Kelly Green

What's going on with my face here? Is this "Pregnant Women are Smug" face?

Academia and Sartorial: Happy early St. Patrick's Day, y'all! Today is Green Day on Everybody Everywear, so I'm busting out the luck o' the Irish a few days ahead of schedule. I got this kelly green t-shirt in Target's limited maternity section over the weekend, and I really like it - partly because it actually fits, but mostly because I love love love this shade of green. It's such a happy, bright color, and I feel happy and bright wearing it.

I'm a little disappointed that St. Patrick's Day is on a weekend this year, because part of the fun of working with international students is dressing up for holidays. I normally get to wear lots of green on St. Paddy's Day, lots of pink on Valentine's Day, and costumes on Halloween. Oh well. I am going to a friend's 30th birthday party on the 17th, so I'll wash this and wear it again then.

What about y'all? What are your plans for St. Patrick's Day? Any green outfits set aside already?

Watch Downton Abbey. Seriously.

Academia: It's late and I need to go to bed, but to sum up today, may I just say that any day that ends with catching up on Downton Abbey is an awesome day. If you haven't watched Downton Abbey yet, get yourself over to Netflix immediately and set aside six hours of your life to watch season 1. And I mean six consecutive hours, because you won't be able to stop. Who knew that the inner workings of a 1910s English country estate were so completely engrossing? Well, now you do. Even if you don't give a hoot for British period dramas, it's worth watching for the clothes. So. Fabulous.

Sartorial: The only bad thing I have to say about this outfit is that it's not the clothes from Downton Abbey. Although my earrings are a bit 1915. So yay! Downton Abbey earrings! Now I just have to hunker down and wait for this look to come back in:

Seriously, I need these clothes.

Found in Translation

Academia: I really do work in the most amazing place. I was working away this afternoon when the infirmary called me. "Hey, Emily," said the nurse on the other end of the line, "Do you know how to say 'apartment' in Chinese? There's a student here who doesn't understand that I need his apartment number as part of his address."

The answer is no, I don't. I minored in Spanish, and have retained enough to have basic conversations with our Spanish-speaking students, but I have zero knowledge of Chinese. But I work in a land of linguistic plenty. "Hang on," I said.

I ran out into the hall, looking for a Chinese speaker. I found a group of our American undergrad language assistants and took a shot in the dark. "Does anyone here speak Chinese?" And of course, one of them was a Chinese major. I got him on the phone and he had the whole thing sorted out in less than five minutes. And this is far from the first time I've had to do something like that. A few months ago, I got the infirmary's health history form translated into eight languages, six from our faculty and two from students. It's a unique opportunity and a blessing to be surrounded by so many languages and cultures every day. I often take it for granted, but today reminded me what a strange and wonderful job I have.

Sartorial: This was one of those 30x30 outfits that I put together because I couldn't think of anything better, but I'm more pleased with it than I thought I would be. I've avoided green and yellow together because I was afraid of being a little too lemon-lime, but with the white cardigan and bright necklace, I think it hits the right note. Perfect for teaching a summer class, counseling students, and finding impromptu translators.

Quest for Yellow

Dress, Cardigan, Shoes, Brian's Etsy Store

A student randomly gave me this yellow flower today. Thanks, student!

Academia: Today was pretty stressful, so I won't bore you with complaining about it. Instead, I want to talk about clothes! Yay clothes!

Sartorial: It's Yellow Day at Everybody, Everywear. I don't own a lot of yellow. I love the color, but I'm afraid of it; I'm so blonde and fair-skinned that I worry I'll look ill if I wear it. This summer, I branched out and bought these yellow shoes, but I wanted to add some yellow accessories for EBEW, and had this belt, as seen on Dotty of Dash Dot Dotty, in mind. So I headed to the mall, on a quest for yellow.

