A Collection of Thoughts

Do you know how when you go away to a new place, it often requires a new mode of dress? And if you're there for long enough, you find that coming back to the reality you knew before and what your usual life requires in dress to be difficult to get used to again? I remember this very distinctly when I moved to Washington, DC for about five months. Coming back to New York involved changing characters, in a way. No offense to DCers out there, but I had felt that our Nation's capital had sort of sapped me of my fashion mojo. I had become too used to plain gray slacks with button-ups or sweater set type ensembles that my work seemed to require. It was a sad state of affairs.

More recently, I went on a trip to Costa Rica and found, of course, that the laid back, connected-to-nature lifestyle there required that I get used to walking around unshowered, slathered in sunscreen, with something not too fussy covering my bikini beneath. At first I resisted, but by the end I had worn the same dress days in a row until it got splattered with mud and didn't want to have to think about the day I would return and need to figure out what belt to wear with my top or what shoes to wear to make my outfit work appropriate. Ugh. I do love fashion, but it really is a habit of sorts. When I was away, not only did I see the beauty behind leaving all of this fun stuff behind, but I also returned to find myself terribly bored of fashion mags and blogs. In the end, I'm back to reading nearly every one of my old standbys again, but I've streamlined the whole thing a bit. Rather than read every one that has any validity in my mind, I read only the ones that really seem inspirational and thus, worthy of my time.

In the name of looking at the habit that is fashion/fashion-reading, I am also going to do what I can to write here more often. Rather than expect myself to create a slew of readable posts that tie together and are well-illustrated with drool-worthy pics, I'll just try to let the words flow and see where this takes me. After all, I'm always telling myself that I want to write more, make more art, but I get stunted and don't write or make a thing for fear that what I make will be a failure. That's a bad way to think and never the way that any artist has gotten ahead. So that said, excuse me as I make this partially fashion, partially just personal rambling.

I am serving on a Grand Jury these next two weeks, and it's a small piece of hell, in that I have to sit for hours on end doing nearly nothing. I can't speak about the cases themselves, but they are not fun things to hear about. I guess the gravity of the cases makes it feel more worthwhile - we actually have the power to change a life, to help to bring justice to those who deserve it. I don't think it had hit any of us how serious this business was until the first witness came to the stand and suddenly... This is not someone smoking a doobie in a park. The Jury is made up of an incredibly strange mix of people. I seem to be the only one who can keep our simple lunch and break schedule straight, which worries me slightly. If they can't do that, then... But one thing I find very interesting is seeing each character's unique approach to the idea of "appropriate" attire. One man sits warmly in a suit all day (though it is chilly in those courthouses), a nearby woman swans about (well actually, we all do a lot of sitting, I just like that word) in a spaghetti strap tank, no bra. There is one woman with a closely shorn head of non-hair, enormous black glasses and dramatic tribal earrings.

I recently purchased a beautiful new phone, which I would highly recommend to anyone and everyone. It is the PalmCentro. I love it.

To wrap this all up in a neat package and say once and for all if I haven't here yet, I am so looking forward to moving to a new place with my boy. We are ridiculously happy, something which has never been more true than now, and planning this all out has been such a great thing to anticipate. Not only will I be living with my best buddy and making a wonderful little home, but I will have an art studio (which should mean DIY coming the blog's way), and I will have all of my clothing reunited in one place. If there is any situation that has altered my dress, it is having half of my closet in one place, half in the other. I may want to wear a certain dress at my house, but can't because the only bra that works with it is at his house; or I may have only one pair of shoes that will work in the downpour I wasn't expecting (worse, no shoes! Then I have to figure out which pair to sacrafice). I feel as though I'm constantly camping out and having to make do, and I'm constantly lugging an enormous second bag with me to try to avoid these "catastrophes" that somehow manage to happen all the time regardless.

Love,
Rora