The Bees' Knees

I went shopping after work today with a single objective: to buy shorts.

Shorts: the kind that of pants that end above the knee.

...and I did get a pair of shorts.  I also got two dresses and a skirt.  All of them end above the knee.

I've been thinking about it since I left the store, and I literally can NOT remember the last time I bought shorts.  It feels like kind of a big deal.  Don't get me wrong - I didn't put on the shorts and think, "damn, I look GOOD!"  I did, however, put on the shorts, turn around in the mirror, note thankfully that I no longer have back-of-thigh fat sagging down near my knee pits and that my thighs are WAY less jiggly than I remember, and then did a little happy dance.

As for the dresses, here are some horribly blurry dressing room selfies to get the message across:

funny faces and "I'm a little teapot" pose: free with purchase

The dress on the left is actually kelly green with white polka dots (white balance?  WHAT white balance?).  And I think it's more flattering than it looks in the picture.  I love the fabric. It's light and flowy and makes me want to walk barefoot through a park and spin in circles...or maybe just toss a cardigan on top and wear it to work.

I did what I could with the contrast on the picture on the right to show where the dress ends and the door begins.  This dress is made of the nicest textured fabric, and just looks so darn professional!  (Disney look: now including sleeveless!)  I'm pretty sure sleeveless isn't interview-appropriate, but boy does it make me look like a moderately stylish grown-up!  The belt is just a sash, tied in the back.

Anyway, hooray for continued improvement... and for the triumphant return of my knees...  and for the extra miles I'm running weekday mornings so that I can keep buying new clothes.

Sweet Sixteen

I took this picture a little over a week ago, with a mixture of pleasure and exasperation.  The pants I'm wearing here are ones that I bought some time in the fall.

I love them - they are pretty much wrinkle-proof, comfortable, dressy, and they fit my waist and thighs more proportionately than most pants.  Plus, they were a size smaller than my other pants when I bought them.  Every time I put them on and saw the number on the tag, I smiled.

As you can see though, the waistband is starting to get to the "needs to be 'altered' with a safety pin" stage.  They slip down to my hips, which wouldn't be bad except the hems hit the ground if the waistband is at my hips...  

More and more of my original pants are getting to the humorously large point, and this pair of pants tells me something important that I need to remember: don't buy a bunch of clothes at once!  I stopped on my way home today to do some impromptu clothes shopping, and did something I haven't done in many many moons: walked straight to the "normal" side of the store.  As it turns out, the normal side has sizes all the way up to 18, so it wasn't the moral victory I'd hoped for, but I did grab three pairs of pants and three shirts and headed to the dressing room.  One pair was the exact style pictured above, except one size smaller.

Time for a flashback!

During the fall of my sophomore year at Penn State, my mom came to visit and took me clothes shopping.  None of the pants I tried on were fitting right, and I pitched a fit when she grabbed a pair that were size 16.  I think I cried when I realized that they fit.  Considering it was over fifteen years ago and I still remember that particular shopping trip, you can rest assured that it made a major impression.

...and back to the present!

All of the pants I tried on today were 16's.  One pair - sadly, the much-needed khakis - was comically "sausage casing" tight.  Another pair of Dockers were tight, but not ridiculously so.  I have a few sweaters and other hip-length tops that'll work with them.  And the third pair were the dress pants I was thrilled to find.  Putting on a pair of 16's that fit gave me flashbacks to the college shopping trip, and turned me into every cliché woman in a diet food commercial who zips up a pair of pants triumphantly and dances in front of the mirror.

It.  Was.  Awesome!

Sixteen is way smaller than the 20's and 22's I started with, but also nowhere near my goal.  Of course, I never did make a solid number goal, either by size or weight.  When I said I wanted to shop in the normal section of the store, I didn't realize that the normal section has expanded to such large sizes.  I think I'd look awesome in a 12.  That's average and normal these days, right?  Maybe that's a good 2014 goal.

