Finding Blanche
Nothing stays the same.Archive for April, 2008
Happy Birthday Melissa.
Melissa thought she could embarrass me by sending me this lovely shot of us dancing to the hits of the 80′s. I decided to help her out. Sure, I look crazy. But isn’t the skirt fun?
Books.
Last weekend, my brother took us all to The Book Thing in Baltimore.
I may have mentioned how much we love to read. Well, this is the place to go! Rooms and rooms of books. And get this. They’re all free. ALL FREE.
You take whatever you want – simply sign out with how many you took. Seriously. Is that great or what?
(You have to promise not to sell them, by the way. They’re even stamped inside saying so!)
There weren’t many children or youth books. But my guys loved the biographical dictionaries, the biographies, the maps, the travel books, cookbooks.
I brought home some great mysteries for my upcoming trip to Omaha. (That’s a 2 book trip at least!)
What a fun fieldtrip!
$75.18 nail polish.
Seems a bit steep, don’t you think?
Maybe I should start at the beginning.
About 2 weeks ago, I went for a pedicure with a friend. I could not make a decision on polish color. I I am rarely indecisive and typically can make major life decisions in a flash. But what’s for dinner? What color polish? Not my strong suit.
So I couldn’t decide.
Fortunately, my friend brought her own and she had the best red polish! It was, IMHO, the perfect shade. Not too orange. Not too blue. Really. I loved this color.
She let me use it. And I wrote down the name so I could buy some for touch ups and for next time.
NARS Dovima.
Okay. Now, I needed to get myself some NARS Dovima nail color. (not polish, mind you. color)
I looked online and found that Nordstrom and Sephora carry it. I could order it online which is normally my preference, but decided to go to Nordstrom because I also wanted some eye cream.
Guess what?
My Nordstrom doesn’t carry NARS. I can go to a larger one, the woman told me. Drive an hour in traffic? I don’t think so. I’ll just walk through the mall (did I mention that all 3 boys were with me?) and go to Sephora.
As an aside, I didn’t want to go to Sephora. My friend Ellen told me a story about when a mutual friend was in the hospital and it was her 10 year old daughter’s birthday. Sephora was very (very!) unhelpful in trying to find a way to make the kid’s birthday special. So much so, that I swear Ellen is on a one-woman mission to spread the word! But I digress.
I went to Sephora. (Sorry, Ellen) But alas, they don’t carry the nail color, just the NARS makeup.
“But you have it online,” I said.
“Yes, we do. You can order it,” she said.
“Sigh,” I said. Well, actually who says sigh? I did sigh.
Time to go. I’ve had it. We walked through the mall back to Nordstrom because I parked in that garage. The boys rode all the escalators up and down (some the wrong way) all the way there.
I couldn’t blame them. It was boring. And useless. What a waste of time.
Walking through Nordstrom, a cute top on a sale rack caught my eye. I wouldn’t have been open to it, but the CAbi top I ordered is on back order (along with the blazer) and won’t be here in time for Sophie’s bat mitzvah party. So, I tried on this top.
Very cute. ($25)
Except, it was a little low cut, so it needed a tank or something. Oh look! There’s one that’s perfect. ($25)
With tax, that detour was $53.19.
Back home, I went online. I found the polish (I mean color) at Nordstrom, Sephora and Beauty.com. I choose Beauty.com. It’s $16 everywhere and after already giving the others a shot, I thought I’d spread the joy. Shipping? $5.99. Well, it could have been free if I’d spent $9 more but really, I’d spend $20 more and what kind of deal is that? It’s not as if there was anything I needed.
So there you have it. $75.18 for nail polish.
It’d better be good.
Epilogue.
So my truck story ends. We returned it just minutes ago. I can’t believe how fast Clarksville Auto Body fixed my van (curse you!). They did an amazing job and it looks way better (and I’m glad about that, I suppose) but I’m going to miss my truck.
Alas. I am no longer a hip mom driving a truck.
My name is Wendy. And I drive a minivan.
I love my truck.
True confessions time. I think I might have been switched at birth. Sure, I look an awful lot like my mom (and all the women in her family) and sure, I’m a lot like my dad.
But here’s the thing…
I was raised in a middle class Jewish family. In the suburbs.
And yet. Here are some reasons why it just doesn’t add up:
So we took my Honda minivan into the shop yesterday to get fixed. (Did I tell you I was in an accident on a dark rainy night on Route 108? I’m fine!)
And you know what Enterprise gave me?
A truck!
Yay! A truck.
So if you see my driving around the ‘burbs in a 4X4, you will notice me smiling my ass off.
I love my truck.
The afikomen.
Last night, we had a Seder at our house. It went swimmingly. We were lucky to have family and friends with us. I love that.
There were 6 kids. And that includes Finley, who is only 2 years old. (see her at gallery studio session. so darn cute!) So, as tradition dictates, the leader of the Seder (Andrew in the is case) hides a 1/2 sheet of matzo for the kids to search for. Max found it! All the kids were rewarded for their efforts with Barnes & Nobles gift cards. (Thanks Bubby & Pop Pop!)
The whole scene got me to reminiscing.
When we were little, my great-grandfather (we called him Zayde) led the Seder. It was a long, long table with all my cousins and aunts and uncles. There was a plastic covering over the table cloth at the kids’ end of the table. (They didn’t trust us??)
The service was long. We read
every
single
page
of
the
haggadah.
Not like we do now. Now, we do an abbreviated version. I think I mentioned the 30-minute Seder?
So my Zayde used to hide the matzo – the afikomen, as it’s called. And we kids – all 9 of us – would scramble to find it. And it was always in one of two places….
1) in the piano bench, or
2) under the table cloth where Zayde sat.
But even though it was never a challenge, it was always fun. I loved having all those people together. Doing the same darn thing, every single year.
And I’m working on those traditions here in my home. And I think we’re getting close.
Except I will make sure that Andrew finds a different hiding spot every year.
Next year in Columbia…
