A Weird Feeling Week: Part 2

Have I mentioned yet that there is a bunny that lives across the street from my work?  Our building is in a residential neighborhood with houses on one side and a small park on the other.  At the end of the block, next to a row of houses, there is either an empty lot or a big extension to the yard of the house next to it -- in either case, this summer a big bramble of bushes/vines/weeds/whatever has grown up in that spot, and I have now twice seen a bunny eating grass on that corner right next to the conveniently located bramble that I assume he lives in.  I get excited every morning as I approach that corner, hoping that my day will be bunnified by his presence.  Meanwhile, people in my department continue to be giddy over the turkeys who venture into the parking lot from the park next to it.  I have not seen them again, but some people with offices overlooking that side of the building continue to see them.

Summer Scarves -- Thursday, 7/24/14

As a life-long southerner, it was odd to consider wearing scarves in the summertime, but with Snow City's 80 degree summer days (and me now with a gloriously air-conditioned car to drive me from the parking garage to the parking lot, instead of hoofing it several blocks to a bus stop or all the way to school), they are a great addition to my wardrobe year-round.  I love scarves so much that I am resistant to the idea of moving somewhere that can't support a scarf habit in every season.  By choosing a lightweight scarf and tying it loosely (it basically sits directly over the neckline of the shirt), I was perfectly comfy in this scarf all day, and I enjoyed how it brought texture and pattern-mixing interest to a pretty standard outfit.

Also, this pencil skirt is fab.  It's weird...I usually don't have luck with Target's pencil skirts.  They seem to be built (perhaps even more than pencil skirts usually are) for very straight, non-curvy bodies, but this one fits really great.  I don't understand it.  Inexpensive clothing suppliers like Target, Old Navy, etc., often show quite a bit of variability between two supposedly-identical items (I've learned I have to try on each individual item when I want to buy multiples from Target because one blue shirt might fit differently from its ostensible twin and the red one may be totally different from both of the blue ones), so maybe this one was cut/sewn in a sloppy/erroneous way that just happened to make it work like it was made for me?  Wearing this great skirt reminded me that it's worth continuing to roll the dice on Target pencil skirts; I don't mind having to return them to the store when they don't work out (as is typically the case), and I would be happy to add another one that fits like this one to my collection.  I wear a lot of pleated/flared/etc. skirts, but the sleeker fit of a pencil skirt is often just the thing.  And I think it has a more "business" feel than A-line type skirts, which makes it easy to feel appropriate to wear to work even with a knit shirt.

*Aqua knit shirt (thrifted)
Navy polka dot pencil skirt (Target)
Light grey wedge flats
Blue/aqua scarf (Target)

Replicate This Please -- Friday, 7/25/14

Findings tops to wear with fuller skirts continues to be a challenge for me given my preference to not tuck the shirt in.  (Tucked in shirts are fiddly and comfortable and bunch strangely, and I just can't be bothered to do it for my business casual office.)  This August Silk top I bought at Goodwill is great for this purpose, though -- it's a knit, but it's heavy (made from a combination of fibers that give it body and heft) and structured.  I like this top so much that I spent some time on the Internet to see if it (or something similar) is still being made/sold, but I struck out.  Well, black is a really useful color (and I can change it up a lot by wearing different scarves, jackets, etc.), so I'm glad I found this prize for like $4 at the thrift store.  But man, it would have been so worth it to replicate it in a couple other colors.

Instead, I'll just have to keep going back to the thrift shop and see what other one-off treasures I can find.  This is one way the thrift store is very useful to me -- I have a tendency to want to buy anything I like in every color/pattern there is right now, and you just can't do that at the thrift store.  Ultimately, this means that my wardrobe is forced to have more variety than it otherwise would, and since I really value variety (despite my instinct to buy in multiples), this is a good thing.  But yeah, occasionally, it's tough to realize that this item that would be absolutely perfect if I could also have it in cream just isn't available.  (White and cream being the hardest colors of shirts/sweaters to find at the thrift store for obvious reasons.  Hello, mustard spill!, etc.)

It just occurs to me that if I were really serious about it, I could also check out eBay and other second-hand e-tailers to see if a similar top is available.  Something to think about.

