I have a sort of informal, unofficial friendship with Janet.
She’s a checker at the market where I grocery shop.
We’ve never gone for coffee or a movie, but I know about her family and hobbies from 20 years of swapping small talk.

My mom shops at the same market, and so did my dad before he passed away.
Janet was his favorite checker and he’d wait in her line instead of going to another open one.
Now Janet tells me that my mom really doesn’t like it when we go to Africa for 2 months.
So, apparently mom has taken her into her confidence.
She’s an honorary sister. I get coded messages from mom through her, but don’t have to remember her birthday.

You know someone is a true friend when they can tell you the truth.
Janet made the cut.

I have an ancient roll of pink tape.
I call it Bang Tape, because I think it’s original purpose was taping down bangs while they dried.
Hold on because this story ricochets like the silver balls in a Pachinko Game.

I bought a Tempurpedic mattress and they threw in some pillows.
The pillows are great, but very dense and a little unforgiving.
Enter the pink Bang Tape from the Paleolithic period.

I sleep on my side and I noticed that I’d wake up with my left eyebrow, well, messed up.
Askew is the word I’m looking for. The hairs were ‘askew’ and a little set in their ways.
My dad the plumber used to say, “Kelly find the right tool and the job’s half done.”

I had just the right tool.
Pink Bang Tape.
So I put a little strip on my left eyebrow before bed.

If you knew the feel of Pink Bang Tape, you’d understand how what happened happened.
Pink tape is not like Scotch tape, or masking tape.
It’s soft and pliable, like very thin cloth.

I had to run to the store one morning and grab a few things.
Janet was there so I handed her my shopping basket and started making the usual small talk.
Then I noticed her noticing me.
With a kind of half smile she leaned across the cash register and whispered, “Kelly, you have a little, a bit of, well it looks like pink tape on your left eyebrow.”

Here’s the kicker, I’d already stopped to talk to two friends in the store before I ever got to Janet’s check stand.
Neither of them told me about the pink tape!
Of course, I gave them both a pass because I had brushed my teeth and put on lipstick before I went to the store and never noticed the tape myself.

This post is dedicated to all those friends who tell us about the spinach in our teeth, the way ‘those’ jeans really make us look, and about the perfect for us miracle-suit they just saw at Nordstrom!!!

Faithful are the wounds of a friend. . .
Proverbs 27:6