First jobs: Abby

Ah, first jobs. You might have babysat three screaming children, steamed designer clothing or blended McFlurries for $6 an hour. First jobs are far from glamourous for most people, but they offer more money than the tooth fairy ever gave you (usually). They also make up who we are today and are part of our journey to where we are now.

Abby spills about her first job flipping hamburgers and scooping ice cream.

I loved my first job. I had moved to a small town (Blenheim, Ontario) at the beginning of Grade 9, which is the worst time to move. I didn’t know many people at first, and one day, decided to apply for a job at the local burger joint. 

 The Blenheim Bobcats were serious.

It’s called Homerun Hamburgers and everyone worked there. It was small, but had the best burgers in town, along with breakfast, milkshakes made from real ice cream, flurries and soft serve dipped in chocolate. 

 A common sight at my first gig.

It was right across from the town high school, which meant that it was constantly filled with students, even on the weekend. My coworkers were all my age, and we spent our days trying to look cute in our maroon T-shirts and visors (ew!) in case our crushes came in. 

Summer was the best and the worst time to be there. It was always slammed, with line-ups out the door and I’d end my shifts with ice cream literally up to my elbows. And, smelling like smoke, since restaurants weren’t smoke-free yet. But that’s when our friends could come visit us and we’d slip them burgers and fries for free. 

 This could have been yours FREE… if you lived in Blenheim.

Best moment: I remember my first huge crush came in unexpectedly one day, someone I hadn’t seen for months because he lived out of town. I saw him, my heart started pounding through my chest, and I am sure that I turned bright red. I ran to the back room to whip off my ugly visor and check to make sure my hair wasn’t a total disaster. I think I might have talked to him for about three minutes, but it seemed like an eternity since I was in a total daze. 

I left Homerun after a year or two for the grease-free, 9-to-5 hours of IDA Pharmacy, but I will always remember that job as one of the most fun gigs I’ve ever had.

Fashion-able: Blast from the past: the ’90’s just exploded in our blog.

Everyone can think of a beauty trend that you ABSOLUTELY used to love, and cannot imagine wearing now. 

Here are a few that we busted a gut over the other day, on the fourth floor (hey, it was Friday before the long weekend!).

Brown lipstick. Remember the shade of lipstick that was somewhere in between a brown and a terracotta? We do – we used to LOVE Cover Girl’s French Toast lipstick. Michelle was inspired day-in and out by Clueless, and got the idea to wear brown lipstick from Cher.

“I don’t know why I thought brown lipstick looked good on me, with fair skin and blonde hair. I can still tell when I see people wearing it now. Ew.”

White eyeliner. Why did people wear white eyeliner?! If you have dark eyes and hair, it looks like Halloween. It’s one thing to dot it on the inside corners of your eyes to brighten them up, but quite another to thickly line your entire eye with it.

Christina used to love to wear white eyeliner and she says “I thought I was so stylin’ in grade eight with my oversized plaid shirts, Doc Martens and acid-washed jeans.”

Dark lipliner. Again, why? Not even Sandy can pull it off. 

Lisa used to rock dark lip liner. She refuses to talk about why she did that. 

Hair mascara. Abby: “I used to LOVE glittery blue and green hair mascara. I worked at a drug store in high school, so was always layering the testers on my pixie cut. With blonde hair, a little hair mascara goes a long way… wish I’d realized that at the time.”

Coloured mascara. Several of us admit to having worn multiple colours of mascara, at the same time. Most popular colours? Blue, green and purple. Alana used to love purple Kaboodles mascara. “My friend, no joke, just bought purple mascara. I was like, ‘Why…do you think you need to buy that now?'”

 Blue mascara – yikes!

Glitter. We all used to layer masses of glitter on our eyelids, cheekbones, use glittery body lotion… it’s like we thought we were Tinkerbell. 

What “pretty” make-up did you wear that you shudder to think about now? Tweet it at us: @rockitpromo. Better yet, share a photo!