Miguelina

Rhymes with strange

Cup of Jo blogger Joanna Goddard wrote this really  fun article where she interviewed people who only wear one color. It's fascinating, really, reading their explanations for why they do this. I shook my head in amusement at some of their responses, but mostly I was impressed by the level of dedication shown by these people. For example, the "blue" woman buys Chanel and Louboutin shoes and colors them herself.

(I'm not going to lie to you, that made me cry a little.)

I fell in love with some of them ("brown" man gave two completely reasonable explanations for his color choice - It's impossible to clash when you wear brown and it doesn't show dirt) and I wanted to put the "green" lady in my pocket and take her everywhere I go. She's that cute.

Jo wanted to know what color we would wear if we had to wear only one.

"Well," I thought, "I'm nothing like these wacky artsy types! I wear whatever I like, of course!"

Then I thought about the last three things I've purchased:

It's a slippery slope.

Images: New York,JCrew, Yogitoes, BabyJogger

Great Advice

I think this advice applies to everyone - not just writers or artists. I'm saving it here so I can find it later:

Unasked-for advice to new writers about money

There's so much good stuff here but this is one I want to highlight:

7. When you do buy something, buy the best you can afford — and then run it into the ground.

It feels good to have my hatred of big-box chains validated by such a sensible person. Whew!

Perfume

I really admire people who are loyal to a fragrance all their life. It's pretty incredible when you think about it: They've found their one and only, and forsaking all others, choose to wear the same fragrance every day for the rest of their lives. It's like they've found their soul mate - and that's always an admirable accomplishment.

I don't have a signature scent myself.

I wonder if I should. After all, I know the power of scent: There are a few scents that remind me of people I love, and since some of those people aren't in my life anymore a trip to a department store brings back memories as reliably as rereading old letters or diary entries. Colors by Benetton, for instance, reminds me of my best friend in elementary school - of sleepovers and Seventeen magazine and slambooks and making papier-mache volcanoes. Must de Cartier reminds me of my mom getting ready for a night out. I still think it's an unbelievably sophisticated scent, and I don't dare wear it myself. Another childhood scent is L'Air du Temps – that one is all innocence – and it was the only one I was allowed to spritz on on special occasions. I can't help but laugh when I smell Drakkar Noir on someone because it reminds me of every single boy in Jr. High.

My first perfume was Fidji – my father brought it for me as a gift from a business trip to Haiti. From there it's been a steady stream of fragrances, each of them reminding me of a discreet period in my life. Because even while I change fragrances frequently, I tend to wear the same one for months or even years at a time before moving on to something new.

Exhibit A: Bulgary Eau de Te Extreme I bought it in Paris and wore when I was an exchange student in Spain. It's subtly exotic and reminds me of adventure and spontaneity.

I was wearing Angel the night I met my husband. Coincidentally, chocolate is one of the basenotes of this perfume. Hmm.

I bought my bottle EnJoy during the trip where my husband asked me to marry him and every time I wear it I feel like a newlywed. I always wear it on our anniversary, of course.

I stopped wearing perfume once I started having kids. It was just one more thing to do in the mornings, not to mention another expense, so for the past three years I've mostly smelled like cheerios and Play-Doh.

A few weeks ago, I decided it was time I found a new scent.

It wasn't an easy quest. I'd steal off for a few minutes whenever I was near a Sephora or a perfume counter and sprayed my wrists with fragrances old and new. Many were plain irritating, and a few of them literally made me ill to my stomach. As determined as I was to fall in love with a scent, it is not something that you can do at will - it has to happen on its own.

The other day I was looking for shoes (nothing glamorous, I just needed something to keep my ankles warm while running errands. I thought maybe I could pull off Uggs, but I couldn't bear to buy shoes that ugly ON PURPOSE) and on the way out of the store, pushing my double stroller and angry because I had dragged the kids around all morning and I was still empty-handed, my eye was distracted by a something shiny and sparkly on the perfume counter. There were all sorts of pretty bottles filled with promising liquids, and I don't know why, but I went straight to the cluster of identical Annick Goutal bottles and picked one out at random. I spritzed it on my wrist, gave it a minute, and with pulse racing, I took a sniff.

Lovely.

It was powdery and mangoish - smelling like what a tropical spring might smell like if there was such a thing as spring in the tropics.

When the saleslady came to see if I needed help, I told her I wanted a bottle of whatever it was I had just sprayed. It was only then that I learned the name of the fragrance I had fallen in love with -  Folavril - Annick Goutal's first creation, the beginning of her fragrance empire.

I wonder if it heralds a new beginning for me as well.

The Great Interview Experiment

Neil from Citizen Of The Month (one of the funniest blogs ever - but you knew that already) came up with this great idea for a Great Interview Experiment. If you haven't already, sign up here. All the cool kids are doing it!

Anyways, a couple of weeks ago I signed up to do it (so maybe it's not all cool kids) and I got to interview the lovely Jennie of She Likes Purple fame. It was hard to come up with good questions because she has the longest FAQ on the internet, but she's so darn clever that she managed to make my mediocre questions sound somewhat coherent. You should read the interview over at her site, or click on the next page if you insist on reading it here. It's up to you!

Of course, the point of the experiment is that someone interviews you as well, and since my comment was right below somebody named witchypoo she was assigned the task of interviewing me. She contacted me right away, and wondered if I would be comfortable with her as an interviewer. I thought that was strange until I realized that I had just written this post where I said "...someone like me, who is turned off by spacey new age types..."

People, my interviewer is a psychic. OF COURSE. Her blog is named Psychicgeek, she sells crystals and reads people's auras and stuff.

Oops.

Anyways, turns out that witchypoo was gracious enough to interview despite my having inserted my entire leg in my mouth, and the interview is here. I like her. I may have a new friend. A psychic friend even.

However, I think she may have messed with karma a bit, because she wanted to know why I don't write about poop. What a strange thing to ask, right? Little did I know it wasn't a question that came out of the blue. Of course not - she's a psychic, remember?

Instead, it was foreshadowing. Just hours after she posted the interview my kids came down with a stomach virus. And then it was viral diarrhea (apparently they're two different things), and then I dragged the sick kids out on Super Tuesday because we had to vote and then they caught colds. And then the kids were better and then I caught their cold. And now I feel slightly better, which brings me to today.

I think the karma's all straightened out today. Finally.

It's time...

(Su voto es su voz.)