Built-in Accessory

Hey. Still here? Wow.

Technically, I'm not accessorizing today, but I don't need to. In fact, to accessorize would be overkill because check out this shirt:

And check out that gnarly scar. Isn't it awesome?  Can you even find it? I had part of my parotid gland removed a few years ago. There was a benign tumor. Now I have that scar, which is way better looking than a giant bulge in front of my ear.

I always wear a ponytail when I wear this shirt. Gotta show off the bling.

Oscar and I are working on getting a house. Right now, we are in the middle of negotiating the offer. And I'm nervous. Nauseated nervous. We've got to get a fast closing. Which is a month before we really wanted it. But that's okay. I don't mind having the house a little early. I'm so nervous I can't think straight.

150 BPM

I have a new running program. Heart rate training! The theory is you’ve got five heart rate zones. Each zone is a range of beats per minute that target certain fitness goals. If you’d like to calculate your zones, go here. The zones are as follows:

1. Walking. For me that’s 133-146. I don’t have anything to say about this zone. It’s walking.

2. Fat burning aerobic. For me that’s 146-159 bpm. This zone is where your body burns fat and builds endurance. This is the zone in which I’m training. It’s a slow run early in training. I have to walk every so often to keep my heart rate down. But this zone also helps your heart become more efficient, so with time, you’ll be able to run faster with the same bpm. Right now, in order to stay under 150 bpm, my mile time averages 14:09 over 4 miles. SLOOOOOOOOOOWWWW, right? But like I said, with time, that will get faster.

3. Fitness aerobic. For me that’s 159-171 bpm. This is the range to improve aerobic endurance. Currently, this zone is most comfortable for me. It’s about an 11:30 mile. I want that to improve. Yesterday, after four miles of Zone 2, I switched to Zone 3 for about .75 miles. And it was comfortable.

4. Anaerobic. For me this is 171-184 bpm. This is for fitness, not weight loss. This pushes your heart to work harder. I have no idea where I am with this range. I haven’t hit it since I started heart rate training.

5. Max. For me this is 184-196 bpm. You can’t really maintain this speed long. It’s for interval training. If I haven’t hit anaerobic, I definitely haven’t hit this.

This is all theory. I don’t really know if it’s been studied or proven. Google didn’t tell me that, but here are links to the two articles I read in preparation for this post.

http://www.active.com/fitness/Articles/Calculate_your_training_heart_rate_zones

http://www.marathonguide.com/training/articles/HeartMonitorTraining.cfm

Whether or not it’s legitimate, it’s given me a new drive with running. I’m actually excited about my runs. For starters, I'm slow, so to have a reason to be slow is great. It makes me more patient with myself. Which I need.

I went out yesterday. Mistake. I’ve never been so cold and wind blown. My whole arms were numb when I finished. I couldn’t feel my wrists. I had to let them come to before driving. The wind was so sharp sometimes that I shrieked. And I didn’t even think about gloves the night before when I was putting my bag together, so I ran with my hands tucked into my sleeves. And the snot! Prolific! I dreaded my watch beeping to tell me my heart rate was too high because that meant walking and walking meant being cold longer. I kept on, though. How satisfying.

Day of the [double green] Dot

I am a dot

I am a dot.

I am a dot.

 

I like mixing red and green in a non-Christmas capacity.

I guess I should talk about Pete and Pete, but I don’t really have anything to add to the discussion. It affected my adolescence the same way it affected anybody in my generation. Has anybody called it “campy?” I just googled it and of course a million people have called it campy. I love camp. The article on Wikipedia is an interesting read. Is irony the new camp?

If Tinker Bell Were Me

New challenge today: Write this as quickly as possible. No lingering, ya know?

Today's accessory is a plastic tortoise shell chain link necklace. It's a little earthy, a little preppy.

 Today also has a Fashion Point. "If Tinker Bell Were Me," she'd totally rock this dress.

It's green, it's viney. Look at how slimming it is. If you can't tell, those are purple tights. I love purple and green together.

Ta.

Cemetery Gates

There is an in house ad by our student radio station. It’s got this really cute acoustic guitar/bass riff. It’s adorable. Totally Pete & Pete. For two years, I’ve been dying to know what song it is, but I can never pull my phone and Sound Hound out fast enough. It’s maybe ten seconds of song.

Belle and Sebastian sometimes make great running music, so I was running through their songs alphabetically and came to a cover of “The Boy with the Thorn in His Side.” So I thought I’d see how the Smiths are for running. It turns out they’re terrible, except for “The Boy with the Thorn in His Side.” But I was going through alphabetically again and guess what song comes after “The Boy . . . .” “Cemetery Gates” Guess what song “Cemetery Gates” is. Yes, it’s the song from the radio station commercial.

