Tuesday, August 17, 2010

I'm all aflutter!

It's been a few days since my last post, and I thought I'd bring you up to date with the continuing saga of my false eyelashes:

Q. Did Rich notice them?
A. Yes, after I raised my glasses off my nose and fluttered them at him. He immediately said, "those look awful, what do you have those on for?" Not very sensitive, but I totally agreed, and promptly pulled them off my eyes and flushed them down the toilet!

Q. How did I do with the second pair of eyelashes?
A. No drama this time! They're much easier to put on because they came with little pincher-like things to hold the lashes with.

The second pair look a lot more natural, as they don't have the liner look to them. The little pincher allowed me to hold them with one hand, while using a toothpick to apply a very small amount of glue to the base with the other hand. Then I just aimed for my eyelid and plopped it on! I'm finding that it's a real art to get them on straight and on the edge of the eyelid, though. With the first eye I had extra glue showing on my lid, but was able to wipe it off with a wet cutip (you really need special supplies to do this!). The second eye I did much better with and it was glue free. Both needed some straightening out after applying, but weren't too far off...not as bad as the first go 'round, that's for sure!

Q. How do I like wearing them?
A. I think I prefer the alien look I've been sporting for the past six months!

I've gotten quite used to the ease of just jumping in & out of the shower in the morning, putting lotion on, swiping lipstick on my lips, and calling it good! I now have to allow extra time to put on my eyelashes and, if I remember, to also draw on my eyebrows. What a hassle! I'd forgotten how much work it was to be a girl. I'm not sure I'm ready for this change! And the new lashes didn't stay on as well as the first pair...I must not have used enough glue. By the end of the day, they were lifting off my eyes at the outside edges...kind of like how a caterpillar lifts itself up to look around. But when I fluttered my eyelashes at Rich, this time he asked me how I liked them...he's a quick learner, too!

Friday, August 13, 2010

Flutter, flutter, flutter!

I'm so excited! My eyes are finally dry (it's been since March), which means I get to finally try out my new false eyelashes! The song phrase, "How dry I am", keeps cycling in my head like a broken record! It's such a good feeling to be free of the collection of tissues always in my pockets to dab my eyes with, and to no longer have chapped skin around my eyes from the constant tearing. It's amazing how much I was physically affected by this...it was like crying all of the time, and then being tired because of it.

But now it's over...one more obstacle out of the way! And it's time to try on those eyelashes I have tucked away in my drawer....

....Well, that was like being in an episode from "Candid Camera", trying to put those lashes on! First, I followed the picture showing to extract them from their case with tweezers, so I did. But in doing so, I bent the lashes on one end so they're a little off line with the rest. Then I tried to hold them with my fingers (which are stubby because my nails are not long enough yet to help out) and kept accidently touching the sticky part of the lashes and getting them stuck on my fingers, back and forth between hands, as I tried to unstick myself. By now, the whole eyelash is becoming a bit bent out of shape and losing its stickiness, and I haven't even attempted to put it on my eyelid yet!

I finally managed to get my fingers unstuck from the lashes and hold them up to my eye and press them on.....well, to borrow a line from a character in the book, "Little Bee", WU-ha, ha, ha!!!!!! I laughed so hard! I had it on so cock-eyed that I looked like a bald, hung-over drag queen! It took SEVERAL more attempts to get the dang thing on straight, and by now I was worried that the glue wouldn't stick anymore and it would end up hanging precariously from my eye!

Luckily, the second eyelash was much easier to put on (I'm a quick learner), but there was something about them that I didn't like. Was I just so used to my lashless self that it looked unnatural to me now? And they felt kind of heavy on my eyes. Then I realized that I had bought eyelashes that had an eyeliner look to them, and that's what was glaring at me...the dark lines outlining my naked, falsely eyelashed eyes. I decided to keep them on anyway and try them out for the day. I eyelined under my eyes to complete the look and left the house to do some errands.

My first stop was to Target to see what other eyelashes were available to me. Another chemo friend of mine had worn some for her "glam shot" with Dr. Liberty and they looked beautiful and natural on her because they didn't have the eyeliner look. And sure enough, there on the shelf were individual eyelashes you could add to your own eyelashes, two at a time (yikes, that would be a terrible undertaking without long nails), and whole eyelashes that looked individual but without the liner look. I selected the whole eyelashes and headed for the checkout.

I'm still wearing the eyelashes and wonder if Rich will even notice them. I'm very aware of them on my eyes...they really are kind of heavy and weird feeling. Tomorrow will be yet another fun day of trying on my newest pair...I hope that my skills improve with practice. But I'm determined that the next time you see me, I'll be fluttering my eyelashes at you!