Living Out Loud volume 23: It. Was. Awful!

In high school, our driving instructor was Mr. Beverly. He was an odd man, but I learned to parallel park from him and consider myself a safe driver. Anyways, Mr. Beverly had a large L shaped scar on his chin. He had colloids so it was pretty pronounced. As teenagers are want to do, we showed little reservations on quizzing him about said scar. His answer was always different but followed a theme:

"Me and 18 girls in one elevator. It. Was. Awful!" "Me and 18 girls on one bicycle. It. Was. Awful!" "Me and 18 girls in one bumper car. It. Was. Awful!"

You get the idea. I never learned how it really happened or how many girls were actually involved. But he was good-natured about the questions.

Yesterday, Rich left for his hockey game while Ian and I were supposed to follow along after a bit to watch it. In the two hours between when he left the house and reunited with us after the game, I managed to split Ian's lip open with my fingernail getting him in his car seat and he then fell in the parking lot and bloodied his nose. No scars ... yet. But Rich's first question was definitely "what the hell happened and why is our son covered in blood?" I just responded, "you shoulda seen the other guy!"

All this got me thinking on the physical features we have. Some may be that elephant in the room like Mr. Beverly's chin and some may be more subtle. Are they all as noticeable to others as they are to ourselves?

Miss Britt wrote a whole post recently about her eyes and how much they've pained her in life while I'm much more captivated by her curly hair and great smile. And then Karen Walrond (who I LOVE!) just published her book called the Beauty of Different. Her trailer has photos of so many lovely people I've had the pleasure of meeting and they have qualities that make them unique, some of which they may have wished didn't exist but make them interesting to others. Stephanie Nielson was badly burned in a plane crash, but finds so much joy in just being alive it's contagious.

What about you makes you physically different (and by Karen's definition beautiful)? Have you always felt this way about yourself? Tell us about your scars, either the ones we can see or the hidden ones. What's that thing a little kid would ask you even though it would mortify his or her parents?

Details include:

• Write something personal about yourself using the previous paragraphs as a guideline. Do not feel that you have to address each prompt above. The spirit of this project is to share something about yourself; I'm just throwing out ideas.

• Once you have completed your entry and posted it, please email me the link at genie [at] inabottle [dot] org. Remember, if you don't email me, I'm likely to forget to include you in the recap!

• If you do not have a blog to host your story, you can email me the story directly and I will add it here as a guest post giving you credit. The more the merrier!

• The due date for entries is Sunday, December 5th (the first Sunday of the month) at 5pm Eastern.

• Once I have collected all the entries, I will post a wrap-up to list them all and announce a winner. The winner will receive some sort of prize to be determined but all participants will receive fame and glory and a link on our Living Out Loud blogroll.

Explain those elephants away!

Recap of Living Out Loud volume 22: Name your vice

Holy crap, do you know your vices! We had 13 entries this month! We've got a lot of reading to do, so let's get started: Erin's A Vice for All Saints Day I have done all these as well! After the baby, my hygiene levels shifted to a new "norm".

Rachel's Nasty! I used to chew on my cuticles ruthlessly until I got acrylic nails. Just after having Ian I managed to chew one into a horrible infection. That. Was Nasty.

Grace's Name your vice Grace really went all out and covered all the biggies! I think I've been guilty of all of these at one time or another too.

SuziCate's For Bad Or Worse Ooh, that "always" thing would get to me. Though Rich has a few things like that and we joke about them now. And Rich is also the World's Worst Passenger, but it just means I always get to play on my phone because he alwayswants to drive. See? Totally turned a bad into a good.

Peg's Don't Rock the Boat My mother has always said that if it weren't for deadlines she wouldn't get anything done and I'm not much better. So yeah, I get that. And rocking the boat? Oof, I feel that way too sometimes.

Jen's There, I've got it all sorted! This was neat to read because as first I was all "hey, you're just cheating!" but I can see how the little things are still vices but the big ones have shown a lot of progress. Go you!

