Tea And Lipstick

Last fall a friend of mine suggested I join a book club since she knows I like to read. I was astonished that this had never occurred to me before, and set off right away to find one. The only one I could find is at our local Barnes & Noble. I got the book, which was "Wicked" but I was too busy making bears to read it. The next couple months didn't get any better and I realized if I want to read a book and be part of the club I am just going to have to make time.

The book for February was something about war and a mental institution and killing and I said no thanks. The book for March was a different story. I was told it's an empowering book about women and their friendships and how they get together for tea. It had a nice pink cover with the word "elegant" in the title and sounded right up my alley.

I am not really into all this empowerment per se, since I was born empowered and don't need an outside source to help me. But I used to get together with 4 artist friends every month for tea. We always had a wonderful time. Sadly lives change and people get too busy so we stopped doing it. I will always cherish those times when we got together and laughed and shared our lives.

So I crawled in bed to read a little of the book and they lost me on the first page. In the first couple paragraphs were two expletives. So much for elegant. Swearing in literature has always bothered me. I can't think of very many examples when it enhances the readers experience. I have decided to force myself to read the book because I want to go to book club, I just hope it gets better.

On the flip side however, I started watching "Lipstick Jungle" when it came out a few weeks ago. I didn't really expect to like it that much for a couple reasons. Before I went to making bears full time years ago, I was part of corporate America. I got my first paying job at 9, and I've had a pretty diverse job history that has ranged from strip-o-grams (there is no actual nudity involved in that) to missiles. My forray into the cut throat lifestyle of a high powered office job wasn't one I could embrace and so I wasn't sure I wanted to watch it on TV. The other reason is that I felt it would be hard to follow the fabulously fun characters of "Sex And The City."

But I decided to give the show a chance and was hooked right from the get go! I do wish the male characters weren't so one dimensional, but I love the support these women give each other and how they step up and actively help each other out instead of just listening politely and making a comment then going back to their own lives. I also love that they aren't perfect working drones. My favorite character by far is that of Victory Ford. She is quirky, artistic with a great sense of style, neurotic and managed to stay sweet despite being in big business. The show is not about the empowerment of working women with high end jobs. It's about the empowerment of true friendship, and that's a nice change of pace!