I walked into my apartment the other week and found my younger brother using my computer. He turned around and looked at my lavender collared shirt, black blazer and black pinstripe pants and paused for a moment. Then he said, “Woah, I didn’t recognize you.”

“It’s great to know that you would let strangers into my apartment,” I said.

“No, I just mean, if I had gone into a coma three years ago and just woken up, I would never have recognized you. You look like a totally different person these days.”

“It’s the makeup.”

Of course, it’s not all Cover Girl concealer and foundation (though that goop really does help). I look like a different person these days because I’m no longer carrying around an extra person. When I was at my older brother’s wedding in August, a couple of my aunts walked into the church lobby and looked somewhat surprised as they said, “Wow! You look great.” I guess I clean up good.

It’s something I’ve noticed in conversations with new acquaintances too. They’ll applaud me for my [...]

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Crap, I think I may be pretty.

I’ve never thought of myself as an ugly person, but I was never gorgeous either. The only time I’ve stopped traffic was the week I had crossing guard duty in 4th grade. I’m pretty sure the cars would have halted at the stop sign anyway, even if I hadn’t run into the street in my orange fluorescent jacket waving my big red octagon on a stick. I certainly think fat people can be beautiful, but I was ever one of them. I was homely, probably because I stayed at home a lot. In high school I’d never heard of the diffuser attachment for the blow dryer, nor did I use any anti-frizz sprays, so there may have been swallows nesting in my bushy hair and I wouldn’t have known it. I had braces. I wore glasses since second grade, but I never wore make-up. I was not a pretty girl, but that was okay. I had many other fine qualities and I didn’t care that much about how I [...]

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