*Black August Silk knit top (thrifted)
*Black and cream inverted-pleat skirt (thrifted, Loft)
Black Lifestrides flats
Black/white necklace (gift from my mom)

Driving Home

My commute home has become really messed up due to construction that's forcing all kinds of traffic onto the highway I normally take between the interstate and the major road I follow across the river and almost all the way to my apartment.  In fact, the traffic on that highway has gotten so bad that the traffic wanting to exit from the interstate onto the highway backs up the right hand lane for over a mile before you even get to the exit.  Once I realized it was taking me over an hour from office door to apartment door (about 50 minutes of that in my car, most of that in stop and go traffic), I was like, Screw this.

So I decided to try a route suggested by my officemate, who has lived in this area all her life and is one of those people who knows all the roads.  (If my grandmother asked her, Don't you have a map of Snow City in your head?, she'd say, Yep, as well as Coldville and about half a dozen suburbs.)  She suggested I make my way to the river along surface streets, cross the river at a particular spot, and then follow the river road home.  It's a more scenic drive with 90% less stop-and-go traffic compared to my previous route.

But the river road itself is under construction!  So there's a stretch of road where we are diverted onto some other streets before joining the river road again past the construction zone.  (I don't actually know what's up with this construction.  I think Robert said it had something to do with damage from flooding?? Not sure what's going on or when it'll be over.)  This is not dire, but the Umleitung does add yet more time to my commute.  Even so, I think I'm probably still saving about 5-10 minutes compared to the road-rage-inducing highway route, and I'm spending most of the time actually driving.  It's kind of amazing how much more pleasant it is to drive than to be stuck in traffic.  But then again, I mean, duh, right?  Being stuck in traffic is such a strong, clear example of one's will being thwarted, and having one's will thwarted is way frustrating.

I'm enjoying driving through the basically pleasant residential neighborhoods of west Coldville, where tigerlilies are majorly abundant right now.  I've seen yards that are, from what I can tell, completely covered in them.  The serpentine river road is fun to drive in a zoom-y car, and I like seeing all the people walking, biking, walking their dogs, etc., on the path along the river.

Path along the river?  Like the path I used to walk 2 miles to school every day?  Indeed.  That exact same path.  In fact, the detour I'm taking around the river road construction zone has me driving up to and turning right at the back of the business school on campus.  So in addition to all the other benefits of my new route, every day after work, I get to drive by that building of anxiety and despair in my shiny red car and say something mocking and triumphant like "Bite me, suckas!" as I go by.  Yep, out loud.  It's awesome.  I have yet to see any of my ex-professors or grad school minions standing outside the building as I drive past there, but that would be sweet, too.  In any case, saying "Later, losers!" to that hated place is a fun little daily celebration of Not Fucking Being in Their Miserable Ass Grad Program Anymore and Having a Real Job That Pays Me the Money to Own This Nice Ride.

A Weird Feeling Week: Part 1

There's no really good reason that this past week felt so strange.  I was home sick from work on Wednesday, which probably explains a lot of it -- the second half of the week was weird because it was sort of like the beginning of a week, but not.

On Thursday and Friday, I was also trying to accomplish something at work that I couldn't really do completely yet until a person who was out of the office was back to answer some questions, so I spent a lot of time doing groundwork, setting up reports in different ways that we might eventually want, putting in all the lookups and calculations, etc., without having the actual data to work with (I just used dummy data for this purpose).  This has overflowed into my weekend dreaming as well.  I have an Excel sheet that looks like a report but all the data are replaced by asterisks (indicating too small a sample size to report results) because I don't have any of the data yet, and last night, I dreamed that I was at a job where I was comparing my asterisk-full/data-free report to someone else's totally empty report, and we debated the merits of the asterisks vs. empty cells.  Tomorrow I should get some clarity on this.

Maybe another reason it felt strange was because we had some really hot weather.  On Monday, it was like 95 degrees!  It cooled down to about 87 on Tuesday, and then to our more typical 80ish degrees. 

To summarize, it was a weird Monday-Tuesday because it was unusually warm.  It was a weird Wednesday because I was home sick instead of at work.  It was a weird Thursday-Friday because I was creating data-free hypothetical reports in what felt like a fresh 2-day long week.

