Raiders of the Lost Updo

TOMS, James Avery

Academia: Half day at work, and a long weekend coming up. My boss is awesome and insisted that I take some days off between semesters, so I'm out tomorrow and Monday. At home, reading more fantasy novels. Watching Indiana Jones melt faces in Raiders of the Lost Ark. All in all, not a bad day.

Sartorial: My hair isn't quite long enough for a blogger bun, but it is long enough to pin under in the semblance of a bun. It's so hot out, and while I like having longer hair, I don't like it getting sweaty on the back of my neck, so I'm exploring the world of updos. Thoughts on this one?

Mini-Break

Skirt, Earrings

Academia: Hi everyone. Thanks for your support yesterday. It means a lot. I'm still feeling pretty crappy, though, so I don't really have much to say. I think I'm going to give myself a mini-vacation from blogging this week. I'll still post my outfits tomorrow and Friday, but I won't write too much. Hopefully, I'll be feeling better on Monday and can come up with some thoughts that are more interesting to read about. Thanks for your patience.

Sartorial: I wore this to new faculty orientation today, plus a blazer that was too hot to wear outside for pictures. I felt professional but still fashionable, and got to check out our university's provost wearing a seersucker blazer, which was just fabulous. And he's a middle-aged math professor - not a traditionally stylish demographic. Well done, provost.

No Outfit Today

Sorry, guys. Cary and I had a bad appointment with our reproductive endocrinologist this morning, and I just don't feel like talking about my clothes today. We were supposed to undergo intrauterine insemination this month, and when we went in to get checked out to make sure we're in good shape for that, the doctor found that I reacted too well to the medicine they've been giving me, and would be at risk for high order multiples (like quadruplets or more) if we tried to get pregnant this month. So now we have to wait another month, possibly longer, when waiting even another day feels too long. We're really disappointed, and my clothes just did not make me feel better today. I'll be back with a regular outfit post tomorrow, but tonight I need to eat ice cream and watch TV.

Dorky and Proud

Shirt

Note about bracelet: Tunie was my grandmother, and this bracelet was from a pre-my grandfather boyfriend :)

Academia: It was suuuuuch a quiet day today. I went to work for six hours, where I filed some papers and responded to some emails, and then I went to the library, which is one of my favorite places to be on a hot summer day. Other favorites: the beach, the movies, and the United Kingdom. After the stress of the semester and our ongoing treatment for infertility, I needed some escapist fiction, so I found myself in the  fantasy/sci-fi section.

I've spent years trying to convince myself that I am not a fantasy novel reader, imagining all fantasy novel readers to be Renaissance Faire-going, sword-owning, cape-wearing people. And then I realized that I've read Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings like 18 times, I watch Star Trek: The Next Generation, and my first celebrity crush was Han Solo. Not Harrison Ford. Han Solo. Since there's pretty much no way anybody besides me was convinced I wasn't a dork already, I went ahead and checked out two fantasy novels. And I'm halfway through the first one already - The Lost Gate by Orson Scott Card. And I love it.

Sartorial: One of the things I love about not having students around is that I don't have to dress up. Yay for sneakers at work! But if I ever wear a cape on this blog, please e-slap me. Capelets are okay though. Not the same thing at all.

All Day Dress

Academia: Today was commencement day! Yay! End of the semester! Yay! I'm blogging so late because we celebrated the end of this insane term by going out to dinner with Cary's parents and Brian, and then going to see The Help. I will have some more coherent thoughts about it later, but to sum up, it was very faithful to the book and I loved the book. It was a wonderful way to wrap up the term.

Sartorial: This is what I wore for commencement. I always try to dress professionally for work, but commencement is a chance to be a little dressier and more festive than normal. This dress makes me feel awesome about my body, and it's conservative enough for work-related events. I switched out the heels for flats for the rest of the work day and the movie, and I'm pretty sure I could have pulled off sandals too. Versatile is one of my favorite things for clothes to be.

Easy, Breezy, and Hopefully Beautiful

Brian's Etsy Shop

Academia: Today was an easy peasy day. The students were just taking their exit test, so all I had to do was send some final stern attendance letters, rate some writing tests, and take a couple of students to a volunteering orientation at the hospital. After such a hectic semester, a slow day was just what I needed.

Sartorial: For an easy day, I wanted an easy outfit. A breezy skirt from college and a t-shirt were just right - I stayed cool and it was the next best thing to wearing a t-shirt and shorts. Nothing too special, but I was happy in my clothes, and that's pretty much all I want from my clothes.

End of Term

Earrings 

Academia: It was the last day of class today. Hooray! Amid the lawyering some of my students tried to present me with (as in "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I don't deserve this grade because..."), I had one very bright moment that reminded me why I put up with the lawyers.

I had to ask a low-level student to help translate for an even lower-level student in a personal situation. There was really no one else around to do it. We were chatting while waiting for parts of the situation to resolve, and in very broken English, he said that he felt like he learned more than English this semester. He said he learned to respect other cultures and points of view, and he learned that Americans do love their families, unlike what he heard at home. He learned that his culture is not the only one that matters. And he was so eager to learn more. "Here I learn experience, teacher," he said. I'm so glad I have this job.

Sartorial: In high school, I distinctly remember wearing pajamas to take my AP American History exam. I'm a long way from high school, but the end of school still makes me want to wear pajamas, or at least what feels like pajamas. Enter this dress and leggings. With cute flats, dressy enough for work, but they're stretchy and bendy and feel like pajamas. I'm lying on the couch at 9:45, still wearing them. I love my pencil skirts, but I peel those off as soon as I get home. Pajama-clothes are where it's at.