Tropical non-teaching day

Tropical non-teaching day, originally uploaded by Cohabitating_Closet.

Yeay, I survived my first graduate seminar (in which only 1/2 the students admitted to doing the reading, and only 2 students actually spoke). Other than a slight syllabus snafu (oops), everything seems to be under control.

After a restless night sleep (I was dreaming about this, which happened just blocks from my apartment and woke us up with smoke and fire engines. Poor Bed-Stuy), I am up early to try to beat the heat. Today is the third in a series of tropical hot days. I am going to school for a meeting (casual) and to do some work, so I won't be meeting students. But they may see me (although I usually try to seem aloof on non-teaching days), so I need to be vaguely paparazzi ready.

This outfit is a quasi-attempt to convince A-Dubs to rock her shorts in mixed company.

Hope you have a lovely Tuesday.

Top: JCrew, thrifted
Short: Copper Key, shortened by me
Belt: Not Just Vintage (Brooklyn)
Shoes: BC Footwear, Nordstrom Rack

Dressing for a Funk

Good morning, all!  As many of you are starting school or getting ready to start back to school, today is just another Monday for me.  Although I wish I were heading back to school as a student right now, I can't say I miss all of the reading, projects, papers and tests that I encountered last fall in my short-lived career as a graduate student.  I swear I'll get back to that sometime soon.

For whatever reason, I've been in a serious funk the past couple of days.  Everything seems to be annoying me, and although I'd love to just crawl under my desk and hide/wallow until 5:00 gets here, my way of dressing while I'm down is to wear something pretty that I'll feel good in.  I engaged in a little retail therapy this weekend and picked up this dress while at Target to buy a new toaster.  I originally checked out the clothes there to snag myself an adorable short-sleeved turtleneck like E-Jo's, but had to take this dress home instead.

Check out the detailing:

Dress: Target

Shoes: Tsubo
Earrings and bracelet: New York & Company

First Day Jitters

This is my third year of professoring, but I am still pretty nervous today. We got woken by smoke and fire engines (I hope that folks are all right) and then some pretty hard core cat fighting. Maybe Lula is feeling sympathy nervousness for me, but lately, she's been very jittery, refusing to eat all her food and growling at the kitten every 10 minutes. But if we separate them, she cries until we reunite them.

But that's not my problem today. I teach my first Master's level class at my school (I did teach one of those upper undergrad/master's level classes once after I had defended in G-school). And I teach two more sections of my bread-and-butter course that I've taught every semester. When picking out an outfit, I wanted to go for some authority but not completely boring. I thrifted this dress, a ponte de roma double knit, back in May. I had to take it in on the sides and patch a small hole, but I think it works well for $4. Because of the seams just below the bust, it doesn't quite work with a belt, but I am throwing a light cardigan on top (I have nervousness about upper arms in the classroom). Even with the cardigan, this is a 100% secondhand outfit. (Students generally think professors are loaded,* so it's always my private joke that when I wear thrifted items to class).

Hope you have a lovely Monday!

*I realize the fact I've just returned from Europe shows that we are not impoverished.

Dress: Unknown label, altered by me, thriffted
Shoes: Ecco, thrifted
Scarf: via eBay

A Love of Red Shoes

Happy Friday!  Are you as excited that the weekend is here as I am?  I have nothing exciting going on this weekend, other than some Saturday morning yoga and a small BBQ, but that's a good thing.  It seems like so many summer weekends are just booked solid with parties, trips, out of town visitors, weddings, etc., that I'm really looking forward to doing nothing over the next couple of days.  

Today's outfit, if you can believe it, was actually built around this pair of red Puma flats.  They're super comfy and extremely cute, if I do say so.  Red is a pretty awesome color for shoes, and it seems to go with just about everything.  I'm pretty tired this morning, so that's about all the discussion I can muster up.  In the meantime, please enjoy a trip down memory lane.

I picked up a bunch of old family photos while visiting my parents in Ohio last month, and this one exhibits my lifelong love for red shoes.  This is me with my cousin around Christmas 1987, so I would've been 6.  I don't know what's more awesome about this picture - the sassy red shoes, or my mini-WW pose (can this be my submission for the Wonder Woman Pose Conference?  I'm not sure that I can possibly top it).

