Two weeks notice

Emily, George and I have been missing you guys. It has been a busy couple of weeks!



They like to pretend to be shy sometimes.



Oh hey, do you like my new knit pants? Eddie Bauer straight legs. They work for casual office days and weekends. They're a little freaky because they're so comfortable they feel like pajamas.



Ha, see I knew George would ham it up. Emily, of course, wants no part of these shenanigans.

Let's see, what else happened?

I tried on my bridesmaid dress...





(which will get better fitted once I find a frikkin' low-back bra, which I think I have finally procured, after multiple online purchases.)

I got a haircut...





(Pretty, right? I wish I could blow it out as well as they do at the salon.)

I wore an adorable hand-me-down Kohls arygyle sweater from Jessie...





(I also did a lot of mirror shots to send to Jessie in the mornings as we compared outfits. So fun!)

I did some shopping and wore my new stuff as much as I could...





Black striped (hmm, maybe it is navy) drape neck short sleeved top from Lands End, worn dressy and casual. (Got a couple of pairs of knit shorts too, to be ready for summer.)





(Teal open cardigan from Eloquii, first worn with new Eloquii white ankle pants in a trial outfit for summer, then again to work for real with my Target bow-tie patterned top, black straight legs and animal-print flats.)

I wore the bejesus out of a couple of Gwynnie Bee tops...











(The obi is new from Eloquii too. They were having a great sale. My April purchase list is pretty big, but I think I am set for this summer. I'm excited to incorporate all the items into my regular rotations!)

I met my girlfriend A for lunch at Cheesecake Factory after we both got our hair colored...



(That was really, really delicious.)



(We could not stop laughing at the giant pile of noodles on her Chinese chicken salad.)



(Yeah, before anyone is impressed with us for ordering salads at Cheesecake, we also had vodka lemonads, fried mac&cheese balls for appetizers, and of course, cheesecake.)

I laughed pretty hard at my husband's "dress camo pants"...



(Yes, that is glen plaid and camo mixed together. In a cargo pant. I can't believe he even found these!)

Let's see what else?

Oh, right, I got a new job.

SO HAPPY.

That's been the main secret stressful thing I haven't been able to talk about here, and the reason why I have been so scarce the last few months. I was finally offered and accepted a new job -- a transfer within my company, to a totally new job and department -- earlier this week, and my new and old bosses are figuring out my end date. But it is probably going to be May 3, which is also the weekend of Shopping Friend's wedding. So I may be scarce for a few more weeks, but then I am really, really looking forward to a little stability and back to some regular routines.

Oh yeah, also looking forward to my new job.

HURRAY!!!!!

Staycation kickoff weekend

My long-awaited staycation is this week, along with my birthday on Wednesday. I have kicked it off in style!



It all began on Friday, where I had to find the right outfit not just for casual Friday in the office, but dinner and drinks afterward with my work crew. I think I did well here -- that day clutch was a great way to cross over from work to evening.
Purple Nordstrom open sweater, white LOFT long-sleeved tee, Gap trouser jeans, black Clark moto booties, tan clutch from Lane Bryant (Kate, I finally used it!).



I got 2 celebrations that day!



My co-workers had lunch for me in the office, and gave me a lovely, glittery, fashion card. And Portillo's chocolate cake, known far and wide as the Best Chocolate Cake On This Planet We Call Earth.



That night was another group of work friends, all of whom used to work in my department but have since moved on (we have a lot of turnover, haha). We did dinner at Little Goat Diner (get the hot crab dip) and drinks down the street. I had sangria, Phillip had some kind of pink martini.

Saturday was a trip babysitting and shopping with Babyfriend and the 2 J's. Babyfriend had her first chocolate chip pancakes, which were a BIG hit, as you can imagine. She is getting so big!



I dragged everyone to go see the Sejour anorak. We liked the olive okay, but the blue was the winner by a mile.





Around naptime, we broke up the party. I then went out for some adult games. :)



Between two big wins, I cashed out about $500 on that machine. Yay!

Sunday was much less exciting. Didn't even really have time to take a good shot, but I needed to memorialize my Color Project: Red usage of this pink/red-and-grey striped top, worn over a grey long-sleeved tee with ON Dreamer jeans.



Hee! I am tugging on my shoes because I had to head downstairs and start bailing. Our basement flooded, AGAIN. But we were expecting it, and even hoping for it a bit; we need to find the source of the leak so we needed another rainfall. Which we got, in spades. But we were smarter this time, at least; we bought a wet-dry vac to sop up the water as it seeped and pooled, and we just cut away the trashed carpet and padding. Hubby wants to get rid of it anyway and re-do the linoleum down there.

It was exhausting, but we kept the spread of the water from going too far, and when the condo maintenance guy came on Monday morning, we found the source of the leak. So the waterproofing companies will be here on Wednesday to give us some estimates. Not the best part of my staycation, but a necessary one.

How was your weekend?

Last week

Some random shots from last week...



Emily and I goof around in the doorframe, then I did a real shot. Truthfully, I liked the goofing around one better.



