-A 32-year-old woman is enjoying college. Disagree with Dan Savage that the guy's into her, though - hard to pinpoint why, exactly. Maybe it's the comments, many of which are the sort of rationalizations women often give themselves - he's shy! he's afraid to ruin the friendship! - for why a guy hasn't made a move. While I'll accept that there are 20-year-old men interested in elderly women of 32 (#sarcasm, as one must note; I'll be 32 in under a year) attractive, I just don't get the sense that this 20-year-old finds this 32-year-old all that ravishing. On behalf of Team Women-In-Early-30s, I hope I'm wrong, though.
-More weirdness around adult women - and their uteri - being on their parents' health insurance. (Not lighter news, exactly, but not Iraq-war-announcement-of-erev-9/11, either.)
-Emily of Cupcakes and Cashmere answers a question I'd long been wondering about: How does one do that 'statement lip' look without looking otherwise washed out? I mean, I had seriously not known, but wanted to know. I now know. Useful information.
-According to the latest official Science, Ashkenazi Jews and Flemish Belgians are not related. Everyone in an Ashkenazi-Flemish couple is breathing a sigh of relief.
-The great closet-cleanse of late June was supposed to lead to a discovery of all the somewhat dressier, more glamorous clothes I'd wear if I weren't so lazy about such things. Instead, it unearthed a couple business suits from 2005, a super-elegant dress shirt with certain wardrobe-malfunction tendencies when combined with a cross-body bag (which is the sort of thing one wants to notice before heading out in that shirt, with that bag; what's done is done), some pants that were too small in 2006 and are lo and behold no more zippable in 2014, and other winners. Also a really spectacular shoe collection... if all of the shoes were in wearable condition. Few were.
So if the hoped-for end goal (shopping-of-own-closet) was out, maybe something was accomplished? At least now I know, in stark terms, what it is I don't own. And it's basically ever item that the Average American Woman supposedly owns a dozen of. Except for gray v-neck t-shirts. An infinite supply of those. And somehow, when browsing the e-commerce-sphere, I found myself gravitating to... more gray v-necks. Stacey and Clinton, consider yourselves summoned.
Emily's "bare" face is my "heavy makeup" face.
ReplyDeleteAlso, regardless of whether the 20 year old wanted the 32 year old, I endorse the advice to make a move, already. A 32 year old woman should be able to be assertive.
Me too, I suppose, re: the face makeup. (I bet I *would* look better with foundation and bronzer, but don't own or know how to use either.) What interested me was more the idea of balancing things out with a little bit of eyeliner makeup, as vs none, or just mascara. The usual thinking is that one does lips or eyes but not both.
ReplyDeleteRe: the making of a move... maybe? But some people are more shattered by romantic rejection than others, and someone writing in to an advice columnist about how to approach a man she *shared a bed with* sounds like someone who is not of the arguably more enjoyable nothing-ventured-nothing-gained mindset.
Not that I ever gave it a lot of thought, but I had always just assumed your husband was one of Belgium's French Community (you can probably guess the reason). Now I'm a little embarrassed that I just unthinkingly made that assumption.
ReplyDeleteI actually like the bare (not the "bare," i.e. with more makeup) face. Although maybe I'm just blind to my own blotchiness and would like to think that looks better.
ReplyDeleteVaguely related: I really want to buy one of the new NARS Audacious lipsticks. But I have no need for a new lipstick (I own so many NARS lip colors already), and these lipsticks are $32. And yet. I probably should buy concealer, too, while I'm at it...
Andrew,
ReplyDeleteA common misperception offline as well.
Fourtinefork,
I can see that. Also, with C&C's photos in particular, obviously she's not going to put a really awful-skin-day or badly-lit bare-face photo on her blog (who would?), and she's quite photogenic, so even the 'before' looks like an 'after.'
Like I said to Caryatis, for me the difference isn't so much in the skin overall as in the idea that one would still use a bit of eye makeup for a barefaced look. (And concealer, yes. Never hurts...)