Do you have any lifelong style habits and/or embarrassing pictures to share?

Cardigan: Loft
Tee: Target
Skirt: Old Navy
Shoes: Puma

My Lima Bean

My Lima Bean, originally uploaded by Cohabitating_Closet.

Buster was in a really show off kind of mood, and kept attacking my leg while I tried to take my three pictures of the day. When I picked him up, he got very happy. As you can see, he has grown so much. In fact, I think he gained a lot of weight while the kitty sitters took care of him this past week. He used to be pretty svelte, but now he's my chunky little lima bean (he likes to eat lima beans, or anything else that falls on the floor in the kitchen). My tough-guy Gowanus-born kitty is getting an adolescent spread.
Today will be my last day of my quasi attempt to do 6 items in one month. I had to cheat with the wedding, and I chose to cheat for the holiday in Germany. It was pretty hard, and I looked pretty boring on the weekends (this tee shirt with the jeans, maybe a scarf). But I am really looking forward to wearing the rest of my clothes for the rest of the GAAD challenge. Other than trying on comfy shoes in Germany (Euros are just monopoly money, so they don't count, right?), I haven't really been tempted much. Shoes are technically allowed under the GAAD, but I only want to buy to replace things that are worn/damaged.
This last outfit is probably the last combination that I haven't tried with a top and this dress/tunic. Not teaching or work appropriate, but it works for working from home.
I wanted to thank folks for your encouraging words about the upcoming semester. I am really lucky to have a nice job with amazing colleagues, and I wanted to make public my goal of focusing on the positive, and ignoring or finding humor in the negative (Blokey often says this to me when I am bummed or cranky: "Can you find the humor in this?").
Have a lovely weekend, all!

Dress/Tunic: AA
Tights: Uniqlo
Shirt: Copper Key
Key necklace: gift
Belt: thrfited
Shoes: Aerosoles, thrifted
Scarf: eBay

Busy Wednesday

I'm just now getting around to posting my outfit from yesterday because it was a crazy busy day.  A busy day for me is actually a good thing (definitely better than the days that I can just sit in my cubicle twiddling my thumbs, waiting for work to come my way), no matter how tiring it might be.  I started the day with a 6am work-out, which I'm trying to do every Wednesday now.  Then my day at the office was filled with conference calls, an organization-wide Town Hall meeting (our Town Halls are sadly not nearly as angry or amusing as some town halls), endearing myself to my co-workers with baked goods and tackling a fun personal project of transferring my car's title to a relative out of state.  

But on a fashion note - yesterday was one of those days where I just felt like I had nothing to wear.  I had just done laundry on Tuesday night, and since I didn't get a chance to put anything away, I didn't have everything just waiting in my closet for me to go through, so nothing was jumping out at me.  I really need to consider making a trusty outfit list.  I often pick my clothes out the night before, but that didn't happen either.  My typical fall-back option is a black dress, but I wasn't feeling it, so I threw this together.

Do you ever have days where you feel like you have nothing to wear?  What do you do?  Do you have fall-back outfits in place just for such a day?

Cardigan, bracelet & shoes: Loft

Tank, pants & necklace: New York & Company

Edited to add: shoe close-up, per A-Dubs' request

In Denial

This is what being in denial about classes starting on Monday looks like, for me. I am thinking about my research, laundry, cleaning my house. I already sent my Monday classes' syllabi to the printing office yesterday, and I won't think about them anymore. Syllabuses are funny things. You can always make them better, find a more interesting reading, find some error, etc. But at some point, you just have to commit to your syllabus and move on. And it's not easy. Despite some frustrations I've had since returning and realizing that it's butt in gear time, I've resolved that I will not let the semester get me down. My life is too great in general to let a few class/administrative annoyances to distract me from what's good. Who's with me? (Insert job instead of semester if it's relevant).
I thought I'd share some pictures of Frankfurt, as part of my denial that I'm moving back into professor mode.

