The Skinny: Time to man up

Elyssa Andrus - Daily Herald | Posted: Wednesday, April 14, 2010 12:04 am

Time to man up: I am the oldest of seven girls. Although we had four brothers, they never managed to balance out my house's overabundance of estrogen. Someone was always dying her hair, painting her nails or crying. Most of the time, all of these things were happening at once.

When I married my sweet redneck husband in 2000, I felt as though I'd been transported to the set of the 1965 TV series "Green Acres." (It's the old show where a New York socialite ends up in a kooky farming community called, no kidding, Hooterville.) All of a sudden I was cooking pot roast and scraping mud off my high heels, swearing that "I didn't sign up for this" when he mounted a deer head above my parking spot in the garage.

Ten years and two little boys later, I've pretty much given up. I wear flat shoes for hiking, attend monster truck rallies, and have even made it a full day without wearing makeup. So when a friend's husband organized the Man Expo -- billed as some 200 exhibitors showing "All Things Man" -- at the South Towne Exposition Center last weekend, I figured I had better go.

My 4-year-old and 2-year-old about had heart attacks at the expo. They were overjoyed to race remote control cars, ride a mechanical bull (a slow one!) and watch skateboarders. I felt sorely out of place pushing a stroller through the 90,000-square-feet of manliness.

Amid all of the back hair and arm wrestling, I found my moment of Zen when I stumbled upon a booth by Elase Medical Spas. Its employees were offering manicures, nose-hair trimmingand eyebrow waxing. Nearby, people were waiting in line to smash a car with a hammer.

Even the booth's presence said something. If a guy in full camouflage gear will stop to get his nails prettied up, maybe there isn't such a chasm between the sexes, after all.

Posted in Lifestyles on Wednesday, April 14, 2010 12:04 am | Tags: The Skinny, Column, Humor