Comfort is Not Everything

Friday outfits tend to be based on a certain sentiment of "Yay! Nearly the weekend!" Sometimes this leads to trouble. Here I am trying to create a waist for myself in such an ensemble.

Good luck with that. A belt would have helped, but that wouldn't have been perfectly COMFY. This was, however, perfect for lying on the couch watching Grimm. As a rule of thumb, a work outfit should not be the same outfit you wear to be a couch potato.


I had a perfectly lovely weekend. Saturday morning I attended a memorial service for the wife of a Rotary friend. A sad occasion, yes, but I almost always find memorials very revealing and heartening. The family tells stories, shares history and reminds us all to behave as we'd like to be remembered. This lady, whom I had met only once, seemed to have lived her many decades with joy and vim and faith. She surely wasn't a saint, but as her 60-something daughter said, "I want to be like you when I grow up."

Getting to and from the service involved a two mile walk, admiring gardens and lilac trees and enjoying all the good smells of spring. After that I felt virtuous enough to eat lunch and take a nap. Then I read a new-to-me author (Kerry Greenwood) for the rest of the day, alternating with laundry, etc. (but not very MUCH work).

Sunday was my Mother's Day treat, in which I get to spend the day with Ben. This year was lunch, The Avengers (thumbs up, Joss!), a latte and stroll around the beautiful Elmhurst College campus, capped off by the senior voice recital of one of Ben's wildly talented friends. His mother was also in the audience, and he did two special songs for her which got us all choked up. 

Andrew sang a classical program of lieder and Mozart and one particularly moving song called Come Ready and See Me. So beautiful. The second half of the recital was contemporary music, with a chorus of friends; Sondheim, MacDermot, Schwartz, etc. I LOVE show tunes, and I was surprised how much more I liked the classical program. A chance to hear Andrew's voice unadorned.

I hope every mother had half as nice a day as I did.   

Shocking Pink and Camel

I'm sure you know that Elsa Schiaparelli coined the phrase "shocking pink." And that she created a endlessly imitated hat with a shoe on it after posing with Salvador Dali's wife, Gala, with a slipper on her head. The Met Ball has honored her this year with an exhibit subtitled Impossible Conversations. I want to go to there.

I probably can't, so yesterday, I wore my shocking pink cashmere sweater instead.

The sweater is from Lord and Taylor, and is getting a bit pilly, but I'm not ready to go on the hunt for its replacement yet. Maybe next year. The skirt is my flirty camel Talbot's skirt.  

The shoes are my exceptionally reliable Eccos, and the lavish necklace is from Kohl's.

These shoes address the question of "Used shoes? From eBay? Really!?" I have had mixed success with used shoes on eBay. I have two pairs of Eccos (taupe, above and black, seen here) that I bought for about $20 each that I wear all the time. Eccos used to be my go to brand, but they are nowhere near as interesting, sturdy and comfortable as they were ten years ago, and I do not buy them any more. 

I've also purchased shoes that worked tolerably well, or once and then never again, or Dear Lord No. I can't honestly say I recommend the practice, but it isn't the "used" part of the transaction that bothers me. I just bought a pair of peach-colored Boden oxfords that I think will be very cute in the summer. 

Have a wonderful weekend!



 

Purple and Green, and Comfort

This is from Friday, May 4th, way out of order - I found the photo in my mail box somewhere under the pile of pics from Ben's show, last minute frantic emails about the Rotary fundraiser, and some thoughtful back and forth with Heidi about shoes.

This is actually what I wore to the fundraiser two weeks ago (I did wash everything in between), though technically I was supposed to be wearing my Rotary sweater.  I forgot.

Talbot's green velvet jacket, J. Jill wine-colored cords, and a Lord and Taylor top in lovely flowy chiffon. The shoes are my Ecco black stalwarts. I have been feeling a little podgy around the middle lately, and this outfit is both pretty colors and very comfortable. Ha - I just did a Chic Librarian blog search for the word "comfortable" and got 33 hits.
 

There are very few things in my cool weather closet that are not perfectly comfortable. I have a couple pairs of pants (no more than three) that are a trifle low cut and give me a bit of muffin-osity. One or two skirts are a trifle snug in the waist. There are also a few items that are a bit too loose occasionally, like these wine-colored cords. They are a relief when I went out for Greek food for dinner and have a salt hangover the next day. Truly, if I didn't like salty food so much, everything would fit perfectly!

