Baby Shower Convert

My sister-in-law Beth, my awesome nephew F, and me

F and me, chillin' with a giant pile of presents

My in-laws: Cary's aunts, sister-in-law, and mom (to the right of me). Love these people!

Academia: I have long been uncomfortable at baby showers. For a long time, that was because I was trying to get pregnant and baby showers were sad for me, but even before that, I had a hard time finding things to talk about at showers. I was always the only childless person at them, and what did I know about bottles, diapers, and nursing covers? I went to a shower once when people oohed and aahed over what I swear was a disembodied arm designed to simulate the weight of a mom's arm to comfort the baby in mom's absence, while I sat there with my mouth hanging open. I am so not making this up, but the internet has completely failed me and I can't find a picture. What should I search for - "disembodied arm for baby?" It was the weirdest moment in a long history of weird baby shower moments.

But. BUT. I have discovered that when you are the mom-to-be, baby showers are wonderful. There's yummy food, you finally have something to contribute to conversations about swaddling blankets (aside: my fabulous sister Suzanne got me these and they are so soft, I might steal them for myself and let Baby C deal with it. I have actually had dreams about the softness of these blankets), and you get so. many. presents. Plus, you're surrounded by people who love you and your baby. What could be better?

I've had two showers now: one at Cary's work, and one on Saturday, hosted by my priest's wife and attended by lots of church ladies, plus several of my in-laws (Cary's mom, sister-in-law, and two of his aunts), my sister, and the most fascinating baby on the planet, my nephew F. Both were great, but the presence of family at Saturday's shower made it extra special. It was such a lovely afternoon, and I left feeling so grateful that my baby has so many people supporting her and praying for her before she's even born. The baby shower lovers have won me over - I can't wait for the next one (even the next one that's not mine)!

Sartorial: You can't see my whole outfit in these pictures (many thanks to my mother-in-law for taking and sharing them), but this is what I wore to the shower. This dress was cool and comfy in the June heat, and I think the flower in my hair added just the right amount of whimsy. I felt pretty and maternal all afternoon.

Bonus Sartorial: My nephew F is wearing a tiny polo onesie and tiny khaki pants. Isn't he the preppiest little thing you've ever seen? I could just eat him up.

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?

Professional Stretchy Pants

The Poppy Chain Boutique 

Academia: The semester's over, but the busyness continues for another couple of days. I spent yesterday chauffeuring visiting professors around town. They were very nice, but it was quite a full day and I was happy to arrive home and put my feet up at the end of the day. Today is my last day of work before Christmas, and I won't go back until January 3 - yay! I plan to fully enjoy my long break, mostly by sleeping late and eating. I can't wait.

Sartorial: Even though I had a very professional day with the professors, I couldn't work up the will to wear anything other than these leggings again. The semester is over and tiny-waisted skirts just seem like too much work now. The professors didn't seem to mind, so if they weren't sweating it, I won't either.

Schoolteacher

Academia: I've been sitting here for an hour trying to think of something to say about what I did in this outfit, other than "I ran around all day and didn't get to eat lunch until after 2:00." But since I ran around all day and didn't get to eat lunch until after 2:00, my creative faculties are suffering a bit. All I've got is "my feet hurt" and "What up with How I Met Your Mother last night?" So yeah. Sorry.

Sartorial: I wore this ensemble to church on Sunday (I always test-run new outfits at church) and my sister said all I needed to become a stereotypical old-fashioned schoolteacher was a ruler and a bun. I didn't want to go quite that far, but looking a little sterner at work couldn't hurt. Maybe I should start making students clap erasers or scrape the gum off the underside of desks if they don't turn in their immunization paperwork on time. That would be totally appropriate, right?

Mother Knows Best

Academia: So I think all the hormones I'm taking to get pregnant are prematurely turning me into a mom. And I don't mean the mom of a baby, which is what you'd think baby-making hormones would do. I mean the mom of teenagers who make the same mistakes over and over and need to be nagged.

Yesterday I fussed at an 18-year-old student who had gotten his eight jillionth traffic ticket. Normally I just help my students pay their tickets, but this kid is ridiculously horrible at following traffic laws, so I pulled his friend who speaks better English into the office and got him to translate the mom-like tirade I went on, complete with, "Seriously, another ticket?" and "You still don't have a US license? You're lucky you didn't get two tickets!" I got a sheepish smile and a promise to hightail it to the DMV, but I have a feeling that a repeat of this conversation is in my future.

And then another student fell off his skateboard and I had to spend the afternoon at the infirmary while he got treated for a sprained ankle. Jeez, I really am a mom.

Sartorial: Half my outfit came from Loft, which can lean towards middle-aged mom-ish if you're not careful, but I think the Cambridge t-shirt and animal print flats jazzed it up enough to not make me look like the mother of teenagers yesterday. You know, in spite of all the nagging that went on.

Sister, Sister

Sorry about the pictures today. I wanted to see if I liked the flash settings on the new camera better than without the flash. I don't. 

