Day 16: And I Don't Even Like Basketball...

Sweater: Gifted; Shirt/Pants: Target; Shoes: Guess; Belt: Thrifted

I'm not a Lakers or basketball fan at all! I've been avoiding this color combination for years!

       I absolutely hate how some color combinations have just been stolen from fashion and stereotyped. This is one of them; well, maybe only because I live in southern California. Purple and yellow and complimentary colors and are supposed to go well together. But every time I put them together all I can see is a giant Lakers logo! It drives me nuts! It's the same mental block that stops me from wearing red, white, and blue {patriotic...not that I don't love my country or anything...}, red and green {Xmas}, black and orange {Halloween}, or black and yellow {bumble bees...and those were both my high school and college colors}. Today I went for it though, because my only other option for an undershirt was lime green...I choose "Laker Fan" over "Barney Fan" any day.
       Speaking of basketball, I found myself some more hoops to jump through at CSULB today! Turns out, my sob story letter was not enough to convince Enrollment Services to reverse my dropped class. No, no. The head of Enrollment Services emailed me today to tell me that I need to complete yet another petition process and will be subjected to yet ANOTHER $10 fee. This petition process involves getting a bunch of signatures from hard to reach people and running around to all of their different locations. Luckily, the gal I spoke to at the college of education about this was very nice. I got all teary when I explained my predicament to her and she was very understanding and told me to just breathe and it would all be ok. She also told me that the person I needed to get a signature from was out all day in a meeting and to email her. So I composed one of the longest emails of my life explaining the massive error in communication that has occurred this semester over three lousy units. Actually, those three "lousy" units are quite important to me, but calling them a nasty name somehow makes me feel better about the whole situation.
       On the bright side, I was told that I look cute today and not a single person said anything to me about the Lakers. :)

Day 15: Color Blocking

Dress: Target; Sweater: F21; Boots: TJ Maxx

       This is what I wore out today...until I discovered that I would need to run around the CSULB campus for the better part of my day. You see, it was a lovely morning. I woke up and was not called in for work {boo, but it was still relaxing} so I promptly logged onto my computer to pay my tuition after finally getting all of my finances arranged properly. I paid {with a little sob} and went about my merry way. About an hour later I get an email telling me my bill for CSULB. Ok. Fine. It came just in time. Half an hour later I get a notice that I am delinquent on my tuition and that my class is being canceled. WHAT?!? You bill me and penalize me all in the same day? What the heck is going on? So, after a mini panic attack, I threw on my fake Uggs, comfy jeans, and a comfy shirt so I could quickly run across campus if needed.
       Now, if you've never been to the CSULB campus, then you don't know the importance of proper attire for traversing the campus. First off, the campus is built on a hill and so has many stairs and ramps. Second, the college of education {where I'm supposed to be enrolled} and enrollment services are on opposite side of the campus. This is roughly a five minute drive and a 15 minute walk. With this geography in mind, imagine being bounced back and forth between the college of education and enrollment services several times. This means a lot of walking, both uphill and downhill because the only parking near either office is metered parking.
       So, off I went. Luckily, I didn't need to go back and forth between the two offices. No. I only needed to wait 15 minutes in one line to talk to a man at a window who told me to go wait for 20 minutes in another line to talk to another man in a window. The second man in a window then explained to me that my best bet {after hearing my long sad sob story about being a graduate student and being given incorrect information about initial enrollment, yadda yadda} was to print out my receipt for tuition and write a letter petitioning to be reinstated in the course. At this point in the day, I didn't have time to go home to compose and print such items or the office would close. The second man at the window, who was actually quite nice...his name was Michael, kindly suggested that I go to the Horn Center on campus to print these items. Well! Let me tell you about the Horn Center! If you're a CSULB student and haven't been to the Horn Center, GO! It's awesome! It's a computer lab with a bajillion computers and a dozen printers! And you use your student ID to buy and release print jobs at ANY of the printers in the room! It's a procrastinator's dream location! So, I used this new found gold mine to print my receipt and compose my letter and print it all out in less than twenty minutes! I ran back to enrollment and gave my materials to Michael, who spoke to his supervisor and filed my petition with the head of enrollment services and told me.....that I would hear back from them in about a week and a half. Talk about anti-climactic!
       Enrollment drama aside, I was very happy with the outfit I mixed up today. Even better was that hubby though it was cute too. Actually, the word he used was hot and that's why I love him. In fact, he just now shared with me that he'd like to see me wear the outfit again sometime. He makes my heart melt. <3

    Oh, yeah! And I'm half way through the 30 For 30 Challenge! Yay! I'm going to be so excited to wear my other clothes! But, I do appreciate the challenge I'm being faced with and I'm excited to know that if I had to pack light for an extended period of time, I could still put together some killer outfits.

Check out all of my outfits for the challenge here!