Dressing for Serious Heat -- Monday, 7/21/14

The forecast was for a high of 97 degrees, so I decided a t-shirt and a cotton skirt was in order.  (I remain very happy with how these t-shirts I shortened to wear with skirts are working out.  Wearing a t-shirt to work feels more acceptable when it has been tailored to fit well.)  I liked bringing out the brown in the skirt this time -- when I wore it before, I paired it with a chunky coral sweater. 

I did subtly play up the orange color in the skirt with this floral necklace.

Brown v-neck t-shirt
Pink/brown/orange skirt (thrifted)
Brown flats
*Mixed metal flower necklace (Kohls)

It's cool that I have finally built up my wardrobe to the point that I usually have all the pieces I'm looking for to put an outfit together -- in this case, I was like, OK, I want to wear this skirt, let's find my skirt-compatible brown t-shirt and brown flats, got it, done.  I know a lot of people handle this outfit creation process by focusing on particular neutrals/colors, but that's never worked for me -- I really don't think that kind of limitation is my speed in general (I want all the colors), but it really isn't compatible with a thrifting-centric shopping style.  If I see something awesome that fits and it's $5, I don't want to be like, Oh, well, too bad this fabulous skirt has a print with brown [the neutral I would be least likely to select for building a wardrobe] instead of black or grey, I guess I have to put it back even though it would totally be THE BOMB. 

Instead I've reached the point where I pull out a great looking skirt, realize that I already own a skirt that's similar to it, and put it back.  This happened to me last Sunday in the skirt racks -- as I was waiting in line to try on skirts, I decided put back several of them because I do not need any more brown cotton skirts with a subtle pattern on them.  (I already have two of these I have not yet worn, I think -- oops.)  It was kind of hard to do this with the two brown Ann Taylor skirts but I did.  (This weekend was crazy -- someone my size who loves Ann Taylor had donated quite a few things.  Score.)  Of course, I am totally cool with trying on something I know is a close duplicate to see if I think I like it better than the version I have at home.  I sometimes buy something and then upgrade to a better version, re-donating the original one.  This is not a big deal when the items are between $1.50 and $8 or so.  But Robert was waiting on me this past weekend, so I did a more thorough editing job before going to the changing rooms to save time.

Yet More Flowers, More Bright Pink -- Tuesday, 7/22/14

We had a workshop all morning in a conference room that is noticeably cooler than the offices where we work upstairs, so I covered up a sleeveless dress with a lightweight jacket.  This was just right.

It was a bit odd to realize I have two hot pink dresses.  This one, sleeveless and more fitted/sheath in style, and the one I've worn before, with cap sleeves and more of a fit-and-flare shape.

*Sleeveless hot pink knit dress (Target)
Pink/white/black jacket (thrifted)
Black wedges (thrifted)
Single strand pearls (Macy's)

Life After Fussball: Part 2

My boss was out of the office on vacation last week, and his boss (our department head) was out a bit with illness (something has been making the rounds), but it was not a matter of cats away, mice will play.  I got through the work my boss had left for me on Thursday morning and started working on something to help my office mate.  So I had a kind of bad-ass data cruncher feeling last week.

On Friday, I sent a batch of reports to our CEO for the first time.  It actually made me kind of nervous to do it.  Hah.

Gift From My Mom -- Wednesday, 7/16/14

It finally warmed up enough to wear another item my mom gave me at Christmas time, this lightweight tie-neck blouse from Lands End.  It's an interesting combination of lightweight fabric and dark, autumnal colors.  I don't mind wearing dark colors in summer, though, and I think it will work very well with a cardigan or jacket as we get into fall.  (I actually wore it part of the day with the same off-white 3/4 length sleeve t-shirt cardigan I wore with my pink Barbie outfit last Friday, and that helped lighten the look.)

*Burgundy/navy paisley tie-neck blouse (Lands End, gift)
Navy pants (thrifted, 88 cents)
Mustard flats

How Many of These Blouses Did I Buy? -- Thursday, 7/17/14

I knew I really liked the simplicity of these lightweight, short-sleeved blouses from Kohls for wearing alone with pants for work, but man, I ended up with more of them than I thought.  I'm not complaining, though--the style is plain enough that with the variety of colors/patterns that I have, wearing them does not feel repetitive.  It doesn't make for exciting fashion blogging or whatever, but I love this formula outfit and will just keep on wearing it.

