Accesorizing to Blend in

Today I took my pups out late and dressed as warmly as possible anticipating a freezing office. My office hasn’t quite figured out that it is fall, so heavy warm layers are much needed for me as I freeze quite easily. I was running late, and after yesterdays consistent compliments on me as a person instead of what I’m wearing, I decided to wear only one color. My black v-neck sweater with grey tank, pencil high waisted tweed skirt black tights no necklace, and red flats because today just isn’t a run around all day in heels day.

Again, consistent compliments, on my hair that was blow dried but not straightened and my face without makeup.

Ryan has always teased me about feeling like I always need mascara, but I find perhaps he is right. I have decent skin, and don’t really need a lot of makeup. I’ve always been self conscious about how close my eyes are together and always using tricks to make them the ‘attractive’ width. I’m not super vain, I just thought it was more professional in a business professional work area to be more done up.

Funny how I feel programmed to wear and do so much and its all of my wearing and doing that makes me blend in, not stick out.

Curious.

The Ultimate Sophistication

So with slimming down accessories and sticking with project 333 I have an empty closet, which means I have space. Its a beautiful thing. I've noticed, around the office, with choosing a lot more uniform of a wardrobe people are noticing and commenting a lot more on my personality and or face.

Today I'm wearing my creme turtleneck that won out over my black sweater without any accessories. Its interesting, minimal fashion, minimal makeup and people are noticing me more than they would if I was wearing a bold print. Curious isn't it?

I think its interesting, the more stuff we wear and use, the less we ourselves are noticed.

I think Da Vinci was right, simplicity truly is the ultimate sophistication.

A

PS I will get pictures up, its just been a bit of a chore, my pups ate something and were acting rather peculiarly yesterday.

I'm still not sure how my halloween outfit will work with project 333, I think I may have to take Halloween 'off' from the project. My office really gets into Halloween and we trick or treat around the office, I would hate to be a party pooper. How are others in the project facilitating Halloween? I would definitely not buy anything, but I have a few costumes that didn't get packed up because they aren't what I'd call things I'd wear.

So what are you doing to make project 333 work with holidays? Or are you thinking of taking them 'off'?

Project 333

Thanks to BeMoreWithLess for the project and if others are interested in trying see the website here with the initial rules and guidelines.This was cited on a blog I love, the Uniform Project, project 333 has an interesting quest which is to wear only 33 items for 3 months. I was going through my closet(s) and thoroughly critiquing everything I own. Its going to be intense. I had 3 big garbage bags filled, ready to donate when my friend posted an interesting request on FB

***HELP NEEDED***Need clothing for family who lost everything in the Herriman Fire. Theyneed size 4 or 5 clothing (twin boys) size 8 for a mommy and size 34 for a daddy. Let me know. Anything is greatly appreciated.

I went through my closet again and paired down what I would store and what I would donate again. I felt a lot more empowered thinking that someone who had lost everything in their home would have the oppurtunity to have my clothes if they fit.

So Ryan, love of my life, super worried, and asking his wife just how much she was getting rid of and would she have donaters remorse in the morning?But I'm still pretty excited. I've already benefited from the 5 pair of shoes. The warmer 80 degree weather for the next 10 days also has me worried. But thats Utah, seasonably unseason like, but oh so beautiful.

My office really dresses casually on Fridays before football games, and if I don't wear red or black eyebrows are raised. But no one will say anything unless I'm wearing blue which is really offensive because of the U of U BYU holy war. I don't much care about sports myself, but when we are having a good season the good vibe spreads throughout campus. Its almost like extra holidays that I just have to work on.

Anyway my list that is still being revised for the next day is:

1. Black T-Strap Heels
2. Red Pointy Flats
3. Tan Flats
4. Blush Heels with metal Studs
5. Black Leather Boots
6. Khaki Long Trenchcoat
7. Black Trench
8. Pinstripe pants
9. Herringbone Grey pants
10. Tweed Black Pants
11. Grey Pants
12. Grey Anoname Jeans
13. Skinny J Jeans
14. Brown Herringbone Pencil Skirt
15. Tweed Pencil Skirt
16. Striped Button up
17. White Shirt
18. Grey Sweater
19. Orange Sweater
20. Black Pearl Necklace
21. White long Necklace
22. Black Long Necklace
23. Red Cardigan
24. Teal Sweater
25. Red Sweater
26. Blush Top
27. Beige undershirt
28. Black undershirt
29. Grey undershirt
30. Shiny Purple Top
31. Goldenrod top or black mock turtle top
32. Black Sweater
33. Black leather or multi color leather purse

So if you can't tell I love color, I'm not a strictly Black and White person and their aren't any scarves or gloves in my list. I think it has already been interesting and I hope that I can successfully finish.

