swim beyond the imagery

Not quite bling

I had placed an order with my boss for Silpada jewellery a couple of weeks ago, accompanied by a post dated check for this past Friday. AI did not expect the order to be placed until after the 26th, but yesterday the items arrived, and I'm pleased with them.

As I set here drinking raspberry flavoured beer (and I am no fruit beer fan) and watching the Sox try to win the World Series again (does that sound surreal?) it seems the thing to do is to blog and toss up some pics for what represents virtually the totality of my jewellery collection. The only other thing of significance are the moon & star hand made earrings that have taken root to my ear over the last 4 years, while my prized jade goddess necklace was lost, sigh. The other set of earrings were beyond cheap hoops, so it was nice to replace them with something decent.

In place of those fake gold hoops are silver hoops with a bit more character, and which nicely compliment the moon & star. They will remain in place most of the time, while I'll change to the amber ones when wearing the  necklace.

The other items purchased was the aforementioned leather necklace with amber pendant, and silver earrings with embedded amber to match the pendant.  It would be nice to have a    more extensive collection, but this is going to be it for a long time to come.

Since I'm blogging on personal ware, should I mention the forest green with orange plaid skirt I bought yesterday, with an orange top to match the skirt? It is Halloween week after all. ;-) I'm going with a Halloween theme the next three days.

Pictures are courtesy of mysilpada.com

The smell of new asphalt and other babblings

I'm wondering how many others actually like the smell that emanates from new pavement?

Maybe it's my mind trying to tie itself back to some long forgotten childhood experience, but there is something pleasant about walking near or upon a newly paved surface.

This has led me to think of other non-natural things that carry pleasant odours. The next that comes to mind is the smells associated with boating, a mix of boat fuel and oil, mechanised parts, and the marine environment. In this case, my memory is stirred by an inland marine setting, not ocean marine.

Venturing back onto the hard cover of pavement, new pavement carries other little pleasures. Driving upon a newly paved divided highway, one where the road markings have just been unerringly painted upon it's surface, can leave one with a feeling the road has disappeared from under you, making it imperative that the white and yellow lines remain in their proper places.

I'd guess neither of these would provoke fondness where I to have actively been engaged in putting down pavement. Done in these parts in the heat of summer, the road temperatures must quickly exceed the bearable.

Not having done so, I can remain true to my illusion, and welcome the occasional smell of new pavement with a smile.

A rare event

We get excited over total eclipses. We might even get giddy over 7/7/7. Some pack up their ship for an alignment of all nine... wait... eight planets.

Today is such a rare occurrence. I've taken a vacation day. Huh?

I have trouble with vacations. Vacationing reminds me of a time when I had basically left the real world to shut out the pain and such of what was unfolding due to my gender nonsense. Yeah, that helped... not. First, you have to remember that others depend upon you.

Essentially my vacation time gets used for things like therapy and electrology. A hour here, half a day there. Since I have up to 21 days of vacation time available each year, that's a lot of disjointed time off, and I have 12 days or so stored in the vacation locker.

In the 34 months I've worked for my employer, I've used something like one day of sick time, for doctor's appointments. And none since 1July, 2005.

My mom originally had a doctor's appointment today. Given this is 50 miles from where I work, it seemed the best approach was to simply not work. Yesterday my mom's doc moved her appointment to September, and here I am. Har, I know! Reschedule that electrology appointment from Wednesday night to Tuesday afternoon... I'm just beginning to see, now I'm on my way. Um, you really don't wish me singing it, or maybe I can whilst my face is electrocuted, which will in turn be turbocharged by the predicted thunderstorms.

This is a good thing, because as my writings suggest, life doings have bothered on me lately, and I just need to reset and chill. I can feel this working already... if I don't think too much about not working. Shhhh.

Thank you

Yanno, people never cease to amaze me. Oh, sometimes they/we/I fuck up big time. And sometimes people do things that make you smiel, that make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, that goes beyond all we have a right to expect of anyone.

In this case, I'm feeling all warm and fuzzy inside, and this winter I am going to be feeling all warm and fuzzy on the outside, too. Nothing like wearing it on my sleeve, eh?

In my previous posting Booted, I talked on my quest for dress boots, as well as wishing on a nice, warm winter's coat. Boots are on their way, but the coat is already here, courtesy of Sherri, who posts here, but *ahem* as of yet does not blog (at least I am unaware of a blog.)

The coat arrived Saturday morning, or to be precise, I picked it up at the local post office sub station, where I brought the box home, opened it up, and was visibly stunned by it's contents... this coat is beautiful.