*Pink/white/black short-sleeved blouse (Kohls)
Black linen pants (thrifted)
Black wedges (thrifted)
Coral swag necklace (Kohls)

And the End to Another Week -- Friday, 7/18/14

I have been wearing a lot of pants to work lately.  It's definitely time to change things up.  But I definitely enjoyed wearing another pair of bright Dockers to work on Friday.  My pants colors for the week were brown, grey, navy, black, and bright blue -- a nice bit of variety there.

*Blue/white striped shirt (thrifted)
*Bright blue pants (Dockers)
Blue pointy-toed flats (Nordstrom)
Silver pendant (thrifted)

Life After Fussball: Part 1

I didn't watch a lot of the World Cup, but I did see some of it and I followed the games.  Not only is Robert a soccer fan (and ex-high school varsity player, a fact which draws me up short whenever I think of it, since he doesn't have that ex-jock vibe that, say, my dad does) but three of the guys in my department are also ex-players and fans.  (Actually, at least one of them currently plays every week in a casual league.)

One day the guys at work were discussing the World Cup before a meeting (this happened before every meeting during the World Cup), and as they were debating the merits of Chile vs. Brazil as potential winners, I mentioned that I thought Germany should win.  Now, as you may recall, I have a strong tendency to choose long-shot teams to win tournaments on the rationale that (1) it would be cool and (2) there's no point in backing a likely winner.

So now I can say, Yes, it was cool for Germany to win and for me to be in the rare position of having called one of these things right.  I even watched the game...while hand-hemming 3 pairs of pants.  I know, it took me like an hour to do each pair--getting these professionally done seems a bit like a bargain when you take your time into account--but I was watching the game anyway, so I feel like it was worth it.  And now I finally have grey pants to wear!

A Pair of Pants I Did Not Hem -- Monday, 7/14/14

When I tried these pants on again to decide how much to hem them, I realized that as long as I wore them with this pair of brown wedges, they were a reasonable length already.  Since I would probably wearing them with these shoes 90% of the time anyway, that seemed good enough for me to move them out of the hem pile and into the wear pile immediately.

I enjoyed wearing this shirt--with its black and brown/beige colors in the print that are characteristic of this line of shirts I bought at Kohls--with brown instead of the more expected (for me) black pants.

*Beige-brown pants (Kohls)
*Blue/brown/white shirt (Kohls)
Blue-green cardigan (Macy's)
Brown wedges (thrifted)
Light blue necklace (Jones New York)

A Pair of Pants I Did Hem -- Tuesday, 7/15/14

The weather turned a bit warmer than I expected, so I changed this outfit up at the last minute to go jacketless.  With a pair of legitimately grey pants in hand, it seemed like a good time to play more with radiant orchid.

*Grey Rafaella 5-pocket pants
*White/"radiant orchid" striped shirt (thrifted)--this "ironless" shirt by Eddie Bauer is amazingly ironless, even when hung to dry; I was impressed
Orchid flats (Born)
Grey "planet" necklace (Macy's)

A Warm Week in Snow City: Part 2

Meow -- Thursday, 7/10/14

I really loved how this outfit came together.  Something about the beige jacket, black pants, and beige with black toe-cap shoes combination makes me really happy.  It feels so smart and put together.  Add to this an unusual animal print top with both beige and black in the pattern and what's not to like?

I was initially stumped when it came to picking a necklace for this outfit, but after considering and rejecting several candidates, I decided on this "planet" necklace in a combination of dark and light neutrals.  (What I really wanted was a gold chain necklace, which I did not have....at the time.  I have gotten one since then.)

*Purple/beige animal print blouse (Macy's)--another sister to the Anne Klein blouse I bought for my interviews
*Beige knit jacket (Nordstrom)--my love for this style continues unabated; I have 3 of them now
Black pants (thrifted)
Beige toe-cap flats (Clark's brand)
Mixed neutrals "planet" necklace (Kohls?)

