Hey dymphna79!

I had a dream about you & N last night.  You were a couple, but the fact that you were living in China was explained by the fact that she was a giant panda.  There was more to it than that, but I can't remember the details.

Seriously.  I can't make this stuff up in my conscious mind, but my subconscious goes freaking crazy.

Clothes ramble...

Last night around bedtime I was seized by a strong desire to stay home in sweatpants all day today. That, however, was not an option since I have office hours today. So I decided to counter my lazy impulses with FASHION!

This morning I pulled out my favorite red corduroy skirt, intending to wear it with my knee high black boots and ... something on top, hadn't gotten that far yet. Except I put it on and it dropped a good 6" from my waist. As a joke, I pulled it up like a strapless dress and went to look in the mirror... And I went, wait, this actually looks GOOD! I experimented with belting (not a good idea), throwing a fitted blazer over it (a good idea). So now I have a plan to make over my favorite red corduroy skirt into my favorite red corduroy strapless minidress.*

The red skirt idea being a bust, I poked around for something else... and ended up grabbing a gauzy silk skirt out of the summer box under the bed - purple with kind of abstract brown, white, and pink patterns on it. Tried it with a biascut white linen tunic and a tweed blazer; that didn't work (the shirt and the blazer - the skirt and the blazer is a pairing that will make an appearance at some point). Then I heard the weather forecast and decided I wanted a sweater anyway, so I put on a chunky brown cableknit sweater, thickish tights (the thickest I've got), and mid-calf-height brown boots, and off I went. Loving the outfit, too.

*It should be noted that my husband did not refrain from making boobs at waist height jokes during this experiment. It is a sign of my good mood that I didn't throttle him for it.

Even Sith Lords get the Blues

Even Sith Lords get the Blues,
originally uploaded by Ar'alani.

:^/

I just recalled a conversation that I was a part of earlier this week that really bugged me.

On Monday, city schools and a handful of the suburbs cancelled classes because the wind chill was 20 below.  Several other districts started a couple of hours late.  The concern, obviously, is that they don't want kids standing waiting for the bus in that weather.  (The wind chills never got above 0 on Monday.) 

So in the locker room on Tuesday, a couple of ladies (one older, one about my age) were chatting about this and I observed that it made sense because of the extreme weather.  The older lady observed, "What and kids in the suburbs won't freeze?  I used to be a teacher in the city and you should have seen the things those kids came to school in!  It's shameful!"

On its surface, ok, she's shocked that kids are going out inadequately dressed.  But the tone was one of judgement, not one of sympathy or desire to help.  Yeah, maybe the city schools are closed because a large proportion of their students DON'T HAVE ADEQUATE OUTERWEAR.  Or fine, they have adequate outerwear but their parents aren't involved enough to make sure that they actually wear it when the weather gets bad.  Maybe we should address those issues rather than railing about the district cancelling classes on the coldest days of the year.