She wasn't wrong

Got my first bad review in about four years. It was on my Facebook page, from a mom whose kid’s party I did in April. Four stars, which is fine, but it said “Kids loved him. He smelled very strongly of cigarettes which was a little uncomfortable when he was doing face paint up close.”

My first reaction was to be mad about it. My second reaction was to go smell my wig.

She was right. You stop smelling it on yourself. I keep the costume in the trunk and the car’s where I smoke the most, so it all just soaks in. And face paint is the worst possible time for it, because you’re right there in front of a kid’s face for two or three minutes breathing on them.

I wrote back and said thank you and she was right and I was sorry. She wrote back and said thanks for taking it well. So that’s something.

What I do now. Some of this I got from a lady in a clown group on Facebook who used to smoke:

• No smoking in the car on party days. This is the hard one. I have one on the porch before I leave and that’s it.
• Costume goes in a garbage bag in the trunk, tied shut.
• Wash my hands with Dawn and half a lemon before I leave. Regular soap doesn’t get it off your fingers.
• Altoids. The strong ones.
• Febreze on the wig. Not good for the wig. Better than the alternative.

Nobody’s said anything since. I don’t know if that’s because it worked or because people are polite. People around here are polite about it until they aren’t, and then you find out on Facebook.