Casual Friday Number Crunching Barbie -- Friday, 7/11/14

It's Friday and I'm not wearing a denim skirt or black ankle pants, nor have I succumbed to the temptation to wear jeans.  The two pairs of bright colored Dockers that I ordered online from the Dockers site (since apparently this style/color combo was not available from anyone else I could find, weird) are going to be adding a welcome mix-up to Fridays this summer.  (Writing this makes me realize, Oh crap, I've slipped in my old Texas mindset in which summer is a thing that lasts forever, but really, it's only a matter of weeks, not months, now.)

I still don't see myself as a hot pink kind of person, but the evidence of the outfits on this blog demonstrates otherwise.  My preference for hot pink is revealed in all its bright, happy glory.  Bright pink pants?  Gold slippers?  I can't tell if this is more Barbie doll or Disney princess.  Whichever one spends more time using SPSS and Excel, I guess.

*Pink/white striped drapeneck top (Lands End)
*Hot pink pants (Dockers)
Pink necklace (Outfit Additions)
Gold flats
Off-white knit cardigan (Kohls)

A Warm Week in Snow City: Part 1

Will I Ever Tire of This Formula? -- Monday, 7/7/14

No signs of it happening any time soon.

Coral/white/black shirt (Kohls)
Black Dockers (thrifted)
Black Lifestrides flats
*Coral swag necklace (Kohls)

I like the "fill in the v-neck and add texture" quality of this new necklace.

3 Month Anniversary -- Tuesday, 7/8/14

Woo, three months at my new job!  And they went so fast.  I took the afternoon off from work to celebrate--well, no, actually, to go to the dentist.  But as I recounted here, it was a great day for a walk and I had good news from the dentist, so all was good.

I had initially wanted to wear this shirt with a pair of grey pants, but since my grey pants remained in a pile waiting to be hemmed, I turned to the white/black microcheck pants that look grey from a distance.  I think I liked the subtle pattern in the pants better than a solid grey with this top.  Better styling through laziness.

*Magenta pleated blouse (thrifted)
Black/white microcheck pants (thrifted)
Grey flats
Grey big-bead necklace (Macy's)

Midweek Blues -- Wednesday, 7/9/14

Over the weekend, we went to Kohl's for me to return some necklaces that I didn't like, and I bought this blue sort-of tie-dye-looking scarf with the money I'd earned back from my recent purchases.  I don't prefer buying an infinity scarf to a regular scarf (since the latter allows for more variability in styling and can be easily tied into a fauxfinity scarf) but I just adored the print on this one.

*Cobalt blouse (Kohls)
*Blue tie-dye scarf (Kohls)
Navy pants (Kohls)
Light blue flats (Nordstrom)

Independence Week: Part 2

Independence Eve -- Thursday, 7/3/14

Of course I had to do red, white, and blue for the 3rd of July, my last work day before the holiday.

Red mixed media blouse (Nordstrom)
White knit jacket (Nordstrom)
*Navy pants (Kohls)--Dockers brand but not a 100% cotton fabrication; they're more like typical wear-to-the-office pants than I think of Dockers as being
Blue pointy-toed flats
*Silver with red ribbon necklace (Kohls)

Independence Day -- Friday, 7/4/14

Welcome to July 4 in Snow City, where you can comfortably wear jeans, a t-shirt, and a t-shirt weight cardigan to watch the fireworks.  For some reason, I found the fireworks kind of scary this year, and spent the whole time with my arm tucked into Robert's arm and my body increasingly huddled against his. 

We saw a few dogs down at the river with their humans for the fireworks, including a King Charles spaniel. I took comfort in thinking that the dogs were probably scared of the loud bangs, too.

Otherwise, it was a super lazy day of sleeping in, crossword puzzles, computer games, and the usual weekend stuff.

White T-shirt (Amber Sun brand--I think from Macy's)
Blue T-shirt cardigan (Lands End)
Red bubble necklace (Outfit Additions)
Blue jeans
*Red plaid slip-on sneakers from my mom

Haircut Outing -- Saturday, 7/5/14

I finally went to get my hair cut.  See, you can tell it must be above my shoulders now, right?  I guess it takes a three day weekend for me to feel like I have the energy to do something this strenuous.  It was a warmer, no jacket kind of day, and I felt seasonally appropriate with a flower necklace.

If I recall correctly, this was the day Robert and I drove past a small farmer's market/produce stand and saw a rabbit sitting in and eating the grass.  We were able to find a good vantage spot to watch the bunny for a while before he headed off into a bushy zone.  A bunny day is a good day.

