flagship follies

An absurd yet bright spot in a foggy day: Victoria's Secret opening! Truth be told, I was not all that excited about the store and had not planned on carving any time out of my day to browse, let alone stand in a two-hour line to get in. 1) I am an enthusiastic and effective online shopper, and 2) I liked that VS was a "mainland thing," something to look forward to on each trip.

But I ended up at the mall for this reason or that, and breezed past the VS store. The doors were closed, and it didn't look all that crowded inside. "Is it open?" I asked the guard.

"Yep, but the entrance is" - he pointed - "over there."

Well, snaking out of that entrance was a freaking line that wrapped around the building and ended at Jamba Juice. A guy was walking up and down the line asking if anyone had an Angel card. There was just no freaking way I was standing in a line that long to peek into a store I've been in ten thousand times in one form or another. But I thought I'd give it one small shot and told the guy with the headset I was a member. Did I have my card on me? No, but apparently it didn't matter ... he told me to follow him to the front of the VIP line (the diva walk past the whole line made me heady for about two seconds - that's for all the times I stood in a bullshit line to get into a ridiculous club! - then I became just really confused.

There's a line inside the store? What for? Why am I here at the front of it? Ooh, cameras. Why didn't I put makeup on this morning? Why is that guy waving at me? What are we all in line for?

"Name you want on your autograph?" the Man in the Suit barked.

"Um. Say what?"

"You can't get an autographed picture unless you have a post-it with the name written on it."

"Oh. Okay." I spelled the name for him, still totally bewildered (all I wanted to do was browse Biofit!) and he went away.

"Uh, what are we in line for?" I asked the nicest-looking girl in the line behind me. (The rest looked like the wanted to kill me. Could I blame them ... no.)

"Marisa Miller's signing autographs," she replied.

"Oh how cool!" <--- I tried to squeal this with a knowing inflection but I did not know who the girl was talking about (I know one VS model name: Alessandra Ambrosio), until Marisa Miller actually came around the corner. She is very tall, very slim, very beautiful, and very down to earth.

I made small talk with her for about 10 seconds while she signed my photo, and finally, I got to enter Biofit (and Pink) heaven. I sneaked some photos (what were they going to do, take my Marisa Miller autograph away?), bought some woo-hoos, sniffed some scents, and finally left.

So yes, I "went to the opening" - and I didn't have to take off from work or stand in a line. The store, by the way, packs much awesomeness. It is big and beautiful (vocabulary suckage due to the late hour). I still don't know how I got to the front of the VIP queue (and I wonder what I could have pulled off with a little makeup and some heels!), but whatever. Btw, the guy was not waving at me. Obviously. He was waving at Miss Hawaii 2001 (and fellow former Miss Chinatown Hawaii princess) Denby Dung, beautiful (and congenial) as ever, who was next to me in line.

Next stop: OREGON!!!

a very merry unbirthday to me

I bought myself a present in San Francisco. Well, a few presents, actually. Considering that some of them were things like dried mango slices from Trader Joe's and erasers shaped like sushi from Japantown, it's really not all that bad. The ring is, of course, my favorite.

It's a belated 31st birthday present, a last-hurrah-in-SF present. A right-hand ring for a right-brained girl (who is, unfortunately, very clumsy with her right hand and therefore, while gesticulating wildly in the throes of a right-brained idea, has bashed the pretty ring against many a door jamb and bookcase already).

It's pretty and I like it. It put a significant dent in my Oregon savings. Hopefully V will forgive me!

(rid)dle me this ...

How much stuff is too much stuff?

After a lot of soul- (and closet-) searching, and a long talk with Cub, I am undertaking a great overhaul. Of bedroom and bookshelves, of clothes and trinkets, of junk and treasure. I suppose even if we lived in a mansion, there'd still be limits as to how much stuff one should possess.

The good news: made headway on the Kindle discussion.

good-bye old friends (II)

good-bye old friends (II)
Originally uploaded by damned_cat

No, I didn't bring home another thrift-store haul - but you never know when you're going to need more closet space.

