No rest for the weary.

Our friends from DC will be in tonight. Should be a lot of fun. I'm debating whether or not I actually want to go to the trouble of putting on make-up. If we end up taking pictures, then I'll wish I put on make-up. Yeah, guess I'll get gussied up. When I was a teenager, I'd rather have my fingernails pulled out by the roots than go out without make-up. Now, it seems like such a hassle most of the time. My mother complains about my laziness: "You used to take so much care with your appearance and now you look like a slob."

I try to rationalize my lack of personal grooming by telling myself, "I'm in Indiana. Even on my worst days, I still come out looking better than 75% of the population here." Of course, when I go to Chicago or back to DC, I feel like a complete backwater hick. I do shower everyday. That counts for a lot. I know some stay-at-home moms who seem to think that's optional. I never shared that point of view. I had friends who stopped showering when they started college and I never got that either. Just because your mom's not around to tell you to clean yourself up, you'll actually let yourself smell like a rank armpit? And as if not showering weren't bad enough, they were proud of it. "Hey, it's been four days since I showered." No kidding. That explains the green haze following you down the hall. I remember when we lived in Germany, people would stink something horrible. That's when I learned about the European aversion to deodorant. What doe Europeans think when they come to America and everyone is so afraid of body odor. Do they think walking around smells like going into a Bath & Body Works shop? Is it offensive to them? I'm going to go hunt down a European walking around right now and ask them.