zebra fun

ok so today i am wearing my zebra cartigan and black pants, really a top of the pile wardrobe choice, but people have been commenting all day that my coffee cup matches my shirt. I laugh and say something like, "oh yeah, I love all things zebra print, this was a fluke"

well i had a mini conversation about it with a lady in the kitchen while i was eating my lunch and just now she came up to me and handed me 2 zebra shaped paperclips! so awesome and nice of her!

i love having an obsession with something that people can easily find and then give me. its like christmas every day!

in other news

awesome outfit lady is rocking some serious balls to the wall fashion today. very joan jett like.

neon colors splashy print guaze tunic over a white tank top and pink neon skinny jeans. and awesome black peep toe patten black booties. with the platinum blonde hair down and loose and a huge bangle bracelet.

she may very well be the new claudia kishi. if she comes to work with a telephone cord belt, i may have to stalk her forever.

Lead me not into Temptation. Or shoe stores

I've got that feeling again. The urge. Its coming over me. I need shoes!

The new lines for Fall/Winter have hit the stores and web and oh my. there are just too many lovely things!

I once read a story about a woman who spent her rent money on books, and her parents reimbursed her. Now, I doubt that my spending has gotten that out of control (in fact I know it hasnt) and I doubt that my parents would be as understanding as this womans. But it does raise an interesting point.

If the woman had spent that money on something else, alcohol for example, then her parents would be painted as the worst kind of enablers, not only supplying but encouraging their daughters addiction.

But since the addiction here is not a controlled substance, but the written word, the story is a lighthearted cocktail party anecdote about the lengths some people will go to for books.

Now, my addiction to books is no trifling thing, but I fear it may be getting a run for its money from my shoe addiction.

The library is such a wonder don't you think? I remember realizing that the library let you have books for free! FREE! can you imagine the glory. You get to keep them for the better part of a month in most cases, and unless you are late in returning them, they are free! Un-Be-Lieve-A-Ble!

I don't think my shoe addiction can be so easily offset though. Were there a service to provide people with used and reused shoes, I would likely not frequent it, nor would many of the people that I know. Used Shoes!? yech.

I don't have much else to say on the matter, only that I have been very good for very long, not having the means to support my shoe habit, but now gainfully employed, my resolve may weaken. Here are some of the authors of my upcoming undoing!

What a Calamity!

Last night, during our weekly dinner and movie night, I brought Lauren a choice of two of my favorite childhood films. I called them the choice of opposites.

The first one was Father Goose. Cary Grant as a scruffy, dirty, possibly smelly, certainly cranky, sometimes pirate during the second world war. Costaring Leslie Caron of Gigi fame, and generally fabulous movie as Goodie Two-Shoes (Caron) and the Filthy Beast (Grant) butt heads with hillarious results.

The second choice I offered Lauren was Calamity Jane. Dorris Day as the rough and tumble tomboy of the old west.

Since Lauren had already seen Father Goose (!), we opted for Calamity. Now, I watched that VHS tape about once a week for probably close to 6 months in my youth. I had the lyrics and dances memerized, and when feeling put upon, would adopt a most Calamity-like attitude (to my parents chagrin).

As I watched it again last night, and for the first time in probably 15 years, I realized the impact that this specific movie had on me, and also hopefully on a number of other young girls. See, Calamity is the ultimate Tomboy. She can ride, she can shoot, she can use a bull whip. She drinks, she brags, she rescues the man she loves. You could never imagine Calamity Jane up in a tower waiting for her prince to come and rescue her. And if she were to ride off into the sunset with her sweetheart, she'd want her own horse.

Calamity never even feels like she isn't enough for whichever man she wants. She sees the frills and fripperies of the women in Chicago (or "Chicagi" as she insists on calling it) and smiles into her sleeve. When she mistakes the wooden cigar store Indian for a real one and gets laughed at, she laughs along with them. Nothing can shake her belief that what shes doing must be right, for the mere fact that she's doing it.

The fact that she's played by Dorris Day doesn't hurt either. Here was this beautiful Hollywood actress, famous for staring alongside Rock Hudson as the blonde and blue eyed babe, and the put her in hideously stained deerskin and gave her a crappy hat, and she owned it.

Even after her "makeover" from Katie, she never loses herself, as so many of today's 'heroines' do. She may be in the beautiful pink dress, but shes still wearing her favorite old coat, a present from Custer. She may have the attention of every man at the dance, and a full dance card, but she still borrows a gun and shoots a tea cup out of a rivals hand.

At the end of the movie, after shes gotten the man and according to all hollywood female lead conventions, should be content to be quiet and submissive and obedient, chases down a stage coach, jumps onto it mid-ride and returns with lady fair.

One of my favorite moments in the film is as shes riding out to rescue Katie, she passes Bill (her man) and when he calls out, "Where're you going?" she turns around, gallops back to him, kisses him, and heads back on her merry way. No explanation, not even any words, just a kiss and off she goes.

