On Being Fashionable

Ok, so I admit it, I have never been a particularly trendy person. I really don't care about clothes all that much. I find myself shaking my head in confusion, or wonderment when I hear someone say "Oh, your shoes are so cute." Cute? Shoes? Oh come on. That is simply not possible. Shoes can be practical, or comfortable, or worn, but cute? I don't get it.
Ok, and then there's this whole thing with fingernail polish. I admit I have a small bottle in my bathroom cupboard, but it probably doesn't even run right now it's been in there so long. I just can't bring myself to put the stuff on. I also admit that a couple of years ago it dawned on me that lots of women were wearing polish on their TOES! I really never look at people's feet unless something shocking strikes me so why I even noticed polish on toes is a surprise to even me. So I was brave one Sunday morning and put some on My toes. Wonder of wonders someone commented on it. Good grief. People look at my toes? I am amazed.
Of course, all this is to tell you about my latest surprising discovery. If you're a 'friend' of mine on Facebook you will have maybe noticed my little poll about nylon knee high socks. I have been wearing them since they were invented. (sorry) It seems they are a major fashion Faus Pax. See, I even asked the clerk at JC Penny's what kind of socks she was wearing and she pulls up her pant legs and has on a pair of little white socks with her black dress pants. (as you will see shortly this is also a faus pax) If I'd had more time I would have polled way more people walking by but I was hungry. (that's another story)
Anyway, I have been guilty for, well, I don't know how long because no one has ever told me this before Friday evening. I am still in somewhat of a state of denial about this, but I dutifully bought some regular socks. (I don't mind wearing socks acutally) though I did put my knee highs at the back of my drawer thinking that someday they may acutally be fashionable again. So I guess I am saying thanks to my wonderful girlfriends for dragging me along in the world of fashion. After all if your friends can't tell you that you are making a big mistake when you wear "that" then, well who can?
Of course that got me to thinking about what other Fashion mistakes I am making. And thanks to google, you can acutally find out. So, now, just remember I won't necessarily care if I am wearing something I shouldn't, or not wearing something I should but this is interesting none the less.

Here are some major Fashion DONTS:

Dark socks with white shoes. Also, white socks with dark shoes. (Think Michael Jackson.) I actually found a site that talked about "wearing hose that matched your shoes" so I guess that would leave out the knee high nylons.

Socks with sandals. One is for winter, the other for summer. The same goes with nylons and sandals. With peep-toed shoes, don't wear pantyhose or you'll have the webbed-toe look.

While white is now considered all-season by many, it goes over much better if you are a celebrity. If not, tread with caution.
Another seasonal faux pas is wearing a straw/summer type hat before Memorial Day. Not an issue many have to deal with, but beware events that call for hats, because there will definitely be party-goers there who will be taking note.

Anyway, I wore socks to church today, but as a mild protest about the god of fashion, They were a pair my mom gave me with puppies on them.

I'm melting....hurrah!

Oh, oh,oh! The icicles were melting today. There are lots of them at our house and all of them are dripping. The ruts in the street are deeper and nastier. The sun shone in the back of the library and I stood there with my face to the sun this afternoon. (dreaming of spring)

And tonight, Ron is out saving telephone/cable TV/internet for Orange City-dom. I'm not sure anyone is aware of it since I haven't been in town all day and don't know if those things were down somewhere. There is always a large outcry when even one of those things is not working properly. (he really does like his job) He should be declared Hero of the day, I think. What would people do without all those things anyway? He told me not to expect him before midnight, as this is a particularly nasty cable splice that has to be done. Well, that means I get the remote for myself tonight. Otherwise it will be a lonely night. I only want the remote myself when he's here anyway.....

4 More weeks of winter...

Becky let us know that there were,sadly, only four more weeks of winter left. Just think, only 4 more weeks of rutted impossible to drive on streets. 4 more weeks of snow piled so high at corners you have to stop at virtually every corner in town. 4 more weeks of the weatherman saying "No travel advised". 4 more weeks of cancelled school and activities because of windchill, drifting roads, white out conditions. Ugh, how can we manage 4 whole weeks?
I pulled out these pictures, The first one taken only a few days ago, so we could see what kind of melting has yet to take place. In just a few short weeks, no less. Both of these shots are of the same place. They are of my neighbor's flower garden. Well, the first one is at least what it looks like now, and the second is what I am so hopeful that it will look like in maybe 10 weeks. Now I ask you, which one of these would you rather have? I know what my vote is for. And let me just say, I can't wait!!

