Beauty For All Ages

As I get older, the contents of my make up bag have changed.  Now that I think about it, the size of my make up bag has changed too. Allow me to break it down for you.  

At 15, my mom took me to Macy's and bought me my first lipstick. The shade was Pink Foil and it came in a shiny black tube. My own lipstick!  She sprung for some "Colors by Benneton" perfume too. For this, I bought a lipstick case at CVS and left the perfume in my room.


The following year, I added green eyeshadow to the mix which I threw in my purse.  I soon learned the value of a make up bag so that when your make up cracks (which it always does) - it won't spill all over your purse.

At 21, I was invited to my first Mary Kay (or was it Avon?) party where I learned all about the "liners." Lip liner and eye liner were my new best friends. I also learned that you shouldn't necessarily match your eye shadow to your eye color. So, I purchased a few new eye shadow colors too.  Good thing I got a free make up bag to go with everything I bought.

At 25, I went to Merle Norman who introduced me to their skin care line. Soon enough, I added toner, moisturizer, and powder to the mix. They even threw in a free cosmetic case. How nice of them!

At 30-something, I started to have issues with acne and found a whole new line of skin products to tackle those things.  I also found a good dermatologist. Now, I have a whole bin under the bathroom sink dedicated to my skin. It just won't fit in a bag anymore.

In my 30's, I went from fancy schmancy Lauren Mercier make up to the more trendy and less expensive MAC cosmetics.  The girls behind the counter are friendlier and I don't break my budget.

This weekend, I'm attending my first Arbonne party for some "age-defying" makeup.  Arbonne is for 40-somethings who aren't invited to Avon or Mary Kay parties anymore.  I'll learn all the new vocabulary like "retinol" and "anti-oxidants."  My friend swears by it.  I'm sure I will  too.

So, now I'm wondering if they will throw in a new make up bag.  I'm sure I'll need one by the end of the night.

Same Dream, Different Decade

It is 2 pm. I'm running through the Quad to get to my favorite journalism class with my latest feature writing project in my backpack.  I know this is the story to pitch to Professor Fox. He is going to love it.  I just spent the last 2 days with my neighbor who happens to be a female bodybuilder. I saw what she eats for breakfast, how she trains for her next competition and discovered what keeps her motivated.

It seems like this happened to me just last week, but actually it was almost 20 years ago.  Yikes! In the last two decades, I've picked up and put down my dream to be a writer over and over again.  Yes, I've done plenty of writing in between. I've had a by-line in a newspaper, an article picked up by the Associated Press, a weekly column and now a blog.  I would call this semi-successful.  What would really be successful is to find the time to write every day and write something that  makes people think about life in a new way.

But, you know what happens - Life happens.  This is why I've had to pick up and put back down my dream to save for a rainy day.  But, I can honestly say that my motivation is just like that of the bodybuilder's philosophy from years ago.  I love to do it and so I keep it up because it is a big part of who I am.

If I could track her down today, I wonder if she still puts in a 3 hour work out on her specific rotations of muscle groups and does she still eat that egg yolk concoction? If she loves it, I'm betting she still does.

Mission Impossible

Tonight, the kids and I decide to take a quick trip to the shoe store to buy new shoelaces. This turned into a parent's version of Mission Impossible and an hour of my time that I will never get back.

Store #1 - Sales woman (at a kids-only shoe store) removed her earphones for a brief moment to tell me that they don't sell shoelaces any more - just shoes. Okay....

Store #2 - Only sells shoelaces for adults and by the way - the shoe store on the 3rd floor is owned by the same company and they don't have them either.

Store #3 - Doesn't sell shoelaces - just shoes and suggested that I go to store #5. Called store #5 first to see if they had said shoelaces. They said, "I think so." Not real reassuring so I decided to try store #4 first.

Store #4 - Thought a hit the jackpot after I was told there was a whole rack of shoelaces in the back of the store.  They were sure to be there! No dice - All adult sizes. Decided to risk one more stop at store #5.

Store #5 - So close - they had a whole rack of kid's shoelaces in multicolors - except for black in the size that we needed.  Since the three of us were too tired to make an attempt at Store # 6, we settled on the white shoelaces for black and red sneakers.  Maybe we will start a new fashion trend - at least he won't fall down in gym class tomorrow.
 

Facing 40

Many of the life lessons I have learned came from coffee mugs in my parents' kitchen cupboard. Each one had a saying to live by.  When we used to set the table, we would often read the mugs, put the appropriate one with the appropriate saying by the seat of the appropriate family member. 

One of the mugs in the cupboard said "You Have to Kiss A Lot of Frogs To Find Your Prince Charming."  I guess the mug was right since it took me 23 years to find the perfect guy for me.  Where was the mug that was going to let me know that it would take 40 years to find the right hair dresser? 

Another mug read - "Growing Old is Mandatory. Growing Up is Optional."  This is so true since I feel like a kid inside myself with two kids of my own in tow. 

I remember many mugs that spoke to me about reaching for my goals and never giving up. There have been so many times in my life where these mugs came in handy. Too numerous to count.  Just this year, I overcame my fear of public speaking after years of trying.  I'm still not great at it but I feel much better about it and I seek out opportunities so that I can only get better.

My new goal is to respect my love for writing and find more time to do so.

My family, friends and experiences in life - along with these coffee mugs - are all big contributors to who I am today. As I soon enter into a new decade of my life, I realize that I'm really fine with it.  40 is fabulous!
But since I can't find that on a mug anywhere (and I've looked), I'll quote a mug already in my own kitchen - "It's Not the Age. It's the (Positive) Attitude!" 

Words to live by!