In My Stylish Yet Affordable Boots

WIW Thursday: 15th September 2011

(just for jaycee, because she asked ;-) )

In a shockingly abrupt end to summer, I woke up this morning to find it was 43F outside! It's about that time, to break out sweaters and boots and my favorites of fall - wool, tweed, corduroy. But since this is still transition time, I haven't gone all the way over to fall clothes:

Sweater, tank, jeans: OldNavy.com
Shoes: Bella Vita
Bracelets: Amrita Singh
Earrings: Catherines
Watch: L.A.M.B.
Scarf: I have no idea; I don't remember where or when this came from. I have a vast collection of scarves, some of which date back to the late '80s and high school.

Why This Works: The dark wash jeans and dark purple tank, combined with the neutral booties, are all a nod to fall, while the bright scarf and light neutral cocoon cardi don't tip this over into the heavier feel of late fall and winter clothes. A fine-gauge sweater is a great transition piece, as it provides more coverage and warmth as the days cool, but doesn't add bulk.

I'm actually still deciding whether I think the cocoon cardi, specifically, works for me. While I like the concept, I'm concerned that this may be adding more width to me than I'd like. What do you think?

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In news unrelated to clothing, tonight I'll be walking in our local Light the Night walk, for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. I've been raising money for the past several weeks, and can't tell you how much I appreciate all of my donors. This is such an important cause, as there are approximately 137,000 people diagnosed with blood cancers (which include leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma) each year, which accounts for approximately 9% of the new cancer diagnoses in a year. Approximately 54,000 people die of one of these blood cancers each year, which also accounts for around 9.5% of all cancer deaths. As my regular readers know, one of those deaths in 2010 was my mom. Supporting this cause is deeply personal.

The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society provides funding for research, patient access to clinical trials, and patient education and advocacy services. Please consider supporting LLS via a donation, volunteer work, or participating in one of their fundraising programs. Or, if none of those float your boat, you can shop a small variety of Lands End products and 20% of your purchase will go to support LLS (and, this month only, you can use code LLS for free shipping!).

Ed Gein's got nothing on me

"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view . . . until you climb into his skin and walk around in it." --Atticus Finch, To Kill a Mockingbird

Usually, I try to remain pretty apolitical on this blog. I didn't set out to write in that space - there are plenty of political bloggers, who have a lot more interest in it than I do. But there has been a lot of disturbingly vitriolic discourse in this country of late, some of it culminating in violence or death. And with each news story, my head and my heart hurt just a little bit more to think that we've arrived at a place where fear of The Other makes people stop seeing each other as PEOPLE first, and not the labels applied to THEM.

Instead of considering that {GAYS/MUSLIMS/ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS/DEMOCRATS/REPUBLICANS/LIBERALS/CONSERVATIVES/[insert your own label here]} are really just individual people trying to live a life, just like you or me, The Label is tossed around as a dehumanizing epithet. THEY are pushing THEIR agenda. THEY want us dead. THEY are taking the jobs and our money. THEY are wrong and we need to "take back America" from THEM.

WTF, people? Are you so blinded by hatred and fear that you can't see these are people? People who have families and get up in the morning and go to work and raise their kids and try to put food on the table and have some fun and find love and go to the grocery store and do the laundry and stress over paying bills and plan vacations and...and...and. And do the things I do every day. Except they do them with a same-sex partner, or reading from a different book than I do, or in a different country, or in fear of being caught but feeling like they have no other options, or believing that they love their country and are trying to do right by it even if the nuances of those beliefs are different from yours or mine.

There ARE people to be reviled and repudiated in the world. But they're still individual people, crazy people, power-hungry people, obsessed people. Not labels. And people who may have some traits in common with those individuals are not responsible for the behavior of the nutjobs.

Do I think I'm better than other people, that I'm some super-enlightened, bias-free person? HELL NO. I have biases, and gut reactions, and sometimes, fear. I've made snap judgements and been harsh. But I do try to check myself, and put myself in the "skin" of other people. I make an effort to remember to take each person on their own merits and try to have an open mind and heart until someone proves themselves unworthy of it. If that's not something you're accustomed to, I challenge you to do the same. Believe in the words Harper Lee wrote for Atticus Finch. Or, if that's too literary for you, how about some George Costanza: "You know, we're living in a society!"