New Project

We started a new project last week. Now mind you, we've been talking about this for months. It is still always a shock to the system when we make these kind of messes. I get kind of grumpy about not getting done more quickly, too. Though I should know better. We took up all the carpet from this room. It really needed replacing. Ugh. I could virtually see the dust mites flying out as we hauled it out. (shudder shudder) We pulled up staples, took out the carpet takes, swept and swept some more. We moved furniture as we pulled things up, so the big pieces all will stay and we'll ( I say we, Ron does the practical stuff. I give advice) work around them. We are putting down a hardwood floor. Hickory. I will show more pictures as we go. With all the wood already in there, it will be a very 'woodsy' room. I hope it looks ok, though. But, when you think about it, in the woods, walnuts, oak and hickory seem to get along just fine. Hopefully they will in the house, too.

HICKORY FLOORING

I have been slowly reading Francis' Chan's book, Crazy Love. So many people have said how much they have loved it and have been challenged by it. I haven't made up my mind yet. I can be easily overwhelmed by guilt. Overwhelmed by all the ways that I fall short when it comes living out an authentic faith. One of the things Chan talks about is living within our income, or even better, living within the median income. That's around $40,000. (Well, it was when he wrote the book and I didn't double check his figures) He was talking about living within that median income and giving the rest away. Wow! Now that's a concept. So it's been on my mind. There's no doubt I spend too much on stuff I really don't need. Take the grocery shopping thing. My cupboards are full and I hit the grocery store for more, before I've even finished off what I got last week. Probably should refigure that. Then this afternoon we finally got new flooring for our "fireplace" room. Now I wonder if somehow we couldn't have gone a different, less expensive route so we could give more to where there are huge needs. It's easy to justify redoing the room. Much harder to put off something for self...

And in other things. I have not been blogging as much here I guess because of all the writing I've been doing lately. If you're interested here are a couple of links. The newspaper article comes on Wednesdays and if you're a fan of the Le Mars public Library I ususally post that.
http://www.lemarslibrary.wordpress.com
http://www.lemarssentinel.com

On Blizzards, wind and other such winter joys

I headed to work early this morning. After all we'd gotten more snow and the wind was blowing to beat the band! I was leaving early, though, because I had to open the doors for our cleaning crew. Ooooh, it was a really awful drive. Getting on and off of hwy 60 was a bit tricky since I couldn't tell if there was any traffic coming or not. Once I was in town, though, it looked like every thing was clear and fine. I settled into work. Phone calls, grants, sad news about county funding, etc etc... Then I start getting information about the fact that my little snowstorm illusion (i.e.that being in town made it fine) was just that-an illusion. Schools called off. Patrons in to describe blinding whiteouts. Husband telling me to get a room or head home..now! I think I've mentioned before that I have promised myself not to drive in blinding blizzards anymore. But I headed out anyway. It was worse than my trip down there. Oh boy. This is turning into a very long winter.

Ready

I am ready.
1. For an ice storm. Though I really don't want that. I think I could drive the pick up through it.
2. For supper. For some reason I feel hungrier today than yesterday when I didn't eat from noon til 7 p.m. and it's not quite 5 p.m.
3. To stay on the job. This morning I wasn't quite sure about that one. Nothing to do with the library, but everything to do with the library.
4. To not take it personally. Though I do think there must be something wrong with me, or it's my 'bull in the china shop' personality. Hmmmmm
5.For our Winter Reading Program. I have tons of prizes. All the hand outs are printed.
6. To watch NCIS tonight with supper on my lap. (What's for supper?)
7.For February. What? We have another whole week of January left? It's going awfully slow this year.
8. To have a dreamless sleep. Last night I woke a lot filled with dreams of concentration camps, death that was my fault and lots of other running amok stuff. ugh.
9. To run a quarter mile without stopping to catch my breath
10. For my meetings with the City Council and planning committees.
Off I go!