The Meeks Vs Ownership

Its funny how the little things seem to make all the difference. As of the last 5 days, we are officially not living in the village and are getting situated in our new home. I still get rather giddy at the fact that my washer and dryer are on the same floor and right next to each other. I’m excited to do laundry. We eat food, rinse off the plates and put them in the dishwasher. The sink stays empty as much as possible now and everything feels like its coming together in a non-cinderblock wall home.

I can put holes wherever I want to. My stuff looks crazily uncluttered. Well, at least on the main level where everything is coming together really nicely.

The other level, well I try not to think about it, the boxes strewn everywhere and it looks like my closets threw up clothes. Not to mention getting rid of our Full size tetanus ridden, rain stick sounding bed and relying on a King Memory foam mattress. As of this moment in time there is no frame or box for. Its on the ground and while it is ridiculously comfy and has made my back feel better in 4 nights than it had felt for a long time. But, its going to throw all my daydreaming décor ideas out the window. Sigh, I used to think King Size was blingy and in your face and now I get to experience it first hand. It is definitely a good thing and we are so lucky that we could get a replacement mattress before I got the back of an 80 year old over night. However, we still have many disagreements, the mattress and I, about space utilization and practicality.

About these insanely awesome little things that make my heart flutter with trepidation is our new vacuum. Our old one broke shortly after the Fall and enduring helping 2-3 people move it deserved to end its services.

So, we got a silly device that makes me exceedingly happy.

We got an iRobot Roomba that vacuums all by itself. I feel like I’m watching a video game when its on but yay for the Roomba and being able to be the little vacuum that could in my life.

Sure it makes me feel lazy, but seeing as we found it for a steal it makes it all that much more awesome to me.

This little gadget got under my furniture where a normal vacuum wouldn’t and I could be doing many other things whilst the little bot works.



Roomba = time saver; Time Saver = a happy non burned out or overwhelmed Angie.

Yes this is a very, very good thing.

January Brought a Heaping Helping of Change

So some interesting things are a foot. I feel like I’m finally starting to wake up from last semester. I mean calling last semester hard is a huge understatement, but because of it this semester feels so surreal. My brain feels so free and I feel ambitious again.

So I think I need to recap the awful events of January, our apartment flooded.

Did you know certain types of bath valves can TURN themselves ON?! Me either.
Did you know that floods in winter are much worse than floods in the summer?
Did you know that cinderblock holds in moisture once introduced to it and grows mold ridiculously fast?

The night before our flood I came home and the water in the tub was running. I was really freaked out and went through a plethora of possible reasons for this. Among them I was really wondering if Ryan had left it on, however, I knew he’d gone to work over 4 hours ago and at the speed the water was filling up the tub there was no way that it had been on that long.

I knew maintenance had been banging around in the apartment below us that was newly vacated and wondered if they had come in and done something and forgotten to turn off the tub.

I even theorized that our neighbors who we’d been having a few issues with because of our connected bathroom sink plumbing had come over and turned on the tub…. Yeah I wrote that one off pretty quick too.

So the next day around 11 am when Ryan and I were both at work maintenance called us and told us our apartment had flooded. The damage was minimal, and the water pooled to the front door and didn’t go in our bedroom at all. I was still in hysterics and felt a lot the same way I felt when our little Honda had been stolen. I didn’t feel safe. Maintenance replaced our valves with a different model and despite that, I’ve been really neurotic about what is left on the ground because I can’t help but wonder if it could still happen again.

Yeah the above had a lot to do with our more aggressive actions and decisions to move, but I’m not going to say we haven’t had our fair share of great and awesome things to happen. We’ve had lots. The flood only really destroyed our sofa. Other than that we were really, really lucky. My laptop that could have been ruined was safely up high where it was untouched.

But the last straw for me was finding mold in my craft closet. I didn’t find it until a week and a half after the initial flood. I was getting excited to craft again; I had a craft date set with my friend on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the night before I was gathering all my items together. I grabbed something touching the cinderblock and it was dripping wet.

Feverishly I began grabbing everything away from the wall and saw more mold than I think I’ve ever seen in my entire life. The air was navy blue. This was my creating area and it had been tampered with. Then I started hyperventilating. Ryan came in and helped me to the front room where I laid, curled up in a ball breathing shallowly.

