I have been going through one of my little ' grey ' periods this week - nothing serious, just feeling slightly fed up with myself ... you look in the mirror and think you look a mess ( or more of a mess than usual, that is ) ... silly things like that. To brighten myself up, I decided to put a tiny, tiny amount of make-up on - just some eye-liner and neutral lip stick - before going to work. Nothing unusual there you would think ?..... well, it is slightly out of character for me I have to admit. I do make an effort when I go out in the evening and other special occasions, but I hardly ever wear make-up otherwise, almost never to work ... normally cannot be bothered with all that @ 5 am in the morning. Make up, or the lack of it , doesn't affect my ability to work or function as a human being .... I am still me, regardless of any superficial cosmetic enhancement . Despite that , I am a bit of a girlie @ heart .... it does make me feel better when I am down ... hence the small extra effort this week. As I said, it was only a tiny amount, applied for no reason other than to make me feel a little better ; and so I went off to work.... thinking nothing more of it.
The day started as usual - me getting on with my work in my little area, virtually invisible to everyone else ... . Then, about 9 am, I was on the shop-floor filling some of my fixtures with stock when Kath called out to me from her till -
" Why are you all made up ? ... "
That surprised me, as I didn't think it was that noticeable ... I just smiled and said nothing .... Kath continued...
" So who are you trying to pull then ?"
"No one, why ?"
" You don't fool me ... you fancy someone , don't you ? . Why else the make up ? "
It was pointless trying to tell Kath otherwise, she wasn't going to listen to me. I had make up on when I didn't normally ... therefore I had to be trying to attract attention from some male, and she wanted to know who. I know it was a harmless remark, but it actually annoyed me a bit. The fact that by making myself look slightly more presentable than I usually do, I must be after someone ... it couldn't just be for my benefit .... no, they could not believe that ! . And that wasn't the only time during the week I received that reaction to my "appearance " - a few others had similar ones - that I "scrubbed up well "...
.... yesterday, Froud asked " What's with the bright lipstick today ? " ( admittedly, the lipstick yesterday was more noticable ... by then, I thought if Kath wanted to think I was " on the pull" because of some barely there make up, so be it ... I would play along with her game ..... add fuel to the fire, so to speak ... childish I know but if you can't beat them.... ;-) ). Normally, I could be standing right in front of them, and they would look straight through me - suddenly, just because of a little eye-liner and lipstick, I was all too visible. I cannot say that I totally disliked being noticed but Excuse me, why all the attention now? I'm still me ! ... I'm still the person you normally ignore when I am au naturel ... as I said @ the beginning of this post - Sometime, people can be so superficial .......
