Tuesday, February 7, 2012

s.o.l.e.: a strategy for getting out of a tight place

russian red--lipstick of choice


remember that annoying show jersey shore?  it was popular way back in, i think, '10?

remember that annoying dude who had his g-t-l routine?  gym-tan-laundry?

well, i have my own annoying routine, called s-o-l-e.

it came about one year when i was in college and my roomie was bff's with a dude who was a make-up artist for estee lauder.  i was agonizing in such an annoying privileged white girl college student way about how hard it was for me to get a big paper done for class, how overwhelmed i was, how i simply wanted to die it was so hard.  all this while wearing annoying sweats and sporting greasy hair.  the brilliant and talented make-up artist said:

get your ass in the shower, put on some clothes, and i'll do your hair and make-up.  no one could write a paper looking like that.

so i followed his direction.  he did my make up.  i put on an out of africa inspired taupe ralph lauren skirt and floral sweater with riding boots (this being the eighties).  and i wrote my paper.

over the years, i've learned the wisdom of the s-o-l-e routine to get you out of the mini-tight spot of procrastination.

S= SHOWER (get your ass in there)

O= OUTFIT (put on something nice and structured)

L= LIPSTICK (you can look like you tried, and like you got some rest the night before)

E= EARRINGS (ornamentation is always good, in my book)

(lest you think i'm horribly hetero-normative, hyper-capitalist, retro, anti-feminist, blah, blah, blah, i'm not.  you can substitute whatever works for you above.  maybe you like workboots.  maybe you like leather jackets.  whatever.  as long as it's not sweats and it makes a good acronym.)

one time i was all by myself in a cabin in the woods for three days trying to finish a screenplay.  i was completely alone.  but i still did s-o-l-e because it gave me the feeling of structure and focus i needed to finish.  and i did finish.

but maybe this is just me.  i do suffer from what, in the days when men still wore tights, they used to call an overabundance of phlegm.  my humours are definitely way out of whack.  so this helps me.

i love to hear other people's secret little tricks.  especially if they're a tiny bit shameful, like mine.

& i found some cool ones on julianna baggott's blog.  we're like the same person--we both have five kids--if i was a best-selling author who had also published nineteen books.  and i loved what our first ever guest blogger wrote about breathing through her tight places yesterday.

legwear:  snakeskin jeans (again)

inspiration:  little routines

looking forward:  william o. smith concert tonight







9 comments:

  1. Love this so much. You're an inspiration to me. -Lorri (Can't post anything under my blog name for some reason)

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    1. may i call you gertie from now on? thx for commenting!

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  2. I pick a theme song which I then listen to over and over again to put myself into a doing-stuff trance. Best if it has a somewhat repetitive and relevant chorus. Personal fave is Johnny Cash's Cadillac. That song really gets me.

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    1. this is a great one! i'm gonna try it this afternoon, as i'm having procrastination times today. i did listen to michael jackson's human nature last summer over and over again while i finished the last 30 pp. of my screenplay for sundance.

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  3. Great advice. I need to remember this for Saturdays I don't work. I find that Mac lipstick is especially key. Hey, who was the Estee Lauder dude? And speaking of tight places, via Jane online, I discovered this cheap English lipstick: ttp://www.ulta.com/ulta/browse/productDetail.jsp?skuId=2154085&productId=xlsImpprod970024&navAction=push&navCount=1&categoryId=cat80058#sku2214579

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  4. I also love how you reference the humours here.

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  5. i'll check that out. my girls gave me a new russian red for christmas, knowing i had been using a cheap revlon knock-off to save $$. the undertones just weren't quite right.

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  6. I'm a believer. Thanks. I'm headed for the shower right now.

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  7. Thanks, I have a hunch I will need this advice this week. The forecast says the sun will be rare and I'm already in one of those moods...

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