I did miss my kitchen while we were away, but this photo is notable just now because the lights are on. And that is notable because for the last sixteen hours they haven't been. Sometime last evening something --- I hear tell it was a tractor-trailer --- hit a power pole and took out a transformer, knocking roughly half the town off the power grid for quite some time. I was in the bathroom, getting ready for bed, when suddenly everything went completely, and I mean completely, dark.
I hadn't really considered how not-dark the nights here are most of the time. Not summer-Norway not-dark, but the seriously mitigated darkness of a downtown neighborhood, with a community college across the street, where lights blaze all night long, in addition to the regular streetlights. Even when our lights are off, lights outside are shining in our windows, and we're so used to it that we don't even notice, until suddenly there's no light at all.
I had trouble finding the door to let myself out of the bathroom, if that tells you anything. Meanwhile, Dora was freaking out in her crate because a) I guess she too is unused to that much dark, and b) the blackout didn't stop the neighborhood idiots who were still setting off fireworks, but it did knock out her white-noise machine. Last night was, if anything, worse on this front than the Fourth of July was. I don't even know how long I sat by her crate, waiting for her to stop panicking, lie down, and go to sleep, but it was a long time.
So we went to Mass at the Abbey after all, which was a good thing, and to brunch at Floyd and Blackie's cafe in Cramerton after, because we knew that there the coffee would be made.
And now we're home and the lights are on again.
Here's what I wore to Mass today, with after-Mass tweaks also shown:
*Secondhand Not Perfect Linen Leila dress, bought December 2023, last worn May 26??? That can't possibly be right, yet I think it must be. Well, I had been missing this dress, and I'm glad I wore it today. Despite not having been worn in over a month, it's one of my favorites, absolutely a dress I wear when I want to feel special and dressed up.
*Secondhand Sun Belt linen coat, bought last summer and last worn . . . on Pentecost, it looks like. I've been trying to resell this coat with no success; in the meantime I figure I might as well wear it when I can. It's not the absolute ideal as a top layer with this dress, but I'm kind of tired of cardigans, and I do like the slubby natural linen against the earthy pink. Anyway, I needed something to cover my shoulders, and this is what I grabbed from the dark depths of the closet.
*Thrifted Crocs sandals, bought by the Texasgirl in April and given to me when they didn't fit her.
As I say, I love this dress to dress up in. It just feels like a party. But it's perfectly comfortable for knocking around in, too.
I did change into my Birk Mayaris after shucking the jacket. But either way, gosh I love this dress. I can't tell you how much. I guess the fact that I haven't worn it since May 26 points to the wisdom of my resolving not to buy dresses this year at all --- even though, let me tell you, dresses call to me all the time. They call to me with their siren songs --- Buy me! Wear me! Be beautiful in me! --- but I stop my ears and shop my closet, because suddenly I have got more clothes than I can wear in a month.
Well, not really. I was home for 17 days in June, then gone for 17 days, during which time I wore my wool travel capsule and nothing else. If I'd been home, especially given how hot it was while I was gone, I'd have worn a lot more linen than I actually did. But still. I'm reminded yet again just how adequate my wardrobe is for my needs.
Now, as I'm plotting what I might wear in the coming week, seems also a good time to consider what else I can cull from my closet. My eye is falling on my Japanese linen pinafore --- which I love, but it's coming unsewn in the center seam, with some fabric disintegration that makes it tricky (for me anyway) to mend. I might take it to the seamstress, but I haven't done it yet. It's also honestly a little big in the shoulders. The straps are always sliding down, which bugs me. It's cute and I've loved it, but when I set it out to mend, some time back, I asked myself, Am I going to bother? That dress cost me $18. Not that that makes it throwaway, but of the dresses I currently own, it seems more expendable than some of the others.
I don't know that I'll put it in a donation bag, but I might start another bag to take to the Texasgirl at some point, because she or somebody in her orbit will be likelier to mend and wear this dress than I am. By way of pinafores, I think I could get by just fine with my NPL Smock dress (which can also be worn by itself) and my vintage floral Erika&Co. pinafore, which can't be worn on its own but goes with just about every solid top I own, not to mention wool dresses as under-layers. I haven't worn the latter pinafore in a pretty long time, and I really want to wear it more.
Anyway, I am feeling very affirmed in my resolution regarding dresses. That was the right move. Of course, I did buy the black linen Eileen Fisher dress for choir, and I like it a lot better than I expected to like a black dress --- my husband likes it a lot and refuses to believe that I look like the undead in it. And who knows? Maybe I don't actually look like the undead in it. Anyway, I could envision wearing that dress for something other than choir, but it's definitely in kind of another category from my regular wardrobe. Otherwise, I have dresses. I'm pretty excited about wearing them.
So what'll I wear this week? It's going to be marginally cooler, with highs in the mid-to-high 80s Farenheit, instead of the 90s. Rain expected --- in fact, it's suddenly bucketing down out there right now, which is a great thing.