Rödelheim S-Bahn station

das Weingut

Castle I

Castle II (home of the robber knights, said our friend)

Rad at the Niederwalddenkmal

Honeymooners admiring Germania

Shirt: Rodarte for Target

Skirt: Muji
Pearls: via eBay
Shoes: Naturalizer

Back to office

Back to office, originally uploaded by Cohabitating_Closet.

Today is my first full day back in the states. We fell asleep at 7PM and woke up at 3 (but I stayed in bed until 5) and now we are up and running. Blokey is going to new faculty orientation (he started last spring, so even though he knows all this already, it's a requirement) and I am going to dig through files to work on some revisions for the monster project.

I did do some shopping in Germany, as we had a day of walking around the Bockenheim neighborhood (where the social science campus of the Goethe University* is located). My friend and I went into a cute shop (Damen-something or another) and while I did like many of the clothing, we both ended up getting these cute woven scarves, which was fun but did not break the rules of the GAAD.

These jeggings were almost a victim of my German good times. We rode bikes along the river one evening to a traditional Hessian apple wine restaurant, but my jeggings got caught and ripped a bit on this one attachment that held the baby seat in place. No worries, though, because a very nice neighborhood tailor fixed it for a mere 5 Euros. It's just behind my right calf, and not very noticeable.

The outside

The inside

Also, many apologies to Franca, about my misinformation about the European shelf toilet. It's not a German phenomenon at all, but still fascinating.

I hope that everyone is having a wonderful back to school/just before back to school week. I'm still mentally planning my first day outfit and I may need your advice! It's supposed to be a hot one that day.

Scarf: shop in Frankfurt
Tunic/dress: AA
Jeggings: Hue
Rain boots: Daffy's

*Our hosts told us an old lefty joke in Frankfurt: Enthusiastic political theory/ cultural studies students from the US come to Frankfurt and tell the taxi driver at the airport, "Take me to the Frankfurt School" referring to network of lefty social theorists mostly associated with the Institute for Social Research at Goethe. The cabbie, confused, then takes him to a kindergarten or a primary school in the central district.

Blue Monday

It's Monday, so it's back to the grind.  How were everyone's weekends?  I had a chance to catch up with old friends, (fella's) family, and enjoy Chicago's awesome weather as of late.  Our forecast for the entire week is high 70's and sunshine, which I'm most definitely looking forward to.  Another week of work, on the other hand?  Not so much.

How do you psych yourself up for going back to work after a weekend/time off?  Is there any way to make Monday mornings a little easier to bear?

Sweater: New York & Company
Tank: New York & Company
Skirt: Target
Necklace: Ann Taylor
Shoes: Tsubo

Greetings from Frankfurt

Frankfurt is an underrated city. I fell in love with Berlin back in 2005, but Berlin is like the crush I had on the dirty punky left wing boy with the eyebrow studs and stinky hoodie when I was 19. Frankfurt is like that less obviously exciting dude that you'd introduce to your mum, who is still bohemian and but can clean up nice and hold a job. Blokey and I have been enjoying our quasi-escape from New York/fake honeymoon. We return tomorrow, but first we'll squeeze in a few more experiences. (There was talk of running through wine country over at In Professorial Fashion this weekend. We may have spent 36 hazy hours in German wine country over the weekend, gawking at castles from the river and buying bottles and bottles of local wine for then an €7 a pop. I usually don't drink but I pretended to be as awesome as D-Med and A-Dubs for a day or two).
I don't have much to offer style-wise, except to say that being in Europe for a week has made me more comfortable with capsule style dressing. Our awesome hosts have well edited closets but still very well defined styles, and wearing the same thing multiple times in a week is no big deal. I didn't stick to my 6 items, but I have been overwearing the stripey shirt and black boots from Monday's outfit over and over again.
Finally, Blokey has learned some German (danke and Sheiße, which are very important), is a big fan of the windows, Turkish snack stands, the transit system, and the bread, but remains skeptical of the German shelf toilet. You really have to see it to believe it.
We arrive back in NY tomorrow morning, and start teaching soon. I highly recommend a European-just-before-the-semester-starts-getaway. We'll be waking up at 4 AM for the next week.
Bis später!