Anyway, that's the latest on my progress.  It's wonderful to see results, even though getting to this point has been long and slow.  And as long as progress continues in the same direction, I'll be patient getting there.

...and I won't buy more than two pairs of pants at the same time!

Doth the Lady Protest Too Much?

Conversation at work today between me and my officemate:

Me: I have a new top I want to wear, but I don't think my black cami is clean. Actually, to be dress code legal, I guess I need to wear my sleeveless black tank top instead...but I think the neckline on that one is too high. 

Her: So it's see-through and low-cut?

(She gives me the Single Raised Eyebrow of Judgment)

Me: you're making me sound like a ho! It's really not that low-cut!

I am acutely aware of where I am at this point in my weight loss: somewhere between looking way better than I used to and looking as good as I think I do! It's a dangerous place to be, full of pitfalls of ego (see the size-medium pants incident). I see people every day out and about wearing clothes two sizes too small - muffin tops a-poppin', navels visible beneath too-tight shirts, back and/or armpit cleavage - and I don't ever want to BE those people. How do I know I'm not getting dressed wearing rose-tinted "less fat goggles?" 

I have a feeling I might be doing that, if today's conversation is any indication. Perhaps it's time to find some new work clothes that are a happy feminine medium between flirty and frumpy. 

Ironically enough, I think the new shirt in question is exactly that. I tried it on with the sleeveless black top underneath, and it works perfectly. 

Another Hodge Podge Post

Prologue:
I don't think I've mentioned on the blog (though Facebook knows alllll about it!) that my work building has a... considerable challenge with German cockroaches.  I had one run across my desk last week, and I'm still a little emotionally scarred!  The pest control department even came out last week to spray the lockers in the hallway because it seemed like all of the guys were shaking roaches out of their clothes and shoes.

One of my trainers stopped by today to tell me had training forms for me, but they were in his locker.  I asked him to shake the roaches off before bringing them to me, and he laughed, telling me there are no roaches in the lockers on his end of the building but they are in the microwave in that workshop.  He told me that he was heating a frozen meal - 4 minutes on high heat - and when he opened the microwave a roach ran out from under the turntable.  That's right, you can kill a Gremlin in the microwave but you can't kill a cockroach that way.  They.  Are.  Monsters.


skip to 2:00 for gratuitous exploding Gremlin action

In other news, I barely slept last night.  (I'm fine, just letting someone live in my head rent-free.)  After laying there not sleeping until 10:30, I got up and came back downstairs.  I watched The Daily Show and Colbert Report before going back upstairs.  After falling asleep around 12:30, I woke up at 1:20 and 3:05 before my alarm finally went off at 4:15. 

Ordinarily, on tired days I wear my hair in a bun and wear comfy/frumpy clothes and keep a low profile.  And I hear "are you ok?" or "no sleep?" from the folks in the building all day long.  This time, I made a conscious effort to hide the bags under my eyes behind glasses, hair down, a dress, and heels.  And all day I heard variations of "you look pretty today."  You can judge for yourself whether that really meant "thank you for showing me your boobs," but I'll take it!  (btw, I had a cardigan on at work)

Though I still feel generally off and it's likely I'll be asleep long before 8:00 tonight, I left today with a solid self-confidence boost I desperately needed. My original plan for tonight was to bake chicken thighs and make mashed potatoes for my next few meals, but I didn't want to commit to that much manual labor.  Instead, I stopped for a sub - half for dinner, half for tomorrow's lunch - and will try that whole cooking thing again tomorrow night.

For now, I'm just hoping I've evicted my brain tenant enough to sleep for a really long time tonight.  And perhaps I'll try this dress-up thing again tomorrow.

Finding My Voice...in Bangladesh??

I was taken aback by my own passion earlier today.  Though I can rant about non-issues like door slamming neighbors and unfairness at work with aplomb (please tell me I'm using that right...), it's rare that I find myself really caring about something important. 