Breaking up with things that have been in your closet for years, no matter how infrequently you wore them or how well you know you never will wear them aga in - is hard to do.

Click on pic. Notes at flickr.

zhen

Not a good picture of my recent "Oregon setback." Two years after co-chairing the whole thing, Bon and I found ourselves with a much lighter job at this year's ACUW fashion show: silent auction runners. Whee! That gave us a lot of time to meander around the pre-show boutique, where I found these.

My grandparents, who named me after the gemstone, probably turned in their graves as I parted with hard-earned Oregon cash to own this double-strand of what they would call "not-so-good pearls." But I've been after pink-toned pearls for so long that when the woman draped them artfully around my neck in 100 different ways in under 60 seconds, I grabbed them. Before someone else did.

In other, but related, news, here's a Candied update because I haven't done one in forever:

We got married. That cost a lot. But because we insisted on not being ridiculous with the details, and because our parents, families, and friends are so generous, we are not in debt. Credit cards are well under control, and now our joint priorities are refinancing our mortgage and building up our rainy day savings fund (people in the know suggest anywhere from three to eight months of living expenses - I think six is a good middle ground.) My own personal short-term savings are geared toward getting Scott a wedding band he can actually wear (sadly the one we picked out before the wedding caused some problems because of the material), and Oregon in October. We invested in a WiiFit (happily it sees a lot of use, from Scott anyway) and are budgeting for a new stackable washer/dryer (and possibly a more streamlined water heater).

That's it for now. On the one hand, I should have nothing new to report for awhile (because of the October Savings Fund) but on the other hand, saving in itself is quite an adventure ...

WHAT

They discontinued Sap Moss?

THEY DISCONTINUED SAP MOSS?

...

I am the (bad) kind of shopper who sets out to buy something - but, upon finding out that the store is out or no longer carries what I needed, will browse till I see something I like, and create a need for it on the spot.

Voila, Brilliant Universal Styling Creme, which I use less to style and more to tame. It is a really thick, sticky goo that will take care of those flyaways but also make your head into a Lego-warrior helmet if you don't heed the directions on the back: use a very small amount. I love the scent of Aveda products, but if you're not into a spicy, slightly earthy scent (and by earthy I mean the good clean smell of freshly tilled earth, as in dirt), leave the hair products alone.

...

I can't believe they discontinued Sap Moss!

face

Got free makeup demo by Bev Kaneshige @ Bridal Expo tonight. We're pretty much done with everything, so we only went because we had free tix and wanted to eat cake. And jellybeans. And fried mini filets of fish with a shoyu-scallion sauce from Kahala Catering. And more cake. Even if we had paid to get in, it would have been well worth it. We ate what would have been our money's worth.

Sucky bathroom lighting won't show the nice color job Bev did with my eyes. She's been doing my makeup for years and is one of two artists whose makeup I really like. The other, as far as I know, flew away to the mainland with her talent, and I went through two or three pros before finding Bev.

If you've stumbled on this blog because you Googled "ItalSteam review" or "ItalSteam sucks," which is how I get most of my hits, and have for some reason read this much of this entry, I should explain that I am not a model (I love the stage and camera but am about a foot too short and a mile too silly to model anything but my own collection of offensive t-shirts) but over the years have been given several opportunities to participate in pageants, fashion shows, an odd public appearance or two, photo shoots, and weddings - hence the need for a really good makeup artist.

With my own wedding coming up, I am more thankful than ever for Bev because much as I enjoy goofing off for the cam, I never mastered the art of makeup. It requires a patience, a precision, a proclivity to perfectionism that I just don't possess. It would probably take me hours (frustrated ones, at that) to create what she can whip up in 25 minutes.

No one ever taught me how to apply makeup. My first "favorite lipstick" was a frosted lilac color, and it took someone telling me directly that I looked like a corpse to get me to stop wearing it. During the whole pageant year, I know the directors were cringing at the thought of me representing them without owning a single clue as to how - or why - I should probably get my brows waxed and wear some eyeliner. At the very least.

