Where it all began...

I moved to San Francisco in 1997 when I was twenty. I had a shaved head. Let's just say there was no makeup in the black backpack I bought from the Army/Navy store for my adventure. I was living at Fort Mason in the Marina, I had a live-in job at the youth hostel there and was given a cute white house to live in with my never-home co-worker/roommate, Ted. It was a part time job and I was new to the city I was a bit bored. It was walking distance to Chestnut Street and so spent a lot of time there.
One day I decided to go into the Body Shop. It was during the summer and there were pyramids of candy-colored glycerin soap stacked everywhere. I can still remember the way it smelled. I bought a bottle of Leap! perfume (exclamation point theirs) and a Cinnamon stick (chubby pencil lipstick...not the right color for me)
One day I noticed they were hiring and put in my application. I wore a long black dress and a cardigan for my interview. I don't really remember what they asked me but the assistant manager, a guy named Ryan had the flu and looked absolutely miserable. I got the job and was excited. It paid something like $7.25 an hour.
The uniform was this great black wrap skirt and matching top with a mandarin collar. Who knows what kind of shoes I rocked back then. Doc Martens I'm guessing. I became friends with my co-workers. Marissa, Rebecca and Ryan mostly. We sang along to our favorite tape which we referred to as the "Chick Mix." I discovered a love for Motown. We dressed up as "Strong Women" and I was Princess Leia.
One night I was closing the store with a manager named David who had always been cranky to me. He was not my favorite manager to close with and one night he was in the back room counting the drawers a few minutes before we locked up and I was just finishing restocking. I had just placed a Vanilla Stick in it's place when I saw a man standing over me with a gun. Yes. We were robbed. He didn't hurt us but it seemed like a very real possibility at the time. After that day David and I were buddies and I still think of him as one of my favorite people in San Francisco.
A happier memory was when Marissa and I (was Rebecca there, too?) were chosen to go to a makeup training so we could do makeovers in the store. I discovered I was really good at it. We were also chosen to help out at a talk given by the sassy British founder, Anita Roddick. Afterwards we all went out to dinner with her. She was a riot.
I left the Body Shop after a year because they didn't promote me to assistant manager. I went across the street to work at Bare Escentuals. (over the years I worked all over that street later going to BeneFIT Cosmetics and Heaven Day Spa respectively)
Anita Roddick, the founder of the Body Shop died recently from complications from Hepatitis C. She contracted the illness after a blood transfusion after delivering her daughter. She lived with the disease for years without having any idea that she had it.
This is staggering to me. I hadn't heard the news until I received emails from my old co-workers and dear friends. We still keep in touch although we are all scattered around the country now.
Ryan is living in New York with his partner, Daniel after a three year stint in Maine. Rebecca is still living in San Francisco with her husband, a very nice man from England. Marissa is the one we all live vicariously through. She's impulsive and adventurous and I'm never surprised when she suddenly emails me from Alaska. Here is part of the very touching email she sent us:

"While  i was standing in the kitchen listening to the news on the radio my
mind was filled with such amazing memeories of our times together. From
sing-a-longs to theme days, crying and laughing until almost peeing, to
sales contest and make-overs, corn eye shawdow to fawn shimmer, all the
kooks on Chestnut Street, all the kooks on Castro Street....
Our times made me the woman I am today.
I miss you all and will never
forget Anita!"

To say that getting that job in the summer of '97 changed the course of my life would not be an exaggeration. I discovered a love of skincare and makeup artistry and made lifelong friends.
It was also the first time I had encountered the activism and ethics side of body care products such as animal compassion and fair trade.
Thank you, Dame Anita.