When You Least Want It!

Have you ever gone out looking like a pauper / bag-lady / whatever-not-flattering-term-you-wanna-use-please-insert-here.... and then you bump into a blogger friend or someone you haven't seen in quite a while?

My karma's funny that way. Mind you, not funny ha-ha but funny NOT-funny, you know??!

Last Saturday we made an impromptu decision to go to One Utama because H needed to pick up his suit from Zara (a birthday + anniversary present from yours truly, ehemmmm). So I hurriedly threw whatever clothes I could get my hands on the quickest, tenyeh-tenyeh some light make-up on my face, put on the first hijab I found which seemed to match whatever clothes I'd put on, and hurriedly got Gibran and Gibran's stuff ready. As usual since Gib was born, I definitely spent more time getting him ready, rather than myself. Huhuuuhuuuu... sad case lah!

A few hours later as we ran out of fuel and about ready to head home (but not without some Roti Boy bread), into the lift we went to get some Roti Boy before heading home. As we struggled to get our "cute" bodies into the lift, I suddenly noticed a somewhat familiar face grinning at me. It turned out to be Sasha!

Hey Sasha, you look different than your pictures lah! And your kids are so cute! ;)

So despite not looking my best, I am definitely glad to have bumped into you! Hehehehee. Managed to chat also for a few minutes, which was nice :)

Then the real test happened yesterday.

We were heading home from my parents' house at 9.30 at night, when Mom (who was spending the night at our place) suddenly suggested we stop at Giant to get some stuff. I was dressed in a glorious "Environmental ABCs" t-shirt which I had had since I was thirteen years old and used to wear to the school's house practice and such. I figured since it was quite late on a Tuesday night, what are the chances of bumping into anyone we know lah?

Boy, was I wrong!

I had only one measly-looking scarf in the car which I threw on my head, and I even managed to touch my shiny nose with a spot of compact powder before rushing out of the car to make our quick purchases.

Lifts bring a unique sense of karma for me. I tend to bump into people in them.

As we were once again struggling to fit into an elivator, and heaving sighs of relief that everyone managed to fit into the small space, a lady wearing a fancy office outfit (obviously looking as if she just came back from work) with perfectly applied make-up suddenly called out...

"Nina... is that you...?"

Huhuhuuuuuuu. It was my junior from secondary school. We used to hang out while we attended curriculum activities and gossiped about boys back in the days when I constantly wore shorter-than-shorts cut-offs, Nirvana t-shirts and black nail polish.

So there I was in the greatest outfit of all times, chatting away as if I looked like a million bucks. I'm sure she'd seen me in this t-shirt before, in our teen days during one of those curriculum activities, and perhaps she might've even been amazed ("Wow! How thrifty! Still wearing clothes from our teenage days!").. with make-up-less face and drabby hijab and pants (mind you, I think hijabs are fashionable, just not the one I was wearing!) which may have further amazed her ("Wow! From a black nail polish-wearing girl who even wore make-up to house practice... to such a simple, fuss-less lady!").......

Goodness. Karma is a funny thing.

Lesson learned: Never ever go to public places with your house clothes.