The Forever 21 in my town has found numerous ways to disappoint me, and yesterday's shopping trip was no exception: they had no yellow accessories at all, except for this owl necklace, which isn't even completely yellow. It was, however, $3.80, so I snatched it up, and got rung up by Topanga from Boy Meets World. Did you know she worked at F21 in a small Southern college town? She does. She has apparently ceased aging too, and actually appears to be forever 21. If only Mr. Feeny worked at Barnes and Noble, my life would be complete.

After being bummed out by F21 (minus meeting Topanga), I went to Victoria's Secret. I had birthday money to spend, and hadn't bought a new bra in an embarrassingly long time. I would have spent more time feeling embarrassed about it, except that almost immediately upon entering the store, I ran into a former student. A guy my dad's age. Shopping with his wife. So. Awkward. We all chatted politely and pretended we weren't standing next to a giant display of thongs, but yeah, it was weird.

So that is where my quest for yellow led me yesterday. I walked away with a necklace, some lingerie, a sneaking suspicion that Shawn Hunter might tend bar near the university, and a new number one on my list of places I'd rather not see students. Thank you, EBEW. Thank you.

Rainy Day Sunshine

Earrings

Academia: I don't have a window in my office. Good for concentration, bad for knowing anything about what's going on in the outside world. So when I walked out of the building to a much-needed downpour, I was a bit surprised, especially given that I hadn't taken my outfit pictures yet. Good for the drought, bad for my blog. I hoped that it would let up before I got home, but it didn't. So here are some pictures in my newly painted (but not yet newly carpeted or furnished) bedroom! It's not quite as yellow as it appears here, although the one wall is just as stripey. It was dingy dark blue before, so I'm loving the sunshiny aura it has now. Perfect for pictures on a rainy day.

Sartorial: My poor outfit kind of pales in comparison to all the yellow, but I felt cute in it all day. I was afraid the animal print with the pencil skirt would be too va-va-voom, but I think the flats and the quirky jewelry toned it down a bit. This is definitely not the most comfy outfit in my 30x30 though, so I changed into leggings and a loose shirt as soon as I took the pictures. My waist is very happy to be free.

Five-iversary

Shoes, Brian's Etsy Shop

Academia: Today is Cary's and my five-year anniversary, or as I've been calling it, our five-iversary. I have a master's degree in linguistics. I'm licensed to make up words. We're celebrating by eating in and trying to recover from our vacation last week - not the most glamorous anniversary celebration ever, but it's exactly what we want to do. I'm so happy to be married to someone I can go on adventures with and then hibernate with afterwards. Happy five-iversary, sweetheart. I love you!

Sartorial: I've worn this tunic/shrunken mini-dress with these jeans before, but I liked it so much I wanted to try it again with my tie-belt. I was comfy and felt cute. Perfect for a Friday, and a five-iversary.

Taxi Driver

Dress, Shoes 

Academia: At the beginning of every semester, I coordinate housing and shopping help for new students. I hire undergrad assistants to help drive the students to apartment complexes, the grocery store, and Walmart. This is a service for new students. New.


At the beginning of last semester, a returning student who lives on an inconvenient bus route showed up for shopping help. He didn't need help. He just needed a ride to the store. But I figured it was a one-time thing, so I sent him along with an assistant and assumed that was the end of that.

Imagine my surprise when, 15 minutes after everyone else had gone home, as the assistant and I were walking to our cars, the same student ran up asking for shopping help. Dude. This is cultural adjustment help, not a taxi service. Since he was there and the assistant was willing, I let him go. But I also told him not to try again next semester. I mean, really. Not a taxi service.

Sartorial: The 30x30 continues. I wanted to prove that I could wear this dress to work without a cardigan, and I think this was a success. Although now that I'm looking at it, I'm kind of wearing the colors of a NYC taxi cab. So maybe I've been sending out "I'm a taxi service" signals all day. I should look back and see if I wore this on shopping day last semester too.

Extra-Curricular: Family Matters

Today is the last day of the Extra-Curricular series, which means my vacation is almost over. I'll be back on Monday, but not before one last guest post tomorrow by the lovely Allyson of Decoding Dress. Come back and read her tomorrow, and enjoy another non-academic outfit today!

