Arghhhhhh!

Makayla, one of my Juniors, told me she liked my Pirate shirt today.  Arghhhh, I love stripes.  Its pretty much the running theme in our house.  Bridget and I love stripes.  In fact, today when we were both home I realized we were wearing almost the same striped shirt in different colors to work today.  I guess the longer we live together the more we rub off on each other!  

Halloween in coming up!  And there are actually no Pirate plans in the works.  What I would really like to be for halloween is Betty Draper.  This costume would be much better if I could find a Don and perhaps a few other Mad Men ensemble characters, but as it is I will be portraying just-kicked-the-cheating-bastard-out-and-now-I'm-single-and-hammered Betty.  Sigh, If only I coulda made just-kicked-the-cheating-bastard-out-and-now-I'm-single-and-hammered Katie look this good:

Looks like somebody's got a case of the Mondays!

Wish I had come home from Houston with nothing to do but cuddle with my puppy dog, alas, its Progress Report time!  Stayed out grading until midnight then woke up at 5 to get it all finished!  Was a rough day when you add in the fasting for Yom Kippur with the lack of sleep, but a huge relief to have everything done!  Now its 9 pm and I'm in bed!  Can't even drag myself to the TV for Gossip Girl.  Guess I'll have to catch it on Hulu.  XOXO

Plane Attire

An awesome weekend in Houston for my first experience at an Indian wedding.  I have never seen such an outrageous display of silk and shine!  Above is, as promised on a daily basis, my outfit from Friday that was worn to school and accompanied me on the plane.  I was so rank from sweating in my classroom and sitting on the plane that I couldn't leave these clothes on one second longer, not even to take a picture!  So, not a terribly exciting outfit, but I was shooting for comfort.

While there was no way I was going to compete with all the Saris and bangles, I had planned on wearing a pretty flashy little number.  Vintage floral paillettes in pale yellow!  Sadly, as I was rushing out the door to catch my flight I realized that I had left that stunner on the hanger in my closet!  Sigh.  Found a fun navy dress at Zara for the right price as I was perusing the Galleria with my Momma.  Now THAT is a mall a girl could do some damage in!

Thursday, Sept 24

Pretty tired tonight, but I must say that I am proud of my continued recessionista efforts.  Those are some WHITE jeans I'm wearing. And it is definitely after Labor Day folks.

I'm having a lot of issues getting my photos to upload, hence Thursday's pic on Monday.  Hmmmm.

One, Seasonal Sensation...

I HATE when people wear fabrics that are seasonally inappropriate.  Velvet in summer should lead to public floggings.  And I have always lived hard and fast by the no white after labor day mantra...

However, we are in a finacial crisis and I did not get my pay step this year.  As a teacher I'd usually have a hefty spending allowance for clothes.  Much like Anna Wintour's $200,000 budget provided by Vogue, the Mapleton Public Schools, in a more typical year, would provide me with a handsome stipend for essential designer pieces.  Having to forgo my usual spending, I have decided to revisit these seasonal norms.

It is only fall (though it feels like winter), but yesterday for Jury Duty I broke out my black velveteen vintage blazer that I picked up in London while I was studying abroad in college.  This is generally a strictly winter piece.  No Mas.  In true recessionista pride, I meshed said blazer with my favorite Jeans and and a slew of inherited and sale price gems:  AMAZING Sergio Rossi oxfords that were gifted to me by my Mama, vintage Lanvin belt that I took from my Dad's closet and had cut down to my size, purple J.Crew boyfriend cardigan that I used Bieber's employee discount to purchase.

Today for school I went layer crazy!  Cable knit leggings are pretty sweet.  Comfy comfy.   Time for the scarf collection to start coming out...

Pipe Dreams

"Miss, why is your room so cold?"

Seriously?  I've spent the last month marinating in my own stink and now I can't take off my jacket all day. If 3A and 3B don't pass I'm moving my ass to Aspen where the schools have enough money to regulate the temperature and I can ski on Fridays.  Of course, I can't actually afford to live in Aspen, but the sentiment is there.  This would only be after my year long hiatus to learn to surf and speak Spanish in Central America.  There's quite a lot to get done before I turn 30...