Casual Thursday

Today is thankfully my last day in the office for the week!  Although I generally dislike a number of things about the corporate world, every now and then we get a few perks.  Today they're feeding my team a tasty lunch of pizza from Chicago's own Lou Malnati's (sorry - I can't help but get excited about food, especially if it's free), and after that we get to spend the afternoon having a Wii bowling tournament on ridiculously large projection screens in a conference room.  Seriously.  I'm getting paid to eat and play Wii today.  It's kind of awesome.

It may be too soon to tell, but I wear a lot of skirts and dresses, especially for work.  I'm more comfortable in skirts/dresses than jeans any day, and I think they're usually more flattering too.  Because I was hired for my job in a summer, I think I had a pants-free streak of a few months going when I started working there.  Finally, one of my co-workers very politely asked if I had some kind of religious opposition to pants, which still cracks me up several years later.  In any event, it's pretty rare for me to do this in 80 degree weather, but since it's a fun day, I decided to go casual with jeans.

How do you go casual for work? Do you prefer skirts and dresses to pants too?  Have any of your co-workers ever mistaken you for a well-dressed Menonite? (seriously, I'm not making that up)

Top: H&M

Cami: NY & Company

Jeans: Gap (Long & Lean)

Shoes: Privo

Necklace: Embellish

Jude finally noticed me taking pictures, and decided to join in the fun.

One Dress, Multiple Seasons

Being mid to late August, we're coming up on my most favorite time of year: Fall!  More specifically, early fall.  I love those first few weeks where it's still nice out here in Chicago (as in, not beastly hot/ungodly humid like our summers, but not snowy/icy/horrible like our winters), and I can dust off my sweaters, scarves, boots, etc.  It's still more or less summer here, with our days being in the mid-70's and significantly less humid.  But if you go outside at around 6am (after all, my fashionable dog doesn't walk himself), it's clear that summer is on its way out, albeit slowly.  The mornings are cooler, and that's definitely got me in the mood for fall.

So here's what I wore to work today.  I thought it'd be fun to transition this simple black dress into a couple of looks perfect for fall.

Here I lost the cami, changed necklaces, swapped out the sandals for heels (my very first pair of Tsubos!) and added a cardigan.  This would be perfect for work.  I'd probably pair tights with this for fall too, but I found that black tights looked kind of horrible with the shoes, so I'll have to figure out what color tights might go better.  Suggestions?  I've never owned grey shoes before (I tend not to venture away from black, as sad as that sounds), so this is new territory for me.  Here's a close-up.  I am that excited about them.

The second look isn't really my style for the office (though it'd probably fall under our casual dress code with no problems), but I'd definitely sport it on a weekend.  Adding a jacket, scarf and boots makes the dress a lot more casual.  This is actually a tribute to Rad, since I often see her with a dress, tights and tall boots.

What's your favorite season to dress for?  And how do you style your summer pieces for fall?

Dress: Target

Cami: Old Navy

Necklaces: New York & Company

Sandals: Aerosoles

Cardigan: LOFT

Shoes: Tsubo

Denim Jacket: Old Navy

Scarf: LOFT

Boots: RSVP via 6pm

Sunburn: Lake Michigan

Just to keep the blog honest about our showcasing of cute animals. Jude can pull off the corporate look too.

Interim Cohabitatant

Hello fashionable people!  A few of you may know that Rad has a co-contributor here at The Cohabitating Closet, but in case you don't (since I've been lurking for WAY too long), I'll introduce myself briefly.  I've got a few posts out there, but I had some life stuff keeping me away from the office and thus having to look decent everyday for a while, so I focused on my cooking blog instead. I'm Rad's Midwestern counterpart; the D-Med to her A-Dubs (this assumption is based solely on our respective karaoke choices).  I guess "counterpart" does imply that we're similar, but fashion-wise we're somewhat different.  Rad, for example, can sew and refashion things, whereas I can't sew much more than a button.  Another big difference is that Rad, like many of you I've noticed, is an academic.  I, on the other hand, hang out in a cubicle in a business-casual office in corporate America, so we have slightly different dress codes for work wear.  Are there any other corporate ladies out there?