What is wrong with the world today?

           I'm seething with rage and frustration now. Don't expect any pictures. Hubby and I had a wonderful trip to Las Vegas this weekend. It was perfect. There were only two glitches, and only one of them is the source of this post.
          We checked into our hotel and began unpacking. As I'm putting away the bags for my make-up and toiletries I notice that the red jewelery box SIL gave to me for Christmas is not in my suitcase. I stare at the suitcase for a while and think about this. I retrace my steps of that morning. I remember having something fall out of my suitcase while I was packing it, but I'm sure I put it back in. "Honey, do you remember if I took out my jewelery box this morning?" I ask Hubby. He says know and then asks when I even got a red jewelery box. He suggests that I probably left it at home and it's sitting on the bedroom floor. I don't worry about it. He's probably right. After all, I did leave my curling iron at home too.
          The biggest inconvenience in all of this is that I have NO jewelery for the trip! No earrings, no necklaces, no bracelets. At home, I normally throw all of my everyday jewelery into a lovely dish that was given to me as a gift. As a result, all of my favorite jewelery ends up in this dish. While packing, I decided it would be easiest to just throw all of this jewelery into the red box I got for Christmas. But I keep my cool, because the box and my jewelery are probably at home. Meanwhile, Hubby gives me the business for not bringing my expensive necklace to wear out at night. I roll my eyes at him.
          We get home two days later. I look in the bedroom. No box. Under the bed? No. In the bathroom! No. Closet? No. Guest roooom? Nope. Nada. Nothing. The box (and all of my favorite jewelery) is nowhere to be found. Commence hysteria and sobbing. The item I miss the most is a charm bracelet I made several years ago. On it, was Hubby's class ring, a photo charm from our wedding day, a locket with an early photo of us in it, an "S" charm, a heart charm with our names engraved on it from the Wild Animal Park, a key charm with our names engraved on it, and a penguin charm (because penguins make me think of hubby). Everything else can be bought...mostly at WalMart. But that bracelet was priceless in so many ways. The chain itself was my grandmother's and even though it was cheap, it still had value to me. Now, my favorite piece of jewelery is probably in some dump because whoever took my box of jewelery probably threw it away when they realized it was not diamonds and gold.
          Now, I understand that there are just bad people in the world and that some of them work at airports. My husband reminded me that I should have locked my luggage with a TSA approved lock. However, it seems to me that our wonderful nation has given certain people the right to go through my luggage (lock or no lock) at their discretion. There are bad people in the world. There are selfish people in the world. I'm sure some of them are TSA officers because there are bad people who are doctors, lawyers, teachers, priests, nuns, grocers, and everything else. If TSA stole my jewelery, then would good would a lock have done?
          I called both McCarran Airport, Long Beach Airport, and TSA headquarters in Long Beach. Long Beach told me it was McCarran's fault and to call them. McCarran told me it was Long Beach's fault and to call them. TSA asked me to leave a message and they would get back to me when they could (in a recording). I called TSA four times in a two hour period. Must be nice for them to have Sundays off and not have to be protecting the traveling public and all. ::rolls eyes::
          After drying my tears and cleaning up my smeared make-up I did some digging on the internet. First I scoured eBay for recently posted charm bracelets. Yes, I was willing to buy back my own personalized bracelet from a thief that posted in on eBay. Nothing turned up. They probably threw it away. Then, I Googled "Items Stolen From Luggage" and found a plethora of posts about people in my same situation. Except they were missing cameras, and cash, and expensive bottles of liquor. Some people even had candy half eaten and replaced in their bags. Others had half of their clothes stolen. Many were out their iPods. One man even had $500 cash stolen out of his carry-on bag after the walk through security! While all of these stories made me feel better about the fact that I had not really lost that much (I still had my husband and all of our memories and I did NOT pack my expensive necklace), I was still hopping mad that this kind of activity goes on.
          The government is supposed to be protecting us and the airlines are supposed to be providing us with a service. If TSA is busy going through my baggage looking for loot, then I highly doubt that they care very much about my travel safety. If the airline handlers are busy cleaning me out, then I don't have much faith that I'll be where I need to, when I need to, and with all of my necessities. What's worse is the idea that these people are stealing because they NEED to and because they want a quick buck for the hell of it. I would not be surprised if somebody told me that airline workers and TSA officers barely get paid enough to live on. I know that pilots don't and I sure as hell know that teachers don't get paid enough. I agree that these people have difficult jobs and I appreciate the work that they do. But that does not mean it's ok for them to steal from me.
          And they didn't just steal my stuff. They stole what little innocence and faith I had left. They stole my confidence in people to work hard and be good. I'm completely jaded. Yes, I've learned a lesson. But it's not a lesson that anyone should HAVE to learn.
          And if this all weren't bad enough, the Las Vegas Hilton shut down their Star Trek exhibit. :*(
It was all a hefty price to pay for a great weekend...and in spite of it all, it was still a great weekend, because it was just me and Hubby.