Also, I'm still trying to figure out the appropriate amount of zoom.

Academia: A pretty normal day at work, except I got to have lunch with my lovely sister! My sister is a nanny, and as the child she nannies for gets older and my future niece or nephew gets closer to being born, her work hours are becoming more flexible, which means that we can have lunch once a week or so. It's such a nice break in the middle of the day and I love having the time to catch up with her. Living in the same town as adults is great.

Sartorial: After wearing a fancy dress and heels on Tuesday, I swung in completely the opposite direction yesterday and went as cozy as possible - boyfriend pants, slouchy cardigan, and TOMS. Perfect for a slightly chilly (for the Deep South) November day, and for sister lunch time.

$40 Anthropologie Dress!

Brian's Etsy Shop 

Academia: The title says it all, y'all. Part of my weekend of relaxation included going to a fancy mall to ogle the designer clothes and jewelry, at the kind of stores that wouldn't put a toe in my rural college town. I didn't expect to buy anything, but when I went into Anthropologie, my favorite store to drool all over, I found this awesome dress in the sale room. It was marked down from $140 to $40, approximately what I would spend on a dress at Target. Anthro dress for Target price? Yes, please.

Sartorial: There are a lot of things I love about this dress. First and foremost, the circle skirt. I went to the bathroom at work just to spin around in front of the mirror at least once yesterday. Second, the color and the pattern. I never knew I loved kelly green and black, but I do. Third, did I mention the price?

I felt so pretty in this all day, and I got a lot of compliments, which was really nice. I'm pretty sure I can dress this down or up, and it can transition between seasons by adding or taking away tights. Expect to see a lot of this dress, y'all. I love it.

Nothing to Note

Dress, TOMS 

Academia: So I'm racking my brain trying to think of anything interesting I did in this dress. I mean, there were interesting things: I talked to my doctor on the phone, Cary and I went to the marriage class we're taking at church, but none of that is really sharing-details-on-the-blog-appropriate. So y'all will just have to be bored today. Sorry. I'm going to Epcot on Friday, so I promise I'll have more interesting stories soon.

Sartorial: I know the French pigtails don't scream "I'm a college administrator," but I just love wearing them. My hair feels so adorable in them, and it stays out of my face all day. And I liked them with my comfy dress and shoes too; it was a rainy day, I stayed up too late last night, and it was just the right kind of nondescript day to be cozy and have cute hair.

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?

Girls' Day at the Sauna

T-shirt, Brian's Etsy Shop 

Academia: I'm happy to report that yesterday was much less stressful than the day before. Our professional development week continued, and I'm having a great time hanging out with my colleagues. We have several new teachers on our faculty this semester, so my girlfriends and I invited some of them to lunch with us today. I think they're going to fit right in, because we had a lot of fun together and everyone seemed to click. I love having colleagues that I like. Nothing breaks up a tough day better than a few minutes of girl talk in between classes, and I have plenty of work girlfriends to talk with.

Sartorial: After dressing for battle two days ago, I wanted to be a little more relaxed yesterday. This was also because our PD sessions are on the other side of campus, about a 20 minute walk from our building, and August in the Deep South is the most miserably hot and humid month of all the months in all the hot places in all the world. No one goes outside unless they absolutely have to, because outside feels like a sauna full of sweaty football players from about 9:00 in the morning until 9:00 at night. So for a 20 minute hike in the armpit of a sauna-ed up offensive lineman, I went for floaty cotton and flats. And I seriously considered wearing a bikini today. But don't worry. I only do that during spring break.

Harry Potter and the Versatile Dress

Dress 

Academia: God bless my boss for insisting that I take a vacation. So far today, I have slept until 9:30, read, done some laundry, and had lunch with out-of-town friends, the kind of people I haven't known very long but are so energizing to be around that I can tell we're going to be good friends. My soul needed today.

Also, Cary and I are driving to Orlando to go to Islands of Adventure this weekend! It was a last-minute decision, but we thought we needed to escape into something fun, and what better way to escape than to pretend we're going to Hogwarts? I'm going to drink my weight in butterbeer, y'all.

Sartorial: For a laid-back day, I wanted a laid-back outfit. This dress is so comfy and cool, and with a new headband and brightly colored sandals, it's perfect for today. I know I've worn this a million times, but it's just so versatile and feels great on. It can go from laying on the couch to lunch to Cary's work party to the car ride this evening without breaking a sweat. Although it would be kind of weird if a dress did break a sweat. Maybe at Hogwarts.

The Call of the Wild

Dress, Cardigan

Academia: Today, there was a squirrel in our teacher resource room, which our admissions coordinator caught and released into the wild. But today refused to top out weirdness-wise with the squirrel, because then there was nearly pornographic photo shoot in front of our building, which was a whole different kind of "the wild."

