Lipstick Therapy

It was a particularly dull day in the last week of fall , winter just around the corner.

I struggled to pull myself out of the bed. Finally managed to drag myself into the kitchen and make a hot cup of coffee. The caffeine inside , my eyes finally opened. I opened the Venetian blinds to look outside and feel the warmth of the sun. What a disappointment – another dull, rainy day. The curse of living in the north east. How I wish all the months were like June!

7:00 am already – If I don’t hurry up, I am going to miss the 7:56 to Manhattan.

Phew, I have a 9:00 am with my crankiest client! I always think of Nancy with a little bit of nervousness and amusement. Her unruly curly hair, dark brown nailpolish on extra- long manicured nails, knee length skirts with matching coats – she has a couple of these in different colours – but the same set of jewellery everyday!! And of course , the nail color never changes. Dark brown chocolate. On some meeting days when it used to get very boring, her nail colour made me dream of dark chocolate cake in Pax World. Right after the meeting got over, I used to run to Pax World across the street and eat the cake as if I had not had a meal in a hundred days. Yummmmm…. Feels like heaven!

Right now, I am getting late for my 7:56 again. A quick shower, some cereal..

I walked into my closet and looked at the clothes. Why is it that in spite of shopping every weekend for some piece of clothing or the other, I always ran out of clothes? I picked a black striped trouser and a plain pink sweater. A dab of my bronzer and my forever companion, Indian kohl … now what? I looked at myself in the mirror. Dull day.. dull face. The thought of going to work on such a day was making me duller! The bright pink knitwear did nothing to brighten up my mood.Now, I cannot wear a pink lipstick with a pink top, can I?

I picked the lightest shade of lipstick I had, applied two coats and topped it with a plain gloss. I looked at myself again in the mirror and was totally disappointed with the result! I like the dress, the kohl, the light blush, the danglers, but why is my face so awfully dull? My lips looked as if they have been just polished with the same skin colour as my face. Vanity, thy name is truly Woman!

7: 40 already. The train station is a five minutes walk from my apartment building and two minutes if I ran.I had to run today, that too in this kind of weather. Windy and rainy, and the 40 storeyed apartment building only made it worse. Once I almost fell on the road because of the wind! I had to grab on to the nearest lamp post to avoid a funny fall. Imagine, all dressed in your office clothes, with your make up on, carrying that new Coach handbag and falling just outside your apartment! To make it worse, that lady who has a Fendi was walking right behind me in her stilettos;she had some technique to hold herself against the wind.

7: 43.. I had to make a quick decision. Pink sweater with a pink lipstick is a strict no-no to work- I didn't want to end up looking as though I were going for a Broadway Play! The other bright shade that I had was a light pleasing orange which doesn't exactly go with a pink top! Nevertheless, I dabbed it on hurriedly after rubbing off the old layers with a piece of tissue and looked at myself in the mirror. What a change, my face had immediately brightened up! The blush on my cheek seemed to work better. The mascara looked blacker. Nancy's unruly curly hair in my imagination looked better. Her long nails, after all were not so long. Her suits although the same were pretty. The jewelry seemed so under stated and dignified. The meeting was not so scary. I had gone through my presentation at least 10 times the previous day and all the data was updated.

7: 43: I would not change my lipstick for anything now. I looked around my cup-board. I grabbed the dullest gray Espirit top from it and paired it with my black trousers. The gray did not matter, as long as the bright lipstick stayed.

The sun was slowly waking up from it’s slumber….

The drizzle was not so bad after all…..

And it was still fall… winter was a week away…

I smiled to myself, grabbed my Metro newspaper from the stands and jumped into the 7:56. What a bright lipstick can do to a woman!