Megan's Oh, I have a vice This is funny because I never knew this drink existed before Megan. And while I like it, I don't worship it like she does. But I do like to spoil myself with the occasional $4 beverage. Cheaper than beer.

Deb's Name Your Vice Oh, I totally do the same thing! I'm a very judgmental driver!

Candice's Cleaning Product Aromatherapy This stands out as the most unique vice. I can't say that I've felt the same way about this, but I'm sure there are other things I do that are equally weird. But taking one to bed? That's awesome!

Iseulte's My (not so secret) Vice As a diabetic, you'd think I would be all about this, but it has never appealed to me. But I know plenty of others who share your passion. That's fascinating about the bloating, though.

Ruth's Collecting Voices Rich and I just had a conversation the other day about eating out. But you took it to a much more global level.

Donal's My Vice This vice came as no surprise to me but I appreciated the honesty. The brevity of it was not lost on me either.

And my own Try before you buy

This was a fun topic to write about and a very fun topic to read about, so I hope you take the time to peruse all the entries. There were so many that grabbed my attention!

I felt more connected to so many of you to know I'm not the only one who goes days without washing my face or says things I shouldn't.

I had several favorites. Grace got points for going all out and covering the seven big sins. Jen gets props for tricking me into thinking she was going to tell me all her vices are gone. Candice made me laugh in a way that I couldn't necessarily commiserate with her but I have a sensitive sniffer so it's only a matter of time before I fall into this trap. Ruth taught me something about commercialism I'd never thought of.

But this month, I pick Peg as our winner. She covered some of the basics like diet, exercise and procrastinating. Things we can all relate to. But then she confessed some things about herself that might be hard to admit. Things I've seen myself and other friends do too but not share with others.

So thank you for rocking the boat this month, Peg. I'm super proud of you.

Peg will receive our customary $25 Amazon gift certificate as her prize. I can't express enough, though, how pleased I am at all the participants and I'm so happy you play along, whether in print or in your own heads.

I'm happy if these themes just get you to ponder them during your commute but I'm even more stoked if you write something for us all. Go you!

And since it's NaBloPoMo this month, I'll have plenty of opportunities to write up the theme for this month. So stay tuned!

Try before you buy

I asked Rich if this counted as a vice and he said, "yes, because it absolutely infuriates me." I am the reason they make those horrible clamshell plastic packages. I'm the reason they invented shrink wrap. I'm the reason they use zip ties to keep zippers closed. Before I buy most things, if there is no display item, I open the box to test out its contents in the store.

The first time I did this around Rich he acted like I was stuffing the item under my shirt and trying to walk out with it.

"That's not yours yet. You didn't buy that!"

"And I'm not going to if it's crap. I'll put it all back together and buy this one if I like it. But I need to test it first."

I also sample produce in the grocery store before buying. I mean, I don't peel a banana and dig in, but I'll test a grape before putting a whole bunch of possibly bitter ones in my basket.

My ex-aunt-in-law Cindy used to push her thumb into the fish package to smell it before buying it. She justified it by saying that if it smelled ok she'd buy that one but if it smelled funny, no one should be buying it. I don't puncture meat packages but a green bean or two missing won't upset the grocery economy.

I saw a woman in New York City wearing a fancy dress with the price tag still attached. Her friend stopped her before crossing the street to tuck it back in. So I don't return expensive clothes after wearing them and sweating all over them in crowded bars. I'm just a focus group of one, testing products in the aisle before checking out.

When I win the lottery, I'm going to open a boutique where you can shop for bags and try out all your crap in it before buying it. We'll have bag consultants and a little table to sit at and practice finding a home for your wallet and phone. Then there will be less tissue paper littering the purse aisle from people like me camping out in the floor with three different bags.

You don't buy a car without test driving it first. I just think the same applies to camera bags and cuisinarts.