Friday, October 31, 2008

What a girl wants. . .

Is not always what a girl needs. I tend to confuse the two often. For example, PVC leggings is a want, not a need. Sometimes wants and needs align, and when they do the result is as moving as an A-list celebrity meet-and-greet at your favorite brunch spot.

Such was the case when I found my lipstick match: Paula Dorf's Lip Color Sheer Tint in Breathless. I wanted perfect nude-yet-not lips. I needed an everyday lip color. I got a lipstick that delivered on both accounts, and in a subtle, what I imagine to be, universally-flattering shade.


A special thanks to one of my top-tier shop girls at Luxe Apothecary. Because of you my lips will never again yearn to find that perfect shot of non-color color. You know exactly of what I'm speaking. That effortless blush it-girls seemingly have cornered. "What lipstick? I'm not wearing any lipstick. My lips just naturally have this slightly-flushed, beckoning tint." I'm one of those girls now, thank you very much Paula Dorf. At least in the lipstick department.

A note on Luxe: If you haven't been - go. If you don't live in the Triangle - shop online. Either way, get familiar with Luxe Apothecary. It will change your life. And your lips.

Kiss.




Tuesday, October 28, 2008

I heart hot pink tights

There are some things that make you smile and make your outfit. Today it was my new hot pink tights. Tomorrow? Well, I'll have to wait and see. But, I'm not-so-secretly hoping a feather-embellished headband comes my way.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Change

Is going to come.

One of the views from my scooter en route to the office.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Not that you're in it for the lesson

But, if you were looking for one today listen to Ryan Adams' The Sun Also Sets. Like so many of Adams' songs, the lyrics grab you and it's as if he wrote it just for you, or even better, you wrote it. The reminder that The Sun Also Sets sends is how fragile, precious and fast life truly is. Not can be - is.

Why it grabbed me and didn't let me go:

I want to know how it all works out.
I've asked this a few times. OK, I've asked it a lot. A lot. If you've asked, read The Blind Assassin, you'll see why we don't know, can't know how it all works out. And why that's better.

We are only one push from the nest.
I first thought of the original nest; the one our parents pushed us from. Then I thought of all of the comfortable places in my life I had passed through or passed from, and the ones yet to come.

We are only one argument from death.
In a word: Forgiveness.

There it is. . .
Those three words lay down a reality we often forget. There it is: the harsh truth, the reality we don't want to face, life. And there it is for us to take, love, live.


The sun setting on the summer of 2007.




Friday, October 10, 2008

Reinvention 2008

New York. We were to be there right now - sister and me. Reinvention part deux was the theme. Kept in our respective cities by exorbitant airfare ($400 for less than 24 hours, really?) and scarce accommodations. (Though the hotel formerly known as QT did come through in the end.) But, in the very end, we sold them - the Madge tickets. Tickets to the show that in June 0f 2006 put us (me and K. Beale) into motion: her off to Russia, me one week later to London to meet Kel. This was our bookend and another beginning. Or maybe was to be our "charge" as Kel puts it, a time to get together, catch up, drink in the city we both love.

Either way, it wasn't quite meant to be. And a grown-up decision to conserve - green that is - was made. So, tomorrow night Madge will be playing to a crowd of one via my iPod and a reverent glass of champagne. Kel, I imagine will be doing her on version of reinventing with her hot, hot-pink vinyl album and some equally reverent bubbly in the Northern corner of the Eastern seaboard. And in the middle, in the city, thousands of lucky ones will pledge their own reinvention.

I still love you though New York.



I caught my stride, I flew and flied.

About a Boy might have made it a humorous topic of conversation, but singing, eyes closed with wild abandon is nothing new to me. Music is such an integral part of my life, it's rare for me not to be singing. Thanks v. much to Grandma Beale and Grandma Joyce, both of which always had a tune on their lips. OK, so rare to not be singing might be stretching it, but I'm usually not without music between the apt., car, office and walking or jogging.

Since I've been back on my scooter, which was previously sidelined with a flat tire, I haven't had the opportunity to ready myself for the day with a touch of Feist or MGMT (still the darlings of my iPod). Instead I've focused on the sites on my daily route. There are the runners that I scoot past in almost the same spot every morning. The workers queued up for tasks at the Laborfinders office just before the railroad. The signs of progress by way of tall condos and refurbished warehouses that once were nonexistent and forgotten. There's the change in season. Leaves that were once lush and green are golden and have begun to fall. There are political yard signs multiplying in number, reminding me that another change is coming.

Then, if I'm running early, or even on time, I'll scoot over the Boylan Bridge and take in a favorite view of downtown in the morning; awake, shining, poised for the day. I remember when there were only two "tall" buildings where now there are four. And I remember when downtown seemed sort of foreign to me and now it's home.

But I digress back to the singing. Because music while in motion was running scarce, I took my car out for an errand. It was dusk. That perfect time of day, especially in the fall, when the sun is low and everything, everything has a glow. My sis loves this time of day and for good reason. It's as if you're looking through the proverbial rose-colored glasses. She helped me love this time of day. With the iPod on shuffle, anything could play. And it did. For Reasons Unknown by The Killers filled the speakers and I reached for the volume. That familiar feeling of excitement and nostalgia at hearing a song from your [recent] past hit me. For a moment it was fall 2006 and all of those memories flooded my mind. Having moved, separated, traveled and loved it was music, along with a solid crew led by my amazing sister, that got me through. It was For Reasons Unknown that kicked off the soundtrack to that pivotal season in my life.
Forgetting the gas crisis, I drove well past my intended destination. Windows down, iPod on repeat, singing. . . with my eyes closed.

I said if destiny's kind, I've got the rest of my mind.
But my heart it don't beat, it don't beat the way it used to.
And my eyes they don't see you no more.
Speaking of fall 2006, a toast to that crew.