Global warming?  Bad...but not going to be solved by me.
Dogfighting? Bad...but what would I do?  It's not like I know anyone who participates...

Generally, I hear things that make me sad for a few minutes and then I move on to rainbows and puppies and unicorns.  But this thing keeps nipping at the back of my mind, and I think maybe this time I'm going to act.

My "History of Work in America" class requires a weekly discussion forum, where we read a series of required "primary source" articles (and occasionally watch video clips), choose one question from a list of about 10, form an opinion, cite two of the sources, and blather for a minimum of 150 words.  We then choose a classmate's post and comment on their use of the source materials and whether they proved their point, in a minimum of 100 words.  That's it - nothing to it - easy points.  So this week, the question I selected was the following:

Could you conclude that sweatshops exist in developing nations because a developing nation--like the United States was in the nineteenth century--must go through the historical phase of harsh economic development in order for that developing nation to develop a modern economy?

My Opinion:
Nope...Sweatshops are NOT OK

My answer to this question can be summed up in two words: absolutely not.  Arguing that slave wages and unsafe working conditions are in any way “necessary” promotes consumerism at the expense of basic human rights.

We meet John Keady in the video, “Nike Sweatshops and the Sydney Olympics.” Keady researched working conditions in Indonesia and decided to see for himself whether the jobs were livable.  Not only did Keady lose 25 pounds in the month he worked in a Nike factory, but his wages were barely enough to pay for a rat-infested room and enough food to subsist on.  His decision to put an American face and voice to a first-hand worker account brought the plight of the workers to middle-class consumers around the world.

Meanwhile, the Stossel video “Are Sweatshops factories good?” is nothing more than a condescension against human rights protestors.  He managed to find a few people from developing countries to extol the virtues of factories.  His report is not very in-depth, and sounds like a commercial for these factories.

Another first-person account came from the article “Working Overtime to Vanquish Sweatshops.”   One immigrant, the daughter of factory workers, recalls her childhood: ''My mother was working 15 hours days,'' Betty Yu said. ''I didn't know my mother. I didn't know my father. They were at work when I woke up and when I went to bed at night.”  While this account probably mirrors that of children of nineteenth century US factory workers, one important differentiation can be made: though conditions then were deplorable, with long hours and dangerous working conditions, people around the world were immigrating to the US in massive numbers.  The bad conditions here were still better than the terrible conditions they left behind.  Who is immigrating to Bangladesh today?

Sources:

John Stossel ABC News: Are Sweatshops Factories Good?Sky TV: Nike Sweatshops and the Sydney Olympics
NY Times: Working overtime to banish sweatshops

Generally speaking, my commentaries hit right around 175 words.  So the fact that I managed to ramble on so extensively on this topic surprised me.  But hey - it's good to enjoy an assignment every now and then!  Today, I read an opposing viewpoint from one of my classmates.  I'd also like to share her commentary, followed by my response...

Sweatshops Boost the Economy * I would absolutely agree that developing nations must endure the same phase of harsh economic development that the U.S. did in order to develop a thriving economy; and utilizing labor to produce products sold in America is a great way to develop that economy. It’s called globalization “the development of an increasingly integrated global economy marked especially by free trade, free flow of capital, and the tapping of cheaper foreign labor markets,” as defined by Webster. Newer generations in India, Africa, China and Korea live better than the older generations before them because of production for U.S. goods (Are Sweatshop Factories Good?).   

The video (Nike Sweatshops and the Sydney Olympics) proved that globalization does work. That video was made in 2000? According to the Jakarta Globe, by early 2013, Nike planned to make the manufacturing plant in Jakarta “the largest manufacturing base for Nike apart from China and Vietnam.” Minimum wage was raised by 44%. That’s more than a 3 ½ percent increase in the cost of living per year. That’s a bigger cost of living wage than some American workers earn in  a year. 

