23 October 2008

A Lack of Self Respect


I respect those people at the gym that are willing to put aside all pretention and pride and give in to watching Saved by the Bell on their individual TV monitor while they work out. Forget pretending to like CNN, Fox, or ESPN for the sake of what others think of you; just watch Saved by the Bell and let Zac, Slater and the rest of the gang get you through your workout.

I, on the other hand, will continue to disrespect myself and worry about what others think while I feign loving the "breaking news" that isn't really breaking instead of just stopping on the channel with Saved by the Bell even though I really want to.

20 October 2008

The First Lady's Lipstick

All this talk of lipstick on a pig has gotten me to thinking about women in the White House. For a long time at the end of his career, my grandpa was a lobbyist in DC. He spent a lot of time there and he was well-known and well-liked. My grandma was also well-liked and played very well the part of a politician's wife.

I remember once, during the Reagan Administration, my grandma was invited to Nancy Reagan's First Lady's Luncheon at the White House. Not only was Nancy into saying "No" to drugs but she was extremely into her makeup, looks, and her signature color of red. Who can blame her? She was married to a Hollywood actor. At each place setting for the luncheon Nancy set a makeup bag with a powder compact, blush, and lipstick which was a bright red called "Reagan Red" to be exact. I think it was made by Este Lauder or some other old lady cosmetic line.

How do I know this? Because my grandma gave me the cosmetic bag full of goodies when I was too young (somewhere between the ages of 3 and 11) to be wearing makeup, way too young to be wearing bright "Reagan Red" lipstick, and entirely too much from a Democratic family to be wearing something born by the Reagan Administration.

I don't know if it was the fact that it came from my grandma or that it came from somebody famous but I was too young to care that I was wearing Republican Red. I painted my lips and was as happy as a clam. And I am pretty sure that's when my love for all things makeup and cosmetics-related began. Republican, Democrat, or neither, this pig loves lipstick.