vain rin daw ako

someone called me vain two days ago: "the only problem with you yen is that you are vain." well, yezzzzzzz. i AM vain. but i beg to disagree with that person on two counts. first, vanity is far from being my only character flaw. i discussed in great detail what i consider my primary personality flaw here. second, i don't consider my vanity a problem AT ALL.

answers.com on vanity:
n., pl., -ties.

1. The quality or condition of being vain.
2. Excessive pride in one's appearance or accomplishments; conceit. See synonims at conceit.
3. Lack of usefulness, worth, or effect; worthlessness.
4. 1. Something that is vain, futile, or worthless.
   2. Something about which one is vain or conceited.
5. A vanity case.
6. See dressing table.
7. A bathroom cabinet that encloses a basin and its water lines and drain, usually furnished with shelves and drawers underneath for storage of toiletries.

one by one now. definition #1 we will discard.

my problem with #2 is the word "excessive". i cannot for the life of me recall what i did during that meeting where the comment was made that indicated justification of the use of the word "excessive" regarding my vanity. i was dressed in saturday-friendly denim skirt, A-line and below the knee, an ugly (but with which i am inexplicably in love) flat leather shoes, a fitted blue and white striped polo shirt and a necklace. was it the necklace that triggered the comment? it could not have been the polo shirt because it had a very obvious chocolate smear over my bilbil. it could not have been my hair style either, a regulation, more pedestrian than pedestrian ponytail, a hairdo i have been wearing since....toddlerhood or whenever it was that enough of my hair could be gathered into a rubber band.

i wasn't wearing ANY makeup either, so it could not have been that.

sigh. the thing that bothers me really is what it was that provoked the comment. one part of me is saying to just let it go. and i really want to let go. but the other, more stubborn part of me, is holding on to the issue for dear life.

maybe that person was just feeling a bit down herself and needed someone to lash out at? well, of all the many things she could have said and done to lash out at me, why did she pick "vain"?

granted i take pride in my apprearance. i like going out of the house liking how i look. i like looking at things that look nice, and i would like to think that i look nice too, somehow. but vanity has never be something desctructive in my life. i don't spend too much money on it even. can someone who has not had a facial EVER be justifiably called vain? and i have not had a mani-pedi in a parlor since i was in my first trimester with the cute monster that is gabriel who is now almost three years old. and the last haircut i got was something i gave myself about two months ago in front of the bathroom mirror: lopped off about four inches with my paper scissor.

(i am not calling a haircut mini bangs gabriel gifted me with six weekends ago. i woke up from my siesta to see a clump of considerably long hair lying on the floor next to my house slippers and a clump of very short hair standing in a spike dead center on my hairline).

do i take pride in my accomplishments? i don't know. i don't think so.

definition #3 and 4, lack of usefulness, worth or effect; worthlessness. i never knew vanity could also mean this. in any case, i am not useless. now if i say i am not worthless, will that make me vain?

definitions #5, 6 and 7: i am not a piece of furniture nor a bathroom fixture, that's for sure.

the only reason i can think of why i might be thought of vain is because of how i dress. and i am not inclined to make any changes on the way i dress on account of someone thinking me vain.

haha. vain. the word makes me think of a friend's email address: vaindawako. maybe i should chain my email addy to vainrindawako. my friend is now a hotshot photographer, so i will be in good company.