Three weeks ago today, I was waiting to board a plane to Norway. Two weeks ago today, I was making dinner in the kitchen pictured above: a cabin in the Rondane National Forest. One week ago today, I was in Bergen, walking around the university district.
Today I'm here, looking out at my familiar view, and I'm honestly not sorry about that. I could do without the mosquitoes, but it's good to be home.
Much to do today:
*Magazine submissions
*Probably a Substack editorial meeting
*Housework (other than laundry) I didn't actually do over the weekend
*Dog walks/training (we really do have some ground to make up after vacation, especially in the area of house manners)
I'm glad I spent some time yesterday compiling a list of outfits for the week. Otherwise, in the moment, I'd just blank and reach for the easiest default. Not that that's always a bad move, and I reserve the right to do it, but I'd like for it to be a conscious choice, not a reflex.
So here's what I'm wearing today:
*Secondhand Erika&Co. vintage linen-cotton floral pinafore, bought December 2023
*Devold men's base-layer tee, with neckline and sleeves altered (with sewing scissors and nothing else) by me, bought June 2024 in Norway
*Secondhand Birkenstock Mayaris, bought April 2024
This was the first outfit combo on my list, as easy to reach for as any default. I had let my husband buy me this tee in the Devold outlet, so I really wanted to wear it before more time elapsed, and it had been a while since I'd last worn the pinafore --- the combination seemed natural, and I'm happy with how it looks.
I did further alter the tee today after an initial try-on. I had already cut out the neckline, which was a typical men's crew neck, to give it more openness and a more delicate shape. When I tried it on, the sleeves felt off, too, a little too boxy for my taste. So I carefully trimmed them on a diagonal line so that they wouldn't cut straight across my upper arm, and I definitely prefer the outcome to the original.
There are tutorials on YouTube, by the way, if you're inclined to do this --- I followed one the first time I tried altering a tee this way. It's not hard to do at all, but I'd recommend starting on a tee you don't mind sacrificing if you mess up. I have given almost all my tees this treatment by now, not that I had that many to begin with. Especially when I've bought a men's tee (because often I like the color, or the oversized fit), some quick snips to the neck and sleeves give me a top that still has the drape, coverage, and room that I want, but with lines that present as more feminine.
Most women look better in a neckline other than a men's-tee crew neck (the standard t-shirt neck). Busty women in particular benefit from a more open neckline, that breaks up the expanse of fabric down the front (think the proportion of tiny little head, big blocky fabric shape, like a cherry on a huge bowl of ice cream --- even if you personally are not large, that's kind of the proportion you get when you wear something really high-necked). I'm not that busty, but I do have Old Boobs that I don't usually bother to prop up in an actual brassiere. In my case, a crew neck just means that many more acres of fabric before we get to the point, if you know what I mean, down somewhere around my waist. A more open neckline mitigates against that effect. As you can see, this neckline isn't low at all, but it is more open, giving my neck a little more length to balance out the arrangement of my torso. Not that you can see that, really, because I'm wearing a pinafore, but trust me here.
As I say, we bought this tee on sale. I bought it because I liked the color better than anything else in the shop and thought I would wear it. In fact, it is a really thin tee. It doesn't drape as well as, say, a WoolX men's base-layer tee. I tried it with my green maxi skirt while I was in Norway but didn't wear that combination --- first I didn't like the neckline and didn't have any sewing scissors handy, but then I also felt that it rode up and wrinkled in weird ways. So it will probably be strictly an under-pinafore layer, and a layer for warmth in the winter, but that's okay.
Anyway, in this outfit I'm kind of feeling in my tradwife era, but that's silly. I'm too old to be a tradwife. When I got married, we were kinda sorta all like this, even if we had jobs or were in grad school.
Speaking of jobs . . . my first job today is to walk the dog, who is starting to stir in her crate. Better brush my teeth and do that very thing.
UPDATE:
Done today so far:
*Good dog walk --- the first really normal one since the Fourth of July made going outside traumatic
*Various emails that needed sending/responding to
*Substack essay editing
*Checked in at the magazine, but submissions were all caught up already, so nothing for me to read
*Lifted some weights in a desultory fashion for about five minutes, which is better than nothing
*Made the bed, emptied and refilled the dishwasher
*Made some sesame crackers using sheets of nori/seaweed (the stuff you wrap sushi in), coated with sesame oil and sprinkled with salt and sesame seeds
*Submitted some poems to a venue, the first time I've done that in a while. Not just tearing it up in the world of poetry submissions this year.
*Ordered groceries
So, all in all, not a bad day so far. I'm hungry and already looking forward to making dinner, but that's all right. Thinking about stuff, and maybe I'll write about stuff at some point, but for now I think I might sit down and read Don Quixote. It does go on (and on and on and on), but it's a lot of fun.