Glamour

glam·our/ˈglamər/

Noun:

The attractive or exciting quality that makes certain people or things seem appealing or special: "the glamour of Monte Carlo."

Here I am with my cape/coat and my Glamour bag outside of Carnegie Hall.

For the second year in a row I have been lucky enough to attend Glamour’s Women of the Year Awards at Carnegie Hall.  It goes without saying I’m a fan of the glitz and pizazz such an event brings.  From celebrities to sequins, the evening is an all-out star-studded extravaganza that’s inspirational and entertaining.

If you don’t know what the Awards are about, here’s a quick rundown.  Each year, Glamour selects around 11 women who are doing amazing in things out in the world.  These women can be politicians, artists, fashion designers, royalty, actors or activists, and every year they are selected by past recipients and honoured at the Awards. 

As I’m clearly not famous (well, at least not yet), how I was able to attend this event is a bit of a mystery, that is, until you discover the world of being a seat filler.  Basically all televised awards shows get a group of people to dress up and, well, sit in empty seats so the theatre always appears full. If Cher gets up, you sit in her seat.  When she returns, you give her seat back.  This particular example hasn’t specially happened to me, but I have seen Cher at the Awards, so I’m speaking from experience. Ish.

Last year, I braved this new world of seat filling on my own and I moved about the theatre a number of times, filling empty chairs and having a few brushes with fame (thank you, Stanley Tucci – I’m still talking about you).  This year, I convinced my husband to come along, but unlike last year, after we sat down in the 10^th row, we didn’t have to move.  We sat across the aisle from Tory Burch, Lea Michelle, Gloria Steinem and Jennifer Lopez; we listened to colourful stories from Arianna Huffington and shared in an inspirational adventure with Esraa Abdel Fattah.  The night was full of girl power… and it was awesome.

“The Bests” – in my opinion

• Most Inspirational Story – Withelma “T” Oriz-Macey
• Best Dressed – Lea Michele
• Best Acceptance Speech – Arianna Huffington
• Best Surprise – A four-way tie for unexpected award presenters: Jennifer Aniston, Emma Stone, Barbara Walters and Diane Sawyer
• Funniest Speeches – Arianna Huffington and Chelsea Handler

Of course, it wouldn’t be a truly glamorous event without an equally fun bag of goodies at the end of the night.  So, what was in that bag?

As the title sponsor is Loreal, you'll notice a pattern of strategic product placement.  Here we have full sized bottles of shampoo, conditioner and hairspray.

Loreal make up fun! False lash mascara, Glamour Women of the Year lipstick in 'blazing sangria',  'blushing berry' lip gloss, and 'smokey for all eyes' eye shadow (a product I'm frankly skeptical of... how can one foam brush blend everything in one sweep?)

A Pandora collector's guide and, perhaps most importantly, a bottle of 'Youth Code' serum.  Apparently  if I put it on  in the morning I'll look like me and by the end of the day I'll end up looking like Abigail Breslin.  Quite frankly, as long as it can guarantee I'll look as good as Julianna Margulies at some point in my life, I'm willing to try it out. 

Fiesta Fruit Hats and other Surprises

Oh surprises.  Sometimes even the most basic things in a life can give you an unexpected jolt into reality. You know what I mean.  Things like finding out the milk you just bought has gone bad or that you inadvertently bought perm solution when you meant to pick up hair dye.  You don’t always know why things happen the way they do (example: You weren’t supposed to have milk because you developed an allergy to dairy overnight and, the truth is, curls are really flattering).  The point is, on occasion you have to give in and let the universe leave its mark… even if you have no idea why.

One such ‘universe footprint’ tread on my life a few days ago – one of those moments that makes you say to yourself, “What are people thinking?” and “Seriously?!”  As the story goes, in the middle of last week I found myself  a local branch of the New York Public Library (NYPL… and acronym which will become important in just a minute).  The truth be told, I’m a frequent library visitor.  I love the people watching (the 6’4” man in a fiesta fruit hat continues to be a highlight), I love picking up books (and occasionally judging them by their covers) and I love the fact that you can go and learn something new every day (from how to make fabric flowers to how to write the next great screen play and from saving the world one vermi-composter at a time to how to hide vegetables in dinner … don’t judge).  It’s all there and I’ve probably researched in, thumbed through or read at least 268 of the NYPLs bazillion book collection.  I’ve also began to embrace the world of DVDs though the library.  I’ve caught up on new and old movies – things I’ve wanted to see but have missed, or things I’ve heard about so thought I should try (example: Rachael Getting Married.  If you haven’t seen it, I can save you some time.  Rachael gets married.  Some stuff happens, it’s not all good, and then, yes, she ties the knot). 

So last week, I decided I would check out three movies: a) The Blindside, b) Life As We Know It and c) The Back-up Plan.  As an avid “re-watcher” of things, I’d seen two of these movies before (hint: a and b), so “c” seemed like a reasonable, well, back-up plan… and I don’t even particularly like Jennifer Lopez.  That should have been my first clue.

My fatal error, was, perhaps, in thinking this J-Lo movie would be different from the others.  I wish at this point I could give away a spoiler to the movie, but I can’t… and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to in the future.  Why?  Well, when I opened the DVD all I saw was a shiny disk with Sharpie letters “NYPL” scrolled around the inner circle of the disk.  “Strange,” I thought to myself, noting that a few other DVDs I have don’t have images on them and can be played on both sides.  That’s when it happened.  I turned the disk over, only to find that someone had switched disks and had left me with, well, adult entertainment.  Yes, someone left me with their back-up plan.

In all likelihood, that’s probably not even the best part of the story.  It’s the fact I had to take the DVD back to the library, make the guy working at the check-out counter open the case and flip the disk over himself.  The words, ‘Oh God’ with a horrified throat gurgle could be heard for meters (it is a library, after all).

Lesson learned: While back-up plans are good, I won’t ever pick mine off a communal shelf again.  As for the library, and hopefully my fiesta fruit hat guy... I'll see you later this week.

At least I know what it should have looked like...