Prayers at home for me today, because I'm still coughing. I managed to snag an Urgent Care appointment for late this afternoon, and I'm glad, because this whole vibe is getting distinctly old. I do feel a good bit better than I have been feeling and am quite possibly not contagious anymore, but I'm self-conscious about coughing in Mass, and figure I ought to err on the side of caution. Really, this is what we all should have been doing anyway, a long time ago, rather than dragging ourselves to Mass out of guilt when we were sick-but-not-that-sick. I take my Sunday obligation very seriously, but if there's one good thing that's come out of the whole Covid debacle, it's that in this house, at least, we feel a lot more dispensed for a lot fewer symptoms, out of charity for our neighbors.
Meanwhile, weirdly, as far as we know, my husband and I have not had Covid. I was sure I did this time, but all the tests have been negative. We'll see what they say at Urgent Care.
I'm not bothering a whole lot with outfits today, although getting dressed does make me feel better. If I don't get dressed and make some effort, it's because I'm REALLY sick and just can't. Ordinarily, though, even when I don't feel well, putting on clothes and combing my hair helps my overall mood.
Repeating yesterday's Sierra dress and tee, but with the tee UNDER the dress this time instead of over.
I love the versatility of these sleeveless dresses, summer and winter and in the seasons between. I'm happy to have my Maggie dress with sleeves, but truly, although I love her to absolute pieces, I reach so much more frequently for my sleeveless dresses --- we'll see how that keeps up over the next couple of months as the weather cools, but I don't anticipate a huge change in the pattern. I'm still thinking seriously, as I have not thought before, about that black heather Audrey dress as a possible purchase, if they don't sell out of my size between now and November. I keep examining people's pictures of that dress, and in real life the color does seem like a dark, smudgy charcoal, which I can wear well, rather than a true black, which I can't. This could be really versatile for me --- I could probably get away with it for choir occasions, but also wear it all the time without all the usual undead fun that black dresses create for me. It's sleeveless, so would need to be layered for many circumstances, but that could work --- I do it anyway with the sleeveless wool dresses I already own. (eta: I love this woman's aesthetic, even though I don't look anything like her --- I could do an outfit like this with the black-heather Audrey). I'd also consider the heathered vintage blue, which is such a beautiful color, but possibly paler for winter than I would like. I find myself gravitating more and more to darker, more saturated colors --- not too harshly dark or bright, so as to overwhelm my medium-level coloring and contrast, but definitely very present colors, which seem to suit me better than pale ones do. BUT I'd definitely consider the vintage-blue heather as a runner-up, if the black heather sells out. At any rate, I'd been thinking I wanted a dress with long sleeves, but maybe, after all, I don't. Maybe what I do want is a dress in a completely different length from the ones I already have.
ETA: Thinking how fun this tee would be under the black heather Audrey. Thinking how fun it would be knotted OVER the black heather Audrey. Thinking how fun all my tees would be with that dress (of course, they'd also go with the vintage-blue heather). Thinking how well my camel boots would go in the winter, and also my Docs. Denim jacket. Various scarves. Cardigans. Pink lace kimono thing that I bought at Ross years ago and have worn once, because I've never had quite the right thing to wear it with for a dressy occasion, but it's the kind of thing I want to keep for the right other item to come along and meet. Again, the pink lace kimono thing would work with the vintage-blue heather dress, but would really look cool with the black heather.
(also: mauve Amalya? Seeing some extremely nice looks, and I hadn't given it a second thought before, thinking that this would either be REALLY flattering on me or REALLY REALLY NOT AT ALL flattering, BUT . . . maybe I really don't want to keep buying the same dress in different colors? Just saw a really cute photo with Amalya with leggings and Doc Martens, which has me rethinking my determination to buy new boots this year --- maybe I just really want an extra dress instead? Amalya as cardigan layer over black-heather Audrey . . . now there is a thought . . . )
It would be nice to think about something else, really, but here we are. The good thing about declaring a slow-buy year in 2023, rather than a no-buy, is that while I will absolutely have to pace myself, and in many ways keep doing what I'm doing right now, I won't deliberate QUITE so long about purchases. I think I'll give myself four purchasing windows in 2023, one for each season --- considered quarterly purchasing feels like about the right speed, with no recreational shopping in between. That might not mean that I buy four wool dresses next year, but then again, depending on circumstances, it might. OR it might just mean that I buy some new sandals for summer and leave it at that, or two new cardigans for fall, and so on. The main thing will be that I have scheduled permission to add to my wardrobe in considered ways, rather than having to create exceptions and windows and be like, "Well, really I'm having a no-buy year, BUT." That seems more sustainable over the long haul. As I've probably said before, though, the discipline of this year is what's made that vision a lot more possible.
In light of today's somber anniversary, these are pretty trivial, self-involved thoughts. But I'm grateful beyond measure that the world didn't stop, as we all feared it might, after that terrible day. I'm grateful to be here to overthink trivial things. I'm grateful to have a life with room for those trivial things. It might so easily be otherwise. The world is not a peaceful place, but I'm grateful for the measure of peace that has come to me in the twenty-one years between that September 11 and this one.
And although I've been kind of sick all week, I'm grateful that this is not normal, and that my good health has been a continual gift.