Redbud on spring sky. They are so subtle and beautiful. It's warmer today than it was yesterday, with a projected high of 63, and I have spent the morning so far sitting on the back steps in the sun in my pajamas. Eventually I will get dressed and do some work, though I've already finished posting Sun poems for the week and written my sonnet for the day. I wrote one sonnet crown (15 poems) on the existence of angels; today I began a new one, though interlinked with the previous one, on the Incarnation and the Proclamation of the Gospel. Would be interesting to do a big interlinked corona on the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary, which I'm sort of wishing I had thought of, because they're my favorites.
Wearing today:
A real change of pace here. I had relegated this cotton sheath dress, impulse-bought off a Walmart clearance rack in the fall of 2020, to nightgown status. It fits a little more closely than my grape cotton Pact sheath dress (worn yesterday under a pullover), and I often have felt self-conscious wearing it, as it generally makes clear just how not-flat my stomach is. I'm working on embracing that, because in a lot of ways this dress, cheap as it is, makes me feel pretty. I like the neckline. I like at least the idea of the curve-hugging. I like the soft knit fabric. For what I spent for it, in the kind of purchasing moment I've been at some pains not to keep replicating as a habit, it has been an extremely nice, wearable dress.
Anyway, I pulled it out today and put it on, with my thrifted gray Athleta cardigan, which makes pretty much everything it touches better. My Lenten purple is all in my Xero shoes and in my hair scrunchie, which barely shows up. Purple wouldn't have been my first choice of shoe color with this outfit, but it'll do. The weather should get warm enough for this amount of bare leg.
Anyway, a little variety is always nice. This again is why I don't think I could ever be entirely a clothing minimalist. I like having some things I don't wear so often, because sometimes that's exactly what I do want to wear.
As I'm contemplating upcoming events -- my high-school reunion in April, the Catholic Imagination Conference at the end of September -- where I will need to look maybe a little more polished, less like a senior-citizen first grader, than I often do, I have considered breaking my no-buy rule and getting at least one more "occasion" dress, for the sake of my own confidence if nothing else. But then I look at these sheath dresses, which can dress up, and I wonder if I really need to do that. If I changed shoes right now, I could walk into a conference and present a paper in what I'm wearing, and not look glaringly out of place. Of course, I'd have to write the paper. But this basic, straight navy dress could easily serve me for a more professional look. And I already own it. As much as I'd love some excuse to buy one more Wool& dress, I honestly think my confidence and I can do without it.