It makes me realize how little I listen to my own music. I’ve been sitting on that song since I visited my cousin in Mississippi in 2004. So now I’m going through all The Smiths on Spotify. You’d think I’d be obsessed with the Smiths. What with how jangly they are.

I forgot an accessory again today. And my outfit is schlubbier than I anticipated. I don’t want to document how wrinkled the hem is. I mean it’s scrunched way up. Tomorrow, though, I will accessorize and I’ll wear something presentable. Promise!

Here's a picture, just for the sake of having a picture. It's Euler under a pile of jeans.

Peter Pan Went to Oxford

Ack! No accessories again today! So I will do a Fashion Point of the Day. And that is, "Peter Pan Went to Oxford."

About the shoes. They were expensive. And I don't usually like to spend a lot of money on something so on trend. But I've also discovered that the only way to get comfortable shoes is to spend some money on them. I tried on every pair of oxfords I came across and all of them were hideously uncomfortable. They were all high on the ankle, stiff, and tight. These are low, butter soft, and wide in just the right places. Oh and they breath because they're all leather, which also means they don't smell like petroleum. 

Speaking of smells, my grandmother's pearls and their storage bag still smell like her. It's been nine years since she died (which is impossible to comprehend) and they still smell like her. How is that possible? It makes me cry every time I pull them out. I took them to be appraised last week and I left the bag so it wouldn't lose its smell. I won't have the pearls cleaned, either. Not yet.

Meta Bow Peep

Look! It’s a shirt with a bow on it with bows on it.

 
I don’t have an accessory today because the bow was accessory enough. I went shopping this weekend. And then went shopping online some more. I spent a lot of money. Some of which is already kind of reserved for my trip to LA. But that’s what credit cards are for, right? I didn’t go over my debt comfort threshold. There is a certain amount I can comfortably pay off in a few weeks and that’s my comfort threshold. And I came close to crossing it, but didn’t. Anyway, that’s really none of your business, but I overshare.

I’ve felt the need to replace a few things from the “too small” side of my closet. Mainly pants, but I’ve felt a little under-wardrobed lately in general. Hopefully I’m buying stuff that will shrink with me, as I am working on losing the weight again. If it can’t shrink, I’ll take alterable.

So the pope. Why do I not feel this is a big deal? I get that it hasn’t happened in six centuries, but is it a big deal for a man to admit he’s done? Ha. Maybe it is that big a deal. Get it. Men are stupid and can’t admit defeat. Sometimes, I feel that every man except Oscar is stupid. Sometimes, I feel that every person but me is stupid. Unfortunately, I don’t think I’m alone in that. I think everybody goes through that.

Manly FPotD

Oscar asked me to write about his look yesterday. It was a good look, so of course I am obliging. Oscar has a great sense of style. He doesn’t get to exercise it all that often because his job involves acid on a daily basis. He’s got one shirt with the bottom corner nearly eaten away. He wears it over a contrasting undershirt and voila, it looks intentional. Like a laser cut shirt. So even with what should be garbage, he’s got a good look going on.

I asked him what his fashion point of the day was. He said, “Texture.”

Cordovan shoes, chunky tweed pants and a chunky wool sweater with elbow patches. Plus, the waxed canvas Barbour jacket. So yeah, texture is a good word for it. The pants are especially brilliant. They’re full of colorful texture knots. This is one of his favorite looks because he wears some riff on it nearly every weekend. He likes the polished professor look. Tweedy, but not baggy or disheveled. I hope he can dress like this more someday. His ultimate goal is to be a professor, in fact. He’s working on it, but I’m not saying any more because so much is still up in the air.

I’m quite pleased he asked me to write about him. I like him participating in this part of my life. I know he reads this, but it’s nice to have him model. And isn’t he a sharp model?

Donatello and Michelangelo

Green and purple together always remind me of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Green and orange, as well. I had a beloved outfit in fourth grade that was comprised of a green/white rugby striped T-shirt with orange denim bermuda shorts. I only remember wearing it once because I'm pretty sure it was made fun of. 

Anyway, today's accessory is a green wooden bead necklace.

 
I can't remember where I got it, though I think it was Encore in Conway, SC. I was going through a multi-strand thing at the time. I've got four more to prove it. Maybe that'll be a theme next week.

I'm not running today, when I should. I could get my monthly average up to where I need it to be. But it's windy and I'm cold. So I'm just going to run more in February to make up for it. Right?

tschuss

I forgot

No accessories today. Crap!

