Home Studio, Con Artist, & Red Lipstick

This morning I got to go back to the dance studio I grew up in - from age 2 through senior year of high school!!! - for the very first time in over 15 YEARS! The studio has changed names (from Pegge' Lee School of Dance to Cabarrus Dance Academy after Miss Pegge' passed away) and locations (from a cool basement studio full of character & a signature scent-memory to a state-of-the-art brand new facility) but the same family still runs it, and the owner's daughters, whom I went to school & took dance with, are now two of the teachers. :-) I was SO EXCITED to be able to get back to my hometown (~45 min away from where my fam lives now) this morning for a 9:30 Zumba class. I loved "Don't Let Me Down - Swing" from ZIN 31; I would love to get that! I hope I can get to one more class sometime while we're here, too.

After Zumba, we (me, my mom, & the kids) went to pick up Grandmommy and take her to lunch at the kids' beloved CiCi's Pizza. :-P Aunt Frances (Grandmommy's sister) met us there, and we gorged ourselves on it-really-shouldn't-taste-this-good cinnamon rolls and mac & cheese pizza. :-D When the kids finished, they asked if they could play in the game room; as always, I said of course, but I wasn't giving them any money to waste in there. [I will NEVER give my kids quarters for games or machines; they know to never even ask me.] They ran off, and I proceeded to tell the table the story of how when we used to be CiCi's regulars (when we lived outside Chicago (haven't had one close to us since)), Will & Sis would always find someone to charm in the game room and inevitably come back to our table with a handful of candy, b/c someone had given them quarters, b/c they were so cute. NOT TWO SECONDS after finishing the tale, Annelise runs back to us with candy & a quarter, grinning "A boy gave me a dollar!" HA!!!! Perfect timing, huh? :-P

But it gets better... Later on, my mom walked back to the bathroom and saw her working her magic: she & another younger girl had a sweet teenaged boy cornered, and she was rattling off something with her fingers - the reasons he should give her some money, the things she'd do with it, or just teaching the younger girl how to make this work - but my mom quickly called her out. She was utterly mortified...but I could NOT stop laughing! My precious, adorable, beautiful, highly manipulative, too-smart-for-her-own-good, little con artist!!! :-D Of course, there was a conversation about how rude and inappropriate it is to ask people to give you money...but it's still classic. ;-)

Speaking of classic, I've been thinking about red lipstick lately. How fun it would be to try a hue other than the sparkly mauve shades I signaturely sport. I had a tiny bit left on my wonderful Sephora gift card from JB's parents for my bday, so I really wanted to hit the full-size store (i.e. "not the mini-version in JC Penny") while I actually have access here in Charlotte for a consultation. Nothing the lady brought for me to try quite bowled me over; but I just thought I was being too scared to go for something different, so I ended up pulling the trigger on Sephora brand Maniac Mat Long Wearing Matte Lipstick in Mat 10/Matte Cherry Rose. It looks just like this internet photo on:

a little more cherry bomb than I imagined, but when I said "darker" than the lighter red ones she first brought, this is what she suggested. Plus, I love Sephora brand, so fine.
Cut to literally just 20 minutes later, when I checked my email on my phone as we drove away from the Christmas crowds at the mall. I had an ad email from Sephora...with *THE* most gorgeous shade of red on the model, exactly like I had imagined but couldn't seem to verbalize:

Can you see the difference? [Jackie?! :-)] So now, do I make do or try to return? Hmmmm...