Sherri picked up on my love of forest green, and guess that started her mental gearage a turning. Yes, I'd be interested in the coat, so she sent a pic. The pic of the coat was lovely, but it simply did not do it justice. This coat is going to be warm, and it's simply perfect... thigh length, forest green, suede, hooded, a very classically styled coat. Forget the one in the blog pic, this coat is tonnes better.

As I've already told Sherri, it can't get cold soon enough... I need to wear it!

Many, many thanks for your generosity, and hope one day I can do something to reciprocate.

Heaven in a shower

This is not a drought stricken, parched area. In fact we are above average in rainfall this year, and average is somewhere around 36 inches.

Showering is a daily activity; daily activities tend to become boring out of their endless repetitiveness. Not so a nice warm, soothing shower.

Despite their commonness, despite a framework that would preclude preciousness, showers are precious. My day just does not feel as if it has begun without a shower. In fact, I simply don't feel right until this ritual has taken place. There are times when I'd do twice a days, though since I've moved in with mom, I've refrained from doing so.

Necessitated by the demands of the workweek, you can set your clock to my shower commencing around 6:12 am. (I know it's 6:12, because I pry myself out of bed at 6:10.) Weekday showers are rushed affairs, a matter of fact, get it done and out approach that is thankfully absent from their longer weekend siblings.

Having freshly emerged from the shower, it is a time of quiet reflection; it begins by my touching base with my inner and outer spirituality; a reminder of what is important in my life as the day begins.Even as this thought focusing reflection begins, shampoo is striking my hands, and quickly rubbed through my hair. A quick rinse off, then it's on to applying body wash to the scrunchy and a complete washdown. Rinse, repeat. Then rinse again, and shut down the hot water, leaving a wonderfully cold stream of water further refreshing skin lazed into contentment by the preceding warmth. I'm now awake, and ready to move on through drying.

I've never been one for baths, they overwarm and leave me lethargic. I surely miss our shower unit in my previous home, a four foot wide, two seated enclosure where the seats generally were used not for setting, but for collecting shampoos, conditioners, body washes, and similar shower products. When my daughters were younger, there were child safe cleansing products, as well as a play item or two for them. Showers are meant to be fun at any age.

Excuse me while I towel off and dress. 

I've been pinched and grown an inch

This is in actuality a boot update. They did not fit. I could have used them for a temporary carport for my car. 

On the website they list a calf circumference of 13". They were 18". So it was back to Nordstroms for this pair, and I've reluctantly had to select boots with a bit more of a heel... a 2 inch heel.  

I've been reluctant to do a heel for many reasons. First off, it brings me up to 6' tall, second, ya generally wear these in the colder months, which means I walk in them when the terrain condition is less than idyllic. So that means snow and ice and keeping my center of gravity in prime landing position.

I've also taken these down a notch in size, back to my normal 10w, there was no 11's left. Wide is the key, not the length, an 11 is only 3/16ths an inch or so longer.

As for the coat, my tires have decided to need replacing, and the car needs an alignment... stay tuned.

Booted

It's been a rough couple of weeks.

I've been looking for dress boots for the colder months, since well... hiking boots don't really look all that snazzy with a skirt, and my toesies tend to take on a chill with regular shoes. I really love wearing the hikers, but had decided to move into a dressier boot for work purposes.

Wednesday and Thursday nights found me scouring the internet for a pair of boots. Oh, there are tonnes of boots out there, but when you have skateboard feet, well... options narrow (no pun intended.)

And so I searched. And searched. And searched some more. Found a pair I like, and the next day... were sold out. Damn.

Back to searching. There were the ones that were wishful thinking $450. (yeah, right.) And the $30. that looked like I sewed or glued them together. My target range was around $100. Then there was that size thing. Originally I was looking for 10w, and all the ones I liked were $170 or so. Other requirements were that they be just below the knee (no, *not* above, geesh) and have a rather shallow heel. A 2 & 3/4 inch heel on someone 5'10" inches is not a good choice. Unless I wish to incorporate a helmet into my wardrobe.

I finally found a pair of Naturalizers for 99.95 at Nordstrom, and decided to advance a size so I could comfortably throw a warmer pair of socks on. The order was placed Friday, they should be here by next week, and will be nice to finally have a pair. 

Hopefully at some point I will find a nice 3/4  or full length wool coat. I've been looking and not many appeal, except perhaps the one pictured.

I've been desiring a nice dress coat for ages. My Columbia jacket is comfortable and warm (it was also a present from my eldest 3 years ago, so there is an emotional attachment as well.) But a wool dress coat would be nice to have.

