day three hundred hundred fifty-four.

Day Three Hundred Fifty-four Wednesday 8/18/10

Dress:  Orange Dress

Purchased From:  Stolen from Rica's bag for Mishel's Clothing Swap and it's from Conway originally because I was there when she bought it :) 

Year or Era Purchased: Summer 2010
Price: $Free

Accessories:  Green wellies
Hair and Makeup: usual makeup with some shades of gold and browns on my eyes, hair down and brushed and curled a tiny bit with a big barrel curling iron

Comments/Compliments/Complaints: A stranger complimented my boots, one of my clients (a female) told me I looked sexy and red was my color.  I didn't try to explain that the dress was actually orange.

I think I own this dress is black and maybe some other colors.  It was easy to wear and it they were calling for rain so I knew I'd be wearing my wellies and I'm a huge fan of orange and green.  I spent the day working and was quite happy that it barely rained.  I had to take a dog to get groomed and wait for him to be done so I hung out at Good Karma coffee shop and read a bit.  That felt pretty cool.  I also stopped at a farmer's market and picked up some lovely produce of portobello mushrooms, tricolor beans, multi colored pear tomatoes, a cucumber, two bags of parsley and a bag of dill, and some delicious cheese bread, all for $15.  Nice. 

After work I came home and made an awesome dinner of veggie chicken in a wine/lemon/garlic sauce, mashed potatoes, corn off the cob with lime herb butter sauce and kale chips.  We also chowed down on the cheese rolls and had most of a bottle of Malbec while we watched an episode of Louie and then Jennifer's Body since Michael hadn't watched it yet and I loved it so much.  It was quite a lovely evening I must say.  

Big news! I got Michael to agree to fostering a little kitten!!!! More to come, with plenty of pictures :) Super excited!

day three hundred hundred thirty-eight.

Day Three Hundred Thirty-eight Monday 8/2/10

Dress:  White and Red Floral Sundress

Purchased From:  Conway

Year or Era Purchased: Summer 2010
Price: $8.99

Accessories:  Black flats
Hair and Makeup:  Brushed, usual makeup 

Comments/Compliments/Complaints: One of my clients complimented my dress

I like the dress better on the hanger.  It fits sort of weird and the ruching is not so much flattering.  My boobs are a bit unfortunate in it at certain angles and it doesn't offer up much support.  Oh well. I put very minimal effort into anything beauty related on Monday because  I was exhausted and had a full plate.

I woke up early and started my homework.  I knew I had an insanely busy day that included homework, work, picking up a dog who is staying here, midterm, school, and eventually home.  I had to rewrite Cinderella, which I found extremely boring and uninspiring.  I suppose it's my own fault.  Now I know what all of those stupid reality show contestants mean when they say it's hard to show themselves in challenges. Ugh, did I just commiserate with reality show contestants?  I find that in this particular class we have a lot of small writing assignments and I'm having trouble fitting my style and voice into the assignments.  I need to fix that asap.  I made my Cinderella story a figment of my main character's imagination, as she is a patient in a mental institution.  I did not do it very well.  It's supposed to have a twist type ending, though I sincerely don't love those so I'm not sure what business I have employing them.  See what I mean, I don't know what the hell I'm doing. Stupid Cinderella.  I pumped that story out in two hours, started work and worked all day, got to school at 5 to take the midterm I missed on Thursday then went to class.  Phew. That's a lot of running around in one day.  By the time I came home I was exhausted.  I made sandwiches for dinner and Michael and I watched True Blood, which was a great way to end the busy day. 

Day three hundred hundred thirty-five.

Day Three Hundred Thirty-five Friday 7/30/10

Dress:  Grey Ruffled Shirt Dress

Purchased From:  Conway

Year or Era Purchased: Summer 2010
Price: $7.00 (clearance baby!)

Accessories:  Black handmade handkerchief with Porno Smiles ironed on to it since Steve and I were team porno smiles. It's a inside joke that probably wouldn't translate very well and would lose its funny. Also navy blue knee socks with green poofs, black boots, giant sunglasses
Hair and Makeup:  Down and unbrushed, usual makeup with some silver and grey eyeshadows- all applied in the car on the way 

Comments/Compliments/Complaints: Lots of people commented on this here bloggy blog. Thanks all! 

