You say it's your birthday? It's my birthday too, yeah.


It's Carey Mulligan's birthday today; she's twenty nine years old. It's mine too. I'm, well, I'm older.
I wish I'd known we shared the same May 28th birthday when I met her at the wrap party for Drive, we might have bonded.

Twenty nine. It can be a tough year. The big 3—0 is approaching, fraught with expectations. It was a bit of a tough year for me but that was back in the day when being unmarried at twenty-nine was still a bit of a bummer. I can't imagine Carey with all her success, gives a damn. Still when I was working as a copywriter at Max Factor, while I loved my job coming up with lipstick shade names, writing package copy and sales brochures, there were still times when I wept over my love life.

It was 1982 and the company was in the midst of launching the Le Jardin fragrance. I was in the middle of a bad romance, and even though An Officer and a Gentleman didn't come out until August of '82, part of me had to be wishing Richard Gere would come into my workplace, sweep me up in his arms and carry me away. That didn't happen and I muddled along, making all the wrong choices*, staying with the wrong man, throwing my career away.

I've been working on a script about that bad romance, that seven year long relationship that ultimately floundered, but right now that's floundered too. It's marinating in my desk drawer.


In the meantime, Photographic Memory is a look back at some of my Max Factor days. 

* Carey's character, Bathsheba Everdene knows a bit about making bad choices having made a couple of her own in Far From the Madding Crowd. I've made my feelings about the movie known on my book to movie site, Chapter1-Take1.

PS  Were you curious? Did you do the math? If I was 29 in 1982 how old am I today? Did you say 62? Gold stars for you, baby! Turning 60 was horrible, I felt so very, very old. It's two years later and I'm younger than that now. I haven't changed anything, I didn't run out and get a face lift but my inner self has come to a place of acceptance, so that at 62 I feel reenergized and revitalized, ready for what's next. Like that ridiculous woman on the commercial who spouts "I'm only in my 60's, I've got a good long life ahead".  But how long? I need to know so I can make smart decisions about important questions like should I take early social security? Oh GOD! Has it really come to this? Yes, Sim, I guess it has!




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