The more I see of this one at Spiegel, the more I like it. Stay tuned... but no way I can afford it for at least a couple of months, and well, by then it will probably be sold out. If I am really lucky, the price will drop.

As for colour... gray is my sole purpose in life as it pertains to winter coats! I don't know why gray, other than perhaps I don't want black, even if a lot of my clothing is. My favourite colour is forest green, and well... nope, just don't like the colour in a dress coat. Gray has a classy feel to it, and thats my story, I'm sticking to it!

Representative colours of me

Upon leaving work yesterday afternoon, I decided to wander through the outlet mall not far from work.

Wander it was, in and out of several stores, seeing much I liked - and more that I did not. Yes, I'm fussy. I did make a purchase in Banana Republic, a pair of khakis, a biege button up the front sort of jean skirt, and a navy top.

There was a theme to what did not appeal to me: there was this overabundance of browns, and well, brown does not suit me, inside or out. Oh, i do have a couple of brown things, but I'd never wear say... a brown suit.

Grays, blacks, navy, and some other blues, whites, reds, bieges, forest green, orange, purple - maybe a lavender, and occasionally a pink hued item, but brown, yuch.

By the way, I did buy a black corderoy blazer (Marshalls) a paisley biege and black on olive green top from Macy's, and a pair of dress slacks, also from Marshalls.. they are *cough* a very dark grayish *whispers* brown, with black pinstripes. No, they don't look that colour!

If I really had to pick a basic colour for me, it's black. A nice, safe colour that plays extremely well with everything else. I'd love to have a black suit with gray pinstripes, I spotted some really nice ones, but am hardly ready to spend that kind of money. Van Heusen had a moderately priced suit, but my size... actually, I have to do coordinates, because bottom for me does not equate to top, such is life, eh?

I hope this has not caused any brown lovers to toss things at my posting, I'm sure brown looks great on you. *wink*

Walls

Nope, not the kind of walls you think I'm about to write on... that is a recurring topic on this board, so...

I'm really talking on walls. Yanno, as you set at your computer, there are walls around you, some of which support another floor, or perhaps a roof?

It's been a long couple of days. I left for work yesterday at 6:40 am, arriving at 7:30, worked until 6 with no break (other than to pee) during that time, and arrived home after 7. I worked from 8-1 today. There were two other topics in my head, one being on a segment of colour, one on something going on in my head, but... this topic wins on this night.

Both my childhood and current home, as well as the home for twenty years of marriage, were cape style, which means smallish, limited room size. Oh, the other home had two fairly sizeable rooms, our living room was 24 by more or less 13, and my office/family room was 400 square feet, but next time around...

I've come to be someone who likes a more open home, one with fewer walls and more interconnectiveness, a certain lazy flow from one area to another, where a line of demarcation is not readily apparent. If I were to build again, factoring in a more restricted budget, I'd go with a log home, with fewer walls in living areas such as kitchen, dining, living, etc. Bedrooms require more walls, given people do need some private space for um, various things.

I'd like a fieldstone fireplace in the living area, a cathedral ceiling where the fireplace stretched to the roof, and with a walkway in front of it upstairs as access to bedding areas. I'd prefer lots of glass for southerly exposures, thus creating a flow from outside in, making the home more part of the local environment.

This home would be two story, with three bedrooms, and those big, open spaces. The very environment would soothe my soul, for it has been my dream for 35 years.

I'd make use of some drywall, but wood would predominate (um, how much chuck could a chuckwood wood if a chuckwood could wood chuck?)  and be the central feature of the home, followed by the southerly glass walls and fieldstone. I'm ready to move in, but for now, this is a home I live in in my dreams.

Bagged and Fossiled

Thank you's for the encouragement to buy a new bag! In the end, the decision was easy... but special thank you's have to go to my boss, who introduced a wrinkle into my quest.

I should mention she now has this addy and can read this space, so I get to suck up... just kidding, T. Seriously, she read this post and upon mentioning it, informed me there was a Fossil store right in the local outlet mall.

What's that you say?

How did I miss this fact? Assured that it did in fact exist and reside in that mall, she also mentioned having a 20% off coupon for the store - and today, produced it, a very kind gesture. And so it was...

on the way home, right on my daily commute route, I pulled into the outlet mall, spotted the very bag I desired, produced the coupon, walked out having spent all of $24. and was back on ther road in ten minutes.

So a salute to T... it was most appreciated. Better than a grievance, eh? ;-)

As for the bag... my mom called it huge, and heavy, and wondered what it would be like when carrying stuff... it has many pockets, has a canvassy backpackish feel, at once unassuming, practical, and not very foofoo. Absolutely perfect.