Oh man, when Orsborn woke us up at 5:45 on Friday morning I thought it was a joke.  The room was pitch black and my body felt dead.  We groggily woke up and repacked our coolers and got dressed.  We headed out the door, stopped at Wawa for coffee and ice and then met up with everyone in the parking lot of Hoss's.  I felt wrecked but I was super excited.  Mike and Jess, the mama and papa of the trip arrived with their giant van and we loaded it up with at least fifteen coolers and other camping gear.  Finally we hit the road, headed for Chamberlain Canoes.  I was in Orsborn's car, which held a canoe on top.  This put us a little behind in schedule since we had to stop and adjust the shifting beast.  

We stopped again when we got lost thanks to google maps and then again at the welcome center for the boys to make poops.  I had a cappuccino from a machine for $0.90 that was surprisingly quite tasty. 

I also took a picture of Orsborn with his canoe but it didn't come out so great. 

We finally arrived at our destination of Chamberlain Canoes and unloaded all of our stuff into a giant trailer and then loaded ourselves into vans.  There were eighteen of us with two to come the following day.  Steve and I loaded our canoe with a bit of trepidation since we hadn't canoed in a total of thirty years between us.  I totally nerded it out and wore my life jacket only to be made fun of by everyone.  I didn't realize it until about an hour later when I looked around and saw no one else was wearing theirs.  D'oh.  At least I provided a good laugh for everyone.  Steve and I were not so hot at canoeing and I had no clue that I was to steer since I was in the back.  We went in many circles, we got a little scared, me more than him, and we certainly tacked back and forth across the river way more than we needed to.  After a few hours of being stupid and a few tips from our fellow canoers we got it down, enough.  No tipping was the most important aspect of the day for me though, I like my stuff dry.  Here are some photo highlights of the first day: 

We arrived at our destination only to find it was riddled with poison ivy.  Boo. We unloaded and set up camp and then went rubbed mud on our possible poison ivy areas and went swimming.  I got super cold because my body is silly so I got out and cooked dinner. It was bangin.  I made bbq seitan, corn on the cob and baked potatoes.  The potatoes were precooked but the rest was campfire cooking.  I fed the drunk Orsborn and Michael and Steve and I ate too.  Despite our drinking efforts on the river we did not get as drunk as Michael and Orsborn.  Despite the fact that I drank a 24oz Sparks I was tired and went to bed around 9:30.  Crazy.  It was cold and my hair was wet so I didn't sleep well, shivery sleep is my least favorite and stupidhead husband was too drunk to snuggle.  I was none too happy when the alarm went off at 6:40 the next morning.  

day three hundred hundred thirty-three.

Day Three Hundred Thirty-three Wednesday 7/28/10

Dress:  Heart Pattern Night Gown Dress

Purchased From:  Conway

Year or Era Purchased: Summer 2010
Price: $2.99

Accessories:  black flats, purple knee socks, 

Hair and Makeup:  Down, usual makeup

Comments/Compliments/Complaints: Sue liked the socks and dress, I was called 99 again by the desk guy at a building I work in, Michael liked the dress

Here's another case of a nightgown turned dress.  I don't care. It was crazy humid again so I needed to wear something flowy and with little fabric.  I totally thought I wore this dress in a different color version but now I can't seem to find the post so maybe not.  I decided this dress needed some knee socks and these purple ones were handy and matched perfectly.  Thanks to my friend Jody, as she bought them for me.  

Wednesday was a getting shit done kind of day.  I woke up late because Michael let me sleep and walked to the el since his bike is in the shop getting a tuneup.  I got dressed, went to work and then came home and grabbed my roommate, Steve, so we could go to Target for camping supplies.  The Bridesburg Target has the worst camping section I've ever seen.  Blargh.  Going to Target with Steve is hilarious, he just sort of wanders around and stares at things.  We got lots of supplies and I got a cute new hat that happened to be on clearance. Score.  I came home and went to have a visit with Sue and Lemon so I could drop off a bag of dresses for her and grab her cooler and campfire toaster for our canoe trip.  Lemon and I had some bonding time while she'll drooled on me a bit, her new thing.  She's also currently obsessed with trees- kind of awesome.  

I came home from Sue's and washed a load of towels, made dinner (more mac and cheese- it's finally gone- and more salads), watched Louie, ran the dishwasher, baked brownies, baked potatoes for the trip, packed and worked on a revision of Monday's piece for class.  I was exhausted and finally settled into bed around 2:30am.  

day three hundred hundred twenty-nine.

