|
|
Or, Weekend With Rooey.
I picked Roo up from her grandpa's house in Sun City Center on Good Friday. Appropriate, no? I got down there about 11 a.m., skipped up to the front of the house, and heard Roo "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"ing before she even opened the door. We gave each other big hugs and jumped up and down and squealed and stuff. Because yay! We were finally meeting in person!!
Roo wasn't ready yet, so we chatted while she finished packing her overnight (at my house) bag. I admired her grandpa's house (especially the carpet), Roo showed me the photos he had displayed of her family (Roo's brother? HOT. But married.), and then Roo gave me the birthday presents she had brought for me. She gave me: a collection of letters by Flannery O'Connor, one of my favorite authors; a box os HAMSTER holiday cards (hee!); and several magnets, including one from Texas which is hysterical.
(I'll take a photo of the magnet and link to the FO'C book later, when I'm home.)
And then we were off! We drove back to Tampa, and our first stop was the Saks Fifth Avenue at Westshore Plaza. Roo has wanted to look at some schtuff at a Bobbi Brown counter, and the Saks BB counter is where my favorite makeup artist, Carol, works. But before we went to the BB counter, we got sidetracked at the Chanel counter. The new sheer Glossimers were on display, and I wanted to give them a look. The sales assistant came over and we started talking about the Volumizing Lash Powder that was shown on the display and marked LIMITED EDITION.
Well, if you don't know, when you have product-hungry lemmings like Roo and I do, anything marked LIMITED EDITION becomes something to covet. And so we did. Because the SA told us about how wonderful it was, how glorious, how it cures the common cold and brings you your slippers when you get home from work and cooks you dinner and gives you hugs and holds your hair back when you're sick, and OH BY THE WAY, it's sold out.
"Sold out" is lemming code for "MUST HAVE RIGHT NOW!"
Then we went on to the BB counter. Carol was working, but she was doing stock so the male makeup artist, Chris, came over to help Roo pick out eyeshadow to try on. Chris looked really familiar to me, but I couldn't place him. Roo admired the Lilac Shimmerwash eyeshadow, so Chris set about putting that on her.
I'll let Roo describe Chris, since she actually talked to him more than I did, but I felt he came off as just a leetle bit bitchy. About five minutes later I realized where I had seen him before - he was at the Nordstrom Trend Show I attended in March. While I was having my BB makeover done by the national artist (Kari) at the show, Chris was the MA working on someone at the next chair over. I thought he was bitchy then, too.
But anyway, bitchy as he might have been, he did a fabulous job on Roo's eyemakeup - the Lilac looked gorgeous on her and she ended up buying that (and another e/s, Black Plum). I limited myself to one of the Lip Tints in a new summer color, Melon. I seem to be on a kick of buying orange-y lipglosses. Which I guess is good; I'm branching out from my standard colors.
We browsed the Narrrrrrrs counter next. Roo was searching for an Orgasm, but she decided against buying one. I was looking for Sin but decided it wouldn't suit me very well. Then we nosed around MAC a little bit, but eh - MAC is just MAC. I wanted to go to the Prescriptives counter at Burdines-Macys, because it is the only Px counter in this area that does the custom blending of foundation (i.e. they mix up the color to match your specific skin tone).
So off we traipsed to Prescriptives. On the way there we popped into a few stores. Babana Republic didn't have the earrings I've been wanting. Roo took me into a housewares store (I can't remember the name) to show me the monkey lamp she wants, but they didn't have it in stock. We got to Burdines-Macys and were promptly assaulted by perfume women wanting to hand us stuff, and we both ran away screaming.
The Prescriptives counter was playing 80s music for some reason. The one song I remember was "It's Raining Men," which Roo sang along to. She has a good voice, too; much better than mine.
So the Px sales assistant matches me up, and I must say, she did an amazing job because this foundation matches my skin PERFECTLY. I told her I wanted to wear it around for a few hours and view it in natural light before I made the decision to buy it (it is pricey at $62), so we left Westshore Plaza and headed up the street to International Plaza, because that's where Nordstrom and California Pizza Kitchen live.
Because we were hungry, yo. We sprinted through Nordstrom to get to CPK, waited about 10 minutes for a table, and then on the way in Roo chats up the gay boy greeter because his name tag said he was from Atlanta. Here's something about Roo - she can chat up anyone. She's so open and friendly and ... ebullient, really ... that I think she makes complete strangers feel immediately comfortable with her. It was really impressive to see.
And then, we noshed. Roo ordered the Liquid Taco (i.e. the tortilla soup) and a salad (she was observing Good Friday, after all), but I observed no such thing and tried the Sante Fe Chicken pizza, since Roo highly recommended it. And I could understand why after eating it - that sucker was GOOD! Lime-marinated chicken, cilantro, cheese, fresh tomatoes, and sour cream. Yum-may!
Next we spent quality time in Nordstrom. We looked at makeup. We looked at jewelry. We looked at handbags and scarves and shoes, oh my! Roo was on a quest for pink shoes, but the ones she had admired on the Nordstrom website didn't work out in person. We went upstairs to look at clothes, and there was a STUPID CUTE red handkerchief-print skirt that we both admired. Seriously, it was freaking adorable (I will link to it later). It wasn't really my style, though, and they didn't have one in Roo's size, so we sadly had to pass it up. But I think Roo might order it from the Nordstrom website.
Then we went to Dillards, still on the quest for pink shoes (not to mention strappy black shoes). Roo struck out on both accounts. We stopped at the Chanel counter to look for the beloved lash powder, but it was covered by a piece of plastic on the display. Roo and I took that to mean they were sold out, but Roo played at trying to pry off the plastic covering in order to steal the display model ... and the snotty Chanel sales wench gave her the stink-eye! AS IF!
We went upstairs in search of the bathroom, and after getting directions from four different sales associates - "It's blah blah blah over there *points*", "It's around that wall over on the back wall, to the right", "It's just over there on the right", and "You're almost there! It's right down there." - we finally found it. You'd think we were searching for the Holy Grail or something.
We milled around the mall a little more, and by that time I had made the decision to purchase the insanely-expensive-yet-wonderful foundation from Prescriptives, so we drove back to that mall so I could pick it up.
And then we went back to my apartment!
Since this is becoming epic, I'm going to take a break right here and continue on a little later.
Posted by Highwaygirl on April 12, 2004 08:55 AM to the category Friends