I took wife to the doctor, who was not too far behind schedule. My goal was to get out of the house by 1, which meant I had to get started on my transformation by 11.30. I figured, 1 is well before the boys get home and if it took two hours to drive I could stop for three hours and shop and still get to the hotel by dinnertime.
My Wife wanted to get something to eat afterwards, and I figured I was rocking the boat enough ~ so we did. I had coffee; it was kind of early for me to have a meal anyway. I still don't know if she wanted to eat, talk, or delay me. It doesn't really matter.
We got home around 11.45, and I reminded my wife that I would be changing (although we both knew she hadn't forgotten) and she said that she was going to take a walk. She asked me how long I would be. I said an hour to an hour and a half. I asked her if she wanted me to say goodbye if she was here; she said it was up to me.
She didn't go for a walk, and it wasn't up to me.
Before going to the doctor, I had showered and turned the thermostat down. I was pretty calm and relaxed as I got ready. I was surprised ~ I thought having my wife there in addition to the usual going-out-as-Meg anxiety would keep me nervous and sweaty, but I was as calm as I ever was.
Another change from previous outings: I
ALWAYS lose sleep before going out. I wake in the middle of the night and worry about every little detail, about all the things that could go wrong, and I my heart rate goes
WAY Up and my sleep time goes
WAY Down.
Not this time.
Believe me, I am
NOT complaining. I'm just observing and trying to understand. I hope this is something new. And permanent. Maybe I've reached a new level of comfort as Meg. This, to me, means I have to do something to shake it up again. :D
I did have a moment of panic: I had a sample of a face primer called "Primetime" that a nice lady at Sephora gave me. I also purchased a Smashbox eyeshadow primer. The eyeshadow primer was a medium tan colour and looked fine and worked flawlessly. The foundation primer ~ not so much.
I washed my face, moisturised, and dried my face thoroughly. Then I put on the foundation primer. It was clear, and had the consistency of jell-o. OK, I'm new to primer. The last one was more like a cream.
Then I put on a bit of cover stick: under eyes, above lips, below lips, and started to blend it in. It turned into little strings that stuck to the primer and took a lot of effort to get off. That's just great, I thought. My cover stick has gone bad.
After the brief delay and annoyance while I cleaned up I started on my foundation.
It did the same thing. There were dozens of little strings everywhere I rubbed in the foundation! It was the primer! I had to pull off each one, and as I added foundation the strings came back. I was tempted to start over and skip the primer, but I thought it would take less time to clean up. I probably should have started again.
If you're considering a primer and you think, "Primetime. Cute name,"
forget it.
I was ready just before 1:30. This was later than I hoped, but not too late. I pulled my tripod and camera out and took a couple of pre-trip photos (the one from
Thursday, and the one to the right.. I packed the tripod in my luggage and put the camera (with extra batteries) in my purse.
I put lipstick and powder and the few items I was carrying that morning ~ credit card, cash, driver's license, insurance cards, car key ~ into the purse as well. Other credit cards and my bank card were already in there, as part of my previous packing.
I have a pretty, patterned glasses case. My glasses did not fit in the case. This wasn't a big problem ~ what it did was mess up my Grand Entrance, because my other case was in the basement.
I had already put my car in the garage, my computer in the trunk, and my high-heel pumps on the floor in the front of the car. I wore my mid-heels for driving, although I changed to the higher heels for my walk in the mall and drove the rest of the way wearing them without any problems. Next time, it's high-heels all the way!
I grabbed my purse and suitcase and started clacking down the stairs.
My wife was sitting in the kitchen, which meant saying goodbye wasn't up to me. There's no way to leave the house unseen from where she was sitting.
As I was walking down, she called out "ready to go?" and I called back "not yet. I need a glasses case from the basement" and I continued down the stairs past her without looking up.
I found the case, came upstairs, posed, and said "well?" She said, "you should have worn black stockings with that." I said, "black stockings says 'guy' more than shaved legs do."
That was all she had to say, so I loaded the suitcase into the car and got in. I took my glasses out of my purse so it would be less bulky and I put them in the glove box.
I opened the garage door and c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y backed out and into the street. There were no neighbors around that day. The sun was bright, it was a bit cool but not terribly so. I opened the overhead sunglass storage and pulled out the glasses that are in that profile picture to the right, set my GPS for the Spotsylvania Mall and hit the road.