Day Three Hundred Twenty-nine Saturday  7/24/10

Dress:  Turquoise Strapless Sun Dress

Purchased From:  Conway

Year or Era Purchased: Summer 2010
Price: $7.99
Accessories:  blue sandals, black plastic bracelet

Hair and Makeup:  Pulled back into three low buns, usual makeup with extra blueish green eyeshadows 

Comments/Compliments/Complaints:  Jody liked my eye makeup, some Fishtown kid rode by on his bike and said something like DAaaaaaamMMMn Guuuurl. 

It was even hotter on Saturday, something like one hundred degrees, and the air was a soupy mess.  I wore this dress in an attempt to stay cool, it only sort of worked.  Michael and I went to Kraftwork for brunch.  We joked on the way that we should call our friend's Jody and Spano but they'd probably already be there.  They were. It seems Spano's car was broken into, yet again, and the culprits had attempted to steal it, again. So dumb.  We joined them and had food and beers.  I had a flight that including Hitachino Espresso Stout, Beer Geek Breakfast Stout, Ichtegem's Grand Cru, and Young's Double Chocolate Stout.  Nom, nom, nom.  I also ordered the omelet, which was to have goat cheese, spinach, mushrooms, onions and peppers.  I got it sans onions and peppers but they kind of made it sans goat cheese too- maybe a dollop. Waaaaaah.  It was still a fluffy, tasty egg so I survived.  We hung out for a while and I went home and read a bit before heading out to do some cat jobs.  I spent a few hours on the couch, avoiding the heat and watching three episodes of Jersey Shore, much to Michael's dismay.  Later that night we ate leftover pizza and watched 500 Days of Summer, which I thought was a really lovely movie.  The Steves came home from seeing Cap n' Jazz and regaled us with their stories and I survived the heat just fine. 

day two hundred seventy-three.

 

Day Two Hundred Seventy-three Friday 5/28/10 

Dress: Floral Long Strapless Dress

Purchased From:  Conway

Year or Era Purchased: Spring 2010
Price: $12.99
Accessories: blue sandals

Hair and Makeup: Day old rag curls, down and pulled back, usual makeup

Oops, I'm behind again.  I have a good bit of homework too. I really love this dress.  I think I need to go back to Conway and get it in another pattern.  Its only downfall is the lack of slit, making it occasionally hard to walk. 

I spent my day hurriedly working so Rica and I could go see Sex and the City 2.  We were sans our third lady, Sue, as she's recently become a Momma and didn't have enough desire to see the movie to leave her three week old for an extended period of time.  Man was she right! After fighting holiday traffic and a gaslight we finally made it to the theater for the 5 o'clock show.  Almost three hours later we emerged, embarrassed by and for the movie we just witnessed.  Several times throughout the movie Rica and I covered our faces in agony and bewilderment, and we are huge fans of the franchise.  Ugh, do not waste your money on that pile!   

After wasting three hours of my life I came home and wallowed in starch- pasta with ricotta, tomato sauce, and tons of mixed veggies and some lovely garlic bread.  I ate until my stomach hurt and then watched a bunch of television- super exciting Friday night!!!!  

 

day two hundred seventy-two.

Day Two Hundred Seventy-two Thursday 5/27/10 

Dress: Red Strapless Sun Dress

Purchased From:  Conway

Year or Era Purchased: Spring 2010
Price: $4.99
Accessories: Kurt Halsey fireflies necklace

Hair and Makeup: Fresh rag curls, usual makeup with some extra ALICE eyeshadows

Comments/Compliments/Complaints: A few boot compliments/comments, a door guy said "different look everyday" 

Oh Thursday, you were swell and a little boring. Here's a Thursday Haiku:

Wake up, work and sweat

School, dialogue talk, ride home.

Eat tots with cheese sauce.   

I need to go back and get more of these dresses for the ninety degree weather that is sure to come. I was going to wear sandals and a different dress and I even painted my toe nails for the occasion but it was too hot for the planned dress and when I searched for the sandals I found these boots and remembered them.  My hair is busted hot in this picture- so crazy curly.  First day of rag curls is always a little embarrassing. 

day two hundred sixty-five.

Day Two Hundred Sixty-five Thursday 5/120/10 

Dress: Black Strapless Sundress

Purchased From:  Conway

Year or Era Purchased: Spring 2010
Price: $4.99
Accessories: Green knee socks, black flats, leopard print cardigan, rat brooch

Hair and Makeup: Down and curled usual makeup w/ green eyeshadows

Comments/Compliments/Complaints: Hmmm, I guess that's what I get for not updating daily.  I can't remember. 

