lunchtime stroll: yesterday

Sometimes I take a little stroll on my lunch break:

...and then I go back to work.

Recuerdo

WE were very tired, we were very merry—

We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry.

It was bare and bright, and smelled like a stable—

But we looked into a fire, we leaned across a table,

We lay on a hill-top underneath the moon;

And the whistles kept blowing, and the dawn came soon.

We were very tired, we were very merry—

We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry;

And you ate an apple, and I ate a pear,

From a dozen of each we had bought somewhere;

And the sky went wan, and the wind came cold,

And the sun rose dripping, a bucketful of gold.

We were very tired, we were very merry,

We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry.

We hailed "Good morrow, mother!" to a shawl-covered head,

And bought a morning paper, which neither of us read;

And she wept, "God bless you!" for the apples and pears,

And we gave her all our money but our subway fares.

-Edna St. Vincent Millay

(From "A Few Figs from Thistles," 1922)

My friend C was telling me about her last-minute late-weekend rendez-vous in NYC with her Manhattan-ite boyfriend (she spontaneously hopped a train on Sunday morning and played hooky from work the next day) and it made me all starry-eyed for my long-lost city life. I haven't spent a whole lot of time in NYC (two high school band/chorus trips, though fun & exploratory, don't exactly count) and I am conscious of my tendency to romanticize the dirty (and perhaps overly pretentious) city into a mecca of creativity, excitability & amourous activities. I blame you, Woody Allen.

Still, the truth is, there is something about New York (as a concept?) that really tugs at my heart strings. It seems so... lived in. The old brick buildings with their fading facades seem weathered and worn out like the cracked and crumbling spine of a beloved book. At night, the thousands of little illuminated windows hold steady their lights--a reminder that everybody else exists too, here, in this moment, on this Earth. How can you keep from finding comfort in that? There is something about New York (and any city) that eases the effect of personal alienation. You really can never be alone in a city so massive & full of life.

It's difficult for me to love the quiet country all the time. Dark & deserted silent snowy streets, entire towns shutting down when the clocks strike six, communities disconnected by distances so great they must be driven... it's hard for me to be inspired by silence&separation. Anyway, when I get in a rural-life slump there is only one thing to do--simulate city life! On Saturday morning I got up relatively early and drove the three miles into town for a bagel, a chai latte, and a solitary sidewalk stroll. I now present you with Waterbury's urban landscape:

(leather jacket: ALDO; scarf: gift from mom; shirt: Marshall's; jeans: PacSun; booties: GoJane; chai latte: GMCR cafe)

I hope you all had wonderful, exhilarating weekends! Welcome back to the work week :)

Oh, PS: The Millay poem (Recuerdo, above) is one of my favorites, and always reminds me of all-nighters in the city with good friends (it's been a long time since I've stayed up to watch the sun rise... count yourselves lucky if you don't have full-time jobs, and maybe experience the dawn for me?). I had been getting really into Millay while working at the coffee shop in Portland and a co-barista introduced me to this particular poem... so now I pass it on to you! If you have any interest, I also loved her biography Savage Beauty by Nancy Milford.

snow globe

Good thing I am behind on my outfit postings, because we definitely caught up on our snow last night! We got at least a foot--probably more--and it's still coming down! Power is out all around the state and all of the schools are closed. Even K has a snow day today and I'm so so jealous. Curling up with a big thick book and a cup of hot cocoa sounds heavenly right about now.

(my morning view--and the snow is still falling!)

I certainly saw it coming on my way home last night:

The snow was up over the tops of my boots as I waded out to my car, and it took me almost ten minutes just to uncover it! On my way to work, all of the tree branches were drooping over the road in a futile attempt to hold their hands up under the weight of the heavy snow. Anyway, here's a little outfit from the start of the storm:

(hat: Goodwill; dress: Old Navy; yellow tights: HUE; black lace tights: Marshall's; peacock necklace: UO; tassel necklace: antique; shoes: GoJane.com)

These booties are the black incarnation of my silly broken taupe shoes from GoJane.com:

I must say, I was pretty fussy about the fact that all I got out of the taupe pair was a single photo shoot (I didn't even get to wear them in real life!), and I had sent an email to GoJane asking if they could reserve a replacement for me so that I could return them. I was very impressed when a representative of the site called me and said they would ship out a replacement post-haste--and that I didn't even have to mail back the defective duo.

