March done; on to April.

April flowers bring May showers. No. Something like that. Anyway there is more rain in the future but its warming up. Still mostly chilly: most worn shirt is still the round neck grey wool from Banana Republic. I have added three flowery silk shirts to the database. I guess I'm a sucker for flowery silk because I have a lot of flowery silk shirts. Anyway, I also wore my first skirt to work: a grey bias cut maxi from Eileen Fisher. It is gorgeous, but the lining is pilling up (due in some part to my infrequent leg shaving...but really. Should such expensive things be made a little better than that?)
Speaking of crappy expensive things, let me vent for a second on the quality of my Eileen Fisher boatneck sweater. I paid almost full price for that sweater because the style is good, the length is good and the wool is really soft and not itchy. However, it pills up to beat the band. Seriously, to the point where its embarrassing: since it is tunic length it looks like I have a lawn of furry curly fleece across my butt. I wear it still but am angry that I paid so much for something that looks like crap now.
OK now where was I? Nevermind I got nothing of any importance.
It is a little hard to resist the siren call of new clothing...shopping with my sister today sorely tempted me. I think I will have to promise myself a serious wardrobe refresh next year to get through this year! I can do it. I can! I just need to dig deeper into my closet. There's a ton of good stuff in there. In boxes. And salted around other closets in this house.

There's your problem!

Here's another shitty selfie of me in my blue jeans and Amphetamine Bob shirt. Note my prayer flags: INSIDE THE HOUSE. This is a cosmic no-no. And it explains why the San Jose Sharks have lost 5 out of 6 of their recent road trip games, and why I can't find a simple protocol for inducing antigen-specific tolerance in human CD8 T cells for work. Those tatty suckers go outside right now.

I've been busy! Sheesh!

Guys, seriously. This blog is the lowest of low priorities. And yes, I am still at it. In fact today I am wearing a dubious combination of brightly patterned Tucker tunic and teal skinny pants. I must say that getting dressed in the morning is a weight off my mind: I check the database for allowable combinations and go with it. Its interesting how freeing it is to not stand in front of my closet wailing about the quality/quantity of things that I want to wear. This suggests that selecting clothing is a larger issue for me than I admited to myself before. An interesting new insight from this experiment. Also of interest is the discovery that the clothes that have survived in my closet are the ones that define me the best: the "real" me if you will rather than the person I am always trying to emulate. We women are pretty silly; we think that a new pair of shoes will transform us into the Queen of Sheba, or a new dress will suddenly make us glamorous and alluring. OK maybe that is just me but I doubt it. Otherwise, would Norstroms ever sell the ridiculous shoes that you never seeing anyone wear out in public? On the other side of that is the reaction I get from putting on my favorite silly beaded sandals: my daughter reports that she heard me once squealing "Mi gusta!" in my bedroom and she knew exactly what I was doing...I was slipping my green beaded shiny heeled sandals on and getting ready to prance to Safeway in them. So I guess in the end a pair of shoes may not be able to transform you but they can certainly impact your mood in a positive way. Same with clothes I guess.

Meanwhile, I am reading the biography of Dana Andrews. Life must have been that much more interesting before computers/TV/internet/video games. People filled their time doing things back in the 30s and 40s. I think they also spent a lot more time together socializing. Sounds great.

On my son's thirteenth birthday

Spring is coming along, as we can tell by the warming temperatures and the Spring Forward clock reset, and by the fact that its my little boy's birthday. He is turning 13 today. In some cultures this marks the entry to adulthood and I have been using this to try and convince him that its time to step up and take some responsibility for the direction of his foray into the world. He seems to be a generally good kid, with some attendant liveliness that would have been admired a generation ago but is now deemed "disruptive" by his instructors. My kid has a sense of curiosity and wonder that he can't totally disguise in his pose as a "cool kid". He loves cute baby animals and will jump up from his computer to see guinea pigs walking around making squeaky noises. He is a student of literature and history, and hockey and skateboarding. And discus throwing. There is nothing I like more than having a conversation with him, especially about something like an old movie we have watched or a meal we have eaten. He is very thoughtful for a young boy. I think he is as smart as a whip, and as creative as the day is long. I hope he makes good use of these talents to create a slightly better world.

Now that it's spring...

Adding new shirts to the mix. Here's a Milly sleeveless tie-neck blouse under layers and layers of other clothing because even though its spring it's still Siberian Winter in my workplace.