Out last night with my good German friend S - I always preface my friends with something that describes them so people will be able to relate to other stories I've told about them; isn't that nice of rambley old me? Like 'My friend from high school with the little boy E' or 'My friend from university who's really competitive J' or 'My friend A who visited my parents in Chicago'. And so the story continues...
We hadn't seen each other since before Christmas and were catching up on all the things that we missed. In amongst this lovely conversation, I did what any red-blooded-woman-in-winter does and busted out my Body Shop lip balm (tangerine, so glad you asked!) to slather onto the old chapped flappers for yet another time in the evening when I then instinctively held open the circular tub, offering up the opportunity to S.
She politely declined and without missing a beat proceeded to carry on her conversation.
It struck me as I was swiping my fingers back and forth and around my lips that what an odd yet completely accepted gesture I had just made.
At what point did we decide that lipbalm sharing, good, roll on deodorant sharing bad.
Please, feel free to stick you finger into this pot of flavoured and overpriced petrolum jelly that I frequently stick my germ-infested fingers into then slather copius amounts of the stuff on one of your body's first line of defense - your lips.
(Readers: how sad is it that I had to just stop typing to put on some of the aforementioned lip balm ?)
And it wasn't as if I had made some faux pas because let me tell you there have been MANY a girl who have partaken in my finger germs. With a smile AND a thank you.
And it wasn't that S thought what I was suggesting was at all crude or disgusting. She perhaps was just not that chappy at the moment.
It was more the realisation in my brain that as humans, we can be conditioned to do the oddest things.
You would never offer up your eye liner or your foundation in a bathroom - unless of course it's your sister and she would STILL point out the dangers of cross fertilising eye gunk - but you would, IN PUBLIC offer up fingered goo for someone's mouth.
I just had to think, how did we get here?
That and just how long did I NOW have to wait to put more on.
Bring on the viruses. Show me what you got.
We hadn't seen each other since before Christmas and were catching up on all the things that we missed. In amongst this lovely conversation, I did what any red-blooded-woman-in-winter does and busted out my Body Shop lip balm (tangerine, so glad you asked!) to slather onto the old chapped flappers for yet another time in the evening when I then instinctively held open the circular tub, offering up the opportunity to S.
She politely declined and without missing a beat proceeded to carry on her conversation.
It struck me as I was swiping my fingers back and forth and around my lips that what an odd yet completely accepted gesture I had just made.
At what point did we decide that lipbalm sharing, good, roll on deodorant sharing bad.
Please, feel free to stick you finger into this pot of flavoured and overpriced petrolum jelly that I frequently stick my germ-infested fingers into then slather copius amounts of the stuff on one of your body's first line of defense - your lips.
(Readers: how sad is it that I had to just stop typing to put on some of the aforementioned lip balm ?)
And it wasn't as if I had made some faux pas because let me tell you there have been MANY a girl who have partaken in my finger germs. With a smile AND a thank you.
And it wasn't that S thought what I was suggesting was at all crude or disgusting. She perhaps was just not that chappy at the moment.
It was more the realisation in my brain that as humans, we can be conditioned to do the oddest things.
You would never offer up your eye liner or your foundation in a bathroom - unless of course it's your sister and she would STILL point out the dangers of cross fertilising eye gunk - but you would, IN PUBLIC offer up fingered goo for someone's mouth.
I just had to think, how did we get here?
That and just how long did I NOW have to wait to put more on.
Bring on the viruses. Show me what you got.
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