or “your test results came back positive”, but more like “what will I look like without it?” scared. Now, on my forty-sixth birthday, with nothing but my own diminishing collagen fighting the battle with gravity, I can see the future and frankly, it’s a little alarming. It’s as if I’ve crossed some dividing line between old and young. At forty-two, the line wasn’t on the radar screen; at forty-four, I could sense it, like a prairie dog sniffing the air just before a snake swallows it whole; and now I’ve blown through it like a defensive linebacker after an interception.

I’ve heard it said that “age is simply a state of mind” but not in the business of television news. Age is a devil to be dodged—a looming specter warded off with lotions and potions at any cost. Shortly after I started as the morning anchor at KCBS, one of my bosses invited me golfing–a gruff, tough ex-drinker who had been in the business for longer than I’d been alive.

“How old are you?” he asked as we walked to the first tee.

“Thirty-six,” I replied. This white-haired, red-faced executive stared at me, stunned that I was stupid enough to tell the truth.

“Don’t ever admit that to anyone again,” he warned. “Take five years off.” And so I did.

Also this: "In addition to haircuts, on this birthday, the list of the pressures I feel liberated from is long: my old co-anchor, who often seemed to enjoy making life on the news set miserable..."

Photo: Walking Papers Blog