I know the lighting isn't everything it could be here. It's all coming from over my head, so my hair looks very shiny, but the colors of my bottom half are muddy. I could put another light source on the floor, maybe. Certainly I could make the effort for dark pants and skirts. I take pictures in the evening after work, and the cats are snarling for dinner, and I'm often feeling a little snarly too, so the pics are taken in that first ten minutes after I walk in the door. You can see, above, that I fed them first, and that Buffy is shoving Riley aside to get at his food dish.

Yellow and Green, How do I Love Thee?

Let me count the ways.  I love thee in a Vera Wang tank, a Macy's crocheted cardigan, and in Talbot's cords.

I also love thee in velveteen and ponte, and I even love thee when I'm discarding thee. Tomorrow's post will be green and gold, which is practically the(e) same.

Hang on, abrupt segue approaching. 

Over the weekend I started thinking, "You know that feeling you get when you're getting ready for a first date, and feeling a few butterflies? How it might be great, it might be dull, it might at least involve a nice dinner?" Well, I HATE that feeling. That feels like ANXIETY to me. That feels eerily similar to some of the board meetings I've been to in the last year.

Now, I get that many people like that thrill of anticipation. There are situations where I like it too - when I'm about to go on stage, for example. Whether I'm acting or talking to a crowd, that frisson is pleasant and energizing. It makes me sharper and more enthusiastic and more entertaining.  

But that is because I know what I'm doing on stage. I don't know what I'm doing in relationships; or at least, everything I've learned goes out of my head at that moment and I become a fourteen-year-old again. I want to do what I'm GOOD at. And I fear the outcome of dating. Stage = applause, in my experience, and dating = tears. Public speaking is cake, and dating is  . . . something less tasty. Or eating too much fried food. Oh sure, it's fun for a while, but you sure feel lousy later. Sorry, I may have lost the metaphor there.

I also note that I love picking out what I'm going to wear on stage. I love the "costume". On the other hand, for years I wore the same thing on first dates; dark jeans and a black silk top. It was a uniform, concealing rather than revealing.

So for now, I'm going to stick to dressing up and going to work. 

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Ben's senior Capstone show opened on Saturday, May 5th, 2012.  It represented months of work on his part, two separate presentations to a panel of art department faculty, and the bravery necessary to show his efforts to the entire campus (the show is in the student center). Being Ben, this wasn't presented as a big deal.

Here are three of my favorites. They are all on themes of oppression.

Ignorance

Technology

The Illusion of Self

And here is the artist himself (Thanks, Lyds!).

Many friends and family came: elder and younger, all of them admiring the work and the artist. Ben took it all in stride. His father and I kept saying to each other, "You did such a good job." I don't think I had all that much to do with it, really; Ben was his own person from birth, and that is why we all love him.

If you're wondering, I wore the Deadwood outfit.

A World of Meh

So, I wore this to the all-staff meeting on Wednesday. Talbot's cardigan and ruffled sleeveless knit tee and velvet pants.

And that is the last you'll see of these black flats, which I loved so much for so many years. *sniff* I had to retire their cream boot cousins last year. They were like a teddy bear whose fuzz has worn off and who has only one eye.

Kenneth Cole Reaction back when that name meant something.

And then I wore this on Thursday (those are Me Too walking flats). Kohl's Apt. 9 dress via eBay, pink linen J. Jill jacket.

It was finally warm enough to try out these new sandals at work (not on the pavement) to see if they would be comfy.

 

Earthies Sienna!

They were very stable, and they look so cute on! I only wore them for a few hours yesterday, so I'm going to give them a callback audition on the next warm work day. I'm a little concerned that the pale, leather-covered heel will ding up pretty quickly. I didn't pay much for them (6PM, my friends, the show that never ends.)

You can tell that nothing thrilled me this week. Monday night I left my phone at work, and Tuesday it was dead when I got home and I didn't want to wait around in work duds while it recharged, so no pics either night. I can't remember what I wore AT ALL, except that I wore the Born boots both days. Ha!

An Elegant Gentleman

No contemporary pictures for a few days, as I was scrambling to get ready for the Rotary fundraiser, and then lying on the couch recovering from it. It was loads of fun ! Here's something from my past to amuse you: The Count of Monte Cristo, circa 2003.