He bleached all of my plastic containers clean and though we had to throw a way my wicker basket and a few contents, a lot of it was salvageable.

I’m looking at the move as a chance to grow and change. The timing really couldn’t be better for us. I honestly feel like if we hadn’t been on the ball about looking to move that something more catastrophic would have happened. This isn’t to say we didn’t have great times in the village, we did, and we made great friends over the 3 years we’ve been there for.

It’s just that it’s time for some dramatic changes in our lives as we graduate and figure out what chapters are up ahead.

One of my favorite novels of all time sums this up really well where the text reads:

But change proves that you are still alive. Change often measures our tolerance for folk different from ourselves. Can we accept their languages, their customs, their garments, and their foods into our lives?.... If we cannot, if we believe that we must do things as we have always done them, then we must either fight to remain as we are, or die. the Fool in Robin Hobb’s The Golden Fool

I'm a big fan of being alive and doing new and invigorating things. I'm highly looking forward to all the new things to experience in these upcoming years. Why should I be complacent if there are things I can do today to better myself in the future? So this is how we make Lemonade out of Lemons, and I'm excited for whats up ahead as well as whats happening in a matter of days.

So what big changes do you have up ahead and how are you getting ready for them now?

Ducks In A Row

So now that all of our ducks are in a row, I can finally share one of my particularly awesome good news items.

We're buying a townhome.

Most of you didn't even know we were looking, ah but we were and found a lovely place to call home.

We put in our 30 days at Married Student Housing and we're on our way to the joys of being a home owner.

I love the location, how its older and how it just feels so right. We know we could have gone new, but thats just not who we are and that above is Angie and Ryan in so many ways.

After the joys of MSH can you blame us for being ready for this next step?

Busy

I love my job, my department, the people I work with, the location. Its a lovely working environment post remodel.

There are only a couple things I can't quite get my head around, the people who call me Miss or Angela, people who wait for me to get off a personal phone call who aren't my boss or supervisor, and the people who are whiny when I haven't gotten to a task because they aren't at the top of my work priority list.

I'm a secretary, but I'm also an executive secretary, meaning more for specific people. However, and this is partially my own fault, certain people will come over and interrupt me in the midst of a task for my bosses or supervisor and plead to have something done immediately.

This is most prevalent with females over males, but males are also just as culpable of this.

Why is it that they don't seem to understand that I can help them when I have time aside from my other tasks, but their crises or issues with lack of time doesn't mean I report to them immediately.

I get interrupted so much these days because I don't like to tell people no, and their are people who have completely taken advantage of this. This time last year I wasn't this busy and my tasks and assignments seem to have multiplied to the point where getting part of my office clear of tasks and papers is a monumental task.

What are good ways of telling someone no without sounding like I have a bad attitude or whiny?
What do you do to make sure this doesn't happen to you?

Secrets

Secrets are interesting, especially when they are my own.

Especially when they aren't really even secrets, but rather good and fantastic news that I'm holding onto until everything really happens.

Waiting.

I am terrible at waiting. Although, its better to wait until the chickens hatch as opposed to having to explain possible almosts and how they slip through our fingers or run into roadblocks.

So here's to waiting for another month or so, and then, hopefully, finally, awesomely good news.

January Funk

Have you ever gone through something voluntarily with the thought that you could go back to who you were before? What happens after you’ve achieved your goal? Have you ever had difficulty resuming your lifestyle from before?

That’s where I am.

I’ve become a hermit of sorts, and I’ve become comfortable with spending more evenings just relaxing. Part of me wants to go back to the party planner I was, but even if its boring for others, I’m happy with staying at home more often than not.

I keep trying to justify that this is because I took on so much last semester. And while its partially true, I’m more concerned with my lack of desire to be involved with things and create. I made some cards more out of duty than desire and to me they look awful.

I’m in a complete and total funk and all I want to do is rest. I’m not interested in going back to my super social and creative self, she took a lot of work to wear. While I’m in this rut, I’m interested in doing and seeing new people that I haven’t talked to in the last 4 months, but I’m completely disinterested in calling people and setting things up or pulling out my crafts.

I made a few things for Christmas, but that was it.

Maybe this is January talking. Maybe its more, I guess we’ll see.

Back to my questions at the beginning, what do you do when you’ve gone on hiatus from something so long that it no longer feels natural? Do you reacquaint yourself gradually or do you plunge head first back into things? Or do you cut ties with those hobbies and find new ones? At what point do you know you can never go back?