The Happiest Place on Earth

When we last saw our intrepid travelers, they were on their way to a Polynesian luau...

We had a great time at the luau, which doubled as our anniversary dinner. I drank some fabulously fruity concoction out of a coconut carved into a monkey's face, the food was good and plentiful, and the entertainment was fantastic.  After dinner, however, we were pretty much done after a second day of early wake-up, and thus we crashed.

We slept in this morning for a bit, then headed off to Downtown Disney to do a bit of souvenir shopping and to ride the Characters In Flight tethered balloon. That was So. COOL. We went 400 feet into the air and could see all over the Disney property. We're going to try to go again, this time at night.

After the balloon ride, we grabbed some lunch at Cookes of Dublin (mmm, fish & chips...), did our shopping, took a quick break for something to drink and some air conditioning, then headed off to the Disney Hollywood Studios. Unfortunately, we were too late in the day to easily check out the new Toy Story Mania attraction without an extremely long wait, and they were out of Fast Passes for it. So The Husband went off to ride Tower of Terror (not a favorite of mine), while I killed some time wandering the shops and catching glimpses of the parade. Once I'd wandered through all of the shops I could easily get to during the parade, I found a bench in the shade to wait for him. While waiting, I was first asked to take a guest survey. Can I just say how much I love surveys? I'm always happy to give my opinion. :) Then, just before The Husband arrived, another Cast Member just stopped for a chat and asked if we were celebrating anything. I told him about our anniversary and my birthday. He said, "How many years?" I said, "Eleven." I could tell, however, he wanted to go for the joke, so I quickly added, "Can't you tell how young I look?!" We all laughed, then I told him my actual age, and whether he was putting me on or not, I can't say, but he looked fairly surprised that wasn't younger! That's always a nice feeling. :)

After checking out the new American Idol Experience, riding Star Tours, seeing the Muppets 3D, and riding Rockin' Roller Coaster, we were getting hungry, so we headed off to the Magic Kingdom to get a bite to eat and see Spectromagic. We found ourselves a good spot for the parade, and just as it ended, it started to rain a bit. By the time we got down to Main Street USA, the sky had opened up and we were soaked. We chose not to stay for the Wishes fireworks, but sloshed our way back to Saratoga Springs. We did, however, see some pretty spectacular natural fireworks on the way back, accompanied by some loud rumbles of thunder!

We have an early day planned for tomorrow - a quick stop at DHS at rope drop for Toy Story Mania, then off to Sea World for much of the day, then to Epcot to see Big Bad Voodoo Daddy perform at the Eat to the Beat concert series for Food & Wine. Phew.

Election Day!

The Husband and I went first thing this morning to our polling place to vote.  Unsure of the turnout, we arrived at 6:30 AM for the 7 AM opening of the polls and were #5 and #6 in line. 

Our polling place is an elementary school.  Normally, when arriving to vote, you walk through the outside doors and enter the door to the gym directly in front of you.  There is also a second door to the gym that is further down the hall, which is where we lined up this morning.  As we walked through the outside doors and assessed the lay of the land, we had a disagreement about whether or not we'd ever entered the gym via the second door.  (The correct answer, sweetheart, is yes, we lined up in the same way for the 2004 presidential election.)  The four people already in line were amused by our discussion, but I heard the man who was third in line actually snort when not five minutes later, another couple came in having the same disagreement.  In this case, the wife agreed with The Husband, and her husband agreed with me -- Her: "See, he agrees with me!" Him: "Yeah, but his wife's right!"  We all had a laugh at that.

I love going to vote first thing in the morning, especially for an election as important as this one is, just to hear them say, "Hear ye, hear ye, the polls are now open."  The dated language makes me think about the history of this country and about being part of something so much bigger than my insular daily life.

I cast my vote and was back in my car by 7:10 AM, sadly without an "I Voted" sticker.  As I drove to work, I couldn't help but think about how historic this day truly is, and how I hope that regardless of today's results, it will become commonplace to see someone other than white men as the potential leaders of this country and truly represent the beautiful diversity we have.