Response:
As much as I love the idea of globalization and a global economy, I believe that a truly global economy should have standardized minimum wages (based on the nation's economy, of course) and a certain minimum of guaranteed worker safety.  I acknowledge that factories are not all sweatshops, and that for some workers in developing countries (as well as workers in this country) factories are perfectly safe and pay a decent wage.

I am very confused by your perspective that the Sydney Olympics video shows globalization in a positive light.  And while I find your statistics on the rising minimum wage a positive sign, I'd also like to point out that money doesn't do these workers any good if they die in an industrial accident due to their deplorable working conditions.  Just in the past six months in Bangladesh:

* November 2012: 117 killed in clothing factory fire
* April 2013: 1,000+ killed in factory collapse
* May 2013: 8 people killed in factory fire
* ...and just this week: finally, Bangladesh gives factory workers the right to unionize.  However, I wanted to highlight the following quote, pulled from the last article (emphasis mine):

"The government is in talks with labour groups and factory owners on a new minimum wage for the garment sector. Its current $38-per-month minimum pay is half what Cambodian garment workers earn.

 

Bangladesh last increased its minimum garment-worker pay in late 2010, almost doubling the lowest pay. This time, wages are unlikely to go much higher as factory owners, who oppose the raise, say they cannot afford higher salaries as Western retailers are used to buying cheap clothing."

"Harsh economic development" is one thing.  However, ignoring the horrible treatment of human beings for the sake of a $3 t-shirt from Wal Mart isn't globalization - it's exploitation.

 

So...it looks like, of all things, I am passionate about global workers' rights.  Who'd have thought?!?  I remember trying to find clothes made in the US a few years ago, and determined that my options would literally be to look Amish or to sew my own.  And I justified my inaction by telling myself that not all clothing factories are sweatshops.  Maybe my $5 t-shirt was made by happy well-fed women putting children through college on their wages.  I can't possibly solve this problem on my own.  And what I do probably won't make a bit of difference.  But that's not going to stop me from acting.  With one exception, I've boycotted Wal Mart for over a year over the poor treatment of workers in their stores in this country!  

I pledge that I will no longer buy clothes made in Bangladesh until real substantive change is brought to the clothing factories.  A living wage and safe working conditions should be guaranteed to every worker on the planet, and I am willing to pay more to do my small part. 

Though I can't find an article to explain this point more clearly, I learned in my labor economics class that labor costs are a small piece of a very large cost-benefit equation, and increasing the labor rate does NOT cause the product on the shelf to go up by the same amount.  That means a labor raise of $1/hour might translate to $.10 per piece of clothing. However, of that $.10, only 2-3 cents would actually be passed along to the consumer.

...but even if the cost of every article of clothing you buy went up by $1 - from a $5 t-shirt to a $6 t-shirt - wouldn't that be worth it to know there aren't starving workers living in filth?  And before you say you can't afford that extra $1 per shirt, consider all the ways to pay less - sales, coupons, clearance racks, stores like Ross and TJ Maxx, consignment/second hand/thrift stores...

OK...so that was an awful lot for one post.  Sorry about that.  Like I said, apparently I found my voice. And I can't seem to stop singing!

Classic...I Guess

When you find a style that works for you, why change (even 11 years later)?

Making Things

Whenever I make anything, there's this moment in the process where it goes from an abstract to an actual thing. For me, that's a bigger accomplishment than seeing the completed product. When making cookies, it's adding the flour that turns the slimy sugar-butter-egg goo into cookie dough. With soft pretzels, it never seems real until the dough has risen.

Today, I made a vest for Scott. I cut out most of the pieces yesterday, before realizing that we couldn't find the iron (umm...this also means I haven't ironed in over a year...is it wrong that I'm proud of that?). I quit for the night, and then finished cutting this morning after a run to Target for a $7 iron and an eggnog latte.

