2005-02-25 - 9:51 p.m.

On the internal soundtrack: "You've Got a Friend", Carole King

Thursday, February 24th, 2005

- I am completely shocked at some of the insane things you people have done that I haven't. You people are crazy. I have had an utterly boring existence in comparison so I won't be making one of those lists. I've been naked in front of hundreds of people, but then so has anyone else who's been to a clothing-optional beach.

- I been sick. Last Monday I got Poindexter's cold, which was mainly a sore throat/light cough kinda thing. Since I don't get aches like he does, it wasn't too bad, and I slept a lot and it was over in three days with just a residual annoying cough that woke me up every few hours despite chugging the Robitussin before bed. But THEN, on Saturday, I started sneezing. ARGH! A totally separate cold! I know exactly where I picked it up, too, and I want to track that bitch down and smack her for leaving her house when she was all phlegmy like that. I slept for two days straight, felt better one day, then had another crummy day. Yesterday was the first day I felt like a normal person. It is really quite nice. I don't like the detached feeling I get when I'm sick, and I seem to lose my sense of humor. When Poindexter is sick, he loses his peskiness. I know he's better when he starts being annoying and cackling again.

- I curled my hair yesterday (with the rollers) for the first time since I got sick. I plopped on the couch next to Poindexter and said, "I feel pretty." He said, "Of course you do. You're all curly." He knows I feel prettiest when my hair is curled. Why is that? I even feel pretty with curled hair when I'm wearing GLASSES, if you can believe that. Poindexter thinks I look gorgeous ALL THE TIME, whether I have curls, perm waves, or frizzy bedhead. Why can't I see myself the way he sees me? Dammit.

- SNOW!!!!! Woo! BUT THIS BETTER BE THE LAST SNOWSTORM OF THE SEASON.

- Speaking of snow, remember how awhile back John described Kit during a snowstorm as something like "SNOW! Blahblah snow snow blahblahblah SNOW"? Well, I'm like that these days, except about fashion. I sound like "Blahblah SKIRTS blah ANNA SUI blah MONEY blahblahblahblah HANDBAGS blahblahblahblah ANN TAYLOR". I am used to spilling whatever's in my head to Poindexter, but that's because usually I am wondering introspective things about people, which he enjoys talking about. The fashion, somehow I doubt it. I have been trying to rein it in, and not babble too much. I told him about this effort. Now when I occasionally allow a little of the fashion babble to spill out, he sits and smiles at me with a knowing look on his face, and I say, "Oh, shit. I'm babbling again." Then he laughs.

The thing is, I know he would try to listen to me despite the boringness because he knows this is important to me right now and he loves me. But I am aware that he would do this for me, and I consider it a wonderful gift, so I don't want to abuse it. I also don't want to have something I really want to talk to him about and have him zone out automatically as a defense mechanism from all the previous nonsense I've been babbling at him. I've tried babbling in my journal, but then I get caught up in trying to express it properly in writing so it never gets posted.

Friday, February 25th, 2005

Yesterday, Camille gave me a hard time for not posting my fashion blatherings because I was having trouble expressing myself to my satisfaction, so of course now I have to post them. (The hypocrisy is because I have fussed at her about not posting enough -- she doesn't do it as often as I'd like for a similar reason.) I have a hard time getting the words out for some reason, in spite of the fact that I think about fashion a disturbing amount of the time and even dream about it. But I'm going to heed my own wishes of other people and just post what I wrote without looking at it.

So, after nearly six months of feverish fashion-watching, I've noticed a few things.

I am interested in fashion as a phenomenon. I'm interested in how it cycles, how the runway-to-reality process works, in the different styles of the different fashion houses (many of which I genuinely dislike).

I've noticed that there is a huge, huge difference between what you see on the runways, what you see in the stores, and what you see people actually wearing on the streets. And that there is also a huge a difference between what 20-year-olds think is fashionable and attractive and what I, as a 33-year-old, think is fashionable and attractive. The 20-year-old point of view can apparently be summed up in Mary Kate Olsen. There is an article on a fashion blog that RAVES about Mary Kate's leggings. I have to agree with the commenter who says she looks like a crazy bag lady, but apparently that means my age is showing. Others think she is great at mixing and matching and layering. You look at the pictures in the link and decide for yourself.

It seems that the 20s is a time for the ridiculous. For trying just about anything that comes to mind -- a dress over jeans, a hideous vintage polyester Adidas jacket, or looking like a bag lady. The emphasis seems to be on "different" or "original" with little thought to "aesthetically pleasing". I don't care for the "fashion" of 20-year-olds very much at all. It looks messy and jumbled and aesthetically quite unpleasant to me. The worst part is that they seem to like to wear clothes that don't fit, which look rumpled or too tight in some places and too loose in others. Young people have such amazing bodies and too many of them haven't the faintest idea how to showcase them well. Either that, or clothes that fit well cost more money than young people have.

It turns out that as far as my own dressing goes, I am not technically interested in being "fashion forward". All I want is to look reasonably timely (i.e. no pleated tapered pants), well-put-together (which to me means more matching than mixing), and have my clothes flatter my figure. I would generally call myself a conservative dresser, except that I'm finding lately that I really like to have a single piece that's a loud eye-catcher, whether it be a tweed coat or a necklace of my grandmother's or a cream-and-coral paisley tunic shirt (which I got at New York & Co. for $12 on clearance).

I am simultaneously relieved and disappointed to discover that the types of styles I love the most, like the ones that triggered this whole obsession, have not reappeared since Fall 2004. I've looked at the magazines regarding Spring 2005 and the runway shows on vogue.co.uk for Fall 2005, and nothing is jumping out at me like Fall 2004 did. I expect my academic interest in fashion to continue, but I suspect my spending is going to drop.

The only thing I'm really excited about for spring is the full skirts and floral prints. I picked up a couple bohemian skirts in the kid's department at Strawbridges for $17 each, plus a full floral skirt at Nordstrom Rack for $10. And I got an early-1960s-style housewife dress for $13 that I'll have to show you. I want to pick up some basic keep-forever stuff I can wear for business meetings and then I think I'm done with spring/summer trends until clearance time, when I might pick up a crocheted sweater. I'm just not falling in love with anything like I was before. I thought perhaps I'd just lost interest generally, but that's not it -- I looked back at the Fall 2004 trend watch, with the tweed and pencil skirts, and my breath caught again. So apparently it's just that Fall 2004 had an unusual number of my favorite types of clothing.

Oh, and apparently I only dislike bohemian in *winter*. In the spring, those full gypsy skirts seem like just the thing. Although I have always loved full skirts since they are almost as comfortable as jeans to sit and move around in.

And finally, I see that the Fall 2005 runway is showing a lot of black. Everbody is hailing the return of black. Except, of course, me. >:( I have been so happy with all the colors people are wearing. For myself, the only time I wear black is to offset some other brighter color I'm wearing.

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