Since the lovely Rad is going to be enjoying a week in Frankfurt, and prompted by In Professorial Fashion's New Faculty Orientation, I thought I'd keep you all company.  Unfortunately, being a corporate drone and all, I don't have the interesting social commentary to provide that Rad does.  Instead, I have what is hopefully cute and occasionally stylish business-casual attire, and it's more along the lines of a daily outfit post.  So here's what I wore today:

Dress: Target

Cardigan: Target

Sandals: Aerosoles

Necklace: NY & Company

I don't think this is my final submission, but I'm definitely getting ready for the Wonder Woman Pose Conference.  Are you?

If none of that was interesting, perhaps I can win you over with a picture of a cute dog?  He couldn't join me in my pictures tonight because he was busy chewing up one of my favorite earrings (sigh), but that's just proof of how much he loves accessories.

Busy work

Busy work, originally uploaded by Cohabitating_Closet.

I spent all morning (before getting dressed) on the phone with the emergency room and my emergency insurance company (separate than my main medical insurance company) about something that happened in December. Hopefully, it's all settled now.
Today, in addition to academicky stuff, I am going to buy some cute, non-toxic, non-gender specific toy for my friends' two year old boy. I found myself wearing the black tee shirt and jeans all weekend, which fit the 6 items challenge, but was quite boring. I tried to make it less boring today, and follow Kelly in Beantown's awesome styling of 1990s-esque boots, but I think this outfit just makes me look wide. Maybe it's the angle. And my legs are oddly iridescent. But since I looked better in the mirror, I am stick with it anyway. (I've got short bike shorts under the skirt, you know, for my mom's sake).
Oh, my friends in Frankfurt, which is where Blokey and I are going tomorrow evening. No particular reason, except to see our friends and pretend that school doesn't start in a week. Oh, and they're setting up meetings for me with like-minded scholars at the University, so someday maybe I can go do research there? (Oh German welfare state, how I do covet you). Hope you have a fabulous Monday.

Shirt: Rodarte for Target
Belt: free from an eBay purchase
Tunic/dress as skirt: AA
Microfishnet tights: Daffys
Boots: MIA

Weather break

Weather break, originally uploaded by Cohabitating_Closet.

One thing about the 6 item challenge is that if you air dry your clothes, you will inevitably have days where you can't wear anything. Yesterday was a big domestic labor day, so today has be heavy on the academic labor.
The past two days have been blissfully cool and un-summer like in Brooklyn. Right now it's 73 degrees, sunny and breezy. I hope the first day of school is like this. Today, since I really need to finish at least one syllabus today, I am dressed like it's a teaching day, from my 6 items. I probably won't wear this on the first day (I like black on the first day, to set a somber/serious/NYC tone), but maybe for one of the nicer days in October, after I've established some rapport with students?

A couple non-fashiony things:

For the Cannucks: the Guardian thinks weed may cause economic downfall for our neighbors to the north.

A NYTimes "Modern Love" piece about the vagaries of couples in academia.

If you're a blogger and interested in helping out an awesome academic who studies the politics of fashion blogging, send me an email and I'll pass your information to a wonderful researcher.

My sleepy adult cat really really wanted to be in this picture. She got up as soon as I set up the camera, off the futon, and just sat right in front of the camera. After I took the camera down, she ran back to the futon.

Cardigan: Jcrew (thrifted)
Tunic dress (as top): AA
Skirt: Muji
Key necklace: gift
Shoes: Aerosoles (thrifted)

Dressing under the influence (of other bloggers)

Have you seen all the beautiful ways that Style Underdog has been remixing her 6 pieces? She takes such simple items, adds the perfect accesories and shoes, and voila- remixing magic. It's still warm today, but hopefully not hot, and I am trying to channel SU's awesome looks with strappy studded sandals and a long linen scarf to punch up an otherwise T-shirt and jeans combo.

