Mirror Image

Isn’t it wonderful what a mirror can do?

After months of laziness, I finally woke up today and decided I wanted to put up the mirrors in my house. All this time I have been making do with the mirror in the bathroom and while I know several women [and men] who would be horrified at such a thing, I was perfectly fine with it.

I fell into the habit of not caring too much about my appearance – excuse me, I lie… I have never really cared for my appearance but for a time there in my late teens when I moved out of the house and into college, I began putting on make up and shopping for clothes and all the other stuff my friends were gaga over. Until then, my dad or my aunts or my mom would pick me something when they were traveling and bring it back and I would wear it. But now I was the one in the driving seat or rather the shopping cart. Or maybe I was pushing it? Is that what I mean? Whatever. Anyway it was fun, that’s true. And it helps, that’s also true. A little make up goes a long way and a tiny bit everyday will do wonders for you. In my case, a little eyeliner and a dash of lipstick were all I felt up to and were all I needed. I tried mascara and still wear that gunk on special occasions but honestly, I hate it. Not to mention foundation and blush and all the rest of the jing bang that is such a damned nuisance.

So back when my first serious relationship was in its death throes, I was getting ready for an evening out and I had the mascara wand in my hand and I looked myself in the mirror, holding it and my face screwed up the way women always screw up their face when putting on make up, same as when men shave their faces, and suddenly felt so tired. Of everything. But most especially the make up in my hand. And so, when I broke up with that guy, I then went through this phase that lasted more than a year wherein I refused to do anything the least cosmetic to my person. Oprah has since explained to me exactly what I was going through – I’ll explain it to y’all some other time – but I didn’t know it was symptomatic of other things in my life and went on leaving my brushes unused until one day I did my eyes and liked the effect. Next, I bought myself some lipstick and liked it even more. Now I’m back.

But it doesn’t mean I’m a clothes horse by any stretch of the imagination. And so I never really felt the need for a full length mirror to admire my butt or check for the overall effect or something. In any case, there’s nothing in my clothing that’s designed to chock – I wear denim and I wear basic colors. If you don’t know what the two put together look like, you must have serious imagination issues. I mean, really!

Still, I’m glad I put the thing up today. It adds dimension to the room and gives it a sense of space – not that I needed it. Yeah that’s right – I have a large bedroom, in fact I have a huge apartment and I live in NYC. So kiss my ass.

I can’t wait to see what it’ll look like when the morning sun hits it. Sunlight predicted for tomorrow and my room catches one hell of a lot of it, so I’m suitably excited. Does that sound like an incredibly silly thing to be excited over? Perhaps its what my brother once explained to me as the automatic lift of the spirits when one had something new – it makes you feel good about yourself to buy yourself something, he said with the fervor of the true shopaholic. Well, we’re like this only.