brett and a few friends of mine graduated on sunday (yayyy!) so, of course, i went up for the ceremony. matthew szulik, chairman of red hat, was their commencement speaker (i’m so jealous of this) so i think i was more entertained by the people in the crowd going, “free software? huh? who is this guy?” whatever. anyway, despite the fact that he upset a few people in the audience with his politically one-sided speech, his underlying message was spectacular. something along the lines of not losing sight of your dreams and what you’ve always wanted to accomplish in life, to not get lost along the way, and to not just wake up one day and think, what have i done with my life? they played a short video before his speech that had the music from where the wild things are, which i still haven’t seen, and now i want to see it even more.
ANYWAY, small tidbit. that was not the point of my post–it just made me happy. i drove up to boone friday night after work. i was not aware that hwy 321 was closed just past lenoir. for those of you not at all familiar with western north carolina, i was just between Podunk and Over Yonder. they have been widening the roads up there… for… well, a really long damn time. and they are still not done. they’re still up there blowing up rocks. so they set up a detour, like always. i was just always fortunate enough to not be travelling when said detour was in place.
i really shouldn’t drive in the dark because i am horrible at navigating and my vision just plummets. i really should invest in a GPS (and new glasses), or at the very least, the app for my iphone. just using the map on there will probably kill me one day on the road. i finally got to wilkesboro, which is better than where i thought i was going to end up (wrong turn was flashing through my head), and made my way to boone.
upon arriving in boone, i realized i forgot all of my make-up. all of it. no foundation, no powder, no mascara, no eyeliner, no lipstick. none of it. when my face is breaking out, and it’s winter, and i do not have a tan, i do not like going into any kind of public without make-up. i’ve been like that since i was like…12? 13? it’s only gotten worse since then. it’s not about being superficial, i just hate my face. and i am so compulsive about it that i even drive myself insane. so, when i realized i was about to drop $40 on make-up for the weekend (which will also save me $40 when i run out in 2 months, i suppose), my heart sank. i went to wal-mart.
i was wearing the same dress, corduroy jacket, and cowboy boots i wore to work. it was in the 40-50 range in charleston on friday–no need for tights. i’m inside most of the day anyway. who cares, right? wrong. i got to boone. it was 16 degrees in boone. which actually, didn’t bother me at all. i had a jacket on, my feet were covered, i had a scarf. i was pretty cozy. GOD FORBID, my KNEES were showing.
i had at least 5 people stop me once inside wal-mart just to ask me if i was cold. “you have GOT to be cold!” or “i KNOW you are freezing!” or “oh my god, aren’t you cold?!” or “i can’t believe you’re not cold!” my response was simply, “i just got here from charleston. i’m fine, really.” and i got a couple of huffs. the kind of huffs that you know really mean “idiot” or “dumb slut, put some more clothes on.” bite me, people.
next time, when it’s snowing, and sleeting, and 30 mile an hour winds are blowing, i am going to waltz into wal-mart wearing nothing but a wife beater and cut-offs. minds will be blown.