I guess that's not really fashion/style related, but since I'm trying to be thrifty with my clothes spending, I hope that I don't compensate the shopping ban with buying loads of artisan ingredients, as food is our biggest expense after rent. I'm about 1 month into the GAAD, but so far, I haven't really noticed. Waves, who is also participating in the GAAD, wondered whether she'd get more interested in buying other things. Her blog and LyddieGal of Chic on the Cheap posting of the NYTimes article got me thinking about budgeting my other kinds of spending, especially food. We don't eat out often, but I usually run to the grocery store on the way home 3 times a week to pick up last minute meal ideas I have. Yesterday we sat down (after inventorying all the food in our pantry, fridge, and our CSA box) and listed all our dinners for the next 7 days, and then our shopping list consisted only of those items we needed to make those dinners (plus our snacks, breakfast, lunches). It was heavier than I expected, but it worked well. And when 7PM came around, we didn't have our usual, "What do you want to eat for dinner, honey?" circular discussions.
And our dinner was delicious.

Shirt: Copper Key
Jeans: Levi's, skinnied by men
Shoes: Tahari
Scarf: UO

Weekend duty

Is it really August 10? Do I really have to start teaching less than 3 weeks? Are there really over 100 unread items in my reader from 4 days away from my computer? (deep breaths...)
No remixed 6 items today, as we've had airport/plane drama the past 24 hours and I am currently trying to work in a hot NYC apartment, with not much on. It may have to be this way if the weather stays hot. But I will try again tomorrow, when my desire to interact with the real world comes back.
Blokey and I were in Chicago, one last time this summer, for our lovely friend's wedding. It was a lovely outdoor backyard affair, and I was a bridal attendant (since we were mixed gender, it seems like bridesmaid is not the right word. Plus, the whole married thing). Thanks to your feedback, I bought a fat, vertically ribbed grossgrain ribbon and used that to "lower" my waistline about 1 1/2" (ideally, it would have been 2", but it did the trick). I tried satin, but that was too slippery. You can kind of see the results here.

Photo courtesy of Anne. The man to my right was tactfully cut out because he faces re-election this year. The drink is a fancy lemonade plus soda water.

I also gave myself the best backcombed hair "pouf", a la Snooki* (my fellow Jersey girl) hairdo. I would have gone profesh, except I always hated people doing my hair, including hairdressers. I think it worked out OK.

The key was first blow drying moused-up roots, while bent over, backcombing the front, and then lots of hairspray.

Anne and I also took WW pics, but those are for later.

Finally, the lovely and generous bride gifted us a beautiful key necklace. I own almost no jewelry, making this a welcome addition to my sad need to accessorize. Also, she really knows me, because I don't usually go for very girly pieces. This had just the right amount of "hardware" elements to make it awesome for everyday, and teaching.

image source

It's currently baking in my bedbug oven (yes, we own a Packtite), following an emergency stay in an [uncompensated] airport hotel, as United Airlines couldn't get us on a flight back to NY after canceling our Monday noon flight, until Tuesday at 7AM. Stay classy, corporation.

*I've never seen her in action, as we don't have a TV, but I've read about her as a cultural phenomenon.

Only day 5

Only day 5, originally uploaded by Cohabitating_Closet.

It's only day 5 and it's hot again (93 degrees), and I am at a loss for what to wear. I have loads of cute combos in mind for when it's not so sweaty, but for today, I threw on a pair of dance shorts under this tunic dress, and tied a scarf about my hair, which looks like I've been working too hard to care. I call this the "Good Enough for day 5" outfit.
I've been so knee deep in my current project that I've descended into ditz-land. I can't find my cell phone charger and now I must run to the nearest store to buy one (every time I do this, I find out my phone has been made obsolete and that I can't find a replacement. Here's hoping that this hasn't happened yet.)
I'll be taking brief break the next few days from this project and blogging, as we have a full weekend of wedding rehearsal, wedding, then we are doing a memorial service for one of Blokey's relatives, and I thought that more socially normative clothes would be better for these events.
Hope everyone has a lovely weekend!

Dress: AA
Belt: free from an eBay suit
Flipflops: Havianas
Scarf: via eBay

Needs necklace

Needs necklace, originally uploaded by Cohabitating_Closet.