* Black and white flower necklace (Kohls)

Keeping That Color Combination Going -- Sunday, 7/6/14

I celebrated the last day of the long weekend with more red, white, and blue.  I like the versatility of this ponte jacket I bought at Target -- it is soft, comfy, and casual enough to wear with jeans and plaid sneaks even though I got it as a work item.  I spent a lot of the day curled up in my chair next to the A/C vent, so a top layer was quite welcome.

This outfit was brought to you in large part by my mom.  Thanks, Mom!

*White/navy flower t-shirt from my mom
Navy ponte jacket (Target)
Blue jeans
Red plaid slip-on sneakers from my mom

Independence Week: Part 1

I prefer to pepper these outfit posts with comments about my day, but I feel a million years removed from the end of June and have no idea what was going on around then....other than the fact that I was getting dressed and going to work, so I guess that's good.

Oh!  Speaking of peppers...I've been eating the most monkey-simple to prepare roasted vegetables this week.  Grocery stores (well, Wal-Mart and Trader Joe's I know for sure and I'm guessing others) sell packaged veggie kabobs in the produce section ready for summer grilling.  Those of us without grills can slide the pieces off the kabob, oil up, and roast in the oven.  Mmmmmm.  It's so good that this week I have substituted the veg for my after-dinner dark chocolate serving.  I mean, seriously, that must be good.  (Don't worry!  I still eat dark chocolate after lunch at work, so I'm doing my part to keep Lindt in business.)

Easy Kitty -- Monday, 6/30/14

This is the most basic outfit I've worn in a long time.  Not even a necklace.  But with a leopard print blouse, it's not boring.

These warm summer days when you don't need socks, a jacket, anything like that -- it's so easy it feels almost like cheating.  Luckily it's not been so hot that I'm trying to figure out how to make a cotton sundress look business-casual appropriate without adding layers.  (I also am totally leaving the wearing of cotton crop pants and sandals to other people.  I see people coming to my workplace dressed this way -- though no one in my department -- and I think: Why?  It's 70 degrees today.)

*Short-sleeved leopard print blouse (Kohls)
*Black linen pants (thrifted) -- these are lined and super-nice
Black mary janes

Another Example of a Simple Formula -- Tuesday, 7/1/14

Black pants and a shirt with black in the pattern, add black shoes, add pearls.  Done.

*Blue/white knit long-sleeved shirt (thrifted)
Black pants (thrifted)
Black pointy-toed flats
Single strand of pearls (Macy's)

An Outfit Not Based on the Formula -- Wednesday, 7/2/14

I got a little more complicated with this outfit, eschewing black and patterned pieces both.  It was cool enough to justify a jacket, which was a nice change.  I was inspired (in a vague way) to mix this bright blue-green blouse with the toned-down neutral jacket after seeing this woman's neon and neutral outfit.  This type of contrast is not something I would normally gravitate toward, but I liked it.  However, I expect that we'll next see this bright top worn with other brights...or, you know, black.  Or both.

*Blue-green shift blouse (Nordstrom)
Dark 'denim' pants (Kohls)
Grey leopard wedges
Grey ponte jacket (Target)
Grey/black bead necklace by RB

Is This Summer?: Part 2

A Nervous Data Cruncher -- Thursday, 6/26/14

I wore this simple, comfortable outfit on the day that was second only to my very first day at my new job in degree of nervous anticipation -- it was the day I was set to work on a fresh set of important, highly visible data, with another person, under timelines that were not stressful, but were not relaxed either.  Everything turned out fine in terms of producing the reports (though the results themselves were not wonderful -- though not unexpectedly bad either). 

I actually rarely feel anxious about an upcoming day at work.  I'm pretty much a behind-the-scenes number cruncher at this point, so I don't have many awkward meetings or stressful presentations or whatever.  The number of emergency requests with a lot of urgency are relatively few.  This week, for example, has been great because my boss (who is on vacation) left me with marching orders to update/revamp some reports -- it's a nice combination of interesting/challenging enough to keep me engaged while not too stressful.  It's been relaxing somehow (if tiring, as work continues to be for me even after 3 months).

I spent the day working in my colleague's office, which gets warmer than mine in the afternoon, allowing me to answer this post's title with "Yes, yes it is."