I'm smiling inside :) GoJane, you are back in my good graces!

friday in whoville

Hooray!! I thought this day would never come!

This weekend will be relaxing... K and I are heading over to Log Town Farm on Saturday to hang out with my smelly old dog while my parents are in Rhode Island, then coming back on Sunday to watch the Superbowl with some friends. We were planning to experience the sporting event at a local bar (and eat sweet potato fries!), but the new plan seems more social. Besides, the local bar/restaurant in question doesn't deserve us. Dear Reservoir: I may never forgive you for removing the best veggie burger ever from your menu, but my fury has subsided somewhat and I suppose I might be ready to give the new burger a chance... someday.

Speaking of (once) favorite local restaurants, there is a waitress at one oft-frequented eating establishment who always has her hair piled on top of her head in all kinds of curlicued crazy ways. Somewhere a comparison was drawn to the Whos down in Whoville and it stuck--we can't go to the restaurant anymore without chuckling about her Seuss-styled hair.

(This is the best hair-related photo I could find of Whos, but it's really more like Chanel Spring 2010, which I totally love but can't imagine thinking of as daily hair-wear.)

Annnnyway, the reason I even brought waitress-who-shall-remain-nameless into this in the first place is that today's outfit made me think of her Who-hair--it's so colorful and childlike, I feel like a Dr. Seuss character. But while we're on the subject, that reminds me! Whoville is awesome and I want to live there:

I finally got around to watching Horton Hears a Who last year (which according to Wikipedia is supposed to be an allegory for the American post-WWII occupation of Japan [if that's the case, never mind, I don't particularly want to live there]--who knew?!--I thought it was simply meant to be a lesson about the insignificance of humanity and/or an attempt to encourage respect and love for all living things [no matter how small], Lorax-style), which I had been avoiding because I was so unimpressed with Jim Carrey as the Grinch that I never even watched it. But Horton was so charming and lovely, I adored it! I'm going to pretend that fine film was my daily outfit inspiration for today, because that's so much cooler than calling it an accident.

(green tweed jumper: SnapVintage on etsy; tights: HUE; shoes: DSW; scarf: Anne Klein, thiscouldbeyou on etsy; shirt: TJMaxx)

DISCLAIMER: I do not have dandruff. The white flakes in the first photograph are a little thing called snow. Maybe you've heard of it?

ohmygodyouguys

I think I froze a couple years off my life this morning.

(dress: Marshall's; scarf: found; tights: layered black&white lace; boots: ALDO; crystal beads: Grammy Flood)

I don't even know how cold it is, but wow. It might not be so bad, but the wind! There was even a "wind chill" advisory on the morning weather, and holy smokes, I believe it. Winter in Vermont is truly not meant to support human life. I think I need to have my sanity checked...

There are a few nice things about living where I do, however. Our bedroom window overlooks a field, a forest, a river and a mountain range in an easterly direction, so I awake in the morning to light spilling over the hills (now that the days are getting longer and I'm not waking up in the blackest of night). The air is crystal clear (like cutting glass, in this cold), and as I approach the center of my frozen little town on the way to work I am aromatically aroused by the warm scent of woodsmoke mingling with roasting coffee. Waterbury is home to the exponentially expanding Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, an independent VT upstart coffee company that hit it big with their über-popular k-cups (which squirt out a single-serving of coffee). The best part? Not only does the roasting facility reside here (and pleasure my nose-buds daily), but the administrative headquarters are in my office building and the powers that be are generous enough to provide me (and eighty of my closest coworkers) with delicious, bottomless coffee five days a week !

Needless to say, when I was finally able to extricate myself from the frosty grip of the icy air and find refuge safely within the four walls of the workplace, I went immediately for the Keurig and poured myself a steaming hot cup of Wicked Winter Extra Bold.

And that, my friends, is how I survive.

As far as fashion goes, I am in love with this LBD. It has the perfect scoop neckline and flared skirt for ultimate figure-flattery. If I were to embark on any sort of Uniform Project of my own, this is the dress I would choose, hands down... there are so many millions of ways to style it, I kind of can't wait to try them out!

The scarf is kind of an accidental Christmas present from a Secret Santa. It was wrapped&unaddressed&kicking around my parents' house after the big 'Eve party... so now its mine!