T-shirt, Shoes, Earrings 

Academia: A couple of weeks ago, we were in my hometown to surprise my dad for his birthday. We got there on Friday evening and spent Saturday lounging around, eating lunch with my grandmother (who sweetly spent 20 minutes looking at this blog and exclaiming about how adorable I am), and watching Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (my mom hasn't read the books and they're trying to catch up before The Cinematic Event of the Decade next month). They live on several wooded acres that are inexplicably in the middle of town, and their back porch is one of my favorite places to read, nap, and now take pictures for my blog.

Sartorial: I'm not going to get tired of this t-shirt anytime soon, y'all. It's in my 30 for 30 and I plan on wearing it all. the. time. Since my parents gave it to me, I thought it would be appropriate to wear on a day I hung out with them. This outfit is basically a combination of this one and this one, but I really liked both of those, so if it ain't broke, etc., right?

Cary's iPhone can do this! Cool!

Storm Ride of Death

Shoes, Earrings

Academia: After a pretty normal day at work, Cary and I headed an hour north to have dinner with his parents, aunt and uncle, brother, and niece. It was Steak Night. It draws a crowd. The sky was looking pretty black as we were heading for the interstate, but that's typical of a summer afternoon here. However, two minutes after we got on the highway, nature let forth a storm of Biblical proportions. I'm not kidding. This one was a behemoth.

As native Southerners, Cary and I fancy ourselves pretty unflappable by storms. We've driven through tropical depressions, heard lightning strike a block away without jumping, and slept through hurricanes. But I have never been in car during a storm like this one. First, there was torrential rain and tropical storm strength gusts of wind. Then there was lightning striking on the shoulder of the road. Then there was hail, and not just a little hail, but what sounded like a gravel truck emptying out onto our car. This went on for 20 minutes. I haven't been nervous in a car in a storm in a long time, but I breathed a big sigh of relief when we came out on the other side of that mess.

Sartorial: Today was Day 1 of the 30x30, and I really loved this outfit. So much so that I wore for the Storm Ride of Death this afternoon, even though I had the chance to change into shorts when I came home from work. It brought me some measure of comfort knowing that if we were struck by lightning or impaled by giant hailstones, I would die looking cute. I had clean underwear too. Moms of the world, be proud.

Just One Kind of Folks

T-shirt, Shoes, Earrings

"I think there's just one kind of folks. Folks." - Scout

I want to be Scout's BFF. I love this book that much.

Academia: Today was a crazy busy day (I asked for it, I know), but I want to put that aside to pay tribute  to a book I love, or better put, THE BEST BOOK EVER PERIOD. If you've even glanced at the pictures today (or just have great taste), you know what book I'm talking about. I'm talking about To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the awesomest book in the English language and the subject of my ensemble today.

If you've read TKAM before, you know why it's so great. But if you haven't, let me tell you what you're missing. Cliff's Notes would tell you that it's about two children in small town 1930s Alabama who watch their lawyer father defend a black man wrongfully accused of raping a white woman. But beyond that, it's about children trying to make sense of a world that is often senseless, and looking to their father to know what to do next. It's about a father who wants to be honest about human nature with his children, but doesn't want to scare them. It's about the way fear and prejudice can make basically good people think that other people aren't really people. It's about doing the right thing, even when you know it can't end well. And all those "abouts" are what make To Kill a Mockingbird about my favorite book of all time.

Sartorial: This t-shirt from Out of Print Clothing is an early birthday present from my parents. They didn't intend it  to be early, but I saw the label on the package when it arrived last week so I knew what it was and I swear I have a good reason for opening it early that isn't "I just wanted to wear it." The 30x30 starts next week, six days before my birthday, and I wanted to include this shirt in my 30. And then I figured, if I'm going to open it six days early, I may as well open it now. I mean, early is early, right? That's what I thought.

