Gindi Vincent

The Dish on Career, Fashion, Faith, and Family

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28 Days: Day 25, On Winning and Losing

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It was a day for winning and losing.

The boys were in the semi-final round of their basketball bracket. Of course, when they won their game on Saturday, we had to cancel our Mardi Gras dinner plans to make it to their big game on Tuesday (because I only get to do games for 8 more years, a fact I constantly think about).

They knew it would be tight. The opposing team was ranked 1. The boys team was ranked 5.

These games are the best ones because they are close and action packed. The boys team led the first half. But they fell behind in the third quarter. The fourth quarter was back and forth with the five best players on each side playing their heart out.

The clock sounded the end of the game and it was tied, 43-43. In playoffs, overtime is mandatory.

The boys team scored, then the other team. At the end of the first overtime, 45-45. Another overtime was necessary.

All the boys were wiped. Playing hard with each side wanting the victory to head to the championship Saturday. The other team scored. Our team missed the basket. The boys ended their season with a one basket loss and the eldest with a badly jammed pointer finger.

There were tears. They play with their whole heart, one of the things I love so much about them. The players hugged. We talked on the way home. What a way to go out! Isn’t it better to fight well to the very end than get blown out?

Regardless, it still hurt.

On the very same day, I had the opposite result professionally.

I’ve been working incredibly hard over the past couple of months and one of the issues I was working was intense and complex. One possible resolution was a long shot. Small odds of winning but it would completely resolve the big challenge.

And then, in a completely unexpected turn of events, we won yesterday. 3-2. Also close result, just different winner (in our home at least).

I was so excited I actually yelled in my office. Then I called my client and yelled with him. And because it’s sort of a hard thing to explain, I didn’t get the same level of thrill and excitement at home when I reported the news nearly jumping up and down. But for me, it was a good day.

So after the boys game, I came home and opened a very nice bottle of wine I’d been saving for a special occasion. It’s not exactly a parade on Main Street, but a big win is still satisfying.

What I’ve learned is there will be days with big wins or big losses. Days with little wins and little losses. Days with both.

But play hard. Do your best. On the days with losses, let yourself be sad, but then get ready for the next game. On the days with wins, celebrate. You never know when the next one will be.

28 Days: Day 21, Fashion Friday, Icons

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As I pulled open the door to the ladies room this morning, I saw a stunning woman step out.  Tall, slim, dark hair, and a beautiful high collared camel-colored blazer paired with her Friday dark wash trouser jeans and boots. 

It made me want to go buy a camel-colored blazer, even though that is far from my best color. 

It also got me to thinking about style icons.  More specifically, images from movies that shaped what I love most about fashion.  As I still have no idea what I’m doing with Fashion Fridays, or if I’m going to even do them anymore, I decided to write about iconic fashions for today’s Fashion Friday.

That woman’s jacket from this morning jump started my first iconic style movie. The Thomas Crown Affair (remake). Every single outfit Rene Russo wore. She even made bathrobes look glamorous. I even tried to recreate her haircut so I could BE her (it did not work out).

Audrey Hepburn in every movie she plays in. Classic. Simple lines. And lots of black. I don’t channel her often, given my draw to color, but she’s matchless.

Julia Roberts, in and out of movies, has long been a style icon of mine, although her fashion out of movies is arguably better than her fashion in movies.  However, while I know it is utterly 1990s period, her post-shopping style in Pretty Woman made a pretty big impact on me.

Julia Roberts at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California (Photo by Jim Smeal/WireImage)

And even better, which is saying something, in and out of movies is Cate Blanchett.  Seriously, she is magnificent.  Movies from The Aviator to Monuments Men create Cate-only styles to make you want to makeover your closet.

There are so many other formative fashion movies – The English Patient, Reality Bites, Pretty in Pink, The Royal Tenenbaums, Sabrina, Clueless – and icons from Grace to Gwyeth.

I love movies and I love fashion.  Who are your fashion icons or what’s your most memorable movie fashion moments?

28 Days: Day 19, Better

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Well, I’m better than yesterday.

I even made it to work.

I ate a banana and some chicken soup.

Ha!

Small progress.

We were all praying none of the rest of the family got “it.” I don’t know whether it was a stomach bug, little man had one last week, or food poisoning, or something else, but it was not good.

But at the same time, do you know what it made me feel?

Relief.

Isn’t that crazy?