Now thats a leading lady!

Aaaand we're back

killer outfit lady is back to killer outfits. Todays is a fabulous purple cocktail dress with a slight bubble hem and interesting rouching on the sleeves. a wide black patent leather belt with awesome glittery sort of kitschey belt buckle and super high wedges.

I envy almost every one of her outfits. except yesterday's disaster

Note: My friend Lauren commented that she would not only like to hear more about this woman and her fashion choices ("you should write a fashion blog about her!") but also demands pictoral evidence. This could get tricky. I could endeavor to snap her with my camera phone, but that brings up 3 problems.

1. the pictures themselves will likely not do justice to the awesomeness/awefulness of the outfit in question.

2. Taking a picture of someone with a phone is fairly obvious and I dont want to be known as the weird taking pictures of people girl

3. Once taken, I am not entirely sure how to remove said picture from my phone and get it into a place where i can post it on the internet.

Otherwise, sure.

In fact I may attempt a picture today. Though since the first glimse of her coming in to work, I have yet to see her. we shall wait and see

Urbane Outfitters

This post may sound a bit catty, but bear with me. I know that sometimes people have slip ups and as my friend lauren commented on the story, "Everyone's entitled to an off day". Even so.

Also I feel that I should clarify that I do not sit at the reception desk and judge outfits all day. Only the ones that catch my eye as remarkable, either good or bad.

So theres this chick at my office who has flawless straight long blonde hair. She has the slightly plumped angelina lips that might or might not be botoxed and she always wears killer outfits. I mean killer. Like one day last week she was wearing like a pesanty-type top with a long thin glitter scarf and a beautiful long mermaid skirt made out of purple suede.

I enjoy her outfits. So I just assumed, OK this is the chick with the killer outfits.

Today she is wearing a dress. Let me paint you a little picture. dark red and brown floral. FLORAL. with lace around the scoop collar. and shoulder pads.

EUGH

I suppose the lace up gladiator sandals are supposed to make this better, but seriously MY GOD! I had that dress in 1995 when I was still young and impressionable and it was in some sort of fashion.

Update: I just noticed the matching rosette in the midst of the lace. In the immortal words of Cathy, "AAACK"

Presents of Mind

You know, as materialistic as I am generally reported to be (and lets face it, I really am), I keep forgetting that birthday= presents.

Don't get me wrong, I do not forget that my birthday is coming up. Far from it. I keep remembering it all day every day. But I periodically realize with pleasant surprise that I will be recieving gifts! Its like when Christmas rolls around and I get so swept up in the buying for others and anticipating their reactions and looking forward to all the merriment involved in Christmas that I forget that presents to ME will be under the tree.

So, I will be getting presents! Me! How exciting and stragely unexpected!

I keep focusing on the celebration parts of my birthday, setting up the dinner with friends, figuring out which family members will be around for my birthday (no sarcastic bile associated with this. People are busy and let me know far in advance with many apologies), when I will get a family birthday dinner, etc. But it just hit me, perhaps for the first time this birthday year, that I will get presents.

Yaay! Celebrate meeeee!

bathroom breaks

I got to thinking about bodily functions today. The reason? I really had to pee. Not only did I really have to pee, but I really had to pee at a really inconvenient time. Usually I pee when I go to lunch and then before I leave. But today, I had to pee BADLY 2 hours before I was scheduled to leave. That was a problem. I feared that if I ran to the bathroom and thus neglected my post at the front desk there would immediately be 8 calls and 5 visitors and then someone would get mad at me and ... etc.

Of course no rational person would be angry with an employee for having to pee, but thats just it. These fears are irrational. I fear being in trouble. The why is not important, it would be enough that I was in trouble.

In relaying these concerns via gchat with a friend of mine she said, "relax, everybody pees".

This got me thinking about a book that many have read and few forget, "Everybody Poops". The story is fairly simplistic: "An elephant makes a big poop. A mouse makes a tiny poop," and so the text goes, describing all sorts of creatures and people who eat and thus defecate. The most interesting and thought provoking of the pooping examples are the following; The pope poops. The president poops. The president's wife poops. The Queen of England poops. Everybody poops.

I must admit, such thoughts never occured to me, even as a semi-adult. I read "Everybody Poops" to my babysitting charge and was really astonished. "wow!", I thought, "Everybody really does poop!" Its a thought that is so obvious that you never really examine it. Such notable figures of the church and state. People you know, celebrities, your boss. Everybody! Some people I can easily imagine pooping. Like Britany Spears. She looks like a pooper. But others, say, Angelina Jolie. I cannot for the life of me imagine her pooping. It seems like such a plebian activity that would be so beneath her that she might not even know what it is. Likewise the Queen of England. Yet they must!

Intriguing, no?