NUMBER 4! *GULP* Make-up.....

Okay, so you know Scout Finch, from To Kill A Mockingbird? How she's like the poster child for tomboys? Well, when I was little, that was me. Without the whole investigation/ racism undertones. If I didn't have dirt under my nails and burrs in my hair, it wasn't a normal day. If I didn't have some sort of pet bug or rock collection, it wasn't a normal day. If I wasn't outside exploring the woods and crossing the creek to terrorize the neighbors, it was not a normal day. 

Now, at this same time that I was feral child, my sisters were discovering make-up. They were cheerleaders, skirt-wearers, boy dreamers. They relished every opportunity to capture and try cosmetics on me. And thus my history of torture began with mascara eye-pokes and pulled hair curls. And ever since I've ran from offers for make-overs, ignored "girly" stores, and even hated shopping. I even used their make-up in a prank against them once. It involved sparkly gel and a pillow and it went beautifully in my ten year old mind.

But recently, I've noticed this strange urge. It's there, underneath the girl who seemed okay with and was often happy with the image of herself without make-up. I am confident enough in myself to say that I like the way I look without make-up. I am confident enough to say that make-up is not a "NEED" for me. However, I must say: it's fun.

Make-up is fun. There's the truth of it. It alters your look, it adds to your look, it highlights and let's you explore your look. And because I have an artistic side to me, putting on make-up is like drawing or painting. Everyday I put on make-up is like wearing a masterpiece on my face (when I don't mess up). 

And it's fun watching all the amazing tutorials of how to do certain things with your eyes or face to find out what works for you. Because THAT is the key. In middle school, I knew a girl who wore a LOT of make-up. And it was all blue. And she looked like a sad blue clown with red, red cheeks. PLEASE GIRLS! FIND OUT WHAT WORKS FOR YOU! IT'S EASIER THAN YOU THINK! When I started wanting to get make-up, I went to Sephora and asked the very nice girl working there to pick out a few things that would match my skin-tone and look good on me. I also asked her to teach me how to apply the products. It was easy and fun and the girl was happy to help.

Now, you don't have to go Sephora. It's more expensive than most stores. I just happened to go there on a whim. But you can go pretty much anywhere that has a make-up counter with beauty consultants. They know what they are doing there. Like me, though, you may have to get over some inbred fears of products going near your eye.

In the future, I may post some tutorials for make-up that I found works for a lot of people. I'll post them with pictures of before, in-between, and after photos of the area being enhanced. Maybe you'll be inspired, like me, to try some of these things. So all you tomboys out there, don't forget you're allowed to be a girly-girl sometimes. Even if Scout was a cutie.

And remember: you don't NEED make-up to be beautiful. But it sure is fun to play with.

Read me in my next post!!!!

NUMBER THREE! Warning: this may seem trivial, but girls all over the world will understand.

SHORTS.

Shorts have been around for men since the late 14th century, originally created within the British military as a way to keep cool in hotter climates. Women cyclists had worn them since the 1890's, but shorts only crossed over to women as a fashion when, in a bold and jaw-dropping move, 1932 tennis star Alice Marble wore them during a match. Since then, famously known gals such as Betty Grable and Audrey Hepburn, shortened and brought respectable style to the name of shorts. And the rest is history.

Shorts only came to me in the month of August, 2013.

Okay, girls. Now is the time to come clean. I know for a fact I'm not the only one to stress about how my legs and especially thighs would look in shorts. And nowadays it is especially difficult because girls tend to think that as long as we don't see ALL of their hoo-haa, it's appropriate to wear. I'm sorry, but if I'm not employed as a gynecologist, I don't want to see your lady parts. And the certain girls that just SHOULD NOT WEAR ANYTHING THAT GOES UP THAT HIGH just don't help to convince me that shorts are something good to wear.

I mean, look at Audrey Hepburn. She wore those with class. She closed any argument that sexist men tried to even breathe about shorts at that time. Not to mention, she taught us all that you can still look good and feel good without having to bear all of your unmentionables to the whole world.

But I get it, we are not all Audrey Hepburn. We don't all have amazing legs and thighs like her. Which brings me back around to my issue; and probably a lot of women's issues. I think there are clothing that can highlight your good parts and bad parts, you just have to find the right ones for you. And in the past, when I would wear shorts, I would inevitably discover too late that the shorts just did not look good on me. So, my confidence in them shattered, I stopped wearing shorts all together for many years.

But, like my previous posts brought out, I have been trying new things lately. And I decided to finally face the music the other day. While shopping with my friends for school, I decided to try on a few pairs of shorts. And, delighted by the way they made me look and feel, I bought them.

Now, like I said above, certain girls feel they have to bare-all-to-get-all. Or maybe they just like the way they feel when they get attention for the lack of cloth they have around their bodies. I don't feel that way. Let's return to a time when women were approached by men. When women had the power, so to speak. When men weren't cowards who played games with the woman they were interested in. When they just came out and said if they liked you and asked you if you'd like to go to dinner. A time when things were done with class and respect. THAT was a time when women were confident and self-sufficient and didn't rely on a man to take care of everything. When you could walk around without being looked at like an object by men.