So let's not focus on that just now.  Let's focus on my favorite color combo--purple and yellow.  More specifically plum and mustard, but that sounds gross and I don't want it to sound gross.  I want it to sound warm and yummy like squash out of the oven with brown sugar on top next to a glass of Malbec.  Isn't it obvious that fall is here?  On top of my general excitement about the fabulousness of fall colors on my ginger complexion, I have Jury duty tomorrow!  That means late sleep, no kids, and not losing a personal day.  This is the most patriotic I have ever felt!  Maybe I will wear red, white, and blue tomorrow...

Stripes and Florals

Just some pattern mixing.

Teacher "Work" Day

And by work I mean teacher "hungover on a week day" day.  So, maybe I went out a little last night.  Maybe I wasn't in bed til 3 am and was up at 6:30 am.  That's no reason to assume that I can't make a perfectly productive go of things.  Why just this morning I've made it to the coffee shop, cancelled my misplaced debit card, and eaten a breakfast burrito.  There were some grades entered and a few articles read and it ain't even noon.  Shit son. 

This is what productivity is dressed like.

Not my finest demonstration of fashion forward, but white looks good ALWAYS.  My jeans are boyfriend-y and I got them 5 years ago while I was still living in Chicago which simply proves that I created the trend.  Get outta here Katie Holmes! 

Yet another measure of the truly goal oriented day that I am experiencing--you can add Blog entry to that list of things I did before noon today. 

I wore this top to the movie last night with leggings and decided I love tops that are very close to moo-moos.  Its also silky which makes it real soft, but for school approriateness factors, I put a white tank underneath.  Can't have bras hanging out at school. Haven't gone the leggings route for work yet, but they aren't jeans, so I think I'll be rocking the moo-moo elastic-waist-stretchy pant look ALOT this winter.  I heart arbitrary dress code rules!  

No kids tomorrow, just a work day, so you can bet I'll be rocking jeans like whoa.  

Eat my Shorts

Its starting to cool off in the Frontrange, but it doesn't feel destined for refreshing fall afternoons in my classroom anytime soon.  Everyday has been sweltering since the A/C seems to skip my garage and the garage next door and instead it gets pumped exclusively into the math room.  Yes, garage.  I teach in a very nice garage in the old votech wing of a falling down school outside of Denver.  Remember those books? Wayside School is Falling Down?  Well, sadly, Skyview High School actually is falling down.  Discussion of our desperated need to pass a bond is a whole other post reserved for a time that is not 7am.

Today I was up at 5:17am to meet for carpool at 6:10am.  I figured its nearing the end of shorts season and, per my previosuly mentioned schvitz of a classroom, I decided to milk the last few weeks of my linen shorts.  American Apparell super soft gray tee is the closest I get to pajamas at work, and I figured my quilted Chanel knock-off flats can class up anything enough to be passable for work.  First time wearing Grandma's scarf--how'd it go? 

hmmm, I need to work on my picture taking skills.  Self portraits are challenging!

I could start spiking my coffee in the AM...

but instead I've decided to tackle my near certain third year teacher burnout head on.  I've come up with a completely frivolous challenge that will hopefully give me something more entertaining than lesson plans and grading to think about before bed each night, and, after a solo Saturday night double-feature moment of weakness of viewing Julie/Julia, have decided to get all up in the blogosphere about this shit.
      So, what was it all those years ago that gave me the necessary kick in the ass to roll out of my warm little down-feather oven and brave another morning on the barren train platforms of Chicago? Aside from my Mom's excellent nagging, I recall that it was always easier to hit my icy planked floor on a Midwest winter morning when I knew I had picked out the perfect outfit the previous night.  There was an energy early in the a.m., just before the sun came up, that would hoist my sleepy self out of bed so I would have enough time to pick out the essential accessories and lock down the right shoes.   Somehow this ritual of sifting through every hanger in my closet and opening and closing all the drawers in the hour before bedtime has been replaced by sifting through growing stacks of papers to grade and slamming my laptop closed after hours of lesson planning.  I'm hitting the wall. Hard.  While there are no longer little crushes to try to impress and no "Best Dressed" senior superlative at stake, I figure clothes still make me absolutely deliriously superficial and wonderfully happy!  Why not combine the do-gooder in me with the materialistic shopaholic and see if they can't get along?  Everyday a new outfit.  That's it.  Will see what I dream up tonight for day 1 tomorrow.