Stress Relief

If I had to describe our weekend in one single word, it'd have to be crazy.

It started off innocently enough on Friday night with a wonderful dinner at 1111 Mississippi with our friends Julia & Tim. Excellent food, wine, & company... however, that will probably be another post, as it really has nothing to do with this one. Heh, like I usually stay on topic.

Saturday - now that was another story! This story could take all day, so let me give it to you in a teeny-tiny nutshell:

Doug's mom called to tell him that his 80-year-old father had broken his hip & was in the hospital. Ooooof... That call prompted all sorts of "what ifs" - my 78-year-old mother-in-law is in a wheelchair, & not really able to fend for herself.

We had a commitment ceremony at 2:00 that went well, but we needed to finish shopping for a wedding shower that we were throwing at 4:00. We had a list of things to pick up from Target, but we had to hurry, as the whole morning was taken up with phone calls.

I couldn't find my #$*^ cellphone, so if anyone needed to reach me, they couldn't. Argh!

I forgot to print the list. I couldn't call anyone else because I didn't have my phone. Double argh!

My chin still itched like the devil...& I didn't have my phone! (My chin is much, much better, thanks to a dermatologist & some steroid cream. Ah...)

On the way to the ceremony, I called my mother (on Doug's phone) to let her know what had happened to Harold. She then told me that my dad (who just had 5 teeth pulled) had proposed marriage to her yet again. He does this in cycles, by the way, to no avail - they remain divorced. But the real kicker wasn't that he asked, it was my mom's reply... "Gordon, I don't have time for this, I have to go to the bathroom." (Far be it from her to actually give the man a good, honest "no". Not my mom.) Then she told me that he asked her again later. Criminy. While still on the phone, I looked at Doug & told him "We're moving."

The commitment ceremony went off without a hitch & afterwards, we went to the Bread Co. on S. Grand to meet people to put the gift basket together. The day was starting to turn around...or so we thought. At 4, we headed across the street to Erato Wine Bar, only to find that it opened at 5. Huh? Their website clearly says that it opens at 4 on Saturdays! Our guests of honor were due to arrive at 4:15 & Erato's doors couldn't be wished open, so a few of us stayed behind to wait while the others took the basket to the coffeehouse around the corner.

Once the wine bar officially opened, we made our way back & ended up having a lovely time. A few bottles of wine & some entertaining pals assured us of that, so our troubles were temporarily put on hold. We even found the White Bordeaux that we found & that my pal Lucy wrote about a while back! Yay!! After a couple of hours, people started to leave, so 8 of us headed over to Absolutli Goosed for some of their famous martinis. I love that place. What fun! After a few drinks & a ton of laughter, we all headed home.

Sunday morning, Doug's dad had hip replacement surgery, so Doug went to pick up his mom. There was no point in my being there, so he told me to do whatever I wanted & promised to call me with any news. (The surgery went well, by the way.) Now, with all of the stress of the weekend, that led me to seek out one thing...

Retail therapy!

I'm in a pretty serious rut with clothes right now, so my plan was to try to branch out & try something other than v-necked t-shirts, bermudas, & cropped pants (for weekend wear, of course). I tried & tried, but nothing worked for me. I looked pregnant in everything, & God knows that's the last thing that I am! (Ick - perish the thought.) Something has to be done about that, but that's another blog altogether. I'll think about that tomorrow. Anyway, my patience ran short, so I decided to look for makeup. I had a limited-time 20% off coupon to Bare Escentuals that just had to be used. It had to be. Damn it, I was going to buy something!

And so I did. I've wanted the complexion enhancers kit for a while now, so I grabbed it. I've been told I don't need it, but hey - I wanted. I was stressed to the gills & disappointed in myself for gaining weight, so I fulfilled the want. The salesgirl must've sensed that I was on a mission & feeling weakened, so she went in for the kill. She showed me the newest collection, Heroes, & immediately started to put it on my face. The eye shadows weren't colors that I wear, & I was a bit leary, but in the end I liked it & bought it. Oh, & I got a free full-sized lipgloss if I spent $100, & that helped push me over the edge.

I like makeup, but I don't like to wear a lot of it or spend a lot of time applying it. I discovered Bare Minerals makeup a few months ago, & fell in love. The weird thing is that I hate powder...I hate the way it feels, I hate having to reapply, & I hate the way that it looks on the girls that keep reapplying over & over again so that it's just clumpy & gross. People have been trying to sell me that cream/powder formula for years now, & after trying it once, I swore off the stuff & resolved to only wear powder when I really wanted to. Which was very rare. Now, the salespeople at Bare Minerals will tell you that it's not really powder, but it's close enough, so imagine my surprise when I was thrilled with the stuff! It's fast, it looks great, & it's long-wearing - what's not to love? Ok, Bare Escentuals doesn't pay me to advertise for them (but they should, along with countless wineries & liquor stores!), so I'll hush up about them now.

One would think that my spree would be over by now, but thanks to Living Life's post about Etsy, I did a little shopping today at Decorate The Diva. I'm still stressed - it's fiscal year end here at work, so I have an excuse. Lookit the pretties!

Now, when Doug asks me if I've lost my mind, I can give him an honest answer....

Makeup & jewelry always fit!