Friday, November 12, 2004

Hippie-dom here I come

I've been avoiding the Natural Foods Store.

Seriously. I drove by the place twice but couldn't bring myself to park.

It's a stupid reason, but I just don't feel like I belong in there. No Berkenstocks, no dreadlocks, not even a vegetarian. The people I see coming in and out are always hippies that smell funny or weirdos drinking carrot juice smoothies.*

I imagine I'd get to the entrance and everyone would stop shopping to stare at me. Like, are those leather straps on her two inch heels? Jaws would drop, whispering would start and I'd run away in shame.

Yes. That's how important I think I am. That's how much I matter. People would stop shopping.

The reason I wanted to go to the Natural Food Store has to do with my other latest obsession: Burt's Bees. It's another organic company whose buttermilk lotion I've been using for a week and love. And like all obsessions, one product is not enough. I tried finding more at the Longs Drug Store here, but no luck. Not at K-Mart or WalMart either.

So finally, vanity drew me to the Natural Food Store where I bought a $10 facial starter kit that includes toner and cremes that smell suspiciously like actual plants.

I am suspicious of myself because I know I have a history of going through cosmetic phases. From Loreal to M.A.C. And now Burt's Bees.

But what the hell. I finally walked into the Natural Foods Store and it wasn't that bad. There were more yuppies than hippies in there anyway. Well, at least as many. And yuppie is a look I can comfortably pull off.

* I'm fully aware of the irony of me, the drive-by stalker of a natural foods store, labeling carrot juice drinkers "weird."