Things to say

This morning while I was hanging out waiting to get dressed to go on my interview, my neighbor came by to let me know that she thought Sam had escaped.  She had seen him on her fence.  It wasn't Sam. It was Sam's twin. He is a stray that the apartment people have tried ot have animal control catch but haven't been able to. They seem fascinated with each other.  Sam, who already loves to sit on the balcony, will stare at the other cat for hours. Apparently the other cat is also interested in being Sam's friend if he was on the balcony trying to come up to visit. Weird.

I need a pair of some heeled boots/shoes that are black.  My suit pants are too long and usually I wear a pair of peep-toe pumps with them but it is 17 degrees and slushy outside and that just wasn't going to work.  So I wore my suit with my black Doc Martens which means my pants dragged on the slushy ground like I'm some sort of teenager. Time to go to the Dry Cleaners.

I went on a job interview and had a talk with a recruiter at an agency today.  The recruiter has 2 positions open.  One I'm not interested in at all since it is for another health care group and I'm not having it again.  The other, she says, is for a place that she has heard good things about from the other people who have been placed there.  The downer for that one... salary lower than what I earn now.  Now, to be fair I pay a lot for benefits so if their benefits are better/more covered that might be okay.  The problem is, I can't really find a lot of time to interview for a lot of jobs.  Don't even get me started on my boss and time issues.  The other place was a manufacturer of heating & cooling units. I interviewed with the recruiter, the person who would be my boss and I was supposed to interview with the person who has the position now and one other person, but they had left early. That reassured me since I think I don't believe in not meeting the rest of the team for a job. We'll see. I think I might like it there.  Their hand outs are certainly impressive. :)  If this one doesn't work out I may take a little break. Stock up some more time so that I have time to interview. :)

Better Dress

Please ignore the bad angle and the stupid face I'm making. It is hard for me to take a picture of myself and get the dress in the photo too so I balance the camera on a stair in the stair well. But this is the newest dress. It is a steel/purple with black net overlay and sparkles! I love sparkles. This was the first dress I tried on today and I LURVE it! It is knee length and I feel like it is a younger dress than the other one.

Gala Dress

Here's what I bought for the gala next weekend. I'm not 100% sold on it the way I was with the other one. I'm going shopping for shoes today. I may look and see what's out there again. What do you think?

Please ignore the pigtails that are worn on weekends until I can get my haircut next week. I think Michelle's kid has longer pigtails than I do.

The crystal pattern only goes on the front. I think that bugs me.

Big Ups to Kate in VT

So my friend Kate in Vermont reads this semi-regularly (or maybe even regularly) so Hi Katie Girl! Glad the kiddos are good. :)

I took Rigby to the vet today. She has the Adrenal Disease. This means 100% of the ferrets I have owned have had it. Sigh. She'll now go get a 40ish dollar shot every month until she dies. Since she is 8, that could be any month now. Although since I think she might be pure evil, she'll never die. (She's not really pure evil. Baxter was pure evil. She BIT. Rigby does not bite. She just doesn't seem to like me very much. ALthough all ferrets I have owned seemed to be like that. I am getting a cat next - maybe one of those creeeeeeeepy sphinx cats that are hairless so Michelle and the kiddos and her husband can visit me - but definitely I'm getting a pet that will let me pet it and love it and squeeze it and call it George.)

I do love this episode of Friends where Phoebe gets married. If I ever get married I want to do it outside. (Ok that's just a romantic notion and reality will probably prevail and I wouldn't want my like 800 year old dad to freeze to death in the snow)

I'm making chili tomorrow night. I am weirdly excited about that. I'll make chili and corn bread. Whee!

I need to try on my fancy dress again with my industrial undergarment. I am going tomorrow to get new shoes to go with the dress and I need to figure out if I also need a new industrial undergarment and/or a slip. My back is fairly exposed in this new dress. And at least when I tried it on, the new dress was all about the static. I'm going to get my hair trimmed next Saturday before the fancy pants gala. I'm contemplating bangs. I probably won't do it though because I'll hate them approximately 15 minutes after cutting them. But it could be fun for a change.

