We Have Our WINNERS!
Such fantastic entries, everyone — thank you so much for sending them our way! Georgia and I are laughing that no one wanted to commit themselves to video (have ours scared you to this degree?), so we have only one winner for a written submission — plus a runner up, who … made an indelible impression! Enjoy their stories of GLAMOUR AND GOOP!!
WINNER!!!! CONGRATULATIONS TO KRISTIN CANDY, whose marital mishap took the (wedding) cake. [Kristin, contact us with your mailing address to get your CDs and if you are in the area, please come join us in the studio this week!] Here’s her story:
Let me tell you about my wedding, the ultimate glamour day for a woman. The afternoon before my wedding my maid-of-honor and I went to have a mani-pedi. While the woman at the salon was doing my nails, she kindly offered to also dye my eyebrows. (I am a honey blonde with blonde highlights and it has never occurred to me to dye my eyebrows.) I graciously said “no, thank you”. She offered again. I replied, “no, I have someone helping me with my make-up tomorrow”. The woman finally said, “my wedding gift to you”. At this point, I caved and squeaked “ok” while screaming in my head, “NOOOO!” But, nonetheless I allowed her to proceed. When I looked in the mirror I discovered two hideous brown caterpillars above my eyes – dark brown Groucho Marx eyebrows.
Being a resourceful person, I remembered my hairdresser telling me that if you are not happy with the color of your hair after dying it, you can wash it with baby shampoo to remove at least some of the color. So after an emergency run to the grocery store to purchase baby shampoo (and a bar of Neutrogena soap for back-up), I went home and proceeded to scrub my eyebrows… and scrub… While my best friend watched and kept telling me not to scrub so hard, I managed to get out most of the color. One more trip to Macy’s for cream to reduce redness and I thought “disaster averted,” and I was ready to be a glamorous bride the following day.
I woke up in the morning to find the puffiest eyes ever and the lovely beginnings of scabs around my eyebrows. Apparently the redness the day before was only a prelude of things to come. In the end, my make-up artist did an amazing job of managing to make my eyes look fairly normal. Only if you looked closely could you see the darker shadows of bruises and scabbing.
But my story doesn’t end there. I married an amazing man and we had a beautiful wedding ceremony. After the ceremony, we gathered with family and friends for pictures. Before we started, I decided that I needed a quick touch-up of lipstick. I took out my lipstick, removed the cap and promptly dropped the tube! I leapt backwards and actually caught the lipstick, (I’m not a complete klutz), but still managed a two-inch reddish/pink line down the bodice of my dress. Dinner was delayed while all the women in my life debated the best way to try to remove a lipstick stain without making a bigger red smudge. The final decision was not to do anything. We took the pictures, I held my bouquet a bit higher and I smiled! So, that’s the story of the goop and the glamour of my wedding day! – Kristin Candy
RUNNER UP CONGRATULATIONS to Vicky Croisant! [Vicky, send us your mailing address for two CDs!]:
I’m a zookeeper and while some people think I have a glamorous job spending my day “playing” with the animals, it’s definitely more goop. Lots of goop on some days. I work with penguins and while they’re completely adorable and everyone loves them, the reality is that they’re dirty birds with projectile poo that can shoot several feet. Sometimes I swear they even aim. I’ve gotten good at seeing the warning signs and have developed lightning fast reflexes when I know the poo is coming. Well, one day I was feeding in the burrow room and was apparently a bit off my game. I usually feed the lower level before the upper level because if you do happened to get pooped on, it’s no big deal if it hits your legs or feet. This particular day I was more concerned about getting one of the birds on the lower level to eat and wasn’t paying attention to the pair in the burrow above. Next thing I know, I was hit. That’s right, a penguin pooped and hit me square in the head. It was in my hair and all over my face. Ew. It’s (kinda) part of the job so I merely set my fish bucket aside, walked to the kitchen and stuck my head under the sink to clean off. I suppose it was karma after making fun of another keeper that suffered a penguin head shot the week before when I was bragging it never happened to me. – Vicky Croisant
And here’s one honorable mention to Kimberly Oakes — who doesn’t need any CDs, she HAS them! =):
I moved to California from Arizona in December 1999 with no sense of stability , no friends, or real family. So I threw myself into an outlet: my love of musical theatre. That season Kristin Chenoweth won the Tony for “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” and I was in awe of her talent. After that, whenever things got rough, her work was always there to comfort me or give me strength. It was strange for me because I’m not the kind of person who thinks we should idolize celebrity types.
Fast-forward to February 2006: It had been six years and I still had no real connection to the outside world. I had discovered the concept of message boards to make friends, and joined Kristin’s official fan club. It was nice to talk to people again.
Kristin was doing a concert at Disney Hall in Los Angeles and a group of girls planned this extravagant weekend around the city for fan club members to take part in. A friend of mine invited me, and I was unsure if I should go because I was scared… I had never met any of these people in person before and I hadn’t been around anyone other than my family in so long that I forgot how to be social with strangers. Despite my resistance, my friend insisted I join her and she picked me up and took me to everything that was planned. We took a private tour of the WB backlot, went to Disneyland and then the big finale was a fancy dinner and Kristin’s concert. Glamour!
As I sat in the most stunning concert hall I’d ever seen, in the most beautiful dress I’d ever owned, with my new friends by my side, I couldn’t believe this was happening to me. The entire atmosphere took my breath away. Kristin knew we were there and after the concert we got to meet her. I never in my life expected that to happen, but as fate would have it, it did. When we got in the room and someone said she wanted to meet me, I was so overwhelmed I started crying. I’m talking the Oprah ugly-cry, totally forgetting that I was wearing makeup/mascara. Kristin walked over to me and smiled as she kneeled down in front of me taking both my hands in hers and said: “Honey, can I give you a little tip? Waterproof.” We all laughed. It was the most beautiful night of my life and there I was — with my face covered in mascara. I looked like someone punched me, an embarrassing Kodak moment. Goop!
My whole life changed in those moments… Five years later those friends have become my family. They’ve shown me what real love is and opened my eyes to see that the real glamour in life are the memories we make together in times between the laughter and the sadness. – Kimberly Oakes