New Year -- Day Four

I don't have resolutions.  I've noticed, however, that I'm working on a few new practices.  Which is to say, I haven't resolved to do anything in particular, but I thought I'd give some new things a try.

Item:  Wear lipstick every day.

I've tried this several times before without success.  The problem is that I put my lipstick in my purse for the day (for touch-ups) -- so, by the next morning, it isn't handy for application.  I will have to solve this by either buying a second lipstick, or keeping my purse in the bathroom.

Item:  Wear earrings every day.

I've actually made progress on this -- to wit, I bought a jewelry box.  My problem here (similar to the "where the hell is my lipstick?" problem) is that I used to keep all my earrings in a big ol' untidy box on top of my dresser -- where I'd have to go digging around every morning to find a pair that matched.  Now, I've got a nice box which has a bunch of little suede straps with holes in them -- every earring is with its partner attached to a little snap-off strap.  It's much easier to pick when I can review the whole collection at a glance, and find everything in seconds.  I even wore a bracelet yesterday.  I know.  I should slow down before I hurt someone.

Item:  Wear the dry cleanables more often.

This is my reaction to gaining weight.  Sure, diet and exercise is the more traditional response, and I am trying to do a bit more of both of those, now and again.  But the thing that really irked me about putting on weight is that I'd just bought a lot of clothes.  Some of them were a bit on the pricey side, but I'd justified the expense by saying, "Yeah, but I'll be able to wear it for years."  Right.  Twenty-odd pounds later, and I can't cram myself into the silk suit or the velvet top.  But what really roasts my cookies about the whole thing is that I hardly ever wore them.  They were sitting in my closet looking pretty, but, when an occasion arose where I could have worn them, I ended up going with another item, because I knew I'd have to dry clean the pretty stuff, and I'd rather just wear the stuff I could toss into the machine.  No more of that, baby -- that new silk dress I got in Hong Kong already came out for the office holiday party, and it'll go out to dinner every chance it gets.