Wear, Watch, Want #34: The Super Dumb Glasses Edition
Wear: Warby Parker Burke Glasses in Tennessee Whiskey
Typically I'm a contacts wearer, but lately I've been wearing my glasses more and more. I put in my contacts the other day and it had been so long since I'd worn them it felt weird. That's how glasses used to be for me. What have I become?! Anyway, I wrote a review of my whole Warby Parker experience before, so I won't rehash that. I will say though that now I have a new pair of glasses (the second pair I mention in that post, actually!) because when I went to get a new prescription, I found out that for just a little bit more money, I could get a whole new pair of glasses. (Plus, I'd have to send back my current glasses back to get them re-lensed. Not ideal.) I decided to keep my Nash frames to potentially get new lenses later and get Burke frames with my new prescription. Fresh lenses, fresh look. I do tend to get red marks on my nose from frequent glasses wear though (like, really bad red marks, with indentations that don't go away and peeling skin and... yeah, I told you it was bad), so I use these nose pads from Optico that I get on Amazon. They're inexpensive and solve the problem perfectly. Plus: Using stick-on nose pads on your glasses ups your sex appeal to about a million.
Watch: Superstore
Let's get in our television time machine and travel back to 2009. A little show called Parks & Recreation was on the air, and, despite starring the beloved Amy Poehler, it wasn't exactly popular. No, really. It wasn't. Don't fight me on this. I know everyone sobbed through the finale and spends all day making Parks & Rec gifs now, but in the beginning, few cared. The show kept getting renewed and building a fan base and slowly but surely, became the treasured show it is today, and will be for eternity. I'm taking you on this trip in our television time machine because Superstore could easily be the next Parks & Rec. It's funny! It's got heart! It's got a small audience, but it managed to get renewed for a second season, and with your love and attention, it can easily become just as much of a pop cultural juggernaut as Parks & Rec. Also, America Ferrera.
Superstore takes place entirely in - you guessed it - a superstore. In this case, the superstore is Cloud 9, which is kind of like a nice Wal-Mart, which funnily enough is how I describe Meijer to people who don't know what Meijer is. So if you're familiar, we can just back up and say that Cloud 9 is kind of like a Meijer. America Ferrera plays Amy (and is also a producer of the show), who's a wife, mom, floor manager of Cloud 9, and is also taking night classes to get her college degree. Only adding to her stress is inept new employee Jonah, played by Ben Feldman, who ran away from his tony life in Chicago only to end up in St. Louis, applying for a job at Cloud 9. The staff of Cloud 9 is rounded out by a diverse cast of characters (both in the sense that the characters are fully realized and interesting, and that there is a mix of different races, sexual orientations, ages, and even physical abilities). Cloud 9 employs pregnant teen Cheyenne, gay brown-noser Mateo, disabled Garrett, and intense, Jonah-obsessed assistant manager Dina. All are supervised by Glenn, played by The Kids in the Hall alum Mark McKinney.
Another parallel between Superstore and Parks & Recreation, besides them being workplaces sitcoms with heart, is that the characters aren't mocked or mistreated. I guess this might fall under the umbrella of "heart," but I kept noticing it with each episode. Characters might tease each other, or fight, but it's never taken too far. Parks & Rec always did this really well - never kicking anyone when they were down, always punching up. Amy remembers how hard it was to be a teen mom, so she tries to influence Cheyenne's decisions, but then realizes that Cheyenne will be a good mom because she will love her baby, and everything else will probably work out fairly ok. And, my favorite move this show has made in its entire first season: Garrett is in a wheelchair, and it is never once treated as A Thing. There is an episode where they all have to stay late and hang signs from THE CEILING, and Garrett is just there, drilling holes in the signs and doing... I don't know! It's never addressed! Because it's not A Thing! God bless you, Superstore, and may you have seven seasons and a million gifs.
Want: Origins Maskimizer Skin-Optimizing Mask Primer
When I got an email from Sephora telling me that Origins had created a mask primer, I said, "Whaaaaaaaaaaaa?" Because, well, Whaaaaaaaaaaaa? My mom, who has seen my beauty obsession only grow over the last three decades, said, "That sounds unnecessary. Are you going to buy it?" And I replied, "Well, it does combine two of my favorite things: Beauty products and dumb stuff."
Having read the description of this product, I'm still left scratching my head a bit. It says that it "improves spreadability and rinseability of masks," which seems a service that would be very helpful if you don't have fingers. Trying to be slightly less sarcastic, I think I might already prime my face before applying masks. Even when my skin is clean, I'll swipe a cotton pad with Bioderma over my face before putting on a face mask (with my fingers!). My thinking is that I want to make sure that any oils or dirt is off my skin before I apply my mask, and that it can have the best chance of getting in each pore and doing its job. So, in a sense, that's kind of like a primer. I'm intrigued by Origins mask primer because, like I said, it perfectly combines my love of beauty products with my love of dumb stuff, but there's no way I'm spending $22 on a bottle of something I'm pretty sure won't make much difference. I'd try a sample though...
