(no subject)

It's funny what you can glean from some small thing left behind.

We've had a makeup bag in lost and found since June 28. I'd put a note on it that I would take the bag if it was unclaimed, and lo, today said bag was on my desk.

It's a plastic bag, black and white plaid, the kind you can pick up at Target for $4. Inside were the beauty products of a young teenage girl:

An Estee Lauder eyeshadow case, empty of both eyeshadow and applicator, and a Lancome travel mirror. Probably castoffs from mom, although I'm not sure why she would need what essentially amounts to two mirrors;

Things that she might have bought herself - a Wet n Wild creme shadow in Iced Out, a silver shade that is only worn by 13-year-olds or old Jewish ladies, and a cheap roll-on cologne scented "Ocean Song". The side of the bottle says, "Pray for Peace" and is just one step up from patchouli. Two stained sticks of Chapstick, a staple of young girls everywhere (at least until they can afford better).

Two tubes of mascara, one for thickening and one for separating/lengthening - I can only imagine the kind of raccoon eyes this girl might have been sporting. Maybe she got one from her mother, if it clumped too much.

Hollister August fragrance for girls, which might have been a Christmas gift and smells vaguely of the Debbie Gibson Electric Youth perfume that was so popular fifteen twenty years ago.

And a tube of bubblegum pink Clinique glossware for lips, which matches the stains on the Chapstick tubes. I wonder: did she use the Chapstick to tone the shine down, then?

I don't exactly know what this all means about this girl's life, but I know what it says about me: I spend way too much time analyzing other people's lives.

I'm in love with your ghost

Er, sorry about my last cryptic posts. I haven't been in the mood to enumerate the various bad things that have happened recently. Add the below to a raging case of PMS, and yeah. Cryptic.

After much ruminating on the year anniversary of Katrina and all of the people still suffering, I have to say to myself: don't get too comfortable with the little inconveniences of life - you know where your family is, and you can go to the space you call home.

Here's the last three months of my life, in a nutshell, cut for the disinterested and for length:

( Work )

( Taxes )

( the car )

Things are looking up at the moment. (  There's light at the end of the tunnel. )

Thanks to those of you who've heard bits and pieces of these things and offered sympathy and support. It means a lot when you can't go to your family.

I'm so happy to see all of the wonderful things that are happening to people on my flist. New cars, babies, jobs, interviews, decorating, houses. To those of you who are having some angst, you have my sympathy and lots of positive vibes headed your way *eyes merrydrought and blue_eye*

Finally, I've been under a small hiatus on news this past week (this is why I've been less responsive lately, authenticpoppy) - I was getting to the point where I couldn't listen to NPR news without my chin wobbling. The Harry Connick, Jr. single had me flat-out bawling last night, after listening to an interview with a man in NO who is sharing a small trailer with two other men, and who doesn't know where his father, brothers, or 6 year old daughter are. My problems? Not so bad.