Today is a hot day, the first in a series of deliciously cool days since the start of August. I knew my 6 would be a challenge on hot and muggy days, so this is attempt number one to stay cool but look mixed up.
This outfit was way cooler in my head than in the picture. I bloused the tunic with a satin ribbon as a makeshift belt, but doing so may have unfortunately lifted the bottom of the hem to the widest part of hips. And I originally had on some combat boots, because I was going for a Tank Girl thing, but then it was so hot I threw on the hardcore sandals. But now it looks like a whole lot of leg, which the bathroom mirror did not demonstrate.
Oh, and this outfit shows me that it wouldn't kill me to buy a few necklaces. I usually am not a huge fan of jewelry, but a chunky black or silver bead thing would make this look better. Maybe I can grab a few off a street vendor next time I'm in the city.
But that's OK, I'm just writing and staying cool today. Hope you all have a lovely Wednesday.

Tunic: AA
Shorts: UO, via Ebay
Shoes: Tahari, via DSW
Undershirt: stolen from fella
Ribbon as belt: M&J Trimmings

Remixing, day 3

6-3, originally uploaded by Cohabitating_Closet.

So the light looks different in this picture because it's very early for me to be awake. In the summer, I tend towards a vampiric schedule (it's all Blokey's doing). Then to get on regular people's clocks, I have to do some marathon staying up. We have to fly out early for a friend's wedding this Friday and I'll be busy with bridsmaidy things all weekend. I told Blokey last night, "Do we suffer now or suffer later?" I meant sleep deprivation but he smirked at my guilt stricken, Protestant ways.
On the agenda today: buying grapes, cutting 450 words from this darn manuscript, syllabus-ing, doing laundry (he will carry, I'll follow), and getting veggies from the CSA. Including 2 lbs of potatoes. Carb heaven....
I really like this skirt, but it works better with a belt in the belt holes, because of the fit. Luckily, I have the rest of the month to fix this.
Also, didja hear about In Professorial Fashion's Wonder Woman conference? You should totally participate, because it's gonna be the tops! The cat's pajamas! The bee knees!

Top: Copper Key
Belt: thrifted, via Beacon's Closet
Skirt: Muji
Boots: Born, via eBay
Bag: Brooklyn Industries

Day 2

This outfit was inspired by Tanya of What a Nerd Would Wear and her participation in the 30x30. Layering a shirt under a dress in the summer? Genius.
I was going to wear leggings with this, but I figured with the covered arms, I could probably get away with the shorter skirt. I think this outfit with some grey tights and black boots will kill it in the fall. I am also wearing a short slip for added modesty.
Thanks for all your supportive words about this month's challenge, and my CTS symptoms. So far, so good. I will be away from the computer all this coming weekend (wedding and in-law stuff) so I will get much needed rest. But this darn behemoth of an article needs to Get Off My Desk soon, as I will be working on my self-evaluation for reappointment soon.
Two vaguely related things:
1) My school will be selling Alta Gracia sweatshirts in the fall. I don't need new sweatshirts, but maybe my family members do. I will definitely be supporting this. They are $34.98 for a navy blue hoodie. Reasonably priced and ethical production? Yes, please.
2) Germain Greer wrote a review of Nicolas Kristof and Shirley WuDunn's Half the Sky (HTS). I've skim read the Kristoff/WuDunn book in bookstores (and I skim his columns) enough to get a feel for its schtick- which is "look at the suffering of these third world women." Germaine Greer's review is right on, because I do believe what HTS does is good in its intention, but it doesn't go far enough. No one like sex trafficking, gender based violence, or death during childbirth, but calls for more charity should go hand in hand with calls for critical evaluations of the role that the First World plays in perpetuating these atrocities- namely global inequality and poverty.* According to Greer, the authors don't do this, but rather paint the US as some kind of magic solution for everything, even though sexual violence, domestic violence, sex trafficking, and poverty for women are important problems here too. But Ms. Greer said it better than me, so I highly recommend you check out her review. (Also, Karl Pilkington once baked bread with Germain Greer, which you can watch here).

