What is it with me and crappy days lately? I drove all the way to Baltimore with Dad today to test drive a BMW that we thought would meet all of our requirements, but it was far worse than we anticipated. I wish the dealer would have just told me that before I drove an hour and a half each way, but noooOoo. Maybe I should give them the benefit of the doubt; perhaps they didn’t realize that the gas pedal was too stiff, that the steering was too tight, and that there was a pull to the right. Perhaps, even though they run a BMW dealership and are around them all day, they aren’t as finely tuned to the heart and soul of a bimmer as I am.

Yeah. I’ll believe that.

So that wasted the whole afternoon. No fun at all. Normally I’d love driving BMWs, but not when it comes to trying to help indecisive people buy a car they aren’t sure they really want anyway. So, from now on, I’ll confine my expertise to serious buyers or fellow enthusaists; I don’t want to spoil the joy of future test drives.

I got home around 6:00ish, wasn’t very hungry, and wanted to do something fun. As there was a shortage of accessible ice skating Hungarians, I thought I’d take care of returning some shoes I recently purchased at Nordstrom. Nothing wrong with the shoes, mind, they’re just the wrong size. Ugg boots are so cumbersome to buy, but eternally worth it once you find the right pair. But, I’ll only ever buy them through Nordstrom, because they’re so perfectly accomodating. Seriously, I walked back in there tonight, explained that they were the wrong pair, and there was no problem. The young man in the impeccable suit just smiled and said, “Right away, ma’am, what size would you prefer?”

Unfortunately, they didn’t have my size in stock. I’m still in shock, honestly: not that they were out of stock, but that I’m wearing a size 7 ugg boot. The shoes don’t come in half sizes, so if you wear a half size you have to go to the next round number. I think I wear a size 8 and a half regular shoe, but for some reason I’m in a size 7 ugg. I don’t get it. I think maybe I should have my feet measured again, because this would explain why none of my dress shoes fit anymore. It would also explain why Stephen was mocking my “teeny feet” while we were at the new Air & Space Museum the other day. Of course, it doesn’t explain why my feet are shrinking, but I doubt even Nordstrom – in all its capitalistic glory – could explain that anyway.

Nordstrom’s going to have a pair of size 7 uggs transferred from one of their other stores to my local Nordies, just for me. With the assurance that I’d have my uggs in a week or so, I started to wander around the store. It was around 8:30pm by this point; I had no where to go, no appointments to keep, and no one else to entertain but myself. That’s when I saw the make-up!

Getting make-overs at the mall, I have to admit, is rather fun. If you’ve never done it – and if you’re a girl, obviously – you should. Nice ladies pamper you, make you look beautiful, and then pour on the compliments. Of course, it’s all in an effort to get you to buy something, but it’s fun nonetheless. This evening I was pampered by Cynthia at the Clinique counter. I wasn’t just doing this for nothing, I was on a mission: I’ve been meaning to take a few self-portraits of myself recently, but never wanted to bother putting on any make-up in order to take nice pictures. With Cynthia right there and ready and willing to make me beautiful, why not let her take care of that?

She cleansed, she foundationed, she shadowed and blushed, and by the time she was done I looked done up, but natural. I appreciated that, since that’s my favorite look. She was very sweet and eventually did convince me to buy some cleanser – but only because I needed some anyway and it was cheap. She was extremely nice, though, and she even offered me a free facial! So on March 10th at noon I get to go back to the magical land of Nordie’s and have a facial done by some kind of expert at the Clarins desk. Pretty cool, eh?

After Nordie’s, I made a quick stop by Target to pick up a few necessary accessories (I’m serious, this wasn’t a fun stop at Target, nothing but business), and as soon as I got home I made sure to get those self-portraits done before I sullied my make-up. See, I had a deadline for those pictures – I found out about this show that’s filming in DC the week of the 8th, and there was an open casting call for extras. I figured, hey, something to do, I’ll get paid, and I’ll get to be in some Disney tv show. All in all, not a bad way to spend a day or two. In order to apply, though, I needed to email in my resume and a recent photo. I realized that practically all of my photos are over a year old by now. That photo that used to be here on my blog, that was taken *three* years ago! So it’s time for an update, and an update is exactly what I got.

Here’s the photo I sent in with my application, and here’s the only other photo that I was at all pleased with. Not bad for only about 30 minutes of photo-taking. And as you can see, I’ve updated the three year old photo here on the blog, replacing it with my second-favorite photo (it just fit better in the tiny image size.) All in all, I’m quite pleased, especially since Sujit said that I look more grown up in these photos. That was quite reassuring because I’ve been rather afraid that I’m looking younger for some reason. Partially because a couple people have thought I was only 16 lately, but Cynthia assumed I was a young 20-something, so maybe something happened this week to make me look older. I don’t know, whatever it was, I’m glad I’m at least not looking like a baby anymore.

So it’s been a good day after all, all thanks to Nordstrom. I really love that place; the piano player in the foyer, the happy smiling faces, the free gift with purchase. Outside, there’s chaos in the mall; inside, there’s a calm euphoria of shopping amongst people who understand that shopping is an investment. And dang it, if you decide you don’t like something you paid for, you should be able to get your money back, no questions asked. Ever. Thank heaven for Nordstrom. (And send extra thanks for whoever thought of Nordstrom Rack: capitalism at discount rates.) 🙂