When in doubt, add moustache!
“It hurts when I smile,” says Rissa, as we’re chatting before bed.
She’d mentioned it earlier in the evening.
“The zit?” I ask commiseratively.
“The zit,” she confirms – pointing to the right of her nose. She then does a Vanna White flourish. She tilts her head to the side and flashes me her best ‘fish lips.’
Yep, there it is. Poor kid. Day before she starts high school. For me, it would have been life over. The wailing and gnashing of teeth would have been EPIC. I had been very concerned about what other people thought.
“You could always camouflage it,” I suggest.
“Balaclava?” she puts forth.
I take a breath to tell her that no one will notice, that everyone else has zits, that the state of ‘beside her nose’ in consequential in the ‘First Day of High School’ scheme of things.
“… or a MOUSTACHE. If it gets bad, I’ll just draw a full-on moustache in sharpie. That’ll distract from the zit plus it will give me an air of mystique!”
“Like a little John Waters moustache?”
“NO!” she scoffs. She then mimes the most elaborate, surpassing Jaime Hyneman, moustache – but hers, of course, would be more well-groomed and waxed to within an inch of its life.
“Definitely the way to go,” I agree.
“I’ll be a hit with the entire student body…”
“And the teachers…”
“But for the teachers I’ll add in this certain je ne sais quoi…” she raised her eyebrows and looks at me intensely.
“Awesome. You could throw in your double wink too.”
Rissa dislikes the traditional wink, except when Cat Deeley does it. She therefore created the DOUBLE WINK, which is like a blink, but slightly longer and with much more personality behind it.
“Oh yeah…” She demonstrates. “Okay. I think I’ll be good to go.”
Yes, she will.