The remaining coral Old Navy sweater, black tee, grey Gap modern bootcuts, ivory and black patterned scarf. The scarf did not last long with the outfit once I got to the office. Hot flashes don't like being contained by a scarf. :(



I had a meeting with some snazzy dressers on Thursday, so I was glad I had gotten this gold bird-patterned top from Gwynnie Bee a few days earlier. The suit is Gap, actually -- it is my usual Gap bootcuts (I have many pairs of them) and I bought the Gap suiting jacket a while ago just to be able to turn it into a suit when needed.



The necklace is a smoky glass one that I've had for a few years; it had way too many other cluttery items on it when I first bought it from Ann Taylor, but I trimmed it down and it's been a workhorse ever since. So pretty against the gold top -- I got tons of compliments all day.



This cracked me up -- a couple weeks ago, my co-worker D and I had the same color scheme idea for casual Friday! We had one of the guys take our picture.

I am on Staycation this week, and have already been picture happy. I'll post more in a bit.

Layering to good effect

I did some layering of two of my favorite pieces, a sheer Target patterned bowtie top and an older Halogen sparkly-purple cardigan. Then black everything else: layering tee, skinny belt, bootcut pants, pointy shoes. I wasn't sure about the two tops pieces together, but I think in the end it worked well.



That poor sweater has a number of snags. This might be its last season.

Day/Night #2 of the Night Shower Experiment also turned out well.







The only problem is that it turns out my hair has 22 hours exactly before the roots get oily, dark and flat. So if I shower at 7 the night before, by 4 or 5pm, it does not look good at all. This is a problem on days when I am going out after work! Since I am doing so on Friday -- Phillip's last day, you guys! Noooooo!!! -- I had to scrap the Night Shower experiment for today.

But it looked good yesterday, at least!



Happy Friday! Any interesting weekend plans?

Shattered plans

I had all these grandiose plans for today. On Tuesdays, I am what we secretly call "WFH". (Working from home. Shhh, we're not supposed to let anyone know or it will be taken away.) So I thought I would put together this amazing casual outfit, do some fun photos since my neighbors would be at work, and even roast chicken for dinner.

The reality is I worked the entire day on my computer, emailing my coworkers, handling support issues, and putting together a big presentation for executive leadership. In my pajamas, with my dirty hair in a ponytail. Didn't even have lunch until after 1pm. Finally picked up my head out of the clouds when my husband walked in at 5:30.

Not a whole lot of photo ops there.

That said, I am trying a new tactic with my hair. It's so thick and long that it is impossible to style well in the mornings; I can barely get it dry before I start perspiring into my neck hairline. The end result is that I have been forced to stick it up in a hair clip on too many days -- not the look I want to cultivate in the office!

So instead I showered and washed my hair tonight, and let it dry on its own. We'll see how it looks in the morning; if this works out I am going to have to change my schedule to showers at night. Weird.

How was your Tuesday?

I bet you wish I worked in your office

I re-decorated my office today.



Yes, those are chairs shaped like high-heel shoes.



I brought them from home; unbelievably (or believably, if you know me like I think you do), they have been collecting dust in my basement the last few years. We bought them on a lark to decorate our bedroom, but they were too big for the space. They fit in this space just fine!

They're pretty comfortable too. Even Phillip agrees!



Actually, all the dudes in my office came in and sat in them, at least for a minute or two. You can't help trying them; they're so fun!



I'm only sorry it took me so long to clean them up and bring them in. They make me smile every time I look from my own, boring, regular chair.

Don't Poke The Bear

I cannot believe it is only March 20. First, it feels like a hundred years have passed since my birthday...which was a week ago. Second, it is more gloriously warm and sunny than it is in June. I am in a horrible mood, but I can't deny how great it is outside.

I'm trying to wear more spring in my outfits without really buying anything new or trendy (you will never catch me in floral ankle pants, in case you were wondering). Since it is so legitimately nice out, all of my sandals from last year are already out and in rotation. So glad I got a good set of them that are still in excellent shape. The orange, the turquoise, the olive -- all are being happily worn. The olive peeptoe booties do a good job of lightening up an otherwise dark black-pants outfit. (The melon cardigan and gold jewelry helps too.)



Then on Friday I took the bears out of hibernation. Shaved 'em and everything!



Wearing nude microfishnet stockings, which are almost the same as wearing no hose at all. A cute dress and a long-lost purple cardigan, some embellished flats and I was good to go!

+++++++

In other news, my co-workers talked me into doing a team challenge to lose weight and exercise more. We weigh in and get measured tomorrow, then it starts for 8 weeks next Monday. The challenge is about scoring points, depending on how much exercise you do and how much weight and body fat you lose over the time period. I was all for it -- I could use a good structured kick in the pants -- but then today when we were going over the rules in detail, I got really panicked and now I am dreading it.

I didn't catch before today that you have to do a minimum of 1440 minutes of exercise -- which is 25 minutes a day, seven days a week (or 36 minutes, 5 days a week). Do you know how much I do right now? NONE.