I'm not a feminist. I just believe that girls should wake up. That they should realize that, despite what men try to tell them, they have the power. They are beautiful. And they don't have to stoop to low levels to get a man or feel good about themselves. Like I said earlier, you just have to find what looks good on you.

And don't be afraid to uphold your values. I live by the fingertip rule. If when you put your arms to your sides, your fingertips touch skin, it's too short. If they touch cloth, you're good to go. And don't think that because of this rule you have to sacrifice cuteness or hotness factor because I promise you, I found some good looking pairs of shorts that are really stylish. 

So there it is. I've ranted long enough. And now I have some cute shorts to wear so I don't have to suffer out in the heat and so I can mix up my look. So have fun with it! I know I did. 

THE QUEEN GETS LOST!!!!!!

Yes, you read the title correctly. My poor Queenie escaped the other day and was missing for two whole days! So yeah I wasn't thrilled.

On top of that I had been having a really bad week. And then, one Sunday morning, I woke and got ready to go to the meeting, only realizing later that I hadn't seen her. Now, normally in the morning, I immediately go to find my baby and squeeze her. That morning I was running late because I had barely slept. So I left and when I got home I looked for her.

But no baby.

She was not in her usual spots. She was not in her unusual spots. She was not hiding in some seemingly impossible place. We TORE the house apart. And when we finally had searched the house through and through for the hundreth time, we gave in to the growing fear that she had somehow escaped the house completely.

Thus the problem grew from a contained house-size problem, to a huge open unknown problem. And as my cat is a BIG BIG BIG part of my life, you can imagine my reaction. I had had Sapphire longer than any other pet in my whole life. She had been through at least FIVE moves with me. We had made it through thick and thin and she was there for me no matter my mood. She was there to cuddle with and take funny pictures of and laugh at when she did something stupid like fall off the bed. I could not imagine my life without her.

And at that moment, all I was doing was imagining the worst. I don't know how long a stared at the busy road that spread right outside my window, where cars went 55 to 60 mph. I don't know how long I stared at the thick woods behind the house where she would be lost forever. And when one night had past, morning came after many tears and with a SIGHTING.

My aunt lives in a trailer park across and down the road and she knows a lot of people in there. And that morning she called me and related a sighting that made me want to cry some more. I think I did, actually. She said that one of her friends owns the only other calico cat in the trailer park and some of her neighbors had caught a kitty that they thought was hers. They brought the kitty to her, but upon being told that it wasn't hers, they let the poor thing go. They hadn't known yet that my baby was missing and that the very cat they had once had in their hands was MY baby.

But we then knew where my baby had gone. I set off to the trailer park to search for her at once. Unfortunately, as it was a hot day, my aunt informed me that all the cats in the trailer park normally hide under the trailers to escape the heat during the day. And so, the search was deemed impossible. Because something you must understand about this trailer park is that it's HUGE. And most of the trailers have openings underneath them, not to mention the porches that adorned EVERY SINGLE ONE. 

So we decided, much to my crazed mind's dismay, that we would wait until the sky began to darken to pick the search back up again. According to the people my aunt know, they all said that the cats would always come out when the sun went down. And so when it got dark, we set out again. With time running out the darker it got.

Shaking a bag of treats, spreading pictures, and talking to all we could, the night came and I turned on my flashlight. We couldn't stay out much longer. Two people sent us in the same direction as to the last time they saw a cat fitting my baby's description and we were about to head that way when a friend of mine called us on our cells. He was in the opposite direction and was claiming he saw a kitty like Sapphy.

We had to decide whether to follow the direction of two or one who wasn't sure. We went to my friend first. And it was a good thing we did.

A man who lived in a house right before the trailer park was outside with my friend and said he saw a cat that wasn't one of his own. He said it had been under one of his pine trees but it had run off. We began to search over his yard and then came the cry: "There it is!"

I ran over and shined my flashlight over a cat that crouched under a pine tree. Her eyes reflected the light back at me and I drew a shocked breath: "It's her! It's Sapphy!" 

And there she was. I told the others to stay back and I approached slowly with the treats. At first, she ran a little ways away, but then she registered the treats in my hand and drew close enough for me to scoop up. And then we were reunited!

I brought her home and shut her in my room, safe and sound. She ate like a fiend. And she purred. And I prayed in thanks that we found her. And now here she is, in my room, sleeping on my makeup stand.

And for all the ways I imagined that she could have escaped, I followed her the other morning and found a window with a broken screen where she jumped out of and tried to escape again. So now we keep that window shut. And because she is still VERY curious about the outside (she meows and sits at the door) I am going to purchase for my little dork a harness so we can go outside together, without the threat that I might lose her.

For now though, she will just have to deal with the fact that she is grounded until Armageddon. 

Even more so now that she has finally discovered our new family member, Zari, and now tries to hunt her in the middle of the night.

Read me in my next post!!!