A Shorts Story

Shirt, Shoes, Earrings 

Academia: Happy Memorial Day! I hope y'all are enjoying the holiday. I celebrated by spending the morning in my pajamas, taking an online traffic course to avoid getting points on my license after getting a speeding ticket a couple of months ago. Turns out that a "four hour traffic course" really only has about 90 minutes of actual content, but since four hours are required, you can't complete the course until you've logged that much time online. I've got about an hour left and I'm pretty much done with all the reading. Fun times.

To alleviate the total thrill that is online traffic school, I took a break this afternoon, got dressed, and went to see Bridesmaids with some girlfriends from work. And I thought it was great. There were a few parts that were a little raunchy for me, but those moments weren't too many and I thought the movie did a wonderful job showing what it's like when one friend is moving on to a new stage in life and another isn't. So, two thumbs up (with one eye shut during some of the gross moments).

Sartorial: Since I didn't go to work today, I took advantage of the rare opportunity to wear shorts on this blog. Hello, legs! I got these shorts a few weeks ago at Old Navy and they have become my go-to weekend wear. I love that they're a little baggy and a little long, and that they have giant pockets. They're so comfy that I left them on to sit on the couch, blog, finish traffic school, and watch reruns of Doctor Who on Netflix. And that's really saying something. Couch-sitting is usually a job for yoga pants.

Dresser's Block and Friend Friday

Jeans, Brian's Etsy shop

Academia: After work, Cary and I went to the AT&T store and he got an iPhone 4, which we used to take these super-high def pictures on campus this evening. Brian was with us, and it was fun to pose in a pretty location with what felt like my personal team of photographers. Maybe this will inspire me to venture out into the world more often, which I'm sure will be a relief to y'all - you must be starting to feel like you've been trapped in my backyard forever!

Sartorial: Y'all ever have a day where you're just plain out of creativity? Today is that day for me. Can we call it dresser's block? Inventing a catchphrase like "dresser's block" would be really exciting for me. I know you've seen these jeans with pretty much every t-shirt I own, but I just wasn't feeling any of my dresses or skirts today and I didn't have time to iron my other pants. So I put this on and added a fancy necklace in the hope that you would be distracted. Did it work? No? Ummm... oh look, Friend Friday questions!

1. How often do you get your hair cut? Even though I'm growing it out right now, I still go every five weeks or so. Short hair can get ugly real fast when it's in an in-between stage, so I regularly check in with the salon to keep it maintained. Once it's the length I want (a little above shoulder-length), I'll probably go every 2-3 months to keep it the right length and looking healthy.
2. Do you go to the same stylist each time, try someone new, go to the cheap hair cutting chains, or live it up in a salon? I go to the same stylist each time, and she works in a salon. She charges $20 for a shampoo, cut, and blow dry, which I think it pretty reasonable, considering the peace of mind I get from never having to worry that she's going to wreck my hair.
3. Do you color your hair? How often? What's your natural color? This is my natural color. I've never colored my hair, except with Sun-In at the beach once or twice. Coloring seems like an expensive regimen (if it's done well) that's hard to quit once you start, and I like my natural color anyway. I'm not anti-coloring, it's just not for me.
4. The one thing you always do to keep your hair looking great is: Wash every day with volumizing shampoo and conditioner, and blow dry with a round brush. I have super-fine hair that looks greasy after 24 hours of not washing, so washing every day is a must. And if I don't blow it dry, it just hangs there, looking flat, so I blow dry upside down for a minute, then stand back up and use the brush to help dry from the roots and turn the ends under.
5. What hair trend do you love and wish you could rock? I've had short hair since high school, and I really miss being able to put it up. I'm anxiously awaiting the day when it's long enough to put in the milkmaid braids or bun that every fashion blogger seems to wear so well!

A portrait of the artist. This is Brian, whose jewelry I wear pretty much every day.

Primary Colors

Jeans, Shoes, Earrings

Academia: Got woken up by Atticus continuously from 5:00 to 6:00 this morning. Overslept. Ate breakfast in the car. Helped a student find daycare for her baby, helped another student find a sublease. Took a five-minute nap in my pink armchair. Jumped a few inches out of my pink armchair when I woke up and realized I had fallen asleep at work (thanks, Atticus). Came home, ate dinner with Cary and Brian, and went to a meeting at church. Should I discontinue this section of my posts? I feel like I write the same thing every day. My job isn't boring to me at all, but it sounds kind of boring written down.