Makeup notes:

I remember, in San Francisco, the Berkeley girl who ran away with the title. She sat in the corner twenty minutes before our opening number, serenely applying her own makeup. She didn't demand counter space. She didn't need special lighting. She sat there on the cold floor of the dressing room in the Palace of Fine Arts with her toolbox of brushes and palettes, choosing colors, dusting them on, penciling them in, blotting, and staring at herself very evenly in the mirror.

I remember the first time I ever wore professionally applied makeup. The lashes were so heavy I could barely see. But the girls applauded the artist - said she'd brought out my inner beauty. Actually, she'd brought out my aversion to mascara. Oh well.

I remember the first time I did a winged eye - black Almay pencil from Longs Drugs. And the first time I did my own eyeshadow and liked it - Body & Soul's Cadet Blue smudged with Dream. (I haven't done good lips yet. Ever.)

I remember my cousin shoplifting a tube of Maybelline Kissing Potion when we were about 10. While I was really, really scared for her, I really, really wished I'd gotten one too.

I remember sneakily trying to apply my aunt's Cover Girl powder to my own face when I was little - she said, taking it away, Someday you'll have to wear this, so enjoy your own face now.

Does anyone have to? Of course there are those days where you look in the mirror and think going outside barefaced would be as horrible as going outside unclothed. But unless you've gotten punched in the face or spent all night crying, chances are, you don't have to put any makeup on. We do it to ourselves, that mindset - covering our faces so regularly that bare days seem ugly.

Enjoy your own face now - plain, made-up, smooth, wrinkled - come to think of it, that's some of the best advice my aunt ever gave me.

skint??

The BF said I couldn't have a BlackBerry. The next day he said we couldn't eat out. Are we worse off than I thought?? Okay, okay - internet on the phone is unnecessary. But a chicken caesar salad?

luddite in the house

This is so not the time, but I really want a Blackberry.

The facts:

I have progressed (or, let's say, would like to progress) beyond blogging with a cat in my lap.
I am not hip (or app-needy) enough to explore iPhone territory.
I need something text-capable, so why not to the whole nine web yards?
I have no true burning need for such a toy and so all of the aforementioned facts are useless.

Sigh.

I am getting a new phone, though, along with a brand-spanking-new plan that I hopefully will not hate with such a passion as the one I do now.

blendable wine

blendable wine
Originally uploaded by damned_cat

In Ms. Vickie's birthday/happy November gift: Bare Escentuals Blendable Wine Shadow Collection. Base: Chardonnay. Highlight: Pinot Noir. Outer shadow: Merlot.

Experimented with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir - a nice everyday combo. Add Merlot for drama. Highly recommended: BE contour brush. I take mine EVERYWHERE.

Previously loved BE hues: Shantung and Soft Focus Explore.

This is not a good pic of the Wine Collection, btw. It is, however, a very good pic of my strange bathroom lighting.

V sent all sorts of good advice about my latest purchase(s). I ... disregarded the parts about returning stuff but wholeheartedly embraced the parts about keeping stuff!


Sigh.


Just so we're clear, I really needed these shoes. And I actually think I should be congratulated for buying them. I have accepted and embraced the advent of my thirties; I have accepted the need for comfort shoes. I'm on my feet all day, but while the dress code for teachers here in the islands is pretty lax, I don't want to go to slippers or sneakers.


Would link to an image of the actual shoe but I can't find it anymore. So it was either wildly popular and sold out completely or it was too ugly to remain on virtual shelves. The basic shape is like this, but the design is sort of a cross between cowboy boot and saddle shoe.


P.S. It was on major sale.


In other candied_news ... oh good, there is no other candied_news. Large quantities of money are being painfully saved and then rapidly spent in preparation for the wedding and so we're trying to be good. Trying is always the operative word, isn't it?

me LIKEY

Task: Find and purchase the last groomsman's shirt online.

Derailed by: these.

They'd certainly help me get free Veteran's Day shipping.

:P