I finally saw that Single Ladies video by Beyonce. I don't get why it was such a great video. Whatevs.

How are Eminem and I alike?

We cleaned out our closets. :) However, as a result, I am now completely sneezy and wheezy from all the dust I kicked up. The left half of my closet hasn't seen the rustle of hangers in years. Almost everything on that side went out. A couple of coats stayed because, well they only got stuffed on that side because the right side was full and I still do actually wear them. A few old sweatshirts and shirts stayed because I find I can't get rid of anything Disney or former employer swag. I should I know. I was dismayed to find a dress and a pajama top I used to wear completely singed from the heat pipe that is in my closet. In the end I have 2 boxes for charity... one a "Large" moving box and one a "Medium" moving box. I also bagged up one of those black trash bags full of torn jeans, stained shirts and other assorted unwearable crap. Next step... the wire rack I put things like panties and socks on/in. I also boxed up all my volunteer t-shirts so I can have them together to make my volunteer t-shirt quilt.

Can someone explain to me what I was thinking when I bought a pair of black shiny pants? (I'm pretty sure Michelle was with me when I bought them and I'm pretty sure I had a theory about them. I've never worn them). If I had been thinking, I would have photographed some of the various dregs from the back of my closet and regaled you with tales of my fashion insanity. Sadly, I didn't think of it and those boxes are now sealed.

I wonder if those space bags work? That could help with this process.

Barefooted

As a child I would change out of shoes the moment I could. I would walk out to the car with shoes in hand and only put them on when we got to the destination. Back in the car I'd take them off again and this would repeat as we went about our errands. I think that drove my family crazy. Although this was back before the 'clickers' for cars so I could just lock my own door and catch up. I used to get chastised for going out into the garage barefoot. We had black widows and other spiders out there and it was my dad's shop so there'd be wood pieces and nails. Seriously in retrospect it was lucky I never got tetnus or a nasty spiderbite. The bottoms of my feet were regularly black from going out the front door barefoot... walking through the cacti barefoot... down the driveway and on the sidewalk barefoot. You get the picture, right. Barefoot is where it is at!

Fast forward to being an adult. I still hate shoes. I sit in my office barefoot when I can. The moment I get home I kick off my shoes. (Doubt it? There's a pile in the front hallway of the shoes I regularly wear which is the spot I kick them off). Hence, shoe buying is always a THING for me. I like comfortable shoes. I like simple shoes. I loathe buying shoes. Currently I'm looking for a black pair for work. I'm hoping to buy a simple versatile pair I can wear with socks and I'll probably end up with some ugly vaguely lesbian pair because that's what I always end up with when I take function over form. Part of me thinks I should wait and see what kind of job I get so I can tailor this shoe purchase to match that... as though this will be the only shoe purchase I make for a year (sadly, it probably will be. I buy shoes in fall for the coming winter and spring for the coming summer and I buy 2 pair max - one black and one brown. Sometimes I buy tennis shoes but not too often). Blech.

I blame Sookie Stackhouse

For the fact that I accomplished nothing today. I started watching True Blood after realizing Anna Paquin is in it. I like her acting a lot so I decided to watch a few episodes On Demand. True Blood, for those without HBO, is a show about vampires and other supernatural creatures. I forget how I discovered the shows were based on books (I think they might show a little thing when the episode first starts or ends) but I decided to check out the first one. I was hooked. The Southern Vampire Mysteries are much better than that other big vampire series. :) They are really rather short reads - the first book is 292 pages - and they are quick to boot. The basic premise of the stories is that vampires have come out of the coffins because Japan has invented a synthetic blood that allows them to get the nutrition they need without drinking from people. So now they go out at night and associate with people. Sookie is a small town waitress in Louisiana and meets one and has all sorts of adventures due to her ability to read minds. Regular people don't like her either because they know what she can do or just because they think she's crazy. On the show, they followed the book somewhat. The basic premise of the first season follows the first book although there were definitely places of digression and addition. I just watched the 2nd season premiere and they've gone way off the original books but that's okay. It was still a pretty good episode.