I'm not going to limit myself strictly to things I didn't take to Norway, but I do want to foreground things I didn't take to Norway. So let's see . . . let's consider the things I've literally just mentioned that I haven't worn in a while because I was away.
*Aforementioned floral pinafore with some top underneath. The one thing I bought in Norway was a Devold men's base-layer tee, which was on sale in the outlet store in Hellesylt for quite cheap. Nothing in the women's section appealed to me, but I liked the color of this tee (you will be utterly surprised to learn that it's blue). I did come home and cut the neckline out, but I haven't mutilated it otherwise, and I might wear it with the floral pinafore.
*Wool& Brooklyn in Beetroot. This is the dress I didn't wear to Blowing Rock, right before we left, because it had incurred a weird stain right in the middle of the skirt in front. Happily the stain came out, but I haven't had a chance to wear the dress again. I just love this style as a summer dress --- it's great year-round with layers, but on its own with a pair of Birkenstocks it is truly the kiss of the chef.
*Purple Flax linen skirt, probably with pink Eileen Fisher merino tank. I wore this exact combo back in May and liked it, but haven't cycled around to it again. This week seems like a good time to do that.
*Garnet Hill green maxi skirt with pink linen top (I guess this is going to be Pink Week)
*For Thursday date night: Wool& Audrey with Trades of Hope kimono. Both these items did go to Norway, but I want to wear them to go out. I could wear Audrey all day, but I might wear something else and then change to go out, to be all fresh and special. I think I'll put one extra everyday outfit on the list just in case.
*Pink linen trousers (did I mention that it was Pink Week?) with . . . I'm not sure what. Maybe my very light J.Jill ramie pullover. I think that's cool enough to wear in this weather, and I think it would be cute with those trousers. If I don't like the look, I can wear the Eileen Fisher tank again. That combination received the Artgirl Seal of Approval the last time I wore it. Or my blue Indian cotton gauze tunic.
*Wool& Wisteria Willow, just as she comes. That would be a good Thursday daytime outfit, easy to change out of for a date. Or good for Friday, if I wear the linen trousers during the day Thursday.
*Wool& Camellia with my blue and green floral linen-blend skirt. That skirt honestly is another candidate for the Texasgirl Donation Bag. It's getting too loose in the waist (not bad news), and I've had it for about five hundred years, having paid maybe $7 for it in a thrift store. The colors are very Texasgirl, and she likes this kind of skirt. If I'm culling, and I do seem to be culling, I'm going to take a long hard look at this skirt. I love it, but I have worn it a lot. And given my preference for dresses, I'm not sure how many skirts I really, truly need. Something to think about, anyway, but in the meantime, that might be my next-Saturday attire.
*For Sunday: I last wore my straight linen-blend off-white skirt May 30, for the new bishop's installation. I really like this skirt, but I tend not to wear it for every day, because it is straight and not as easy to move in, plus the off-white just screams for me to spill something on it. This is okay. I'm glad I have it. But Sunday seems like a good time to wear it. I can either wear the exact outfit that I wore May 30, or I could pair it with
-the pink linen top (though I'll presumably have worn that already this week)
-the blue gauze Indian top (if I don't wear it)
-my big periwinkle Flax tunic --- this might be the ticket. I like it over that skirt, and it's been a really long time since I wore that combination (like since Lent?)
So, okay, this is NINE possible outfits for the coming week. That definitely gives me some leeway. There are still things in the closet that didn't go to Norway and haven't been worn for a while, but that's what the next week is for.
Also, for fun and games, I changed out my glasses for this pair.
I kind of tend to forget that I have them, but I do like them. Sometimes, when I stop to think about it, I realize I'm tired of the big blue statement glasses. Not permanently tired of them, but it's nice every once in a while not to have my glasses be my whole face. What I would really love are some glasses in that color blue, but this size and shape . . . just add that to the list of things I would really love and don't have and am not going to knock myself out right now to try to acquire. These have a weird little fin detail on the sides that I don't love (and didn't know they had until they arrived in the mail) ---
--- but again, I do like them a lot. And I like having a little interchangeable wardrobe of glasses, which in (does some math) almost 53 years of vision correction I have never had until recently. I have had fun switching back and forth between my blue glasses and my little round transitions sunglasses. I'd wear those sunglasses a lot more regularly if they had nose pads and were more comfortable (another thing I didn't realize until the glasses came in the mail, a fait accompli). All I can say now is No wonder they were so cheap. So I'm never going to wear them as regular glasses, unless all the other pairs somehow get broken or lost, but I do like them. They too have received the Artgirl "Hella Cool" Seal of Approval. But anyway, I want to try to cycle this pair back into the mix. I worry that people will notice that I'm wearing different glasses all the time, like that's something that will call attention to me, but in saner moments I suspect that the only person who'll be kept up all night over that is me.
Well, the rain is raining all around, and I realize that there are things on the line outside that I didn't bring in, so they're getting a nice extra rinse, about which there is nothing that I can do. It's good to be made to realize your limits. So maybe what I'll do is read a little and actually not worry about things I can't control.