verbicide | girlie fun

My sister-in-law, Emily, came to town for a visit. She lives in Port Orchard now and bemoans the loss of accessible city-fun.

After my night of sucky-sleep, I overslept when I hit the wrong button on my alarm clock, and turned the bloody thing off instead of snoozing. Woke up in a panic and hurled on clothes, while brushing teeth and tugging on shoes.

Raced to West Seattle Ferry. Foolishly decided to try the 99N and made some poor choices which resulted in my getting way lost in South Seattle and being much later than I would have been. Blah. Got there 20 minutes late. And Emily doesn't have a cell phone, so I felt bad, but she was very gracious about it, thanking me for coming so far out to pick her up.

We made haste to Nordstrom where she had an 11am eyebrow plucking appt. While waiting for her torture-tician to finish up her last victim, Emily clued me into some way cool face powder. I was going to finally bite the bullet and get the custom-blended Prescriptives loose powder (worth every penny and it lasts forever). But the counter-chick was new and couldn't blend. Emily told me about Magic. It's a liquid powder that is about 70% water based. It goes on ....um....like magic. It feels cool and damp, but it's powder. The woman blathered about how it has millions of reflective thingies so it gives the illusion of perfect skin. Well, I'm all over that. It really felt amazing (I can't stand sticky foundations or dense powders. Hate having crap on my face). It was light and gives a nice sheen. I got the gold powder, or Red Neutralizer. Trust me when I say it doesn't look like I have gold dust all over my face or anything. It's really nice shit.

Then it was Emily's turn in the Chair Of Pain, so I wandered over to shoes.

I needed a pair of black sandals because the only shoes I have to wear with my black skirt are pretty disreputable and needs to be thrown out. So I picked out a reasonably priced pair of slides. Looked around for help. There was a guy with a microphone. Like one of those Mr. Microphone dealies. Um okay. He alerted the nearest sales-piranha my way. Man, was she a pit bull. I've never been so smarmily hit before. She grabbed the slides and came back with like 5 other styles to push at me. I have to admit that the one pair she really pushed felt great and looked great on my feet. They were, of course, $30 more.

I don't understand how I've gone from having like a few pairs of really tatty shoes to Imelda Marcos, but I bought 'em. I didn't buy both pairs as she helpfully suggested. But Emily managed to come up while I was waffling and I asked her unbiased opinion and she did like the Josef Seibel sandals better. I got the Eliza in Splendid Black. Though the picture shows tan soles, mine are actually black.

They're a little dressier than the pair I picked out, but obscenely comfortable, which means I'll actually wear them. And I needed a nice pair. Oh fuck the rationalization, I just bought 'em. They're nice and comfy. I actually didn't really like them until I put them on my feet. Funny how that works out sometimes.

Just want to add that I hate ass-kissing, insincere salespeople. Sell me a pricier product because you believe it's really superior and I don't mind. Just don't treat me like a moron. Sheesh.

Anyhow.

We stopped off at Williams - Sonoma where I finally bought the microplane I've been coveting for some time now. Now I shall have soft, fluffy, freshly grated Parmesan. Yes I will. No more crusty, dried pre-shredded crap. And I can zest like a motherfucker. It took me awhile to decide I had to have one, but after a visit out to Port Orchard, Emily collared me and gave me a demonstration. They're damn cool.

So after all this spendy fun--lunch! We went to B&O Espresso and had a great time. Foccacia sandwiches and lots of conversation. We have oppositely polarized opinions about everything, but I think it's nice to see a different perspective on things.

Après lunch, we headed to Queen Anne so I could share my favorite yarn and fabric stores. Hilltop Yarn - bought some graphite rowan yarn for a scarf for yet another goddamn cousin. Too many of them. I'm so behind on birthday gifts, it's ludicrous. This is a nice fat yarn and should be fairly quick to do. I once again fingered this lacy scarf thing I'm too intimidated to try. I actually held the pattern in my hands for 15 minutes, torn. I'm so impatient, I think the fine mohair threads would drive me insane. Anyhow. Another time when I'm less chickenshit.

We next wandered over to Nancy's Sewing Basket to coo at their ridiculously fine fabrics. Too spensive for me to buy anything ever, and am too unskilled to make anything out of them anyway. But we drooled nonetheless.

It was getting close to her time to meet my brother at the ferry, so we just milled around a few more local stores. I had myself a Java Chip Frappuccino Lite. Mmmmmm.

Then off to the ferries. We stopped in West Seattle at another yarn store--Seattle Yarn Gallery. This was the highlight of the day. More than the purchase of shoes, even. It was run by the sweetest little old lady. I went psychotic with glee over some furry-yarn and she convinced me that I could do the double stranded thingie. I am very, very excited. It's so pretty! And soft! And furry!! And blue!! And um! I don't know! It's very yay!! It may be too colorful for me to actually wear, but it was cheaper to make a scarf than the blanket I considered making (also me=impatient). And so pretty!

Also, they had a bathroom so my bladder didn't explode! It's the little things, ya know?

I dropped a happy Emily off at the ferry, where my brother was waiting in line. And then I spent a year getting back home. A fucking hour in god awful traffic. Bleh. But I had my whole zen-of-traffic thing going. Like when it's so fucking bad and unmoving you don't even bother getting pissed off about it because wtf is the point when you're sitting in a parking lot.

So home now and immediately put on some of my refreshing and cooling powder. And any of you unfortunate people who have to see me in person, be prepared for me to pin you down and dust your face. Cause omfg I love this stuff.

I'm excited because going out to nice dinner with Jeanne on Saturday and will have occasion to wear a skirt and my new black sandals and makeup. Girlie shit! Woo!