The Big 5: My Girly Girl Mannerisms

I don't like thinking about myself in those kinds of words... but I am a very girly girl. It is one of those things that sort of snuck up on me from out of somewhere when I wasn't looking. I was a tom boyish girl, not really one for Barbies, I quit ballet at 5, refused dresses, my favourite colour was blue and I hated pink. While I can't claim to have played with toy trucks I did certainly do a lot of sand pit playing and mud pie making. In some cases things changed, in others I suspect girly girl was hiding just beneath the surface.

In some ways the girly girl still hides just beneath the surface. I went away on a week-long work trip last year. There was just one other female on the trip, so we sort of became friends by default in the usual way. After three or four days she looked at me and told me that suddenly some of the things she used to think didn't fit with my personality at all made perfect sense. Apparently I do a very good job of being a 'closet' girly girl.

Heaven forbid I be a closet anything on my own blog so I am going to highlight some of my most dominant and girliest attributes. By the end of this you are unlikely to be able to see anything except my girly side. Perhaps that is how I want it - the girly bits are the stuff I want to talk about. The parts of my life I do for fun. Well lets get into it.

1. Romance Novels. I am sure I'm not the only girl out there who reads these, though it is a pretty girly sort of a habit. However, I don't just read them. I read them by the bucket load. Most generally I read Mills and Boon, and I read the full spectrum, as old as 1961 (as old as I've ever gotten my hands on) through to the whole set of series available in the present day. I am conversant in the differences between the categories of Mills and Boon - a skill that few girls openly admit to. I will go into more detail on M&B in a seperate post (or multiple seperate posts). I do also read a lot outside of M&B, historical romance mostly, but I can count on one hand the number of non-romances I've read in the last 3 years... I can't count on one hand the number of romances I've read in the last week. Girl.
2. A Pink Car. I own a pink Nissan Micra. It isn't the kind of car I can get male passengers into without some comment about the fact they feel their masculinity is being threatened. It is also an auto (though I did earn my license driving a manual, have no doubt) and has no boot-space to think of. I have known people to insult the random pink Micra in the car-park only to have me point out that it belongs to me. Just it case it wasn't girly enough of course it also has its name, Rosie, as a window sticker across the front windscreen. Girl, girl, girl!
3. No taste for horror. I wouldn't watch a horror film if you paid me. Alright, I'll admit it, its because I scare ridiculously easy. I have known to be on slightly on edge after a game of Clue-do or an episode of NCIS. Not to mention I am entirely susceptible to 'scary music' you wanted me feeling trepidation? Don't worry I am. Some movies use that kind of music unnecessarily and I really hate them for it. It isn't restricted to horror films, people come up behind me, I jump sky high too. I thought of making the fact I play games into a seperate entry but really it falls under this too. I love playing Halo - but something attacks me and I have about a 50% of a girlish squeal and complete freak out. What a girl.
4. Beauty Products. Make-up and perfume mainly. I don't have a lot of skill for the practice but that doesn't that the fun out of buying the stuff or applying it to my face in the privacy of my own home. I've already talked about my late arrival on the make-up stage. So perhaps just what attracts me to it is that it is art that doesn't require much in the way of drawing ability and it is something you can wear around, change frequently and realistically I can get new things for a few dollars... Adoration of the red lip is not for the tom boy. My biggest beauty weaknesses are fruity or fresh perfumes, brightly coloured nail polish (on my toes) and blush. Girl.
5. Purple. My favourite colour is purple (not not pink - I don't go that far). This one is vaguely related I guess to my possession of a pink car but very much more broad. I am attracted to colour, often over function, practicality or usefulness. My laptop is pink, I wanted green but it wasn't available, my camera is purple. It helps that these days companies pander to people like me, I can have those all my things in pretty colours. However I am the kind of person who will stop, turn around and walk back just because the colour was kind of interesting. Everything I own just about is colour chosen. Also. Fun fact. I mentioned blue was my favourite colour as a child. I find I don't like it anymore - with the exception of blue jeans or navy I'd never chose to wear it.
6. Bonus Round. I didn't include this because while a girl's passion quilting/sewing isn't really a girly girl hobby - nor is it really a hobby of mine. However in the picture I add it is all the pieces of my partially made quilt laid out on the floor. I can also knit (without much commitment I last finished something I knitted in 2009) and for fun I taught myself to darn my work socks - cool if random ability. Darning is surprising relaxing.

And just in case you don't think that list is enough to qualify as a 'girly girl'... well I'm not sure what you want from me. That is the majority of my free time - remembering that I'm an engineering major.