Reminds me of a joke/meme I saw.
Angel complimenting God on Kangaroos. “Nice! They’re adorable!”
“Thanks! They have pockets.”
Or something like that.
SO I took one of my “bar purses” on a maiden voyage today, believing my dress didn’t have any pockets. Sure, I wouldn’t get my step count accurate if I left my itty bitty purse behind the counter at work today, but I would have easy access to my tinted lip balm. And I also bagged my Rose Quartz and Carnelian. Always bring those to work for luck. Tho they really should be cleansed/charged.
I mentioned this to my coworker today. My WONDERFUL, AWESOME coworker, who put in a LOT of hours today, all so that I wouldn’t have to close by myself, potentially. They asked, “Are you SURE that dress doesn’t have pockets?”
And by Goddess, it DOES have pockets. They just lay so nicely, you can scarcely tell they’re there! But they’re fairly roomy. They don’t “porkchop” out, as the pockets on a different dress I had tried on yesterday, seemed to– on me, at any rate.
ANYWAY, up above, there is an updated selfie of me in my dress. Dry hair and all. Out in the sun. I got a walk in before work, and EVERYTHING.
I wish I would’ve gotten a full-body pic of me today, as I felt pretty dang stylin. Cute sandals with sparkly buckles. Glitter gel in my hair, and glitter Strawberry Pound Cake body spray– the WORKS!
The glitter gel tumbled from me in waves every time I slid my glasses up to the top of my head to read small things, and I felt like Tinkerbell.
My coworker even exclaimed at one point, “You smell like pound cake.” OY did that ever please me. It’s nice to have the extra effort noticed LOL.
I busted out scented shaving cream in the shower and all o’ that today. A lot more girling up than I am used to. But it was fun! Full make-up, too.
Anyway, here is the bar purse, which even got to sit on an actual bar counter tonight, as we were waiting for our table.
It’s zoomed in so it looks larger, but it’s a small handbag. Standard-sized drinking glass behind it, sort of for scale? There are longer detachable straps if you want to shoulder it, but the handle you see there just fits over my wrist comfortably. Satin-y.
Tomorrow’s lunch plans became tonight’s dinner plans, as I discovered immediately after I finished work.
We went to a steakhouse!
I had rare steak, shrimp, seasoned rice, roasted Brussels sprouts in a delicious sauce, a garden salad, fresh bread with butter, and this bad boi, which we all split (even if I had most of it… an indulgence, to be sure, but hey…)
How’s that for food porn? I rully rully love strawberries, too.
Brought home a sizeable hunk of the bread. I only had one piece. Also still have I think 4 or 5 shrimp, and some of my steak. Had to leave room for the dessert, when they had the advertisement for it just STARING ME DOWN all throughout the meal!
Hey, at least I didn’t go for the Chocolate Stampede, which I swear is at LEAST a four-person dessert, if not more. We’ve ordered it, kiddo and I, when it was just us. Brought home leftovers. Shared with friends, and had some more of it with them. And it was STILL plenty for everyone.
That’s essentially 6 servings.
Because we’d split the leftovers with my neighbor, and her daughter.
It’s a LOT of cake.
Not that this dessert was tiny. But still.
Burying the lead here, because I was so psyched about the pockets in my dress… but the MAIN thing I wanted to say here is this:
HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!!!
It’s after midnight where I am, so technically already Mother’s Day.
Happy Mother’s Day to any moms who might come across this post.
To all the bonus moms; rockin’ aunties; boss babes who lead by example and lend support when needed, professionally and personally; and to all the women out there who pitch in however they can for one another. I think we lend each other a bit of motherly magick on the regular.
Also, Happy Mother’s Day to my OWN mom.
And let me add some gratitude not only to her, but also to the groovy gamer grrrl who made me a mom, almost 25 years ago. God, how did I ever get to be old enough to say that?!
Then again, I was youngish at the time. 23. When I do the math, that’s not so far removed from my last year of high school. 6 years. Not a lot of time to let my hair down. But we made it work, mostly. Did my imperfect best, with a challenging hand dealt.
I am endlessly inspired by both my mother and my daughter, and by the strength and grace I witness in them, as well as in all the women I know.
Also, MUCH, much love to everyone for whom it is a difficult holiday, for any number of reasons, like fertility issues, loss of a child, death of a parent or grandparent, distance of any kind from children or parents, etc. Complicated familial relationships. I get it. Family can be a tricky thing to navigate.
It’s a small loss compared to what some of you out there may be facing, but a big part of my heart is over 1,000 miles away with my daughter. I’ll be missing her hardcore tomorrow.
WHEW! That was heavy. On to lighter topics.
I discovered today, I think, after I woke up, that I had earned yet ANOTHER reward to spend on clothing or accessories or bras/panties. Since I had also recently found that my size in a short-length bootcut legging (essentially yoga pants) was in stock online, I decided to check out how much it would cost with all my discounts.
Ladies and gentlemen, it was TOO INEXPENSIVE to use up my whole reward credit. My outstanding coworker meanwhile had picked up an earring pack for their mom. Cute lil thing. The “packaging” looked like a red, white, and blue popsicle, and all the post earrings were Independence Day-colored. They said their sibling had already gotten their mom something from Starbucks that was supposed to be from ALL of them, but they weren’t all about that.
SO… I had the idea… why don’t I get something for MY mom? Sure, I had already gotten her a card, and a wonderful bag of treats from a local gourmet chocolatier. All the same, I had bet she might like something else, closer to the day of.
She’s a lil lady. No plus-size fashions for her.
I decided to scope out our accessories, as my coworker had.
Found a 3-pack of bracelets. Gorgeous beads. Two of them, the beads were iridescent. The other one had white beads. All of them were interspersed with smaller silver beads, and they were stretch bracelets, so less likely to be too big on her.
She loved them!
I’ll have to see if I can get a pic of her wearing them, if she’s okay with me sharing it. They totally looked like her style. Almost a decorative rosary-bead vibe.
I pitched in and did almost all the closing cleaning chores at work today, since I knew my faithful sidekick was exhausted. And their feet hurt. After I had to pull two unexpected doubles, I know how HARD they are on you, in every which way.
They at least were able to get someone to bring them dinner. Even offered me a French fry. If I’d had the cash, I probably would’ve offered to buy them dinner delivered. I definitely wanted to.
I had heard through the grapevine that our boss is buying them some Pride merch, to say thank you, because “it’s cheaper than gas.”
Even with doing closing stuff, it wasn’t really all that demanding of a day– for me, anyway. I had a pretty good day, all in all!
LOADS of compliments on my dress and cardigan. Some amazing connections with customers. One was especially emotional and inspiring. More than one of them wished me a Happy Mother’s Day.
And I got to buy my pants, and a giftie for my mom!
THEN go out to dinner. THE STEAK! Such good steak. And shrimp. And everything else. It was a fantastic meal.
THEN I got to come home and flirt heavily over text, with a fresh boi.
We reflected on the hoodoo of gray sweatpants. He was unaware they have an infamous reputation on the internet, among the girlies (and maybe the gays?). Anyway, it was a really fun conversation. We will see what develops there!
Also, yet ANOTHER match on a dating site/app for someone with the same first name as one of my vampire fiction characters. This one, we didn’t even learn his legal name until the latest story in progress. In Book One, he was only known by his artistic pseudonym. WILDNESS! Just waiting on Lenore and Pierce, and I will have them ALL!
AND it seems my transportation crisis will soon be coming to an end.
As I told my long-distance bestie:
“HUZZAH! MUCH rejoicing in the realm!”
I’m also off tomorrow for the first time in a VERY long time, after many retail jobs where no one really cares if you’re a mother or not, if they need bodies on the sales floor or behind the counter.
Apparently, our thoughtful manager made sure not a single mom among us was scheduled at ALL for Mother’s Day. How amazing is that?!
Maybe I can’t give a literal gift to you all who fall under the broad umbrella of motherhood I sketched out above. But, I offer you the image below. If no one else bought you flowers, if you just need a little virtual pick-me-up, for any reason, this is for you.
After browsing images on Pexels, the ones of mothers with small children nearly had me bawling, with missing my daughter, so flowers, it is. Less triggering, all the way around. Have a peaceful day tomorrow/later on today, no matter your relationship to the holiday, or to motherhood. Sending love.
All the Bright and Sparkly Things 
Leave a comment