A button just fell off my sweater. Crap!

I have printmaking tonight. From 4:15-7:00pm I am at the Bloomington Print Collective. Mostly, I sit around waiting for people to show up or need help with a project. It's usually pretty slow on Wednesday, so I'm bored. Go figure. I've been trying with printmaking. I'm just uninspired. I have printer's block, which is a good pun if you're a wood block printer. I also discovered that I can't draw anymore. Everything is wonky.

I need a wambulance.

I also need a sammich.

I'm listening to Grandaddy today. They always remind me of my friend Aaron. We don't keep in touch the way we should, but I've kind of put him in my always friends pile. No matter how long we might go without talking, we can always pick up where we left off.

I had soup instead of a sammich. It was unsatisfying and took forever to eat. Shoulda had the sammich.

Oh and the wambulance came. DOA. I'm just not going to be able to stop whining today. It's rainy and blegh. On the upside, my amaryllis has bloomed. See? 

 I write so many posts in TextEdit and never get around to posting them, that I'm not sure if I mentioned my amaryllis. It was from Oscar's grandparents for Christmas. I watched it slowly bud and then BAM it had bloomed.

I've been trying to digitally color match some stuff all day. We've got a repeat client and a blue (PMS 547) that printed wrong to begin with, so now I'm trying to match the bad color for the second run. I have to take the wrong color and add percentages of CMYK in tiny increments in order to get the right color. It's tiring and tedious, but I love it when it goes right. Oh, and I'll probably have to do it again next time the order comes in because the Bizhub doesn't remember color well. It's something to keep me busy, though, so no whining here.

Boobies

Just kidding. But I'm wearing slutty pearls today. I mentioned them last post. I guess I'm just running through my pearls posts. These are from my other grandmother. My mom's mom. My two grandmothers were so different. My mom's mom had a lot of cheap, but great stuff. My dad's mother had a few nice things. My mom's mom was born in Castle Hayne (Wilmington), NC. My dad's mom was born in London, England. Probably the biggest reason I don't have a southern accent was her having me recite "How now brown cow" over and over again. She immigrated at 14 in 1929. The family lived in Queens. My mom's mom lived in NC most of her life. She and my grandfather moved to Indiana (where he was from) for a while. They moved to NC in 1959 or 1960. My mom was five-ish.

I can't tell if this is a nice set of pearls. Surely they're fake, but the pearl finish is in remarkably good nick. No chipping. And the string used to be knotted between each pearl, which is quality. My multi-strand from the last post doesn't have it. This stringing is falling apart, though. A bead or two must have broken off at some point because there's a pretty long gap of naked string. And you can see where somebody tied it back together. Maybe I'll have them restrung. However, that'd be pretty expensive for a fake set of pearls. Could I learn to do it myself? There are probably a million tutorials and videos on the Google.

Yesterday, I was cripplingly bored. I'm on medication for ADHD, and I forgot it. So on top of not having much to do, I couldn't focus on faking it. Unmedicated ADHD is like running knee deep in honey. Medicated, I feel the way I think normal people feel. Capable, motivated, less bored. I came to the realization recently that I'm not actually lazy. I'm just bored, and when I'm bored, I'm extremely unmotivated.

Moping has been my MO the last couple of days. It's this gray weather. I must run more to counteract it. I will run today when I get home.

Real or Fake, but Preppy Allover.

We're going back to last Thursday for this one. I wore my amazingly soft cotton/silk flannel dress that Oscar got for me as a thank you for supporting him through grad school so far. It's from LL Bean Signature. It's also got pockets. All dressed need pockets. That's gotta be on my Fashion Rules list somewhere. I should work on that sometime. It'd make a good post, yes? Rule number one? No tapers with pleats. Anyway, I totally June Cleavered the dress with a red cardigan and pearls. I inherited the pearls from my grandmother. The sweater is J.Crew. Oh and I don't know if you can see the earrings, but they're porcelain flowers. My gran brought them back from England for me. I was probably 10 or 12 and I hated them at the time. Now I love them. Although I think they may have been a bit much for this outfit

On to Tuesday. Again, a red sweater with pearls.

Despite the properness of Thursday's outfit, Tuesday's look is way more preppy. Pearls are always preppy, right? Unless they're one long strand tied in a knot. Then they're kind of slutty in a flapper kind of way. But with a classic red sweater? Ta da!! Preptastic

Two posts for one

1. One is better than two.

I started out Friday with two plastic chain link necklaces. Well, you can see. I thought it was a good look until I took off the teal one. It was a much better look overall without it. I looked less like a kid playing in her mother's jewelry. Had I not had Ke$ha face with the second photo, I would say I looked more like the mother of the above situation.