So really, 80% of this process happened today. After the cutting, I attached the front and back at the shoulders. Then came the long and tedious process of pinning and then ironing interfacing to the lining. (still not quite sure what the heck the point of that was) Then I attached the back and front of the lining at the shoulders. Then I spent an hour pinning the whole outside to the whole liner. Then it was finally time to sew more than 6" at a time.

Much like making a pillow, you sew the vest together with the "good" sides facing each other, leave a hole, and then flip it right-side-out through the hole. It wasn't until I did that flip that I looked down at the work table and thought, "holy shit - this might actually work!"

It's done now, except for the buttons. I'm waiting to have Scott try it on while I pin the buttons in the right spot. I'm so proud of myself. I haven't sewn anything since 9th grade sewing class and half expected to have a temper tantrum and never finish. Quite the contrary, I considered the extra fabric that I bought, and seriously thought about making a vest for myself. But then I realized how small our office is, and how I haven't had anything to eat since 8 am, and I thought perhaps I'll just take it easy for the rest of the day.

No vest for me, but I am going to use some extra fabric to make myself a matching belt/sash thing and a headband. You're going to love these pictures, I'm sure!

Not Berry Funny

Lunch Time at My Desk:
A piece of turkey with a generous portion of cranberry sauce (home-made, with no added colors) falls face down on my lightest colored pants - my favorite khakis. "Are you kidding me?" is yelled, but since I'm alone in my office, no one answers me. I scrape the chunks of cranberry off my pants and proceed to spray half a bottle of OxiClean stain remover on the area, blot repeatedly, and notice that there's still a big bright reddish-pink stain. So I sprayed the rest of the bottle on the stain, blotted some more, and have a slightly-lighter-but-still-very-noticeable pink stain, now surrounded by a 6" wet circle!

I called Scott and begged him to come to my rescue with a clean pair of pants, and of course he agreed. He's wonderful like that. And so, I did all the work I could that wouldn't require that I leave my office. Mostly, Iwas trying to avoid going in the kitchen where a) I'm going to be made fun of by the cooks, and b) I run the risk of being seen by the diners at the kitchen table.

About five minutes before Scott arrived, I pushed back from my desk and glanced down at the stain, preparing to be sad about ruining my favorite pants. I was not prepared for the two things I saw: the stain was about 90% gone and barely visible, and there were two NEW chunks of cranberry on my pants! I guess some of the original plop of cranberry got transferred from my leg to the underside of the desk in my initial panic, and then transferred back to my leg.

At this point, I'm out of OxiClean spray, and I have nothing to do but wait for my knight in shining Saturn to arrive. Luckily, my wait wasn't much longer. He brought me pants, and even waited for me to change so that he could take the first pair home to stain treat and wash. And today I am happy to report that they are stain-free!

Note: not any sort of paid endorsement...I really love that Oxi stuff a million times better than the Tide pens. The Tide pens smell like puke to me, and don't work half as well. Oxi smells like Febreeze and have now saved that same pair of pants twice (the first time was an exploding Coke bottle)!

What the Eff?

So you know that interview I had on Monday? The one that I wore my brand new super coordinated suit and painful heeled shoes that even now my feet feel as if they were crushed? The one that I woke up early for? The one with someone other than the person that I was supposed to interview with?

It turns out that interview didn't count for anything.

Yeah.

That face you're making? I've been making it for the past 12 hours.

I woke up today to multiple calendar requests on my work e-mail and a voicemail. When I spoke to the secretary to reschedule and asked if it was a do-over from the first interview, she said yes and then got kind of snippy and said "*I'm* the one doing the interviews, and I discussed it with [the guy I interviewed with] and I need to bring you all in again."

If I were interviewing for a position within that immediate work unit, I would have said "no thank you" and moved on. If this was going to be the case, then they should have called us all that day and rescheduled us. I really feel like there's either some sort of power struggle going on, or there's some other untold story, but I'm really not as enthusiastic this time around. And I have yet to hear anything that sounds like an apology for the inconvenience and the emotional roller coaster.

