Code Red

Prepare yourself South Florida.....

The last few days have been a flurry of texts and phone calls between my mom and my sisters and my cousins and my nieces and myself.
My big, fat, Cuban family is preparing to invade Miami. (Ay Dios mio!)

Michael and Kimberly are getting married on Friday. (Yay!)

And because of the nature of weddings and all the wedding business that has to happen during the reception and all that, well, there just won't be enough face-to-face time, so... we're all getting together again on Saturday. (Ay Dios mio!)

So, see, we're not just going to the wedding (which I'm sure will be just fabulous, but that's not important right now) we're TRAVELING. And as you well know, traveling involves PREPARATIONS.

And so the phone lines are burning with the questions:

"What are you wearing to the wedding?"
"Can I borrow your (fill in the blank)?"
"It's pouring rain in Miami, bring an umbrella."
"Are you having your hair done here or there?"
"What time is your pedicure?"

And so we carry on, as typical Cuban girls/sisters/cousins/nieces do.

So, world-class list maker that I am, I've got my checklist and realize that I completely forgot to get a new red lipstick! I know! Serious Makeup Emergency!! (you can tell by all the exclamation points I'm using that this is SERIOUS!!!)

My current red is down to the embarrassing scraping-with-the-lip-brush stage and I have been meaning to get myself to Nordstrom, but that would involve actually getting dressed up just to go buy lipstick and well, darn it, it's summer! And I just haven't been feeling it and blah, blah, blah.... All that to say that I never got my new lipstick. =(

Panicking here. Yes, I know it's my own fault for procrastinating and it's late in the game here. My flight leaves in a few hours....

So, I call my sister, Ofelia (who actually works at the Lancome counter at Nordstrom, which is why I get my makeup there in the first place, because I am being supportive, but I digress.....)

Me: "Ofie, Makeup Emergency! I need a red lipstick for the wedding!"

Ofie (in a completely calm, I-live-for-moments-like-this voice:
"Come over to my house. I think I might have one."

One hundred and fifty lipsticks later, I found seventeen reds.
(God, I love my family!)