Rain last night, sun in the trees this morning. High of 85F. A quiet day, I hope, before the craziness of the next two days, when I have to be up and out of here for choir early in the mornings, and won't get home till late afternoon or evening.
Already today I've written part of a new paragraph for my Dickinson-Darwin essay, added to the fiction scene I was writing yesterday (maybe 100 words, not a lot), and finished and uploaded an essay on Thomas Hardy for his birthday next Monday --- also my mother's birthday, as it happens. Hardy turns 184, and my mother will be 88. I have an essay on the minor English Renaissance poet, lutenist, and composer John Dowland drafted for later next week as well, and I hope to spend some time today picking at it and getting it ready to load.
Washing my hair, considering the list of possible outfits I drew up for myself for a loose 7-day plan . . . were it not for this list, I'd probably just put on yesterday's dress again, because it felt so nice, and I felt so nice in it. But I'm really trying not to do that --- partly because that kind of default quickly turns into a rut for me, and a rut can turn into full-blown acedia, to which I am particularly prone in the summer. But also . . . my goal is to wear my closet and not wear one item of clothing right out. So I shall push myself not to default today.
Aaaaaannnnnnndddddd . . .
Wearing:
*Secondhand Erika&Co. linen-cotton-blend floral pinafore, bought November or December 2023
*Secondhand silk-cashmere-merino teal tank, bought January 2023
*Secondhand Birkenstock Bali sandals, bought February or March 2023
Another all-secondhand lineup today: simply the next item on Sunday's wardrobe-menu list, because that was easier than having to think. And truly, I love this pinafore. It goes with so many things, works nicely as a winter dress as well as a summer one, and establishes my cottagecore cred, because I was really worried about that. But do I look tradwife enough, I ask myself in the watches of the night. And the answer is, ha ha ha, I've looked this way since long before people using the word "tradwife," ironically or not, were even born.
Anyway, I loved the feel of my NPL Smock dress yesterday, and I'm happy to continue that feel today, without having to repeat the dress. I like the loose waist --- I think the waistline of this dress is slightly higher, though not much, than the Smock dress. The waist pleats here aren't quite as beautiful, I don't think, as the gathers at the waist of the NPL dress, but they do lie nicely, and I think the whole line is very pretty. I also love the floral pattern, which isn't as garden-party as a lot of dresses currently, but is striking, with beautiful colors.
The soft oatmealy base color, too --- basically just a natural linen tone --- wears well on me, far better than a bright white background would. This outfit really cries out for a straw hat, though I wonder if I'd wear one. I don't often wear the one I currently own, though the fact that it's old and kind of collapsed might have something to do with that. But I have never developed the habit of wearing hats, and I sort of regret that and keep telling myself I mean to do better, even if it means eventually buying another hat. All winter I wanted a dark-teal wool felt cloche hat, which I also probably would not have worn but loved the idea of . . .
Anyway, I'm not wearing a hat right now because my hair is wet. I washed with clarifying shampoo and let the Glaze bond-repair treatment sit on it for five minutes or so while I performed the rest of my ablutions, and that's all I've done. No mousse or gel. Tomorrow and Thursday, when I'm dashing out of the house for these Masses for the new bishop, my plan is just to put my hair up in a claw clip and not think about it again for one second. I might very well put it up today once it's dry. That's my Norway plan, too --- I'm just not taking a ton of hair products or a diffuser, or worrying unduly about how my hair looks. It's finally getting long enough again that this is a possibility. As fun as short hair can be, it's actually (to my mind, though I have to cut my own hair off periodically to remember this) a whole lot more trouble --- maybe this is specifically a wavy/curly/unruly-hair thing, where you just never know how you're going to look when you wake up and have to commit to at least wetting your hair thoroughly to achieve any kind of presentability. I'm over that. I keep saying I'm going to get it trimmed, and I have done some tiny trims myself, but for seven months and counting since my last haircut, it really looks pretty decent. Thank you, bond-repair treatments. At any rate, my plan is to spend less time doing anything to it today than I have just spent writing about it.
Also glad I thought to wear my Birk Balis for a change. These were my everyday shoe last summer, and although my newer (to me) Mayaris are easier, because I can just step into them, I do love these and don't want to forget to wear them. I'm also glad to be getting summer wear out of my two wool or wool-blend tanks --- this finely-knit wool-silk-cashmere blend tank is so light and soft, a great summer layer on its own or under something. I could really just about wear my green Allbirds bralette/crop top by itself under this pinafore, since its line is pretty long, but I worry about its riding up. Not that I mind showing skin all that much, but the skin of my midsection is not especially lovely to view. I might try that option later, though, if I start to feel warm. I am already wearing that very crop top as a bra today, so we shall see. It could do double duty. The green is a little minty compared with the greens in this print, but I think it would be okay. In the meantime, I really like the teal tank with the blues here.
