Clarice

Clarice from Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer

At lunch, I was in the position that I'm sure many face when they eat with a group of people, in the middle. On my right, two were talking to me about one thing; and on the other side, someone else was trying to get me to pay attention to him! I couldn't hear either. The 'him' was impatient, and I finally said, hey, they're talking to me too, and I can't pay attention to both! So he moved closer, and said quietly, maybe if I bat my eyes at you, you'll listen. And so he began to talk, and he would pause to bat his eye lashes. I was so captivated by the eyelash batting that I still don't know what the heck he was talking about. And at one point, I started to laugh because he seemed so Clarice-like. He does have big round eyes, and so his batting was very effective ... well, kind of. I finally laughed out, "stop it, my nose is starting to blink like Rudolf's." oh jeez.

Whole Living March 2012

Then in my magazine read this morning, I found the following from Whole Living, one of my new favorite magazines. Apparently, eyelashes are indeed big communicators. In the article, David Givens, PhD, director of the Center for Nonverbal Studies, in Spokane, Washington, said, "eyelash batting is an ancient, unconscious signal of interest, and in almost every culture around the world, women have worked to make their lashes longer and more visible ... think about silent movies- before there was sound to lend to drama, there were lashes."

Of course the article went on to give tips for keeping lashes ... battable:

1.  Eyelash curler ... yeah, I buy one every few years and just don't see how to work the darn thing! Then I end up throwing it out because it constantly falls out of the medicine cabinet.

2.  Good mascara ... one they suggest has 'natural plumping ingredients?!' I tried plumping lip gloss and I didn't see any more plump. I've been sticking to Maybelline. In every magazine I have ever read, at some point in the year, it is said to be the standard. I did get a tester from Chanel for a new serum last month, and liked it. But then I remembered when I used to love the Estee Lauder sample mascara in the gift, would buy a big tube, and then be disappointed. The woman at the Lauder counter said that she often heard that complaint, and figured that the bigger tube allowed for more air to get into the product making it dryer.
Maybe I won't buy that expensive tube of Chanel.

3.  Make-up remover. Still working on this one. I do wash my face every night, but found that I still had rings of mascara under my eyes in the morning. A friend gave me Neutrogena eye make-up remover, which I used through several more purchased bottles, but still found that I had a bit of the raccoon in the morning. I switched to baby oil because I thought that it would be good for the tender tissue (wrinkles) around the eye to soak up. The jury is still out on that one too. Raccoons are kind of sexy, right?!

4.  Another natural lash growth serum (see # 2).

Well anyway, when I was a kid, I had an allergist, who when first looking me in the eye said to me, "what is it about girls with allergies, they always have the longest lashes." So I'm in pretty good bat form due to a preexisting condition!

And I have learned that I do love for someone to bat their eyelashes at me. They could be reading a grocery list, or talking about ... oh think of the most tedious topic in the world, and it wouldn't matter. Bat the lashes up and down (wide-eyed accompaniment is essential), and my nose will glow.

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