The "Real" Me

See? Madonna forgets too

I have been doing something lately that I find offensive.  First, let me say that I don't find it offensive in others, by any means.  Just me.  And if you see me wandering around the Home Depot or Albertsons lately, you would see why.  For the first time in about 25 years, I am leaving the house without makeup.

It's not really the fact that I'm doing it, so much as the fact that I don't even notice.  I literally forget to try to look nice. Today, for example, I walked in the house, caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror in the living room, and almost had a heart attack because I thought I was being visited by my long-passed great-grandmother Lucille.  And, please don't haunt me Lucille, but toward the end there you weren't that much of a looker even when alive.  But my point is, I had absolutely no idea that I had gone into public like that.  I even had some stupid barrette hanging off of the side of my head, that I had put in so that I could see where I was aiming the hose when the kid and I were playing water wars.  So sad.

In Chicago, as you can imagine, it's not normal for anyone to go anywhere without full makeup.  You are allowed to pretend that you don't have any on, only if you are coming from your yoga class and are "glistening" with sweat and chic beauty.  But even then you still have on 3 inches of concealer and mascara.  I even stopped going to the grocery store after I had a baby, just so I didn't have to put my face on.  Sure, I said it was so that someone else could climb stairs with 12 jugs of formula water, but in truth it was because I didn't have the energy to look decent.

Fast forward.  Now not only do I not have the energy, I apparently don't have a clue.  This has gone on for multiple days.  If those who "talk" here had seen me, I'm quite certain I would have been the talk of the party circuit for months.  Not pretty--neither literally nor figuratively.

So, am I losing my mind or my inhibitions?  This one is a toss-up.  Sure, it's sort of freeing to literally not care.  But it's also disturbing.  Shouldn't we want to look good for our fellow mankind?  Or as a single, jobless mom, have I just completely stopped caring?  Sigh.  Gladly accepting Sephora samples and Maybeline rejects.  If not for me, send them for the good of the city.