I didn't see it, but apparently there were bikini-clad teenage girls posing seductively and smoking cigarettes for a photo spread called "Smokin' Hot on Campus." In attendance at this photo shoot were the girls, the photographers, my boss (only for the 30 seconds it took her to rip them to shreds and throw them off our non-smoking campus), and almost every male student we have, at least half of whom are from conservative Muslim countries and often aren't really even used to seeing women's upper arms in public. Among the many issues I have with this, here are the most salient:

1. Our campus is non-smoking, and we have been reprimanded repeatedly because our students won't stop smoking on campus. So thanks for the good example, "Smokin' Hot" ladies.
2. A university isn't church or anything, but it is where people go to learn and better themselves. Seriously, a little respect for the educational process.
3. Does anyone really still think smoking is cool?
4. The name of the talent agency representing these ladies was a play on words that referred to losing one's virginity. So, yeah. Gross.

Sartorial: I felt positively puritanical in this outfit compared to the bikini girls. But unlike them, I was appropriately dressed to be on a college campus. Or, you know, anywhere not called "the beach." I've already worn this dress and cardigan together in my 30x30, but I like the combination so much and I tried to change up the accessories so it didn't look the same. And hey, I was clothed and I wasn't smoking. Win-win. (Win.)

On the PCH

Brian's Etsy Shop

Blue and green feet!

Academia: This has been a weird semester at work: ridiculously bad attendance from basically everyone, teachers having to quit, and on and on. So it was good that today was Friday, and the semester is nearing the end. Pretty much enough said.

In happier news, my sister and brother-in-law closed on their first house today! Yay! We had dinner at our house with friends, and then field tripped over to their new house (only five minutes from ours!) to drink champagne and take the tour. Actually, the girls arrived at the house first, so we had a girls' tour and a guys' tour. Featured on the girls' tour: closets. Featured on the guys' tour: the future location of the grill. We don't try to be stereotypical; it just happens. Then we came back here and had dessert. It was a wonderful evening.

Sartorial: This top and these pants have proven to be real workhorses in the 30x30. I put them on together this morning and then felt inspired to go all blue and green. I was thinking about this:

The Pacific Coast Highway is gorgeous and cool, which is exactly how I want to feel on a hot July day. Better yet, I just want to be on the Pacific Coast Highway again. Like now. But in the absence of beautiful views and chilly breezes, dressing like beautiful views and chilly breezes is the best I can do.

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.

War and Peace

Jeans, Earrings

Peace, y'all.

Academia: The week of crazy random problems continues. I love my job, y'all. I love the students. But this week feels like it got put in a can, shaken around real good, and then dumped out willy-nilly all over the calendar. There are two full-time teachers out due to medical emergencies, so we're all scrambling to cover for them. Consequently, half my day is gone to subbing all week.

In the remaining half of my day, I'm seeing students with roommate issues, students with parking issues, students with home entertainment system issues, students who are pregnant, students who need an orthodontist, and students who just want to vent and find me a convenient ventee. My job is pretty random on a normal day, so I'm okay with not really having a routine, but this week has been so random that I'm half-expecting one of the pregnant students to give birth in my office tomorrow. No, I'm not, universe! I didn't say that! No office births, please! Luckily, Cary and I are taking Friday off to join my parents for the weekend on Tybee Island, Georgia, where they've rented a house for two weeks. I need to go to the beach, y'all. Need.


Sartorial: This outfit is so breezy and comfy. I feel like such a hippie in it. I've worn black and white with green accents before (here and here), but I just love this color combination. Y'all can probably expect to see a variation on this theme again. This is definitely the flower-power-iest version I've worn so far. Which is good for such a crazy week, I think. If I can't have peace and love in my work, at least I can have it in my wardrobe.

Welcome Watermelon

Academia: I almost never post on Saturdays, but today I actually have to do a work thing, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to get another 30x30 outfit knocked out. I freaked out a little when I realized 5 outfits a week meant I wouldn't finish for six weeks. So, here's outfit 9 on a Saturday.

What I'm doing today is going to a welcome picnic for our new students. We have two a semester (one at the beginning of the full semester, one at the beginning of the half) and attendance is mandatory for faculty. I always enjoy myself, despite the fact that working on a Saturday kind of stinks. But it's just for a couple of hours, the students are excited to be there, and there's free food. I may not be a college student anymore, but I can't resist the siren call of free food.

Sartorial: Free picnic food is actually where I got my outfit inspiration for today. I was trying to figure out what to pair with these jeans (the most casual bottoms in my 30x30) when my eyes fell on this watermelon-colored top. "Watermelon is a picnic food," I thought, so I added green sandals (for the rind) and a black and white scarf (for the seeds). I'm a little literal in my fashion choices sometimes.

I asked Cary if he thought I looked like something he might eat at a picnic. That blessed man just blinked, looked me up and down, and said, "A watermelon?" when I'm sure he was wondering, "How did I marry a crazy person and not know it?" But it's too late for him, mwahahaha! He's stuck with a wife who dresses like food and then takes pictures of herself for life. But as long as I don't go the Lady Gaga route and wear actual food, I think we'll be okay.