The necklaces are J.Crew Outlet.

2. Scarf it down.

No necklace today. Instead I'm wearing my England scarf.

I'm to the point where I'm bored with my own writing. I'm not bored of writing. I could write forever. But when I read back what I've written, I find it incredibly boring. So what can I say about a scarf that isn't boring? I must find exciting synonyms for "great." I'm going to make a list that I can just pick from when I write because of course anything I write about is going to be "great." So synonym 231 on the list: Sensational. Isn't this scarf sensational?

The scarf is from Madewell.

~~~

I went skiing this weekend. Or should I say I went falling? I never could stop, so I just fell instead. I'm really good at falling. You think I've being vicious, but I'm not. The instructor said I was good at falling. I'm a natural. I think it's just my natural inclination that to slow down, going downhill, you lean back. At least that's how it works in running. But with skiing, you weight needs to be on the balls of your feet while you lean your shins forward so they're resting on the boot. Then you bend your knees so your butt is over your feet. So you're not really leaning forward or back. Then, to slow down, you're supposed to make a wedge with the skis. And I swear I was doing that, but I never slowed down. And forget about steering. I just don't deal well with any standing momentum that isn't walking.

Big Necklace, Little Necklace

I'm dragging today. I've been sick the last few days. I get a cold once or twice a year and it's that time. The congestion is making me spacey. I keep letting out these huge sighs because I can't breath. I want to go home and nap, but I know I've got a customer coming in soon. But not soon enough.

On to today's accessories.

 

 

I love the big necklace. It's my favorite piece of jewelry. I love it so much that when I lost it (I knew I left it either at a friend's house or a hotel), I found it again on eBay. And then, when it turned up (it was overlooked at the friend's house for two months), I kept both. I wear them together sometimes. 

This morning, with just a simple gray turtle neck, I thought the big necklace was a little too sophisticated. So I threw it off with the sailboat necklace. 

Also, can I say I'm digging my hair these days. It looks like Madeleine from Masculin Feminin. Which, no, I haven't seen. But an old roommate (Hi Ashley) had a screenshot from the movie hanging in her room, which is tooootally the same thing as having seen it.

See that gap in my closet? See all those beautiful clothes to the right of the gap. See all the perfectly lovely clothes to the left? Guess what divides them?

Twenty pounds.

To the right are all the clothes that I can't fit into. They're just too small. They weren't six months ago. Hell, most of them were okay three months ago. And that's not including all the folded jeans I can't wear. I'm down to two pairs of jeans and one pair of slacks. Two dresses. I'm nearly in a panic. Wait. I am in the panic stage. I need to get to the do something phase. Just breath and run phase. Stop eating shit phase.

I can do this. I've done it before. I just didn't think I'd have to do it again. But this just goes to show how important exercise is. My eating habits are a huge problem, but I kept them at bay with running. Now, I want to tackle both facets of losing weight. The exercise and the diet. But I hate cookiwah wah wah. I'm tired of hearing myself type. I'm so boring. I just wanted to illustrate something and I've gone off on a tangent.

Gained twenty pounds in six month.
Want to take it off in half that.
Must stop hating to cook.
Must run more.

Brevity, yeah!

Brace Let

Resolution Two: Accessorize

This bracelet. Look! At this bracelet.

Or should I say brace because there's no let about it.

The story:
I don't actually, officially know the story behind this bracelet. I have many clues, though. It was my aunt Marilyn's. She and my uncle Geoff lived in Southern California in the 70s and 80s. I know they visited Mexico at least once with my grandmother. This bracelet looks Mexican, wouldn't you say? My grandmother had an identical bracelet. So a safe conclusion would be that it was a souvenir from that trip to Mexico.

My first instinct is to dislike this bracelet. It's very large. And kind of folksy. Archeologist jewelry if you will. But I like throwing little curve balls in my wardrobe. I wore a particularly professional outfit the day I wore that bracelet. Gray slacks with an aqua tie-collar shirt, tucked in and my black booties. I will wear it again and take photos next time.

I'm on my second week of accessorizing. It's very satisfying. It takes no more time in the morning, yet I feel more–put together, whole, with it, on the ball–what is the phrase I'm looking for? I feel more mature without feeling old. Age appropriate. I feel responsible. All from adding an extra touch to an outfit.

New Years Resolutions

I have three resolutions this year.

One
Run more. My goal is 500 miles this year. That's 10 miles a week. Totally doable.

Two
Accessorize. I have tons of great costume jewelry. I'm going to take advantage.

Three
Write about resolutions one and two. Continue FPotD.