*Red striped button-up shirt (thrifted)
Black Dockers pants (thrifted)
Leopard pointy-toed flats from Nordstrom
Seed pearl necklace by RB

Radiant Orchid -- Friday, 6/27/14

"Radiant Orchid" is the Pantone color of 2014.  Whatever the hell that means.  In my case it means, Hey, these shoes that I bought last year are totally cool now.

Also, this shirt.  Man.  It fits like it was made for me.  I wish I could buy it in a dozen different colors/patterns - I would be good to go for the summer.  I bought it while I was thrifting with my mom and her sister at Christmas.  It was not an 88 cent item, but it was worth well more than the $5 or so I spent on it.

Radiant orchid and plaid -- what more does a person need for a Friday of data crunching?  A denim skirt, naturally, but you know I've got that covered.

*Purple plaid shirt (thrifted)
Denim skirt (thrifted)
Silver pendant (thrifted)
"Radiant orchid" flats by Born

I'm enjoying this simple pendant as an understated necklace to wear with a v-neck shirt.  I love the look of longer pendants, station necklaces, etc., on smaller-chested women, but since that length does not work so well on me, I like having this low-flash necklace that nevertheless seems to complete an outfit for me.

Is This Summer?: Part 1

Summery Yellow Shoes -- Monday, 6/23/14

Summer has officially arrived but I'm still wearing a long-sleeved shirt.

*Black/blue/yellow floral shirt with banded hem (thrifted) -- this was the shirt I had planned to wear with the black ankle pants before realizing the issue I was having with the low rise on those pants.  Well, they worked fine here.
Black 5-pocket pants from Rafaella
Yellow flats
Light blue double-strand necklace from Kohls

Tuesday Blues -- Tuesday, 6/24/14

This blue sleeveless dress is just about as short as I'm willing to go without tights.  I felt a bit like I was doing the infamous RB compensatory dressing technique of extra warmth on top with bare legs, although the classic RB style involves doing this in Texas winters, not Snow City summers.

*Light blue knit dress from Kohls
Blue polka dot knit jacket from Target
Blue pointy-toed flats
Blue sparkly necklace

Statement Flower Jacket -- Wednesday, 6/25/14

Another June day, another jacket worn to work.  This jacket has a lot of oomph.  And this is weird, but my cursor has totally disappeared.  Okay...

*White/grey floral blazer from Coldwater Creek (got a great deal on it)
*Green silk short-sleeved sweater from Jones New York (weird but I own almost no green)
Black pencil skirt (thrifted)
Grey leopard wedges
Grey big-ball necklace from Macy's

Articles For My Dad

One about a wrestling legend.

One about Fussball (that's soccer to you Americans) terms in German.

One about a funny data error.

The rest of you can feel free to read these articles, too.

Friday Night Sights

(1) As I was about to drive out of the parking lot after work this evening, I saw a strange, rather large bird in the grass to the left of my car.  Is that a grebe?  What?  That doesn't make sense.  It looks like an immature something.  A chicken?  It 3/4-walked, 1/4-flew in front of my car to the grassy area on the other side...where a momma turkey and about half a dozen poults were hanging out.  Wild turkeys in the grass at my workplace?  I haven't seen that...well, OK, I saw that regularly enough at my last pre-grad school job, but still, it was awesome and strange.  And it taught me that I need to figure out how to take better pictures with my phone. 

(How do I mistake a young turkey for a young pied-billed grebe, even for a moment?  Well, they're not crazy dissimilar, I guess -- look at the photos and see what I mean? -- but mostly I've just been super tired today.  Tired enough that when I got in the elevator after work, I held my hand over the up button for several seconds before realizing OK I want to go down right? Right.  Note that I have not gone up from the third floor for literally months and never at the end of the day.)

(2) There is a major sporting event being held in Snow City on Tuesday, at the sports arena only a few blocks from our apartment.  Yesterday evening, crossing the bridge near home, there was one of those electronic road signs warning drivers: "TUESDAY / 11 AM - 2 PM / EXCEPT DELAYS."  So I guess that's a combination of both expecting the delays and accepting them.  (When I said "except delays" to Robert, he closed his eyes, lifted his face, and held his hands palms up to the sky.  Indeed.)  But this evening, the sign read: "EXPECT DELAYS."  No doubt they've decided that it's too much to ask that we take these delays in an open, philosophical manner.  It's enough that we be warned -- that's their look-out.  How we process that emotionally, spiritually, etc., is up to us.

