On The Road Again

Last night I said goodbye to my car.

I actually said goodbye too...this isn't some metaphorical tidbit.  Ever since watching Disney's Love Bug when I was a kid, I've always felt that cars had some actual life to them.  Strange, I know. Anyways, my car and I had a brief moment alone, and, after glancing around the dealership parking lot to make sure no one was looking, I said a few brief words....mainly thanking it for being good to me for the past six years.

This was the first car I bought, and it saw a lot during our time together: my pre-wedding preparations and jitters, road trips with the husband, moving three times (all in dirty Jerz!), me as a terrified, single pregnant lady blasting angry girl rock, solo trips to divorce court and obstetrician appointments, and then finally, me as a nervous mom to a beautiful little boy, continually looking in her rearview mirror to check on him (listening to less angry, inspirational girl rock on a lower volume).

Recently, I was thinking about how my life has evolved, how EJ is no longer a baby, and how my car is the last remnant of my former life.  I knew then that I had outgrown it.  So, I did what any parent of one child would do, I got an over-sized SUV for all the crap I need to cart around.

I picked up my new truck last night, and as I mentioned, I had a sweet moment with my old whip.  And, when I closed its door for the last time and walked away, so began a new phase of my life.  Whatever is in store for me during this stint, I'll be facing it a little higher up from the ground, jamming to non-angry music on Pandora with EJ.

Make Me Up

EJ is funny.  He's hilarious when you give him any sort of lotion—he’ll put it on his cheek and say “Niiice, niiice” like he’s a 60-year-old Italian man. So quirky. Whenever he gets his hands on crayons, he’ll try to color on his lips.  Too cute.  And, last week, he got a hold of my brown eyeliner pencil and started to draw on his face.  “EJ, you are so silly,” I laughed…and then gulped.  He learned this from watching me. He knows how to put on makeup. 

I love makeup.  Truth be told, the feminist within does take issue with the fact that women are essentially told by society that they need a certain level of "doctoring up” to look presentable, and men just get to show up looking exactly as they look (must be nice).  But, the silly teenager within finds makeup fun, pretty, and interesting and gets a kick out of changing her look from day to day. 

Makeup is both a hobby and necessity for me, as somewhere between 2000 and 2001, the end of my eyebrows stopped growing in and what was left there fell out. They are now two brown tadpoles above my eyes and I have to fill them in and extend them every morning.  This requires eyebrow pencils, powders, and wax….I’ll spare you the details.

In the scheme of life, my eyebrow situation isn't a big deal.  People have real problems, and this is more of an annoyance.  I mean, the notion of the “five-minute face” doesn't apply to me (brows alone take five minutes!), but it’s fine.   It's also an awkward conversation to have out in the dating world when a sweaty activity is on the horizon (like hiking or jogging...get your mind out of the gutter!).  I never realized how the phrase "We need to talk..." can evoke so much panic in a beau, and learned to start the story of my brows by saying "Funny story to tell..." I also have bad eyebrow days every now and again, and can inadvertently look angry, bored, or puzzled. And, there have been prolonged periods of time where my brows have been too thin, too thick, too low, too arched, too short, and too long and no one’s told me until I’ve seen a horrendous picture and asked for feedback.  Hot days, boot-camp classes, chair massages, and rainstorms also cause me a small degree of panic, but now I roll with back-up brow tools in my purse.  And, on impromptu food shopping trips and early morning coffee runs when I just don’t feel like drawing eyebrows, I have to keep my big sunglasses on like I'm a hungover socialite. Other than that, my life isn’t impacted at all.  Eesh.

Back to EJ.  My lovely, observant son has milk and plays in my room while I get ready for work every morning.  PBS is on too, but he really gets a kick out of watching me do makeup, and being a mother hasn’t really changed my beauty routine.  Despite what other harried moms say about having no time to put on makeup, I can’t and don’t want this to be the case for me.  I like makeup and EJ can’t roll around with an eyebrow-less mom.  As he gets older and sleeps later, my morning makeup routine will not be a part of his life, and other hobbies will thankfully take precedence. But for now, it's fine that we both share a love for a good smoky eye.

Back in Action

Where did April go?  There I was, happily blogging along on a regular basis to the masses [dozens], and then all of the sudden, life got in the way.  Now it's May.

The last two weeks of April were filled with the ups and downs of normal daily living, but somehow they prevented me from writing.  To be honest, the month overall was very lackluster.  Even though I'm not existential or cool enough to get it, I was totally quoting the beginning of T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land on most days...April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain...

Let's see...on a Seasonal Affective Disorder note (that is a thing!), it was chilly and cloudy most days. Winter unofficially lasts in Dirty Jerz for sixth months now, and I am over it.  I don't even know why I optimistically purchased a chartreuse mini skirt from J. Crew in early March...who knows when I will ever wear it, or if it still even fits after my self-declared cupcake palooza month.  It's also probably on clearance now for $70 less than what I paid, so that will only twist the knife in deeper. Other things of note: a fifth ear infection for EJ, EJ's first overnight visit with his father, EJ moved into the 2 year-old class at daycare (big boy!), things were crazy at work, and oh yeah, I have a nice boyfriend.  Well, some of those things definitely were and are good, so April gets a small yay. (yay!)

About the boyfriend...great guy, we have a ton in common, and all things are good. I'm really only bringing him up because we did go away for a night in April, and gulp, I had to have the eyebrow discussion with him...meaning, I had to explain to him that I draw on 70% of my eyebrows in the morning and wash them off at night. I'll fine you in on that ASAP, but for now happy May, and fingers crossed for it finally feel like spring.