dressing nora

I was goofing around on the Internet this afternoon at work.
It was in response to being temporarily overwhelmed. I was juggling the Tonic Ball schedule, writing the minutes of a board meeting, setting up interviews for two open positions and working on things that actually are my job.

I took a little break and checked my blog and saw that Granny Annie commented. I clicked on her blog and then clicked on Black Olives On My Fingertips (how could I not?). After my third comment "I have that, I have that, I have that" and just as many comments that I didn't make - "I have a cat holding a guitar-shaped bottle opener too" and "I'd ate my mac and cheese last night out of a red Pyrex dish like the one you just found at a yard sale" - I didn't want to seem too stalker-ish. Anyway, one of Monica's posts mentioned John Travolta and I wrote that I was wearing my John Travolta (Sweathog, not Scientology era) necklace today. Freaky!

Right after that, I conducted an interview and noticed that the candidate kept staring toward my neck and looking away. I dawned on me that she was trying to see my necklace. I confirmed that yes, it was John Travolta and we finished the interview.

I spent the rest of the day wondering why in the Hell I insist on adding a quirky touch to my wardrobe. As you can see from the photograph I wore a perfectly ordinary dress to work. And the perfectly ordinary dress is exactly why I needed the accessory. If you look at the Crabby Club photograph you'll see that my heart shaped necklace is in the shape of an actual heart. Chambers, ventricles and all.

My friend Linda (who owns Marigold, the clothing store I work at occasionally) commented last year that young women are dressing like I did twenty-five years ago. In college I wore cotton print skirts and band tee-shirts with low top Chuck Taylor's. When I worked for Houlihan's the woman managers had to wear suits, stocking and pumps. Uggh, being one of the handful of women GMs in the country was hard on the feet. Off duty I was sporting the skirt look or jeans and Doc Martens.

Managing the independent pizza place screamed for ironic tees and Levi's. Eight years in the coffee house also called for quirky. I was back to the college look of skirts and tee-shirts, some times the same tee-shirts - now twenty-five years old. The beauty of coffeehouse dressing is that you can wear the same thing days in a row and no one ever notices - the customers are still asleep. Many times they were barely dressed - I was always discreetly pointing out a missed button or unzipped zipper to them.

I'm still trying to find my not-for-profit style. I still wear a lot of skirts but pairing them with a Dead Milkmen tee would probably be frowned upon.

Which is why I wind up wearing something that stops an interview.

Should I wear the pin made of marbles or the socks with the monkeys (sorry Kim) tomorrow?

[Tuesday update] I woke up this morning at 7:55; apparently I turned the alarm off at 6:00. I'm supposed to be at work at 8:00. I tossed on a very un-Nora like outfit. A green top with a....I can barely type the word...okay...the blouse has a...um....bow, there I said it, a blouse with a bow and black pants. Monkey socks and black shoes.
So, we can all guess what just happened. I got a call to be on the local music television channel this afternoon. I may have to work a quick trip to H&M in to my travel time. Today would have been a good day for the John Travolta necklace.