I bought a new gray pin striped suit yesterday. I'm going to take a picture of me in it as soon as I find my camera. :) I like it. I think it is slimming. It was originally priced really expensively - $300 (ok that's expensive to me, maybe it isn't really expensive). It was marked down to $122 which is a good deal. I've never owned something so elegant. :) I just have to figure out how to get it to Denver so I can change into it when I get off the plane and after lunch and it won't be wrinkley. I do have one of those squishy hanging bags... Do the stewardesses only hang those up for first class? Hmm...

Irrational Desire

So I'm going to the big fancy gala again this year. I'm wearing the same dress I wore last year because a - I love it and b - I love it and c - it isn't like I'm so rememberable that people will realize I wore it last year so whateva. I was looking online for a black wristlet so that this year I don't have to ask Stephen to hold my cell phone etc in his pocket. (Well and I discovered the word wristlet this year too.) And so I google 'black wristlet' and of course ebay comes up and I start scrolling through them. I've fallen in love with a Coach wristlet. Now, I'm rarely a brand whore, but I covet it. And yet, somehow I can't get over my innate unwillingness to spend so much money on something like a little purse. So I keep bidding in hopes I'll finally be the winner. But I've got my limit so we'll see.

Isn't it cute??

Do you want to know the worst part? The very worst part? Even if I could find something similar in non-Coach I don't think I would want it because it isn't Coach. What's wrong with me??

New Shoes!

Yay for me! I bought new shoes! I went in with the intention of getting new tennis shoes and new work shoes in black because I can't wear little brown Mary Janes forever, but that went out the window because of how HOT it was here the last few days. I needed a more summery type shoe. I went to Shoes N Feet because apparently I'm an old lady who needs old lady shoes and the Walking Store guy just chastized me for not having full orthotics and why don't I buy theirs. Whatever! I'll have more pictures tonight after I post the ones from yesterday when I went to Tolt-McDonald park to check it out before camping. It's a cute little park.

So these are my new tennis shoes. They have a removable innersole. I wear my orthotic with just the bottom of the shoe, although I think I might invest in some of those cheap thin soles that just like make your feet not stink.

This is my new pair of "summer" shoes. Except in black. And they have a Croc innersole (also removable) with an orthotic built in. I'm not sure if I'm going to just wear the Croc innersole or remove it and wear mine. If I do that I'll have to get some type of covering for my orthotic because I really really hate how they feel against my bare feet.

Lucky Shopping

Yesterday after picking up my rebuilt orthotic I figured I'd stop by the mall and look for shoes and maybe some springy clothes. There were no shoes to be found. Nothing in Nordstroms. Nothing in Macys. Nothing in the "walking shoe" shoe store. Sigh. I'm going to try a store called Shoes N Feet which caters to comfy shoes as well as those for people with feet issues. BUT the lucky part is that I went to the fatchick store. They were having a sale. I picked up two pairs of capri pants and three short sleeved shirts. Everything was on sale (which surprised me because there was no tag indicating the shirts were on sale). AND the woman in front of me had a coupon that she didn't use that she gave to me which was for $50 off a $150 or more purchase. I hit $150 and ultimately only spent half of what I was supposed to pay. Yay.

I've added more to the summer of busyness...

July 11 - 13 is the 4th Annual (fourth?) Girls Camping trip. (Now with boys!)

August 8 - 10 is LA for baby Kenna's 1st birthday

And sometime in August Mandy is coming to visit.

I think Lyday may want to go camping this summer while it is warm (as opposed to camping in February) and quite possibly a Stephen & Ben trip in the works.