Oily Gums

I went to the dentist (in downtown Snow City, about 25 minutes walk from my apartment) yesterday afternoon -- and oh, it was a really lovely day to walk, about 73 degrees, sunny, a cool breeze, the kind of July afternoon that you could sell in a bottle to Texans and make a gazillion dollars.  I was wearing jeans, people, and I wasn't hot.  This is solid gold.

Anyway, all was well with my teeth, and I was very pleased that my gums are healthier -- all of my measurements were either the same or improved from when they checked me out a year ago.  Given that the secular trend is for the situation to deteriorate, my improvement is particularly awesome, and I'm about 99.9% convinced that it's the extra omega-3 fats in my diet (and the increased omega-3 to omega-6 ratio) that's making the difference. 

All the more reason to keep taking my krill oil pills daily, eating fish regularly, and having flaxseed oil for breakfast as often as my stomach can tolerate it.  I recently bought some of this blackened salmon (C Wirthy brand) at Walmart, and I really enjoyed it.

Mostly Pants This Week: Part 2

Purply Goodness -- Wednesday, 6/18/14

OK, it's easy to see how a white knit blazer is a useful wardrobe addition, but purple suede pumps?  Really?  And yet, yes.  I find them surprisingly practical...perhaps because my ratio of pants-too-long-for-flats to shoes-that-aren't-flats-but-also-aren't-interview-heels is too high, but whatever.  These shoes are awesome looking, comfortable (under my normal office conditions), and seem to go with a lot of things in my closet.

*Light purple floral knit shirt (thrifted)
*Purple shrug (thrifted)
Dark 'denim' pants from Kohls
Purple suede pumps (thrifted)
Hammered silver necklace from Jones New York

Barbie Pink -- Thursday, 6/19/14

I continue to surprise myself with the amount of hot pink in my wardrobe.  Well, it's definitely useful to realize I have a hot pink cardigan when I'm putting together an outfit around this navy top with a bright pink design, one of several "shift blouses" that I ordered from Nordstrom a while back (sisters to the navy bird top).  I'm looking forward to recreating this basic outfit -- shift blouse, lightweight cardigan/jacket, necklace, pants -- over and over this summer.  And seriously, am I totally ready to be named assistant deputy mayor of Matchy-Matchy Town or what?

*Navy and hot pink shift blouse from Nordstrom
Hot pink cardigan from Macy's
Navy pants (thrifted, 88 cents)
Blue pointy-toed flats from Nordstrom
Bright pink necklace from Outfit Additions

Tried and True Saves My Ass, and the Rest of the World From My Ass -- Friday, 6/20/14

Friday has no photo because I had a before-work panic as I realized that the newly thrifted top I had selected to wear with my black ankle pants was too short to wear with them -- those pants are both sort of lower rise than I usually wear and are a bit big in the waist, making them a little dangerously low rise if I'm not careful with top selection.  I rejected the original shirt and about 4 more before I decided, Fuck it, I'm going to wear the flowery Lands End blouse I wore with these pants the first time (it's both long and sort of oversized/flowy so it works very well here even without a cardigan).  I added a chunky silvery necklace (which thank the gods I have because in addition to the length issue, I also had a neckline issue -- I had mistaken a freckle on my skin for a smudge and had gouged at myself, leaving a conspicuous red mark high on my chest -- it was just that kind of fucking morning, you know?) and the black LifeStriders flats and was done with it.  It seems silly to repeat outfits already, given how many other things I have to wear, but I just had no time or energy to figure out something else.

It did make me realize that as much as I like those comfy black ankle pants, the low rise is a limitation.  (Note to self: Always test the top with these pants ahead of time.)  When I got home from work, I ordered a couple of pairs of ankle pants (in brighter colors -- blue! hot pink!) from Kohls to see if I can find another casual Friday-in-summer pair of pants.

....And now that the ankle pants have arrived, I can report: um, no.  These ankle pants are not my friend.  I've ordered blue and hot pink Dockers; we'll see if they work better.