Catbird at the suet feeder: sleek dark-gray bird with black detailing, including a funny little flat cap on the head. One was mewing at me insistently the other day while I hung laundry in the backyard --- I must have been too near her nest. They've mostly liked our back-porch eaves for a nesting spot, and I'm not sure where this one was, but the mama was quite certain anyway that I was trespassing and gave me a thorough, very catlike vocal scourging.
Back to work now.
LUNCHTIME UPDATE:
Interesting illustration of how my hair behaves when I don't put any stylers in it. In the photos above, you can see how wavy it naturally is when wet. Here it is almost dry, uncombed:
I mean, you know, it just dries kind of . . . loosely wavy. Not a lot of definition. The waves that form with water sort of dissolve, mostly. Which is not bad. It is what it is. But this is the difference that my quick routines with gel and mousse make.
When I've run a comb through it, because it feels messy:
Even less definition, though it's still not what I'd call straight. Just much looser. Again, I don't mind this. And it's nice to give my hair a few days' break from products other than shampoo/conditioner. While those products are no trouble to use and don't involve an extensive routine, still they tend to build up a bit. I'm not convinced that they don't irritate my scalp a little, even though I avoid working them through to my scalp. I'm enjoying the feeling of basic clean hair, which I can put up with claw clips for the next few days without feeling that anything is built up on it or weighing it down.
I've worked on both essays (Emily Dickinson, John Dowland) and texted with the college kids, who went to the ER this morning because the Viking couldn't breathe and apparently has pneumonia. I'm not at all convinced that the Artgirl doesn't have pneumonia, too, but she says she is breathing okay and will go to the Urgent Care tomorrow when she gets home. But her chest hurts, she's coughing, she has body aches . . . not great. She says she had a raging fever last weekend and still isn't at all well.
So they get home tomorrow, and I won't be here, but hopefully the husband will. Note to self to put pork loin with mango in crockpot tonight, and get it out and plug it in before I leave in the morning, so that there will be dinner.
Or maybe what I should make a crockpot of is pho, or at least a pho-adjacent kind of soup. I don't have time tomorrow to make the actual from-scratch broth, and I know that using a store-bought broth won't be as good or at all authentic. But sick people need soup, and I'll make what I can . . .
Back to work.
OH BY THE WAY:
The dinner I made last night, entirely of convenience foods, was delicious, and I have just eaten up the leftovers for my lunch.
The recipe:
I used a roughly 9x9 casserole dish for this. You might mix all these ingredients in a large mixing bowl first, then spread them in a baking dish. I just dumped them all in the dish, and by some miracle nothing overflowed.
1 package Aldi shredded rotisserie chicken. You could also use whatever chicken or other meat you had on hand. Just about any meat, shredded or pulled, would work. For a vegetarian option, chickpeas would be best, I think, of the bean varieties. Depending on how much you want to make, and what you want the ratio of protein to other things to be, use one can or possibly two, drained and rinsed.
1 package grape tomatoes, whole. Just rinse them and dump them in.
1 bag riced cauliflower.
1 jar artichoke hearts, drained.
1 log of Aldi plain goat cheese, crumbled and mixed in
A squidge each of garlic and basil puree (for those who maybe aren't familiar with this seasoning option, you can get these, in tubes, in the produce department of pretty much any American supermarket, or order them from Aldi). You can also use fresh diced garlic and dried basil, or fresh basil, but these things were what I had on hand --- I meant to go out and pick some basil to scatter over the top when it was done, but I forgot.
Salt and pepper to taste, though rotisserie chicken tends to be pretty salty already.
Mix it all up evenly, spread it in your baking dish, and bake until a little brown on top, and hot through. I took the dish out once it was all hot and stirred and re-spread everything to mix the goat cheese more evenly, then put it back in to finish browning on top.
This was a very good, warm-but-fairly-light comfort-food casserole last night, and it was also delicious cold for lunch today.
You could vary the ingredients in any way, but I really love riffs on the chicken-and-rice theme, especially with cauliflower rice, which gives you another vegetable in your single-dish. You could have a green vegetable or salad on the side, or fruit or whatever, but you don't have to.
And back to it again.
EVENING UPDATE:
Quick after-dinner shot of the claw-clip half-updo that was my solution for unstyled hair, and will no doubt by a go-to do for me in Norway. I really love this little gold clip and the way it holds my hair. I just make a front section on either side of my part and pull that back loosely, securing it however I can with the clip. I love the sort of twisted look it creates in the back, and the softness in the front:
This clip is very secure, too, with no slipping --- not always the case with plastic ones. I tell you, claw clips have solved my hair for me . . . it's great to welcome back yet another 1990s thing, which I resolve never to let go again.
Also, my darling friend Silvia went to the library sale in Memphis and sent me this:
I urge this novel on everybody, but I've just had paperback copies of it. I have never in all my life felt so known (well, okay, that's not really true, but Silvia has second sight or something). She sent me a hardback copy, maybe a second edition, of Eudora Welty's One Writer's Beginnings. I used to have this exact book, but in all our moves and transitions, I'm not sure I still do --- but now I definitely have it. And all totally out of the blue. She just went to the library sale and thought of me. Note to self to think of people more.