Today I had a busy day, and for some odd reason, I really early one. I was up and out the door before 9. My first stop was the post office, since they'd left me a note saying there was a package for me. It was, quite unexpectedly, a madhouse. So I'm standing online and the girl in front of me happens to look back and says;
"Damn, I wish I had lips like yours!"
Being a bit confused by this I said the first thing that came to mind;
"But you do, yours are basically the same as mine, so why the lip envy?"
She proceeded to explain that her lips were this dull pinkish pale lips looking for color and that mine where like a movies stars lips, all curvy and bright, a perfect color that goes so well with the top I was wearing... "You just look so amazing, and I look bland and like a wannabe." What made it funny is I was wearing a red/fuchsia 10 dollar deep vneck blouse from Old Navy with a white cammie underneath, so there would be just this little pop of white. I had some matching lip gloss on so that it looked like I bought the blouse to go with the lips. That was it. No other makeup on whatsoever. Admittedly, I inherited my light skin, naturally rosy cheeks and winter complexion from my Mom (Thanks Mom!) so I normally go without makeup most of the time. Lip gloss for me is looking all made up spending hours on makeup. So I said to her she could easily do the same thing, because as far as coloring and such go, we could have been sisters. Told her I got the blouse for ten bucks at ON and the gloss was maybiline. She still seemed terribly skeptical so I did my favorite trick with makeup I said hang on a sec. Grabbed a tissue out of my purse, turned around, wiped off the gloss and turned back.
She was stunned, then again everyone is when I do that trick, and watched eyes wide as I proceeded to reapply the gloss. At which point I took out an alcohol swab, cleaned the tip and handed it to her and said here, now you try. Just remember to apply from the bottom of the top lip into the point, so that you get the definition of the lip line instead of just going across and you'll be fine. Like magic her face lit up, the color worked on her as well as me (I knew it would) and I said I guess you're going to go shopping after this eh? She was thrilled, and to be honest, so was I, I'd done my girl scout good deed for the day.
From there, it was off to DMV to trade in my Colorado License for a new Ohio one. I went prepared, with everything from stem to stern, including my surgical letter because I still haven't had my BC fixed. Ohio's website and drivers manual claimed I wasn't going to need all the "Real ID" compliant foolishness because all they want is the OLD DL and my Social Security card. Now my old DL had the right gender on it, but I had to show Colorado my letter to have it that way. Ohio has been reported as having issues by some women who've changed their gender here, so I had even written down the P&P from the Ohio website. Kinda ticked me off that two years after surgery I was still going to have to get into the whole thing, but such was life right?
Wrong. I walked up to the window, they collected my old DL, checked my Social Security card, asked if I wanted my middle name as an initial or spelled out, took my money, shot my picture, and then handed me my new drivers license. No questions, no confusion, no six million forms of proof I was me and actually a girl, nothing. Just a wham, bam, that'll be 23 dollars ma'am and off I went. Gotta say I loved it. Quick, simple, easy, in and out in fifteen minutes and not so much as a funny look. We spent more time on my middle name than anything else, because at first I was going to have them spell it out, then it dawned on my that it would be harder to steal my identity if it was just an initial. God if going to DMV could be a pleasant experience, this would be it. The picture even came out decent for a DMV mug shot, but it was kinda eerie as I looked at it walking to the car. I look just like my Mom, I mean like we could be twins. So I just stopped and looked at it a moment, smiled and shed a happy tear.
My Mom was a couple years younger than I am now... Wow, actually more than a couple, she was five years younger than I am now when she died. To have her looking up at my from my driver's license was kinda cool. Especially since she'd never had one. She had grand maul epilepsy so she couldn't have a DL back in the day. So this was kinda cool. Brought back memories of her, which is never a bad thing.
So those were the two big highlights of my otherwise boring day.
Honestly it was cool in so many ways because dmv was just some random woman going in and getting a new DL. The baggage from the past, far behind me, no longer at all someone who'd moved from somewhere else in a way folks aren't used to, just another state. Not a move from another state of being. Overall, boring and uneventful, and you know that's just how it should be.
2 comments:
Hooray for the baggage left behind!
That was a kind and wonderful thing you did for that girl in line with you! As well as something that will boost her confidence and self esteem for the rest of her life!
You truly are an angel!
alan
Yes, the baggage behind me, truly a blessed thing. On so many levels.
Well, you and I have discussed privately my penchant for talking to complete strangers (and often the stranger the better) while out and about. For me, it helps lessen the interminable wait on line, and it spreads just a little bit of Dharma wherever I go. Someone envies something they see or sense in me, I do everything in my power to share it with them in a way that turns the envy, and the willingness to talk to me about it, into a blessing.
My path, my journey through life, is about lessening suffering in any shape or size it may present itself. Mine, someone else's, doesn't matter to me. I live my path, and practice what I don't preach. To borrow a line from a M*A*S*H episode I once saw;
"I am Buddhist person"
And for me, that means spreading sunshine and joy in every direction from me, whenever I can. Not in a bible thumping "my way or it's the highway to hell with you" kind of proselytizing that is so favored by so many, but in a "what would Buddha do" way.
So I spread joy when and where I can, and am as open, honest, available, and approachable to people in a religion not included fashion as possible. I like to think of it as living my faith rather than preaching it while doing something else. I like the middle way best myself, being a positive, real, live, example of what's good about it without making it into a federal case, or coming off like some mindless, hypocritical rube who harangues people because it's about control, not faith.
I like to thing of it as the Tao of Sam... But really it's Buddha who showed me how to get here. So the Tao of Buddha then no?
Post a Comment