The latin ladies..

This has been killing me since we moved here and I cannot help but crack up every time I see it, but it is so common place you almost have to just accept it.....the ladies here love to match everything! And we are not talking complimentary colors and patterns, we are talking color to color, everything the same color!

This could be a typical Friday night going out outfit:

But I think the Guatemalan ladies may love the color teal the most. Can you even imagine it? A teal shirt, matched perfectly to their teal purse, matched perfectly to their teal pumps, matched again perfectly to their teal umbrella, and if it could not get any more intense, matched perfectly to their teal eye shadow and nail polish!!!! It is in no other words, incredible.

While we all learned in the early 90's that it is best to match your eye shadow to the color of your eyes or skin tone, the latin ladies learned just the opposite. It is as if your outfit is not complete if your face doesn't match your clothes. And I can only imagine the time it takes most women here to get ready, because honestly, they are always meticulous, every single detail of their appearance attended to. I mean these ladies wake-up extra early just to go to the salon to get their hair blown out and straightened before work or that breakfast date, every other day. And forget about sweating it out at the gym, your blow out will be ruined. And on the off days of getting your hair done, you get your nails done. I mean the time and effort is absolutely incredible, but yes, they do always look fantastic (well, that is if you like teal). And it is not a woman of leisure type of deal or necessarily a high maintenance sort of thing. The super fancy high maintenance ladies ABSOLUTELY exist here and they are CRAZY, but it is more of a cultural norm. You would never leave your house without looking your best, ever. Forget running errands in your work out clothes, that is so shameful! It is no wonder all the ladies in my office giggle to themselves when I come in with my hair still wet from my shower. They would never dream in a million years of doing such a thing. And they are probably right, I definitely, no questions asked, sacrifice my appearance for those extra few minutes in bed and my cup of coffee....I just have never been a morning person.

But all of this work is sort of endearing. These people for the most part live a pretty hard life, but they are always trying to look their best. And what I think might be the best part about all of this is that there really is one common denominator between the classes here. The rich lady wearing all the jewels with her body guards and driver cares just as much about her appearance as does the lady bagging her groceries. And funny, they are both wearing an obscenely bright colored shirt with matching eye shadow. Maybe some ladies do not look as polished and have to straighten their hair themselves, but they still care. I love that.

But I also want to clarify this love. It is only as an observer. You would never catch me wearing all of this:

committing what I think may be one of the biggest fashion faux pas around (I hate matchy matchy) and lets be honest, I will not be getting up earlier to actually blow dry my hair!