And since the interview is in the same place, and the same major players work there, I decided I needed to get another suit. I got the brown one with the teal shirt that I tried on before. No time to screw around and try on a bunch of stuff, and luckily I had tried on 3/4 of the mall in my last excursion. This time we were in, out, and to Pay Less for a pair of brown shoes in about 40 minutes. I'm not in love with the outfit, but whatever. At this point, I'm just ready for it to be over.

(this time, I will print out a resume though...)

In Other News...

I had rehearsal tonight, rehearsal tomorrow, work Friday and Saturday, and then rehearsals Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and shows Weds, Thurs, and Friday. My throat still hurts. And I have PMS now, which doesn't bode well for next week.

My eyes are just fine. I still wore my glasses on Monday for my "just kidding" interview, but was back in contacts on Tuesday when we went to see WALL-E. I'm still taking them out at night, but I'm fine. The redness is gone. Even Scott has stopped worrying about them!

Speaking of WALL-E, I loved it. The only thing that stopped me from instantly proclaiming it my new Pixar favorite was the fact that that WALL-E had a pet cockroach on Earth. That ate Twinkies. Every time the thing skittered up a wall, I shuddered. Oh - and it got smashed twice and came back to life. See? Pixar understands how roaches just... never... die! Otherwise, I totally loved it. It's definitely in my top 3 with Finding Nemo and Monsters Inc. I'll have to re-evaluate after I've seen it 100 times.

Another Day of Shopping

I'm too tired to go into a while song and dance about how much I hate to shop. We all know it. I doubly hate shopping when I only have one shot to find something that I have to have. Example? A suit for an interview I have on Monday. If I didn't find something today, I probably would have had to fall back on my old black suit. That one is technically fine, but it's about 4 years old. And it's black. You're not supposed to wear black for an interview.

Of course, I'm not sure what the interview fashion police would say about the outfit I ended up with, but I'm happy. I think that's what counts most.

After an unsuccessful run to Dress Barn, then 2 hours of babysitting (cookies in exchange for quiet? it worked for a little while!), Scott and I set off for the Florida Mall. Macy's? Nope. Nordstrom? Nada. Dillards? Zilch. Sak's? They at least had suits, but nothing I loved enough to spend more than $150 on! We hit the "fancy" department stores ahead of our normal stand-by's because Sears and Penny's usually carry a much more casual set of clothes.

As it turns out, Penny's was my lucky store today. The first thing I found wasn't a suit. It was a cute cocktail dress in a size too small that I grabbed and decided I needed to try on. Not only does it fit (there's a little back fat involved, and therefore a shawl/wrap is needed), but it was on clearance for $20. Sold!!

Scott didn't like it on the hanger, and I don't really like it in this picture, but you'll just have to trust me that it looks cute on.

As for suit shopping, I finally hit my stride. There were three that I tried on, and would have bought any of them, considering the complete lack of anything worthwhile anywhere else. One was a light green tweed-ish fabric that was a little too "Jackie O" for a job interview. One was dark brown with teal pinstripes and a matching tank. This one was ok, but didn't fit great, and the pants had a high waist and the zipper was in the back. And then, there was the one I ended up buying...

It's tan with very fine teal and brown pinstripes. Originally, I tried it on with the teal tank that came with the brown suit, and I seriously considered re-hanging the suit so that the tank came home with me. But you know me and that whole honesty thing!

So we circled the store until I happened upon this bright orange shirt. It's basically got a shallow

v-neck with three flat stones that look like a built-in necklace in the exact color of the buttons on the jacket.

oh! And the coolest thing? This suit is really high quality. It fits nicely already (the pants should be hemmed, but since I'm short on time, I'll just wear heels). And it was on clearance for 60% off! The original tag was $190 and I got it for $85. And the shirt was on sale for under $15.

At this point, I'm just glad the shopping is finally over!