GWB Would be so proud

I was originally going to bank my random extra money they should be sending out any minute now. Then I thought, well I really need a new pair of tennis shoes and a new pair of work shoes so I'll buy those and bank the rest. And then I realized we're heading into spring/summer and as always I have nothing to wear to work for spring/summer weather. Every year I struggle with this. In the winter I wear pants and a sweater almost every single day. Sometimes I get reckless and wear a skirt and a sweater. In the spring/summer I struggle. I loathe 3/4th sleeve shirts which seems to be all you can get in the button down look for women. I have 3 men's shirts that I wear but in reality they are probably totally inappropriate (they hang down to my upper thigh. At least one could be a shirtdress if I were daring.). I would like to wear more skirts but that would either require more industrial undergarments (to prevent the thigh rub issue) or buying that stuff runners use. Maybe I'll try that. Also, now that I've totally lost where I was going with all this, I love how The Avenue suggests things to go with the separates you are looking at on their site. I need that! They call it "create a look" and all I can think is thank you for granimals. :) Also, if you've long admired a skirt a coworker owns and you see a similar skirt, is it in bad taste to get it. How about if that coworker is one who frequently gets mistaken for you? :) (Or you for her.) Finally, the word Skort is just wrong and apparently Republicans are useful sometimes after all. ;)

Investment

Clearly I should have invested in the company SmartWool. They make socks. I bought some for my February camping trip. I got some for my birthday this year and just a couple of days ago, I went to the running store near my work and got some more. The new ones are for running and to eliminate the blisters that I get with the orthotics. So far... totally pleased. I used them for my 35 minutes on the elliptical trainer this morning and there was no problems. Yippee!!

Yet again with the shoes??

I hate shoe shopping. We've long established my lesbian tendencies when it comes to shoes. I like them practical. I like them plain. I like them well made so that I don't have to do this that frequently. I like them comfortable. I like them without velcro which seems to be a bit of a problem given the practical, comfortable and the well made rule. Somehow that translates to either old old lady shoe (hence the velcro) or lesbian. I usually would wear the regular Dansko clog, but my orthotics make my feet too tall I guess to fit in mine properly. I also have the Dansko Mary Janes (in brown), but Michelle rightly pointed out that two pair of Mary Janes may be more than I need. Oh because I suppose I should add I also would rather not own a ton of shoes. I don't need shoes that are so specific that they only go with two outfits. If I were independently wealthy, I'd have a personal shopper who would just spend her days finding the things I don't know I want until she's found it. I'm not so I put myself in your hands, dear readers. Any simple black shoes you like? Any brands you prefer? Now that Dansko has updated their site and it is all flash based they may be dead to me. I hate flash!

I feel pretty... oh so pretty...

I just got home from my fancypants gala. Well, actually I just got home from hanging out at Bauhaus with Stephen after the gala. (Ok technically I'm now writing this on Sunday morning since I got totally tired last night and couldn't finish)

The gala was really fun. There was a bit of miscommunication between Stephen and I which resulted in him hanging outside my apartment for 30 - 45 minutes and me sitting at the gala going I hope he's on his way. He emailed me that he didn't have his phone which I translated to with him in Vancouver not the real thing which was he didn't have his phone which is broken so he won't have his phone. :) So I called and texted him after I left for the gala on foot. He only got the voicemail through luck. But I can rest assured that my building manager will not give out my information. Of course that's probably because he doesn't seem to actually know who I am but whatever.

Ok so my dress was awesome and I got complimented a ton. And it was fun seeing who didn't recognize me all fancified. The food was also awesome - so yummy. I had risotto which I've never had before. THAT'S yummy! I did get tipsy after 2.5 glasses of wine and I was actually willing to dance but I didn't mention that to Stephen until it was too late and the last song started playing while I was in the bathroom. The Temptations played which was cool. I liked it more than I thought I would. After the gala, we went to Bauhaus to sober up and closed the place down.

