Idiosycratic Life

Tonight I got a very funny email from my friend Becky who read my last entry about my fear of being the mother of a teenybopper who likes Britney Spears. She told me about her cousin's 6-year-old daughter "who is beautiful and intelligent and creative and outgoing (and 6), and who wants to wear lipgloss to school and sometimes says, "Watch me
dance!" and swivels her hips." :) That's just a funny image, but anyway, the reason why I mention it is that it has me thinking about when I first started bugging my mom to let me wear lip gloss to school. I think I was 10.

I used to go to Phar-Mor and buy Bonne Belle lip gloss and Debbie Gibson's Electric Youth perfume. The perfume itself was purple, and there was a pink spiral in the clear bottle. Or maybe the perfume was pink and the spiral was purple. Anyway, Pharmor used to have this little computer thing that you would answer a bunch of questions about your hair and eye color and how easily you sunburn, and then it would tell you what Clairol Zone you were. I was always, always, always a Zone 2, but I did it every single time we went to Phar-Mor. That meant (in 1989) that I should wear pink and peach colors. I loved that thing. My two best E. Pete Elementary girlfriends were both a Zone 3. They used to share makeup, which made me feel left out because I was only "allowed" (by the Clairol people) to wear Zone 2 makeup.

Incidentally, I found out that my best friend in 6th grade (one of the Zone 3 girls) dated my older sister's ex-boyfriend's younger sister's boyfriend's roommate when they were in junior high. True story.