First P: Pneumonia. Second bout in four months, thankyouverymuch. I was prescribed a short, intense course of crazy-strong antibiotics and I'm now almost all better. However, it seriously sucked while it lasted. Aren't you glad I didn't mention it at the time?
Second P: Politics. If Obama doesn't win, I will weep. I will wail and despair. I already am despairing, I'm having anxiety dreams about politics, it's making me almost as sick as the pneumonia. The way the McCain camp is running their campaign disgusts me. It was bad enough that Palin refused to answer most of the questions at the debate, but now the McCain campaign says that they don't want to talk about the economy any more, they want to focus on the really important issues, like whether or not Barack Obama spent a single evening, many years ago, in the home of a former '60s Black Power radical. Right. This is the most critical stuff facing our country right now.
I watched the Fox News channel for a few minutes last night, and I swear, it would have been funny if it wasn't happening in my own country. Is Obama hiding his history of doing drugs?, the commentator screams, and then quotes from Obama's book about his drinking and drug use as a college student. Yes, I'm yelling back at the TV, Obama's hiding it, that's why he WROTE ABOUT IT IN HIS BOOK.
I'm trying to tell myself that this is a positive sign, that the Republicans know they're losing on the issues, and that's why they're resorting to these desperate character attacks. I'm telling myself it's just making them look bad.
I'm still scared.
Third P: Enough of this depressing talk of physical and political sickness. I'll move on to my third P, Products. Specifically, products that are standing up to the rigors of my Florida lifestyle.
Yes, there are rigors. They're just pleasant rigors, that's all. Take, for instance, the challenges faced by my mascara, which must endure sweat and splashes in the pool. A waterproof mascara would seem to be the appropriate choice, but I hate waterproof mascara, and it hates me. I can never quite manage to remove waterproof mascara properly, and it leaves my lashes all gummy. Back in February, I lost a clump of lashes on my left eye because I used my eyelash curler on gummed-up lashes, and those lashes have still not grown out completely. It's October, it's been eight full months, and yet I still have a quarter-inch of lashes that aren't the same length as the others. That is a lengthy recovery, and I'm not willing to risk that type of damage again.
Last month BzzAgent sent me some Max Factor makeup to try, and it included their Volume Couture mascara. I'm not a huge fan of volumizing mascaras -- my lashes are scrawny, and any time I use a mascara with a plumping effect I wind up making my lashes look all clumpy. I am willing to assume that this is the result of user error, or a side effect of having puny lashes to begin with, because certainly many women love volumizing mascara, if commercials are to be believed. So while I wouldn't purchase this again for myself, I will note that I was extremely impressed with the water-resistance of this washable, non-waterproof formula. It endured an hour of swimming with my cannonball-prone son without leaving me looking like a raccoon. It even held up reasonably well on a Saturday when we went to the beach twice, a day when I took a total of four showers. That's a lot to ask of a mascara.
However, the coveted position of "favorite mascara" is still held by an even less-expensive product: Cover Girl Professional Remarkable Washable Waterproof mascara. Yes, it's waterproof, but it washes off very easily with my normal face wash, without leaving smears under my eyes. I also like it because it's a thin formula that makes my lashes dark and defined, while helping to hold the curl I've pressed in with my Shu Uemura curler. And it's never caused me to rip out clumps of lashes, unlike some mascaras (*coughcoughMAYBELLINEcough*) I could mention.
There's another product I wanted to mention -- believe it or not, a CLEANING product, for the home and not for the face or body -- but my blogging energy is flagging, and I need to go cook some chicken and green beans. It's my anniversary today, and my husband likes green beans, and I like him.