Of course, I do have one more "fashion" picture to share. It seems that my cup runneth over with sweaters. Particularly cable-knits. Amazingly enough, I have a dark purple, a dark red, and a brown (all short sleeved) that are mid-laundry and therefore didn't make the picture. I'm thinking my slogan should be, "wear the rainbow!"

Plain Vanilla

The "costumes" for Encore this year are shades of white. We are all supposed to wear white, beige, ivory, or light khaki. Tops and bottoms can be a mix of pants, skirts, capris, short sleeve, long sleeve, etc.

Well last year I made a very poor costume choice. We were told the following: black dresses, below the knee, look formal. So bought ye olde black frock with sensible short sleeves and the only frill at the hem. And 90% of the women on the stage were wearing spaghetti strap short cocktail dresses.

See me in the top right corner, looking like I'm wearing a black t-shirt? See all those bare shoulders around me? I'd prefer to not look like the dowdy one again this year!

This year I am determined to look like I belong with everyone else. So I took Scott along on a little shopping excursion this morning. I was looking for a new suit, but ended up picking up three shirts for $30 at Lane Bryant (which has recently shifted its focus from making fat teenage girls look like hookers to actually supplying women with stylish size-appropriate clothing. what a pleasant surprise that was!). Two of the shirts were potentials for the Encore concert:

The first is basically two layers of ivory chiffon. Obviously needs a camisole under it (and there is one in the picture, honest!). It's a faux wrap with a really nice satin accent along the neck line, and a satin tie in the back. When I left the store, this was "the one." And I was thrilled to have found it. However, now that I'm home and have tried it on again with a cami underneath, I'm a little worried that I'll look like I have a big X across my chest that'll look even more accented under stage lights. (please disregard the sagging around the waist...the photos were taken without proper... umm... support)

The second one I adored on the hanger, and adored it on. But I had pretty much made up my mind that I wasn't going to wear white. This shirt has an interesting neck line, and really subtle pinstripes in silver and shiny white that probably wouldn't show up on stage. That's unfortunate, because they do add some visual interest. This one I'm going to add to my work shirt rotation, even though it, too, requires that something be worn under it.

The third top I bought was a $5 orange v-neck cable knit sweater. I love it and can't wait for the cooler months so that I'll have an excuse to wear it!

But I have this one other shirt already. I bought it online and totally hated it. It's nothing like the picture implied it would be. It's see-through, pleated all the way down so I feel like I'm in a cupcake liner, and the fabric reminds me of the blouses my great grandmother used to wear. However, I threw it on tonight (since I was already wearing the camisole) and I think it looks pretty decent. It's just about the same shade as the first shirt, but the visual interest is all in the crocheted collar/buttons.

So, disregarding the poor white balance and my funny faces, does anyone have an opinion on any of these? I really think it's between the first and last. The second just doesn't look special enough for the stage. And like I said, I'd like to wear it to work. It's doubtful that polyester (or whatever it is) will ever recover from that kind of industrial-strength sweating and still be wearable.

Poor Scott is back on the trail with me tomorrow (yes, tomorrow - I haven't gone to sleep yet!) for a new interview suit. We also have to babysit, and I was hoping to see WALL*E, but I think we may need to wait another week for that. My throat still hasn't completely healed, and we're going to a Dave Matthews Band concert in Tampa on Wednesday. So perhaps my best bet is to take it easy tomorrow afternoon while I still can.

Discount Fashion Show

Scott escorted me out today to shop for a new "party shirt," since this one has been photographed WAY too many times. I found three shirts that I just loved, and ended up deciding against one because it was solid brown, and I have a lot of brown in my wardrobe right now.

The first shirt I bought has really cool open rings on the shoulders, which presents a little weird bra strap situation, but it's all good. Obviously, my hair is long enough to cover the shoulders anyway. It is really comfortable, looks pretty decent, and nothing in my closet looks anything like it. I think this one is going to make its debut at the baby shower I'm going to on Saturday. It's more of a "daytime" look than the other shirt.

