Lent/Lint

Yesterday I went to Sephora to pick up some face wash. Not anything special, just the same Clinique (what a shi shi name, btw.) face wash I have been using since I was fourteen. So I stroll into Sephora, thinking that this will be a quick purchase, stumbling through the disco in hell lighting scheme and hip-yet- housewife safe trance music. This is where things get fun. Why do I need to choose from four different bottles of the same mild cleanser? What does extra mild mean? Is that like not even soap anymore? Is the extra mildness accounted for in the cloudy, viscous blend in the bottle? Should you, retail associate, ask me if I need help if you are not able to answer any of these questions?

This is all just a preface to the fact that while I stood in line with a bottle of liquid mild face soap (with pump), I noticed that the woman in front of me had a smudge of ash on her forehead. This is to signify being blessed at a mass at the beginning of the Lenten season. The perky salesclerk (with braces) was not aware of this and after she asked the woman to choose from a complimentary urban decay lipstick or a vitamin -c face treatment leans over and attempts to rub the woman's forehead. "You have some dirt on you," she says after the woman semi- grimaces and leans away from the counter. The connection is obvious. An anecdote about Lent, and I have given up facebook for said occasion, under which circumstances I have channeled my web life wasting by writing this inaugural post.