Dress/tunic: AA
Skirt: Rodarte for Target
Shoes: BC Footwear
Scarf: via eBay

*What came to mind for me was the 1997 East Asian Financial crisis. The US and bunch of other countries with investors that wanted to engage in more foreign investment pushed a bunch of countries in Asia to adopt more open rules on the flow of money in the early 1990s. When Thailand suffered its speculative bubble and then a currency crisis, the U.S. refused to bail it out, wanting to "teach them a lesson." When the IMF finally gave them a rescue loan, there were many strict conditions on how Thailand could spend its money, including limits on education, state employees, and banking rules. Poverty increased and the growing middle class rapidly shrank, and within 1 year of the IMF reforms, prostitution and sex trafficking increased throughout the region. In famous for its sex work industry, often involving young girls. However, in 1999, Madeleine Albright criticized the Thai government for allowing for so much child prostitution, drugs, and AIDS problems to continue (see Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine, p. 344-345). I am not trying to say the Thai government is blameless in this situation, but if we are trying to learn about the situation of Third World women, I think that this should start by learning the role that U.S. and EU foreign policy plays in limiting and creating the parameters for economic opportunities in so many countries.
Thanks for reading and I'd appreciate your thoughts about this.

6 by August

Two things on this blustery and Pacific Northwest like Sunday:
1) I have picked out my 6 items for August. (I am following in cooler footsteps then myself, like the very cool Style Underdog. If I keep reading your blog, will get to be as edgy chic as you someday?)
I may cheat if it gets really hot (I am assuming that it won't be above 90 degrees for 3 weeks, like in July). I am already cheating because I mostly work from home, and no one sees me, and I may sometimes still wear PJ like clothing for the bulk of the day (but I do try to go out everyday), and I didn't include workout clothes (ew). I won't have to worry a
I have to cheat during the wedding I will be attending this Saturday, and during a week long trip abroad the third week of August. I will try to bring as many of these items as possible, but we're going to be touristing, flying 7 plus hours, and I'm going to be pretending to be an early English nanny to my friend's toddler, so I will have to be flexible for that.

I am going to see this as an exercise in accessorizing, as I don't do that as often as I'd like. It seems I've gone with the "summery prep" as my theme, even though I don't like to think of myself as a preppy person. (I'd prefer to be edgy and dark). I'll have to mix it up with some more rugged shoes/belts, etc. Here they are:

L-R: JCrew summer cardigan (thrifted), Rodarte for Target striped boatneck, Copper Key* black blousey top (via ma), slouchy Levi's jeans, skinnied by me and cuffed for summer

L-R: Muji military style skirt, American Apparel grey tunic**

2) It seems I've developed the early stages of carpal tunnel syndrome. Evidently, obssessively working at your computer up to 12 hours a day (OK, throw a substantive amount of blogging/reading/messing about on internet on there) ain't' great for the wrists. Neither is playing guitar, yoga, or sewing- AKA top recreational activities for me (I thought all my downdogs and attempted crow poses were supposed to strengthen my wrists?). I lost feeling in my left pinky finger on Thursday after a (low intensity) jam session with Blokey. Ouch.

Solution: go to Ikea and buy a better desk (with adjustable height and one of those great drawers for my keyboard) and then judiciously wear super sexy wrist braces. Jog more for a while instead of yoga. Make Blokey play the guitar to accompany me when I want to sing (folk and country, exclusively).

Oh, and make a conscious effort to step away from the keyboard.

This one's for you, A-Dubs. My braces will give me superpowers.

*This is the junior's brand of basics at Dillards. This is what my ma likes to buy me, since she also wears junior's clothes, to accommodate her slenderness. She turns 59 in December. Brat.

**This may be cheating since I usually wear shorts/tights/leggings under this tunic. I don't mind the shortness, but I live in a neighborhood where if I walk around in something noticeably short, my path oft gets interrupted by the attention of admiring men. So I just play it safe.

Shirt: Rodarte for Target
Scarf: via eBay
Belt: off a pair of H&M pants
Jeans: Levis, from Macy's, skinnied by me
Shoes: Eastlands via Alamo (Chicago)
Wrist braces: Futuro, via Duane Reade