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May 30, 2008 :: Bright Lights, Big Round Head

I have a weakness I need to confess. For all my practicality, my allegiance to do-it-yourselfness, my despair of overwrought consumer culture....for all my apparent non-girliness (the 3-ton floor jack in my tool shed, the seven types of industrial tape that hold my house together, the self-cleaned drain traps), I have a distinct weakness for the gorgeous, the frilly, the often brightly-colored, less-than-useful things of the female existence. Like the vintage alligator pumps I wear only on very special occasions (because they're about a 1/2 size too small and always make me wonder if I've broken my toes at the end of the night...but damn are they awesome.) Like the sequined-to-the-hilt, silver evening bag that holds my cell phone and my lip gloss--nothing more. Like the 50's Oscar de la renta double-tiered, black-lace-and nude-petticoat skirt I snagged years ago. The ten shades of plum/raisin/mauve-ish lipstick. The rhinestone brooches. The miles of costume pearls. The thirty bottles of nail polish. Geesh, I'm a sucker. If it's got 3-inches of spikedness, organic moisturizing compounds, or 50-years of class oozing off its antique-mall price-tag, I probably own one, or want one. (well, if it's under $15 and I had to dig through a hundred pounds of 80's Cosby sweaters to get it. That's the kicker. I hardly ever buy retail.)

I'm spilling these things, because I don't want any of you to think I've gotten the s-video and gold-plated RCA cabling in my head twisted and shorted out* when you see me walk, confidently, into the first possible showing of this movie. Or come over to find me watching every episode on DVD. Because I own ALL of them.**

Which I will be doing tonight, as I clean out closets, wire dimmer switches, and change the air-return filter on my industrial furnace. A girl's got stuff to do, you know? And maybe, while I'm doing that, I'll wear those Red Cross brand patent leather 40's era heels I bought a few months ago. They're fire-engine red. And sparkly.

*I think, honestly, I do love the fashion and urbane-ness and all the bling of the show, but mostly, I love the connected "sisterhood" the characters have going. The idea that neither man nor bad haircut nor social blunder would keep the friendship from growing and strengthening. Every woman needs that, I think. Me included. I'm auditioning potentials now... :)

**I purchased a cobbled-together "box set" years ago, from some industrious Canadian who'd collected them all and then put them on ebay. When Blake and I met, he saw the collection, and confessed that he too has seen every episode, twice. Now that's a match made in heaven. Or maybe Bloomingdale's.