I know, I know, deep in my gut I know that I need to move more, and I was looking forward to this challenge to get that going. But I was expecting to have to do a half-hour 3-4 days a week. I was thinking I could ease myself into it, and then maybe by the end of the challenge add more than that. I was NOT expecting to have to start right off the bat at a sprint. I can't even really miss a day, or I will fall behind, and skip more days, and fall more behind. And then let all my teammates down (there are some nice monetary prizes for competing and winning, and several of them really want to win.)

I am just so...pissed off about the whole thing. I feel like I am doomed to fail before I even start, and the pressure is pissing me off even more. Everyone else was talking about how they already work out 2 hours already a week, and so adding another hour wouldn't be so hard. I wanted to cry.

It feels impossible to me. I can't even get up the stairs without my knee giving out. Which I know should be even more incentive to exercise, but it's not. All I can think about is even if I just do 30 minutes of walking every day, how much every inch of my body is going to hurt, and how little rest I will have before having to do it again the next day, and how I am working 10-12 hours a day and am stressed beyond belief and am barely hanging onto eating right by my fingertips. When the hell am I supposed to even find the time for this? I was just thinking that I needed to start going into work earlier because so much is piling up. I never leave before 6pm, and I am in bed early too. But no, now I need to find a free hour somewhere every day. And my f***ing running shoes. Which probably don't fit. (Can you hear me cursing? I am cursing a blue streak!)

This doesn't feel like something that is motivating me to keep improving myself; it feels like just one more expectation that I can't meet that is crushing my lungs so I can't breathe.

I have 6 more days to get myself into the right headspace for it. Great. First I have to get over being so pissed. Why didn't I read it more closely before I agreed? Damn.

Sigh.

So that's what I'll be working on this week. My f***ing negative attitude.

Ginger Rogers

One of my favorite quotes of all time is, "Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did except backwards, and in high heels." For me, it's not even about men getting the acclaim when often our job is even harder (although I have had that situation with male co-workers in the past), it's about remembering that often the work we do is even more complicated because of where we are standing in the dance, and how we are required to present ourselves. So when we succeed at work despite being hobbled by those restrictions, I think we deserve extra praise.

For example, a waitress required to wear heels ends up often working physically harder than one who is allowed to wear practical shoes, or a female middle manager who does not have staff to help with a project but produces the same results as someone leading a team. I have extra empathy for women in those situations, and I confess I cheer them on harder when they kick ass.

Anyway, this week I have felt like Ginger Rogers; it's been the first week of a new company-wide software, and I have been fighting an uphill battle to get my issues resolved in a sea of issues, and worse, getting people to pay attention when I have found serious issues in the new system. Because I work on a smaller software, my position in the dance is definitely "backwards". But I cajole, and I make jokes and get people to relax, and I have been onsite all week as a presence, going to the Command Center personally to follow up on open problems and talking to people face-to-face. The first couple of days I even brought home-baked cookies. Slowly but surely, I have been succeeding at getting my voice heard and the problems noticed and fixed. Slowly.

I realized last night that I have done all this in high heels.

In fact, by mid-week my high heels became the tool in which I got people to pay attention to my issues and work with me on problems; they helped me in the dance. I would go upstairs and the first thing the other women in the room would do was smile and check out which ones I had on, then with the ice broken and having given them a minute to not think about the frazzled, overwhelming number of things they were dealing with, they could concentrate on the issue we were working on together, and they helped me get my thing fixed. Then we would smile at each other, and they would dive back into the chaos. (Truly, I do not envy them; as hard as I was working, they had it much worse.)

My outfits themselves have been remixes of ones you have already seen or I discussed:

Source: polyvore.com via LowFatDressing on Pinterest

I do have pictures of all the shoes!

Sunday, the olive suede Clark Vermont Vistas (available online still):



Monday, the burgundy Franco Sarto Deers:



Tuesday, the Payless leopard wedges with red bows:



Wednesday, the Nicole Blessed heels with red, purple and brown colorblocking:



I got these last year from a tip from Barking Dog Shoes. Super comfy and strikingly different.



Thursday, the Franco Sarto Deers in grey:



Oh, Thursday's outfit was worth taking the time for photos. It's a new dress I got at the Half-Yearly Sale at Nordstrom. I love it beyond reason.



Get used to seeing it a lot -- it's a fabulous heavy knit material and will layer so well with everything. This time I did my old trick of a long-sleeved layering top underneath and a short-sleeved cardigan on top.

Best of all -- it's not actually lace. It's a lace print on the knit. Flipping gorgeous.



Did I mention it was also on sale??



It's a faux-wrap, but it is actually a teensy bit too big right at the wrap part. I am going to take it into Nordstrom and have them take it in; they did a great job with my other dress, so I trust them with the trickier tailoring. My dry cleaners can do my hems, but this I want to go to someone I trust. Plus, I bought it from them so if they ruin it, hopefully they would replace it. They are Nordstrom, after all!

Today I finally get to work back in my own office, mopping up various problems and catching up with my boss and co-workers on other ongoing projects. To complete the Ginger Rogers metaphor, I get to dance facing forward, in flats, today. I earned it! ;-D