So I made this deal with myself, every time I successfully drop a size (we don't measure weight loss in pounds around here) I get to go shopping for something completely useless. You know, shamelessly spend some money. I think it's a pretty good deal. Fun too.

I bought a bunch of stuff from Bath and Body Works, they were having a three for one sale. Anyway, it's nice to be clean.

So anyway, I'm at the mall and I notice something, there are so many kinds of beautiful women. There were these two really beautiful Asian ladies having coffee in the food court, I think one was the mother and one was the daughter, but they were lovely. So delicate, and they were laughing about something to each other. Then there were the three curvaceous black women looking at sunglasses. They each had a hat on, I was impressed, hats are hard to pull off, but they were working it. A redhead was trying on a pair of shoes that I would have killed for in Neiman Marcus, she was this tiny little thing and her hair was the shade of a carrot. An Indian woman was dragging her toddler through Pottery Barn, even angry she appeared majestic. There were some really gorgeous plus-size women heading in to Tiffany's and by the size of the rocks they already had on they weren't "just looking." I saw a girl with a body like mine, tall and a big chest, she looked at me too, we smiled at each other. All these gorgeous women flitting around the mall, and the one I found the ugliest was the one most guys I know would have thought the hottest.

She was about 5'5" and has obviously been tanning a lot already, she had the dark brown glow that only the tanning bed can provide this time of year. She had bleach blonde hair, that actually looked in pretty good condition, parted deep, to one side. She had a LOT of makeup on for three in the afternoon. She obviously works out a lot and has a tight, firm figure. Her nails were acrylic and French tipped. She was pretty, I can't deny that, with the perfect ski jump nose and a wide, whitened smile, she was pretty.

But what would she look like if you took away the bleach, the tanning salon, the makeup and the nails? I'm not sure she'd be as cute, certainly not in the same way. She wouldn't have stood out like the redhead, or had the grace of the Indian mother. There's no way that she'd ever be able to obtain the bright intrigue of the Asian women, with their impeccable style. She certainly didn't look like as much fun as the black women, and nowhere near as confident as those "big" women walking into Tiffany's with their glittering jewels. Maybe she'd be prettier if she'd leave herself alone more. Sometimes by putting on so much other stuff it takes away from what naturally shines out of a woman.

I don't know, everybody has a right to be however they want. Dressing how we want expresses who we are. I just some of us didn't feel like we had to work so hard, that we didn't have to be fake.