Rant #2,484: Changes

There is a new commercial on television about something--I don't remember what exactly--that shows a nice-looking woman getting all gussied up for the day with her clothes and makeup, and then, when she is ready to put on her lipstick, she looks in the mirror for a second, and then pulls up her mask without applying this part of her makeup regimen.

I guess she figures that why should she put on the lipstick if it is only going to be covered up with a mask?

I have found that over the past nearly 11 months, my early morning regimen has changed, too, and I think for a lot of people, they can say the same.

In particular, with so many people at home for one reason or another--unemployment, furlough, or simply working from home--the regimen we have followed, perhaps for decades, has had to change, in one way or another.

I used to get up at 4 a.m. in the morning, get dressed with my work clothes--business casual--and go about my business, but that certainly has changed as a result of my situation.

Now, I get up from bed between 5:45 a.m. and 6 a.m., take s shower, and during the summer at least, when getting dressed, I put on a pair of shorts and a T-shirt rather than a nice shirt and slacks.

Shoes? No way! I haven't put on a pair of shoes since my last in-person interview in I guess it was February. Sneakers have been my choice of footwear since then.

I also don't shave as much as I did when I was working, which has been the only benefit I can see of such a length of unemployment.

I used to shave religiously on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday, a procedure that I went through not for years, but for decades. It kept me pretty well groomed for work, and I rarely veered off of that schedule, a schedule that I hated because I simply hate to shave.

Now, not going to work has radically changed that decades-old schedule, as I now shave only twice a week, on Sunday and on Thursday.

Yes, Tuesday I go shaveless.

So by today, Wednesday, I have a few days' growth of beard, but honestly, there is absolutely no reason to shave three times a week anymore. My faces itches a bit, but it all comes off tomorrow morning, so I can handle it.

A couple of times over the past 11 months I have actually shaved on a Saturday--seeing relatives on that day--so I have actually gone four days without shaving on occasion during this span.

Going onto Facebook, nothing appears to be sacred, and many women have posted that during their own bouts of inactivity, they don't dress like they normally do, and the first piece of clothing that isn't a necessity anymore for a lot of them have been their bras.

Being a red-blooded American male, I guess that is fine with me, but I guess since they are not at work, there is no "bounce" factor, no one to glare at them when they walk around the office flaunting gravity.

I am sure that when and if they get back to the grind, they will find their bras and wear them, but right now, they are free to do and dress in whatever fashion they want, and the bra is the first thing to go.

And I will bet like that woman in the commercial, makeup might also not be a necessity anymore.

But then again, if you are on a video conference at home--I know my sister, a teacher, has been on many of these during the past few months, with the turmoil around how to teach our kids in complete and utter turmoil--you have to look your work-beast at least from the top down to your stomach, so I guess for women the bras and makeup go back on, and the nicer clothes go back on, at least on the top.

I will bet that below the top, people on these calls continue to wear shorts and sneakers like me.

I know that our changes in lifestyle have impacted what is known as softlines, mainly involving clothing.

Since the pandemic hit, sales of more formal clothing, like suits and ties, have gone way down while sales in leisureware, like pajama pants and shorts, have gone way up, and that is both on the men's and the women's side.

Certain makeup sales are also down, because quite frankly, if you are home, you don't have to make up your face as much as you do when you are at work.

In a way, it is so funny have things have turned regarding what we wear at home during the past several decades.

Look at old TV shows. If those reflected the times, women wore dresses in and around the house on a regular basis, and how they did housework in these dresses, I will never know.

Men generally still kept on their ties while relaxing at home, even without the suit jackets. They just replaced the jackets with a sweater and they were set for reading the newspaper or doing the family bills in their study.

It is simply not like that anymore, and actually, it probably was not that way back then either, but who said what we see on TV has to be real?

And that goes back to that pretty lady with the lipstick that I mentioned at the beginning of this Rant.

If you are a woman, are you forgoing the lipstick because you don't need it by being home and.or it is going to be covered up by a face mask anyway?

Is this the usual TV "reality," or is it actually happening?

As the old saying goes, only your hairdresser knows for sure.

Or is it real, or is it Memorex?

I can't decide which ending to this Rant I like better, so I will let you decide for yourselves.