In Case of Fire, Grab the Lipstick!

My mother passed away last year. I had spent endless hours shopping Amazon as well as the local Walmart, helping her shop for the perfect shade of red lipstick. Her standard had always been “Non-Stop Red” by Revlon, which fit her style perfectly, but had been discontinued. When she passed away, I inherited all that red lipstick, and added it to my own ridiculously large collection. With Covid and mask-wearing, I had to order a whole new set of colors that would not smear under the masks. I put all of this in a large plastic box with a lid.

One of my phobias is a fire emergency, where what can be grabbed in 3–5 minutes is all you can take. While making preparations for one of these unlikely but catastrophic events, I happened to have a painting deadline for an exhibit. It all coincided and the painting of the State Park that I had planned took on an entirely new meaning. Thus the title, “In Case of Fire, Grab the Lipstick!”