I thought I had hit an all time low when I was wearing one Halloween sock and one Christmas sock last week, but no, I was capable of going lower. Saturday evening, I had a performance at a benefit; I was to dance a Tango solo with my husband, Johnny, and a group Latin piece with two other dancers in our company Tango Fusion. In my preparations of gathering together my costumes, my three pairs of dance shoes, my jewelry, hair products, gloves, thong and fishnets, I added red toe nail polish to a small bag of make-up. After doing our run-through at 7pm, I had one hour and fifteen minutes before show time, seemingly enough time to do make-up, paint toe-nails and don my costume. Please note, that my Latin costume required open toed shoes and decent polish was a must as my August pedicure had seen better days.
So – I go to polish my nails, only to discover, that the little bag that held the polish, had been left behind along with two bracelets and some make-up. No one had polish so one of the dancers suggested red magic marker. Excellent idea and since we were dressing in a pre-school room with art supplies my luck was returning. Simultaneously another dancer’s gaze and mine went to the top of a shelf and we saw a container with art paint. Its contents revealed a number of containers of red paint featuring an array of colors. I chose a straight forward red that we’ll call “lipstick red” selected for its’ hopeful potential to wash off.
So there I was, with my foot propped up, tissues separating my toes, using a small art paintbrush to color my nails with watercolors. In and of itself, not so bad, but after being down to one pair of daytime earrings and one pair of evening earrings for the last couple of weeks and after being able to only pull together one Halloween sock and one Christmas sock to wear with slacks, I felt I was at a very low point in regards to accessory organization. In my defense, I am high functioning: mother, wife, family gal, friend, dance teacher, dancer, choreographer, writer, volunteer, cook, gardener, tennis player, book lover, assistant soccer coach and party thrower extraordinaire – so something has got to give.
I had recovered fairly well from a huge sock fight that we had in the spring; most of my socks made it back to their original pair. (In the heat of the battle, many pairs come undone) But our last skirmish in late September left me undone. My younger son was in charge of repairing the socks and although capable of organization, this was not one of those times. Couple the sock fight with the fact that we had yet to really put everything back in place from our summertime rental http://dianelachtruppmartineznocompromises.blogspot.com/2011/09/exit-strategy.html and you have the recipe for missing clothing, accessories, paperwork, etc. Upon entering your home at the end of the rental season, you are filled with high hopes of maintaining the order that you thrust upon your home for the rental; you vow to put the contents of packed away boxes in their place. Then school and fall activities start and your goals are pushed aside; boxes remain unpacked and the socks that you didn’t take with you are difficult to locate.
As I wait for my toe nail polish to dry, I reflect on what socks and earrings have in common. Ah – they are in twos. This leads me to wonder what else comes in twos on my body and what will be the next jeopardized accessory. Let’s see, I have two eyes, but fortunately the contact lens case connects the two lenses so that helps. I have two breasts and as luck would have it the bra cups are attached, so no mismatching there. Oh-oh –shoes, yes shoes I believe are next. They are not attached when not on my body. Well - I am forewarned. Wish me luck.
Diane Lachtrupp Martinez