And speaking of the other shirt, it's PURPLE! I don't have any other purple shirts in the mix right now, except for a short sleeve sweater. But this one is so much cooler! Check out the giant fake belt/belt buckle! This one I think I'll be wearing out for my birthday dinner and the subsequent get-together.

I also got a brown "pea coat" that's just a cotton shell with a simple liner. I doubt it would keep me warm, but it looks like a nice jacket on top of that flowered shirt. And the total for all 3 was under $30.

Fashion is fun, but discount fashion is so much better!

In the Mood

Scalzi's Monday Photo Shoot (which I'm actually doing on a Monday!): Make a moody picture. By which you can use mood lighting of some sort, or possibly arty black-and-white, or whatever you need to in order to give the shot that certain moodiness. It's hard to describe, but you'll know it when you see it, I'm sure.

It's amazing what fog adds to a picture: romance? mystery? anonymity? Well in this particular case, it was just bringing the camera from the AC of our stateroom to the hot & humid balcony that made the lens fog up. But the effect is interesting.

(By the way, yes that is that dress. It worked great that evening. Sadly, it met its demise in the dryer when we got home. I don't even think a professional dry cleaner could get the pleats back the way they are supposed to be!)

Inner Child Alert!

So umm... this must be the most g-rated panty post ever!


Sadly, I need a little help coming up with a clever Sesame Street song to go with the photo. I was thinking of "who are the faces on your underwear?" to the tune of "who are the people in your neighborhood?" but that's lame.

By the way, Wal Mart also had Care Bears undies in grown up sizes, but I couldn't name the bears, so I thought I'd stick with what I know. I only wish that the Elmo ones were Big Bird instead.

$100 Well Spent

Scott and I hit the outlet mall today. I was in desperate need of new sneakers (the old ones are stained and now holey, leaving me with just the pink hi-tops, which just don't go with capri pants), and was hoping to pick up some more cheap t-shirts from the Old Navy Outlet.

Well, the new sneakers I ended up with were maybe my 6th choice style-wise. I'm still on that pink kick, and these have blue accents instead. But they were the only ones in my size and width. And they are Nike, which has always been ok for me in the past. And they were *gasp* $50! Oy, that's a lot of money. On the bright side, they'll probably last me for 5 years because I never wear them!

And then the unthinkable happened: everything at the O.N. store was 60% off. EVERYTHING MUST GO! Yep - they were clearing out. Luckily, I managed to get some of the solid color fitted tees that I like so much. The choices were pretty picked-over, but I managed to get a new white one, a pinkish-mauve, and a brown v-neck (just like the one I was wearing today). I also got a polo shirt, a tank top, and a pair of casual pants. Grand total: $30. Woo!!! I asked the guy why they were closing, and he said they are turning the outlet store into a regular Old Navy. That's ok with me - they have good sales sometimes too.

After the outlets, we went over to Target and bought a whole bunch of random stuff including Puffs tissues in Halloween boxes, lighter fluid, gum, and a pink dress on clearance for $9! The dress is really really cool. It may not look like it on the hanger, but it's contemporary (which so rarely happens to me - I tend to buy clothes from the Old Navy Outlet!), and so cute and flirty. I thought I could put my white cardigan over it for work, but I tried that on and instantly broke into song, "summer lovin had me a blast, summer lovin happened so fast..." But aside from that, wow! Check out the kick-ass pleats on the bust:

That same pleating repeats at the bottom of the waistband, and the skirt poofs out when I spin around. And in case you were wondering, the dress is more the color of the first picture.

I'll make sure to get a couple of pictures when I wear it the first time (hmm... maybe next week?). Sure, I have to go strapless. Sure, I have fat arms that are better suited for sleeves. But every girl needs to let her inner diva out once in a while. Right?!?