I like this dress.  I bought it in black and red and now I wish I had purchased all of the colors they had- pink, blue, green, etc.  If I go back I'll try it in a medium as I was yanking up this top all damn day.  I added my favorite little rat brooch that Michael bought me for my 30th birthday and this awesome Old Navy cardigan.  The knee socks are from the dollar store and you can bet I'll be returning to purchase them in multiple colors.  I'm crushing on knee socks a lot right now.

Thursday was a good day.  I woke up and though relaxed I was still in a bit of a funk about handing in a writing sample that evening.  As I was doing the dishes an idea came to me and I reworked a story in about an hour.  It was kind of an awesome morning.  I got dressed and spent the day working then headed to Kinko's to make twelve copies of the first draft of my story inspired by a poem and the unfinished outline.  I then went to Mugshots for a coffee and a savory muffin and finished reading two stories from Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger. I am loving this whole reading at the coffee shop thing.  It feels very 90's and makes me feel smart, or at the very least enriched.

I went to class and it was amazing.  We spent the first hour talking about "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" and then the last hour discussing the two works of fellow students.  After class I felt super alive and awesome, which may partially be to blame on the giant iced coffee I drank.   I came home and yammered on about it all to Michael.  I made us a yummy, healthy dinner of Basmati rice, tofu and cashews and spicy sauteed spinach.  We watched tv until he fell asleep and then I watched the season finale of Grey's Anatomy, which was amazing.  Yay for an awesome day.

day two hundred forty-nine.

Two Hundred Forty-nine Tuesday 5/4/10

Dress:  Black and White Crossword Dress 

Purchased From: Conway
Year or Era Purchased: Spring 2010
Price: $3.99
Accessories:  Black knee highs, black sneaker boots, black ribbon belt, big black sunglasses
Hair and Makeup: Brushed out rag curls turned to waves, usual makeup with purple eyeshadow
Comments/Compliments/Complaints:  A stranger complimented my dress and told me he likes crossword puzzles, a (creepy) stranger at the thrift store told me I'm very pretty but he said it in sort of a shocked voice that I didn't quite understand. 

Whew, this will get me all caught up.  Pardon me for being so lax lately with the posting.  I suppose I need to work on that a bit.  I wish I could say it's because I've been soooo busy with this or that but no, it's pretty much laziness.  My apologies. 


I've been waiting for the time to be right for this dress and today's weather was pretty much perfect for it.  I found this in the pajama department at Conway and since I love crossword puzzles I was super excited to find this gem for $3.99.  The sleeves are oddly large and unflattering so I added a black ribbon belt for a bit of definition.  I'm also smitten with knee socks lately as I saw my friend Melissa wearing them with shorts the other day and made a mental style note.  I do this a lot if I see someone's style I like I'll scan them and put some of their cuteness into my brain's style arsenal.  For example, a few weeks ago when Michael and I were at the Apple store in Delaware this super cute Asian Amy Winehouse looking girl was in the store and I took a mental note of her hair and overall style and incorporated it into my look the next day.  She had a poof/braid combo and wore a super cute red farmer/lolita style dress.  I suppose some might say that's biting people's style.  I call it inspiration.  


So today was another pretty much boring day.  I ate a light lunch of leftover soup and mixed greens with olive oil.  It was yummy.  It would've been a great healthy day if one of my clients hadn't gifted me with a tub of caramel popcorn that I chowed down on for a solid fifteen minutes in an out-of-body caramel popcorn experience.  D'oh.  I spent the day working, it was a long one and I ended it with a kitty visit.  She's very cute and likes her ears massaged.  Her name is Farfel: 

She lives above a used bookstore so I took a quick look around and came up with one of my books for my Creative Writing class, Nine Stories by J. D. Salinger.  I also grabbed Lucky by Alice Sebold, a book I always meant to read.   I took a quick trip to the thrift store and got five dresses for $18.75, headed to CVS for some much needed toiletries and a cute new baby blueish green nail polish. 

For dinner I fired up the grill and made grilled seitan, grilled corn on the cob, grilled truffled potato salad and a big green salad with homemade croutons.  We watched Lost and I cried like a baby.  Tuesdays are always better because of Lost.  I don't know what I'm going to do when it's over. Blargh.   I also watched Happtown on my DVR.  I can't tell exactly but I feel like it's trying to be Twin Peaks but it's coming off more like Desperate Housewives.  I guess I'll give it one more episode to decide.  

It feels good to be caught up.   Now I suppose I need to work on cleaning and organizing.  I'll get there someday.