I wore the little black strappy shoes and discovered they suck! The strap across the back heel wouldn't stay up so they were flippy and then I ended up stepping on the strap. I took them off to walk down to the Westin because it was easier than wearing them. Sad for my pedicure, but totally much easier to walk that way. Apparently you can take the girl out of country but you can't take country out of the girl. :)

Vote

Ok so now the last thing... shoes. Which pair is better? Both are in flat black not patent leather (which Michelle recommended) for two reasons. 1- Avenue didn't have any patent leather shoes. and 2 - This way I can wear them with other things.

Shoes

What do y'all think. These are some ideas I've had, although I'm sure they're the wrong ones. ;) My sister told me I can't wear Tevas to this thing. She's no fun.

Option A. From Zappos.com. I don't think I like the square heel but I do like them otherwise. (I don't like rectangle heels like that usually) But I do like the ankle strap.

Option B. Also from Zappos. I don't think I like them actually but maybe. Hard to know.

Option C - Although they do look alarmingly high. But it isn't every day I go to a fancy thing.

Option D - Also alarmingly high. Actually now that I look at them seriously they are SERIOUSLY alarmingly high.

This is an artist's rendering of shoe option E. These are shoes I already own at home. :) They are black and strappy but it is a matte strappy since they are suede I think. They are highesh but since it is a thick heel I'm not worried because it is very secure.

The dress - Better??

So I went out shopping today and I was just going to look, but I fell in love with this dress at Nordstroms. The sales lady said that it was black tie and both sales ladies who helped me loved it so that's good I suppose. I love it.

Please forgive the excessively bad angle. Fat chicks should not be shot from the bottom. However, since the stairwell is the only place where I can set up my camera at a decent height that's why I go there.

Just the dress on the hanger. It is kind of hard to describe the color. The pictures make it seem silver but it isn't really. The silk bottom part is probably sagey, but a pale sage and the lace is silvery blackish gold. Very hard to describe.

This is the bottom part of the dress along with the wrap I bought to go with it. I went to the downstairs part and just said 'tell me what to buy.' I think they like that. :) This is the link to the wrap, although the website doesn't have it in the color I bought.

Slightly better angle. The bra strap that you can see is not the one I'll be wearing. I AM wearing an industrial undergarment in these photos though. I bought a new spanx high panty thing. I can now see why they are as expensive as they are. Next up... shoes. Sigh. :)

Tangentially Related

Who knew that Nordstrom.com actually uses real plus sized models to display some of their stuff? One of the complaints I have had and I know others have had about places like Lane Bryant is that their models are plus sized, but they are 14 which is the smallest size Lane Bryant carries. It makes it somewhat hard to determine really what that looks like on my kind of girls. Well... looking at Nordstrom's page of "party dresses" for the plus sized gal, my red dress looks (to my mind) a lot like what they're showing so maybe it is okay?

HELP!!!

I've been invited to go to the gala that my employer puts on every year. This is a black tie event. I've never been to a black tie event. What do I know about a black tie event?! I am excited to go but at the same time I'm freaking out a bit. I'm not fancypants. So I THINK this dress might work for a black tie affair. I bought it years ago, yet have never ever had an occasion to wear it. So it sadly hangs in my closet all sad. It is red and the stripey part is an overlay of that thin kind of material... I'm sure there's a word for it, I just don't know what it is. Of course I would be wearing industrial undergarments with it (which I'm NOT wearing in the pic) and I have a pair of black strappy sandals with a chunky heel and I would get a black wrap to wear with it. What do y'all think? Does this look potentially okay or should I field trip out to find a black tie type outfit??

Moneywatch Day 3

The money is still there. Of course it is only 8:41 in AK, but still. I called them almost 24 hours ago.

In other news... I bought new shoes! These were also purchased at Nordstroms but future Nordstroms purchases are tabled until my customer issue gets resolved. I took my other danskos in to be repaired and they can't fix them and they did not offer to replace them for me, instead blaming me for the way I walk (which is not necessarily untrue but the it really varies from shoe to shoe because my tennis shoes don't look like that at all and my physicial therapist actually thinks I walk inward). I was actually fine but Big R was incensed so he's emailing them today. (It helps to be friends with a diva! :) )