Don't hate me because I'm shallow

There was a post on the "Off Topic" section of MediaBistro the other day which asked, "Is being beautiful a burden?" I can't quite claim to know the answer, but I can tell you it's a hell of a burden trying to be.

Saturday was supposed to be a basic grooming/maintenance/pampering day for me: within a five hour window I was scheduled for the gym, tanning, eyebrow wax, and pedicure appointments. But really I should have just stayed home.

It got off on the wrong foot when, an hour before I was scheduled at the gym, my trainer sent an email to cancel. This is the same trainer I have been going to since last winter, when I cried in a crowd because I was so frustrated about the (lack of) payment plans. There are some people you meet and just instantly like and feel drawn to, and my trainer is one of those people. But this was the fourth time he's cancelled on me since May and it's always at the last minute and usually when I've scheduled my entire day and half a week's worth of workouts around the one appointment. I called the gym, irate, only to learn that the reason he cancelled was because he had to, at the last minute, fly off to Guam to annul his marriage. Hmf.

The training manager was extremely apologetic and offered to pair me with a new trainer and comp my sessions until I could find a new trainer that I liked. So that was fantastic except that the first session with someone new is always a waste, with the trainers' time being spent figuring out my fitness level, my likes, my dislikes, etc. Usually I leave the first session feeling like I didn't get a full workout, but after spending an hour at the gym, I just want to get out of there. So that happened.

Then I went for my routine eyebrow wax. My waxer is another person who I met and instantly liked. I've been going to her since I moved out here, but just recently, the salon went under new management. Under the new ownership, they upgraded the wax and upped their prices. Under the new wax, my normally resilient skin got burned in two places. And I paid twice as much for it.

My pedicure was fabulous and came with a delicious and seemingly endless foot and leg massage. But the polish chipped that night.

Is this all karmic payback for my chronic vanity? Should I just throw my hands up and throw myself in the lake like Narcissus? Or should I just consider adopting a new look that maybe isn't so hard to maintain: