Boundaries

I tried to look at my feet like normal when I took this picture, and then realized that I have to lean waaaaay over to see them. Better get a pedicure while I can still appreciate it! 

Looking at the camera instead of pretending to look at my feet seemed like a better idea. 

Academia: I love my job. I love helping students. They bring me so much joy. But I've found over the past two years that one of the most important things I can do to stay good at my job is to set boundaries with the students; that is, not being 100% available 100% of the time. Little things like locking my office door while I eat lunch have a huge impact on how I'm feeling about the students, my job, and myself at the end of each day.

I mention this because today was one of those days when I was very glad to have boundaries. I had offered to meet a new student this morning to help him find housing, imagining it would take a couple of hours at most, but he and his family ended up needing so much more of my time. At 1:00, I hadn't had anything to eat or drink since breakfast, and didn't see any signs of my charges slowing down, so I fibbed. I told them I had an appointment at 2:00, wrapped things up, dropped them off, and got myself some lunch. Which I ate with my feet up.

I used to have a hard time making myself follow through on these kinds of boundaries. After all, if I didn't have anything else on my calendar, shouldn't I help students who needed me? So I helped, but I often ended up feeling resentful and overextended. Ironically, pregnancy, a time in my life when another person is drawing from my own resources 24/7, has helped me stick to the limits I set with everyone else and not feel guilty for doing so. My baby needs me to eat lunch at a reasonable hour, so I do. I only have three months of "just us" time left with my husband, so I leave work on time and don't answer after-hours emails until the next day. Unless it's an emergency (which obviously I don't ignore), the students will live, and I stay physically and mentally healthy.

Sartorial: During this pregnancy, I've come to set some style boundaries too; mainly, I don't put anything on my body that is even remotely hot or constricting. For example, I haven't worn a pair of heels in six months. I'm not really afraid of falling over in them and have no issues with other pregnant ladies wearing them; they just sound so massively uncomfortable to me that I can't bring myself to stick one toe in. My wardrobe right now is pretty much exclusively loose dresses, cotton tops, and sandals, and I feel great. This is one boundary that may not be permanent, but is making me very happy for the time being!

To Everything There Is a Season

Academia: This week is spring break for my university, but unfortunately not for me. We have our half-semester check-in this week, so I'm not getting a spring break right now. (I am taking a vacation at the end of the month though... stay tuned for all the exciting details!) So I wore this yesterday to give a seminar, answer student questions about insurance, etc. Not thrilling, but all in all, an okay day.

Sartorial: Yes, these are the same pants I wore on Monday. I also wore this cardigan yesterday, although I didn't manage to snap a picture. I'm finding that wearing maternity clothes is kind of like a 30 for 30 remix, except it's more like 9 or 10 for 150. Here's what I currently have in my pregnancy wardrobe:

5 dresses
2 pairs of work-appropriate pants
1 pair of boyfriend jeans
2 skirts
2 shirts

I plan to add to this list, of course, but for the next five months, I also plan to repeat items of clothing with no "but I have a style blog" guilt. To everything there is a season, and right now is a season of sticking with clothes that I like and are comfortable. And after the baby comes, I plan to have a season of "huzzah for normal clothes again!" shopping and skinny jeans wearing. Because I'm sure that's what the writer of Ecclesiastes 3 meant.

Quiet

Necklace, TOMS 

Academia: Yesterday was a blissfully quiet day at work. The students had only a final exam, no classes, so I didn't see much of them. Instead, I got work done in my office, visited with work friends that I never get to talk to because I'm so busy with the students, and left early enough to go shopping with a girlfriend. After a very busy semester, it was just the kind of day I needed.

Sartorial: For a quiet day, comfy, stretchy clothes seemed appropriate. Perfect for curling up in a chair in a friend's office, stretching my legs out while working at my computer, and walking around Target.

New TOMS Day!

Dress, TOMS, Necklace

Academia: Good things that happened today: meeting at a local B&B where a student will be volunteering (including a tour and delicious B&B coffee), tivoed season premiere of How I Met Your Mother, and the first time wearing new TOMS!

Sartorial: New TOMS! I've basically worn holes in my old TOMS, and since they're the most comfortable shoes I've ever owned, I knew it was time for a second pair. I scoured the website, but all the styles I liked were sold out. So I googled "TOMS name of my town," and huzzah! There's a fair trade store downtown that sells them, and they still had these, and I loved them and bought them. And I loved the store too; the owner offered me his opinion without being pushy, and was chatty without being overly familiar. My favorite kind of salesman!

Be prepared to see these a lot this week. I'm on a mission to prove that they go with everything.

All Day Dress, Round Two

Dress, TOMS, Bracelets

Say hello to Atticus, Blogland!

Academia: Sorry about the grainy picture quality today, y'all. I didn't get home until 9:00 last night, so I had to take pictures inside and my camera isn't advanced enough or maybe I'm not advanced enough to take good inside pictures. I was late for fun reasons though. I have a work prayer group that meets after work on Wednesdays, and after that I had a meeting of a philanthropic organization I'm hoping to join. Spending time with friends and soon-to-be friends makes getting home late not so bad.

Sartorial: The last time I wore this dress, I called it the "all day dress," and it certainly lived up to its name yesterday. I tried to dress it down a bit with TOMS and beaded jewelry, and I was comfy, cute, and climate-appropriate from 9:00 yesterday morning until 9:00 last night. So now I know that this dress works with heels, dressy flats, super casual TOMS, in the morning, at night, in a box, with a fox, in a house, and with a mouse. And I do like it, Sam I Am.