Yesterday was going to be a bear. Work calls every hour on the hour practically from 8 to 3. I had something to do before work and I had a commitment after work and I needed to run someone food whose wife was very ill.

I had come back from the farm and Day 1 back was about to knock me out.

So as I lay there, in between throwing up, I started processing how to reconfigure my day. Well, I’d have to do this and cancel this and move this and ask if this could be done via phone, etc., etc.

And this huge sense of relief swept over me. I slept. I mean I napped which NEVER happens and I went to sleep at 7 pm and work up the next morning after 6 am.

If a deathly stomach bug brings you relief, maybe you need to reconfigure how you’re living.

I mean I am trying. You know that. I’ve been writing about Present over Perfect and I’ve been stepping down from commitments, but still. It’s not enough.

How do you blow it all up? And still exist and provide in today’s society? I’m working that out…

Fashion Friday: Mascara Mama

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I’ve been mulling over what to do with Fashion Friday. 

It seems like everyone is starting to look the same.  You scroll through social media and there’s a kind of style that catches on and then that’s what women look like. 

I’d love this to be a place where, when we talk about fashion or style or cosmetics, we talk about tips and what works, but it’s not talking points on the “one” thing you have to wear to “fit in” – whatever that is. 

So until I’ve settled on what that looks like, I decided to post on a topic where it utterly does not matter if everyone uses the same product: MASCARA. 

That’s right, let’s talk about our lashes.  Now I don’t go and get fake lashes and I just have average lashes. Not short. Not long. Just perfectly fine lashes.  But I love for them to look darker and full. 

If I leave the house with nothing else on, I have cover up and mascara on.  I guess because I’ve always really liked my eyes, I keep them ‘done.’

For the longest time, over a decade, I wore Voluminous by L’Oreal mascara.  It kept them full but it didn’t flake like some mascaras.  And I usually kept Great Lash mascara by Maybelline in my purse in case I needed evening touch ups.  That was it. 

Periodically, I’d get some tester from MAC or Estee Lauder or Mary Kay or something, but I never liked them better than Voluminous. 

Last year, I decided to branch out.  As any good consumer would do, I asked Dr. Google about the best mascaras on the market.  And that led me to research from Elle and Glamour to Business Insider. 

I did not try any of their super pricey nominees, like Chanel, so I can’t compare those products for you. 

Plus, there were a ton of different makes and models from L’Oreal I didn’t try because Voluminous was already my go to.  I did try one called Voluminous Lash Paradise, not to be confused by L’Oreal Paris Voluminous (the original and one I love). I did not like it nearly as much.  Even though the reviews said such good thing.  Just like a movie remake – the original is always better.  (Let me know if you have another L’Oreal mascara you swear by – totally willing to give it a try.)

Then I decided to go a little higher end.  Not Chanel higher end, but in the $20-$30 price range given how long my mascara lasts. 

I narrowed it down to two mascaras: Better than Sex by Too Faced and Urban Decay’s Perversion.  The pros on them were similar and the price was the exact same so it was basically a coin toss when I walked into Ulta to choose.  I went with Perversion. 

I loved it.  My lashes looked better than they ever did with Voluminous.  Very full and rich looking.  BUT.  And this is a big one.  Almost daily I ended up with black under my eyes.  It hadn’t happened before Perversion and didn’t happen when I stopped wearing it, so clearly it was the mascara.  I loved it so much I tried to compensate by powdering under my eyes at lunchtime.  But given that I’m already battling dark circles, I just can’t have it from my mascara too.  So I took a break.  


Which is how I ended up trying Maybelline Snapscara.  I had low expectations after my L’Oreal change.  I don’t love Great Lash to begin with, though all the movie make up artists swear by it, and that had been my only Maybelline experience.  Well, let me tell you, I was in for a pleasant surprise. 

I love this mascara.  It gives me these lovely long looking upper lashes which are very well defined, and not clumpy, but there’s not a bit of smudging or flaking.  No under eye blackening with this number.  And here’s the best part: it is $5.99.  That’s right, department store results on a dime store budget.  This is now my go to mascara. 

I will always keep Voluminous around (the original).  It’s been good to me and will probably become my purse mascara. 

Also, I’m willing to continue the hunt if you have found the greatest mascara since sliced bread.  Comment so we can all try it out!

But if you’re looking for a new one, I definitely give the nod to Maybelline Snapscara.  An affordable home run. 

