During the first week of my marathon make up experiment, I had to go out of town to spend some time with my family. My grandmother, a woman of supreme girlishness, was in the hospital with a severe illness.

Every so often over the past ten months I've found my commitment to girlishness being challenged. Oh, who am I kidding? My commitment to girlishness is constantly being challenged. You have only to look at the unpolished state of my toenails to see that. Thing is, the stiffest challenge to my girlishness up to now has been my own apathy. I would come up with any excuse not to get a manicure or a Brazilian. I'd cite the cost or the time commitment or the blinding pain involved. Whatever the reason, I'd find a way to slack off on my girlish duties.

The situation with my grandmother was a little different. I found myself with the first truly legitimate excuse to underachieve. After all, I was there to support the family, not carry out research for my own bizarre curiosities. Interestingly, though, the tough circumstances actually made me work harder at being girlish.

At first it felt completely inappropriate spending huge amounts of time on my own appearance while my grandmother struggled to regain her health. I thought I shouldn't be focusing on myself so much, but instead save my energy for her and the rest of my family. After a while, though, a really strange thing happened. I realized that this little ritual of self-indulgence was actually helping me clear my head for the challenges of the day. For the first time, I felt my girlishness had real benefits.

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