Plain White T

Necklace

I've had questions about how my hair is looking lately. Here it is, at the end of a long and humid day. Not its best look ever, but I didn't have time to redo it before I took pictures.

Academia: I think it's best this week if I don't write about work. Everything's cranking along in check-in week, but the stress of checking in the largest semester we've probably ever had plus the stress of managing two special programs is probably not anything I need to relive after I get home from work. I'm trying to teach myself to mentally shut work off when I'm not there, so here's me shutting if off. Click.

Sartorial: I hit the Labor Day sales over the weekend and bought some basics: a simple white t-shirt at Loft ($6!) and a pair of gray leggings at Stein Mart. We're supposed to dress professionally this week, so the leggings were out, but I wanted to find a way to dress up the t-shirt, and I think this worked. I just love wearing new clothes. I think I'd try to dress up a pair of bedroom slippers if they were new. Should I make this a style challenge for myself? Make sleepwear look like real clothes? Or is that just the exhaustion talking?

T-Shirt Love

Bracelets, Relient K 

Academia: My Labor Day was a blessed relief after a long working weekend. I went to lunch and shopping with my sister, watched Saturday's Doctor Who, and did some laundry. All in all, just what I needed.

Sartorial: I had something less casual in mind at first yesterday, but on a day off, I really just wanted to wear a t-shirt and shorts. So I pulled out one of my old favorites, a t-shirt I got at a Relient K concert about eight years ago. I've shied away from t-shirts since I started blogging because they didn't seem fashion bloggery enough, but a well-worn and well-loved t-shirt can be such a joy to wear that I think I should bring at least a few t-shirts back.

What do y'all think? Are t-shirts the domain of high schoolers and sorority social functions, or can they be stylish?

... And the Livin' Is Easy

Necklaces: Katogo Long, doubled, and Katogo Short 

Full skirts inspire me to flamenco dance.

Academia: Y'all, I need to add a class in the second half of the summer. Everyone is getting along fine so far, and so today was a slow day. I worked on a packing list for our trip to California in a couple of weeks and researched hiking trails in Yosemite National Park. I read blogs and went home early. I'm not trying to invite a bunch of crises on myself, but the pace needs to pick up a little bit.

Sartorial: Another day oversleeping, another ironing-free outfit. I really liked the bright pink shirt with the bright green sandals, and the Bead for Life necklaces tied everything together well. And the skirt has an elastic waistband, which is always a good thing. And I buckled the belt one notch skinnier than the last time I wore it. Healthy eating FTW!

Camel Rider

Necklaces (Katogo Long doubled and Katogo Short), Bracelet

Academia: Thanks for all of y'all's feedback yesterday! I'm going to keep this section of the posts, but try to focus it a little more on individual events rather than a rundown of everything I did in a day, and possibly talk about how fashion influences my job and vice versa. So, that said...

I ate lunch at Gyros Plus today, a Middle Eastern/Mediterranean restaurant near campus that is extremely popular with my Middle Eastern students. It's so yummy, but so messy. I spilled my Camel Rider sandwich on my shirt (ground beef, Middle Eastern spices, and hummus on a pita, mmmmm), so now I have a lovely grease stain to complement the rest of my ensemble. But on the plus side, I got to eat with about 12 of my students eyeing me from across the restaurant, which is never always fun. Were they waiting for me to pass judgment on their culture's food? Were they wondering why a teacher had shown up in the middle of their free time? Were they wondering if all Americans try to simultaneously wear and eat their food? Who knows. But the answers are delicious, because Cary ate my last frozen lunch, and I can't speak for all Americans, but in my case, yes.

Sartorial: I wore the warmer-weather equivalent of this outfit pretty recent, so I didn't really break any new ground here. I just like the combination of black and white with aqua and bright jewelry. Nothing really more to say about that. Now, where's my Tide-to-Go pen?

Whip My Hair (Or, You Know, Pin It Severely. Either Way.)

Necklace

Check it out, y'all! My hair is in a teeny ponytail! Yay! I haven't been able to put my hair in a ponytail in almost five years. I loved having short-short hair, but being able to do stuff with it again is so much fun. Sure it needs a scarf and several bobby pins to help it (did you know they make blonde bobby pins now?), but it's up and I'm excited.

Also, notice how I'm color-blocking my accessories again? My scarf is turquoise and my shoes are green. I think this is a step up from color-blocking my shoes with my jewelry, which I did last week. Maybe next week I'll give actual pieces of clothing a try. I've got one toe in the water, y'all. One step at a time.

Hippie Chic

Brian's Etsy shop, bracelets

I have to be honest; when I heard that Everybody Everywear's April outfit was maxi dresses, I wasn't too excited. I've never felt tall enough for them (I'm just shy of 5'5"), and maxi dresses are a little more hippie chic than I normally do. I have this one because I needed a beachy dress to take to Puerto Rico a couple of years ago, so I hauled it out of the back of the closet and threw a button-down over it to make it work-appropriate.

I ended up liking it more than I thought I would, actually. I was very comfortable and I got some compliments at work. And then another teacher accidentally microwaved a cup of tea without any water in it, so the herbs in the tea bag got scorched and the entire floor smelled like pot (which I only recognized because I've been to Amsterdam, y'all). After that, hippie chic somehow seemed like an appropriate way to be dressing.