Sartorial: This outfit is the end result of 15 minutes of trying things on and pulling them off and throwing them in a pile on the bed. It's a little chillier than normal here (and by chillier, I mean not 90 degrees), so I wanted jeans this morning. Maybe someday I'll get tired of these jeans, but that day is not today. It probably won't be tomorrow either.

I tried this scarf on as a belt on another outfit a few weeks ago. It wasn't right for that outfit, but I knew it would be a good belt with something else, so I was excited when it worked today. I liked the combination of primary colors in today's ensemble, which is echoed in the belt and earrings (which, you can't really see, are Scrabble tiles with yellow and red beads). After yesterday's all-neutral get-up, this was a nice change of pace.

Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

Shoes, Brian's Etsy shop

Answer: Gone to my super-floral dress, every one.

Academia: Today has been another day of helping students find housing (and in an hour, go shopping). I've been in and out of apartment complexes all day, and have memorized the leases and advertising spiels so completely that one of the leasing agents said I should work for them. I was a little flattered, and a little I'm-clearly-spending-too-much-time-here.

Also, I had to wake up in the middle of the night last night to take Cary to work - he's taking his 5th graders to Washington, DC this week and had to leave school for the airport at 3:00 in the morning. So I might collapse at my desk am a little tired right now. Cary has our camera, so I had to figure out a new camera this morning, hence the distant and slightly blurry pictures (many thanks to Suzanne and Dr. Mike for the use of their camera).

Sartorial: It's Everybody, Everywear's Florals Day. This is the floweriest thing I have, but I struggled with how to match it to our orientation week "dress professionally" mandate. I tried tucking the dress into pants and skirts, and finally just gave up and threw on my go-to professional article of clothing, the blazer. Too bad it's in the 90s today and I spent half the day with it off. I guess I'll just have to go shopping for a lightweight summer blazer. Darn.

Growth Spurt

Shirt, shoes, Brian's Etsy shop

So I've been thinking about ways to grow as a blogger.  As with most hobbies, I've found that doing exactly the same thing for more than a little while gets boring. I like what I'm doing photo-wise and outfit-wise, but I've decided I want to focus and polish my writing better, and not just write the first thing that pops into my head when I sit down in front of the computer.

I want to use the title of my blog, Academia Sartorial, to help me focus when I write. After all, I started the blog with an eye to describing fashion and dressing well in the academic world. So from now on, at least until I change things up again, I'm going to split each post into two sections: Academia, which will describe what I did in the clothes I wore that day (usually something academia-related, since that's where I work), and Sartorial, which will describe what I was thinking/feeling/regretting/liking about the clothes themselves. So without further ado...

Academia: Today was the first day of the summer semester, and my first day as the sole Student Life Coordinator for an orientation week. I was nervous about leading registration sessions and organizing housing seminars alone, but it went really well. I helped a student who spoke about three words of English sign a lease at an apartment complex, which left me feeling very impressed. I remember the mild freaking out I did whenever I signed an apartment lease (and the major freaking out when I bought a house), and I understood what the lease said! Anyone with the guts to show up in a foreign country, not speaking the language, and then start signing legal documents without batting an eyelash, deserves a round of applause.

Sartorial: Our dress code at work is normally very casual, but for orientation weeks, my boss asks us to dress more professionally since we are making first impressions on the new students. I got this awesome t-shirt at Target yesterday for $12 and I love it, but t-shirts on their own are not very professional-looking. I really wanted to wear it today, so I pulled this dressy skirt out of the "I gained five pounds, forgot about it, then lost five pounds" corner of my closet to pair with it. I added yellow shoes and these gorgeous earrings, newly borrowed from Brian. I felt cheery and cute, so I think it was a success.

P.S. Notice that Cary mowed the lawn so you can see my shoes again? Yay, Cary!