The Crazy Mary Kay Lady

Last week, my Friday night started as I drove to my sister Lisa's apartment for a Mary Kay party. Traffic was bad, and I arrived about a half hour late to find that the only people there were Lisa, my other sister Michelle, and a third person who was very obviously the Mary Kay lady. Unfortunately for this woman who had given up her Friday evening to spend with us, Lisa had been somewhat deceived into holding this party. She had been called and told she'd won a makeover, and to invite some people. Yeah, I saw through it immediately, but Lisa has had less experience with such things.

So, poor Mary Kay lady found herself in a room of people who had no intention of buying her products. She quickly went through a pretty scattered presentation, which included the randomly interjected information that she had needed to move from her West Valley home because her son had died there and every time she went into the living room, she could picture him lying there, dead. Seriously. I bought one token bottle of eye makeup remover, and she gathered her stuff and headed to her car.

I'll need to insert a little back-story here. My mom teaches at Challenger Middle School and had a middle school social that night. She was in charge of setting up a laptop and projector to show "The Princess Bride." She had been having some serious difficulty in getting it to work, and she had called Lisa several times during the MK party. Finally, Lisa decided to just drive to the school to fix it, and she enlisted me in the effort.

So, Mary Kay lady and Michelle are both headed to their cars to leave while Lisa and I both hurried into her car and left. A few minutes later, Lisa's phone rang. It was Michelle, who informed us that the Mary Kay lady had left her keys in Lisa's apartment. Lisa let her know that we'd hurry as quickly as possible and be right back. We got to the school, worked our magic, and headed back to Lisa's. On the way back, Lisa's phone rang again. This time it was the Mary Kay lady wondering how close we were. Apparently, Michelle had just left her standing alone in the snow in the dark.

We got to Lisa's and checked inside the apartment for the keys. No luck. The Mary Kay lady informed us that she had slipped outside, so we looked in the snow for her keys. I shone my headlights on the area, but we still had no luck. Apparently, she and her husband have only one car, so she asked if we could possibly take her home to grab her extra set of keys. Lisa and I exchanged a worried look but agreed.

During the ride, I apologized that Michelle had left her stranded by herself. At this point, she let us know that she was really scared because she'd been raped at an apartment complex once. I felt bad for her, but it was just a little too much info from someone we didn't even know. We drove on again. She got a phone call, and then asked if it would be okay if her husband rode back with us to help her look for her keys. Again, Lisa and I exchanged a worried look but agreed.

At the Mary Kay lady's house, I had a quick second to express my concern to Lisa. Here we were in a car with a complete stranger and about to let her complete stranger husband in with us. I had her text Brett so if we went missing, at least someone would know about it. We let the lady and her husband in the car and drove back to the apartment in near silence.

I don't know how the story goes after that; Lisa and I went in to her apartment while the Mary Kay lady, I assume, drove home. I did get a phone call from her yesterday letting me know that my eye makeup remover would be free because of all my trouble. All in all, though, it was the weirdest Friday night of my life.