Mama Drama: The Elephant on my Chest

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It’s been a while since a Mama Drama installment.  I have a thousand.  They’re the basis for my dream book I’d love to publish one of these days.

You may recall the last couple zany Mama Drama installments recounted the rollercoaster that hits when you work from home. 

So in today in Mama Drama, let’s talk about the seasons that just spin out of control. 

This season: WOW!

I was talking to one of my closest friends, a rockstar mom and career woman and wife and daughter and volunteer.  She has A LOT on her plate.  So I was venting to her about how right now just feels like SO MUCH, because she gets it.  She left two really wise and insightful voxes, a snippet of which said:

I understand the stress of having to work.  And being the one who takes care of the schedule and the doctor’s appointments and the…well, when you’re the Master Puppeteer of the House.  It’s a lot and when you add extra work stresses, sometimes it just feels TOO MUCH.  I’m telling you, I felt like I constantly had an elephant on my chest last year.  I was utterly overwhelmed. 

Ah yes.  I listened to the message again, more slowly.  An elephant on my chest.

Yep.

This year started off already busy with work, and then such sadness accompanied it with the loss my best friend suffered.  The sad came with a fog that slowed my reactions, but life and school and the house and work didn’t stop.  So all the things kept stacking on top. 

You step into that busy season and add a bunch of travel.  In one month, I have been to Minnesota, Louisiana (twice – one for a mommy-and-me trip that was planned nearly a year ago), and Washington D.C. (twice for work). Late night hours and seven day work weeks and a dog that will not quite eating my entire life around me and a few unexpected doctors’ visits that had to occur this month. 

Elephant.

Meet my chest. 

I believe this is going to be a year of big change.  I don’t know what it will hold, because I asked God not to let me see too far down the road a while back, and boy He’s been super good about that… (Sigh, exhales the Type A planner.)

If I’m going to be equipped to absorb the change and press into it, then I’m going to need to find a way to wrangle that elephant.

Not eradicate him.  That’s just silly.  But maybe relocate him slightly, off my chest.

So I’m being intentional. 

One: I stop working at dinner time.  Maybe that means I’m still working at 10 pm but it allows me to eat, usually, with my whole crew.  And then I read to the kids.  Little bit and I are reading an American Girl book and the boys and I have just started the SIXTH Harry Potter book (they only read that with me). 

Two: When they come to me with a story, I stop to listen, even though there’s a thousand things going on around me.  This morning, we really needed to get out the door.  But little bit wanted to tell me about her dream.  She got interrupted twice but she finished. 

Three: Sixty second snuggles.  This morning, I crawled into bed with each one to give them hugs and kisses to wake them up.  They rolled over smiling.  No screaming from the hallway, come on, get out of bed already.  Three minutes and a solid start to the day (but don’t let that fool you, one was still in tears when he couldn’t find his chapel sweater for school).

Four: Stopping.  This weekend, I could have worked all weekend.  But I didn’t.  I worked some.  But I asked my mom to watch the kids and I did a little shopping and got a pedicure.  Two hours of being totally unplugged. 

Five: Declining invitations.  I’m having to un-RSVP to a few things and say no to others.  Not everything.  I’m still doing some things that are important, but I’m saying no to otherwise good stuff that I just can’t make work in the next 30 days. 

And…hopefully…SIX: Writing.  I love to write.  It’s therapeutic.  I really want to make it a bigger priority in the next 90 days.  That sounds insane of course.  But it’s important to me. 

And I’ve agreed to participate in a spiritual formation retreat over the next year which I’ve long wanted to do.  This seems like the absolute worst time to do it which I think makes it the best time.  Two days, four times, over the next 12 months.  To sit.  Chill out with the Creator. Figure out what’s next.  Over and over again God has brought me to this scripture: He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me. (Psalm 18, 2 Sam 22)

Then He proceeds to bring me to a spacious place (Alaska, Yosemite, Hill Country…). 

I’m always better after that.

So I’m going to “retreat” in the truest form of the word.  I’ll write and pray and relocate that elephant.  In March, the five Vincents get to venture into another spacious place: Sedona and the Grand Canyon and Zion National Park.  In April, we get to slip away with my best friend’s family at one of my safest and most regular spacious places, the farm. 

And in this pressing season, this one that feels oh so overwhelming at times, I will stand on the promises which I know to be true and look forward to the hope that lays on the other side of the test:  We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed… (2 Cor 4)