Sunday, January 16, 2011

Botox, Lipo and a trip back home...

Growing up in a small town on the South Shore of Boston, I didn't know many people from Columbia, Brazil, or, really, anywhere north of Boston. My senior year of high school I attended boarding school in Winchendon, MA (the armpit of Massachusetts). What I thought was going to be a 50% rich kids 50% hott male athlete ratio turned out to be 90% Asian 5% athlete 5% kids who thought the same thing I did when they applied. When I moved to Boston to go to Suffolk, I started working in restaurants and began working with all different ethnicities. At the restaurant I work now, the kitchen staff is all from Columbia. At my school, the Brazilian accent outweighs the Boston accent. With that said, I am learning my fair share about the Brazilian and Colombian cultures. Mostly, what I'm intrigued by is their take on beauty.

While punching in at work, I always take a second to notice my surroundings. Naturally, my eyes are drawn to the brightest color in the room, which inevitably is one of the girls outfits. I give them a lot of credit. Their shirts are never without a hole, rip, tear or string holding it together. They love their aqua's, neons, sparkles and spandex. And, of course their make-up always always always matches their outfits to a T. It is actually really impressive. I can only hope, one day, to have their self-confidence.

Recently one of the shuckers went back home for a 5 week vacation to Columbia. She was so excited to go and I assumed it was because she has a daughter back home. 5 weeks go by and in comes the new (subtract 20 lbs add braces) Natalia. I couldn't believe it. She came in all smiles Natalia: "Hola Kristina"
Me: "Natalia??Liposuction??"
Natalia: "Si Kristina!"
Me: "Natalia, are your eyebrows and eyeliner tattooed on!??"
Natalia: "Si,Si Kristina!!"
Me: "Natalia...Te llama Natalia?"

Fast forward two months. I'm at school. One of the ladies in class decided to take a 5 week hiatus from school to go home to Brazil. Considering she was slightly behind as it was, all the girls thought it was what we wouldn't consider to be the best idea. At first we thought she was just a slower learner because of course it would be more difficult to learn about microbiology in a different language. But then, as time went on we came to the conclusion she A: just didn't want to learn, or B: just not that bright. WE have about 3 rules in school: 1. wear white and only white. She wears polka dots. 2. Don't eat in class. She eats snickers bars while steaming and masking clients. 3. You are only allowed to miss one class. She missed 5 weeks. When she finally did return, we were all speechless at what we saw. Rumors started flying and whispers were exchanged. Was she beaten? Bad relationship? She owed someone money? Oh no, she had botox gone bad. Note to self, don't go to a private practitioner for botox while on vacation in Brazil.

All I know is when I come back from a vacation home on the south shore, the only thing I'm bringing back for show is a slightly larger love handle, a new item of clothing I stole from my sister, a couple rolls of toilet paper from the Christmas Tree Shop and a jar of Peanut Butter. I'm looking up flight to Columbia as I write this entry...

1 comment:

Karen-Owner of Pawsible Solutions and an AVID Crossfitter! said...

nice Kris! A little worried about Christmas Tree toilet paper though :)
The gloves I buy there rip to pieces. Opportunities abound with their toilet paper :)