How to be the most glamourous, exciting, and charming girl in your set.

So much sadness, my washer died mid-cycle today, leaving behind a stinky mess of sopping wet clothes and an odour that is permeating the basement. Goodbye, washer. I’ll miss you. Meanwhile I spent a sizeable chunk of time pulling the clothes out and finding places to hang them so they won’t mildew prior to my camping out at a VERY KIND friend’s house with my laundry basket. I feel a bit like a desperate university student, like I’m going to start dragging a garbage bag full of clothes around with me. Also, I dripped some of the icky undrained water on my sweater and leggings so now I feel like I smell a bit. I probably do smell a bit, distressingly enough.

Anyway, there are worse problems, right? Like finding this is in the green space behind my house:

deadguy

I was backing out of the garage, on my way to run errands, and I saw a leg sticking out from behind a pile of branches. Hmm. I have seen people, on many occasions, passed out in the alley and green space behind my house, so I assumed it was a similar situation. Hours later, it was still there. By this time I had the kids in the car and I had to know – was it a body? I told the kids to stay put and I nervously approached what I HOPED wasn’t a dead body. The kids kept yelling from the car, to not go near it, because it was DEAD. Mom, NO. NO! Don’t go near the dead body!

And yet, I was compelled to approach it, because I worried that if it was actually a dead body, we would have an unreported dead body in the alley, and that seemed way worse than my viewing said dead body. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw that it was just a mannequin with its arm ripped off, and yet, it wasn’t all that reassuring. How did it get there? What, exactly, are my neighbours up to?

Speaking of creepy, I’ve been going through my Childhood Boxes of Terror, as my husband calls them, and there are some very interesting findings indeed. For example, a Xeroxed letter from Corey Hart, indicating my admission into the Corey Hart Fan Club.

CoreyHart

And in case you’re not sure it gets better than that, it does.

RoyalBaby

This ain’t my first rodeo OR Royal Baby Watch.

Those old People magazines are a hoot, by the way. The hairstyles alone are worth the price of admission. Plus, there are so many cigarette ads! Virginia Slims – You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby. Not only did I collect these magazines, paper doll books, and commemorative publications, but I also had this:

Scrapbook

Not only does it have very carefully pasted magazine and newspaper clippings that are very carefully labelled, the front of the book features swoopy writing and a My Little Pony puffy sticker.

Have you ever felt lacking in charm? Maybe you don’t feel beautiful? Or glamourous? Lord knows that after bailing out a smelly dead washing machine, I feel a little wilted. Well, I have the antidote for you:

charmandbeauty

Do YOU want to become the most glamourous, exciting, and charming girl in your set? Faithfully following the pointers in these books will lead to instant popularity and, needless to say, happiness. These were published in the early 60s and they are GOLD. There is an entire section answering the question as to why one should use deodorant, and another whole section on the monthly curse, although it is not titled as such. If you’ve noticed an increased interest in homemaking and grooming, you may be ready for the talk.

Well, I am pretty interested in homemaking at the moment, specifically, how to get my home to not smell like a mildewed sewer. It’s a good thing I’m going to be recipe testing this weekend for homemade vegan Baileys. I have a feeling I’m going to need it, if only to dull the pain of missing my dear, departed washer.

Comments

  1. Not gonna lie. I’m a little jealous about that letter from Corey Hart.

    “Childhood Boxes of Terror” HAH!

    So, are you going to read the books cover to cover again in hopes of rising through the charm ranks?

    Speaking of rank, your poor washer. 🙁 Does this mean a trip to the laundromat will be imminent?

    If so, you will have blog fodder for a month! Bright side!

  2. That mannequin is highly unnerving. WTF?!

  3. I’m guessing that mannequin was Halloween-related.

  4. The thing about washing machines is that by their very nature they fail only while they are in use. Therefore there will *always* be a load of sopping wet laundry to deal with, along with whatever is wrong with the machine. Sigh. Would be nice if they could somehow give us a pre-fail warning so we could avoid this situation. But no.

    I think you should do a whole post on those charm books. Were they already funny during your young-lady-hood (considering they were a couple of decades old then) or did that realization come later?

  5. CURSE my mother for giving me my childhood boxes before I knew I would have a blog. That stuff would have been GOLD, and I just trashed it all.

    And Jesus, just the PICTURE of that mannequin skeeves me out. I actually just shivered typing the word ‘mannequin’. Not cool.

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