Things I've Been Robbed of To Date
* Jewelery box and jewelery
* Wallet
* Purse w/ wallet and cell phone
* Tom Tom
* Half of car stereo (yes, they only took HALF of it)
* Numerous CDs
* 2 iPod cables
* 2 sweatshirts
* 2 aux cables
* A bag of gel pens (over 50...I was in middle school...)
---So I've been pretty lucky that this is all I've had stolen from me. No cars or diamonds on that list and I've never had the displeasure of meeting my robber during the act. And just so we're clear, I'm no saint either, nor do I claim to be, and I know that even robbers have a right to be upset sometimes too.
Things I've Stolen to Date
* Barbie clothes (from a friend when we were children)
* Food from my mom's fridge (that's how I ripped an earring out)
* A book from the library
* A book found in a hallway
* A jacket from the school Lost and Found
* A kiss
---Hey, I never said I was a thug! I'm not proud of my list, but in some weird way I feel better about getting it out there. Maybe it will inspire whoever has my bracelet to {somehow} send it back to me.

The Mirror Lied to Me...AGAIN!

          I can't believe I wore this to a party. And it was a party that I wanted to look nice at because the gal is such a sweet and fun friend of mine. When I walked out the door that morning, I felt I looked at least 50% better than these pictures would lead you to believe. :(
          One of my favorite shows is TLC's "What Not to Wear." I would gladly dress like a slob for several weeks if it meant that I got to get a style make-over and a $5K shopping trip in New York City. But, I have a feeling that the producers have some sort of style fraud prevention program in place. My favorite part of the show is the 360 degree mirror. While most people hate and fear it, I feel like I need one. Specifically to prevent outfits like the one above.
          You see, I put on this dress and shirt because they are extremely comfortable, cute on their own, and contain some similar colors. It was too cold to wear the sleeveless dress on it's own, so I threw on the shirt too. I SWEAR to you I did not look this bad in the mirror! The comfort factor must have warped my brain for the day. It wasn't until a week later when I saw pictures of myself that I realized how bad I looked. It's hard to explain how I felt, because I didn't feel embarrassed. As much as I don't like the way that I look, I know that this is not an embarrassing outfit. Perhaps, disappointed is a better word? This is certainly not the look that I wanted to portray at my friend's baby shower.
          So let's pick this bad boy apart! The first thing that I noticed in this picture that I absolutely hate it my sunglasses. Alone, or worn properly, they are cute {I've seen them in other pics}. On my head, as a make-shift headband, they scream "DUMPY!" I think it has something to do with my limp and thin hair. Shoving my glasses on top of my head gives it the oddest shape I have ever seen. And while we're at the top of the picture, I should remind myself that I should at least attempt a little something with my hair when I go out. Over the summer I was on this kick that I would not use any heat on my hair whatsover. That's fine, but letting it dry into crooked little have kinks isn't good either.
          I think that this outfit would have been a little better if I had just belted over the shirt and dress to give the outfit more dimension. As is, it looks like I just threw a plaid shirt over a plain dress and I didn't put any thought into what I was wearing. The truth is that I spent a lot of time adjusting and picking out shoes and doing my make-up. But you can't tell that any of that happened by looking at this picture.
          The good news is that blogging has made me more conscious of my outfits from different angles. Instead of only looking at myself from the front and back, I consider what an outfit will look like on a diagonal or if I am scruched up in a ball or hunched over a table. Taking pictures has helped a lot with that.
          So what about you? Do you ever have days where you put something on that feels great and you feel that you also look great, but later discover that you didn't look so great? I'd love to hear your stories and/or see your pictures and know that I'm not alone!

My Blog Is BORING!

          I'm not sure that even I want to read it. Although it does look pretty. I would like to think that all blogs start out with this awkward rambling, but I just can't find any proof to support that hope. I think that some of the problem is that I'm not home and I'm not in my element and I think that everything is interesting right now because it is all new. Or maybe I think that everything is interesting anyway and I'm just one of those annoying people.
          I do have some works of fiction (incomplete, of course) that I plan on posting, but those are all at home and I'm really not feeling inspired at the moment. That's not a knock against Davis, I'm actually enjoying myself quite a bit and that's what's killing my inspiration. I'm not bored enough! So, maybe those will provide better entertainment down the road.

By the way, I forgot to tell you what I learned yesterday:
- There is no way to affectionately call someone a "chola."
- "Geek" is a universal language, but not an option in the new Facebook profile.
- It is rude to stay up all night blogging while hubby is trying to sleep after a long day working out in the wild, even though he says it's ok. Sorry about that, babe.

Yeah, yesterday wasn't very educational.