they tell me of a pie up in the sky

dress: thrift -- shirt: thrift -- boots: thrift -- belt: from a vintage skirt



I write to you from a dorm computer since mine is STILL broken! Yikes! I have a lot to catch up on with all of you, so I'll devote this post to that end. It's been a real mixed bag for me in the last couple of weeks, but right now, I think I've finally worked through the bad and I'm just enjoying the good. And the good is so good!



Lots of Levi's love! Here's another outfit...




skirt: thrift -- tank: F21 -- belt: thrift -- jacket: thrift
Shoes are not pictured, but you've seen 'em before. They're those clog-style Target wedges. The jacket is one of two kids' Levi's jackets I have. They're the greatest--perfectly proportioned with nice elbow sleeves and a cropped length. They also have these adorable tags inside that say "Little Levi's." Aww.

At my school, there's a tradition of "fountain hopping" when the weather's nice. It's totally socially acceptable to just go hang out in the fountains. Lots of us wear swimsuits, some of us just roll up our pant legs. Whatever the case, it's always a ton of fun. Since it was 85 degrees out for the last few days (YESSS), we all spent a lot of time outside.


Josh - David - Lauren, some of my dearest friends. This summarizes their relationships with one another and general personalities pretty well.


Me and Josh!


Climbin' the fountain...

My friend Josh is spending some time on campus with us before he leaves for his five week marine biology research expedition. It's been great seeing him since he's been gone all quarter at the marine station down the coast.


This was a really bomb kiwi.


I should learn a cooler party trick, huh?


Josh and I went on a picnic today!


Josh eats chicken with his outraged face on!


Prettiest day and prettiest view!

Okay, and, biggest news... I am interning at ModCloth in San Francisco this summer! I'll be working as a social media marketing writer. There are no words for how excited I am for this. I heard about the possibility of internship openings back in December, and I spent the next four months obsessively checking their careers page. As soon as the listing went up, I submitted a resume, and after a few rounds of interviews, I got the job! I am so, so, so grateful and stoked for this opportunity. What a treat :)

Today's title comes from Jimmy Cliff -- "The Harder They Come," the titular song from the (amazing) soundtrack of the movie of the same name. That was a lot of prepositional phrases.

if i could do just one near-perfect thing i'd be happy

First things first, the winner of the 100 post giveaway is Brinny of Not Without Incident! I found her blog on Chictopia ages ago, and it's one of my favorites. Not only does she have some seriously badass blue hair, she also has a wonderful knack for colorblocking and minimalism. She also has really nice photos. What's not to love, eh?

Goodness me, what a week it's been! Definitely one of my most stressful ever and certainly one of my worst since the start of college. I was just an underslept, underfed, overworked ball of stress. Unfortunately, the more stressed I get, the less likely to do productive things about that stress I become. The good news is that I did everything I needed to to a level of quality I'm happy with.

This weekend, I'm trying to be productive. I'm off to a good start. After sleeping for 12 hours last night, I woke up and got cracking on deep-cleaning my room a bit, something I've been meaning to do for about six weeks now. I've also got big plans to catch up on blogs this weekend, too. Sorry to have kind of fallen off the face of the earth.

So, what was I up to this week? The big thing was doing all kinds of reading, going to class, the usual. Beyond that though, I also had an art show open this week, meaning that I spent 9 hours on Monday installing that plus lots more time as the week went on fine-tuning stuff leading up to the reception. My dear friend and roommate from last year, Lauren, invited me to have a show with her. She's one of the most amazing artists I've ever met, so I was flattered and excited that she even asked. I said "yes," obviously!

Here are some photos from our opening. All of the photos are mine, all of the illustrations and the little clay figures are Lauren's.


Our first artistic collaboration, a poster for "Intro to Huge Manatees" (our school has a required program for freshmen called "Intro to Humanities") that we made on the first night of freshman year. Next to it is a poster that I designed for the show and our artists' statement.
























Lauren and I!

As you can see, my hair isn't really platinum anymore. No matter how much purple shampoo or ManicPanic Virgin Snow toner I use, it won't stay ivory. I used the standard Wella toner and vol. 10 developer when I first did it, but it started to get yellow within a couple of days even though I only wash my hair every 2-3 days. (This sounds way more nasty than it is. I rinse it off daily.) Anyone have any good platinum hints?

If what you see of Lauren's work intrigues you, check out her DeviantArt. I really need to scan all of the work I've done in the last two years, because almost none of it is on the internet. Oops! When I do that, I'll post a link here :)

Today's title comes from Belle & Sebastian -- "If She Wants Me."

please forgive my silence

In the past week, I have...

Written 6,500 words of essays
Printed 7 photographs (each one representing between 1-3 hours of work)
Attended 6 classes
Taught 1 class
Cleaned up after the mess left by cooking dinner for 50 people 2 times
Cleaned 1 bathroom
Read for 3 hours

...so blogging just hasn't been in the mix. But things should be back to normal starting Tuesday or Wednesday

In the interim, here are some collages I threw together of pre-blog outfits or outfits I didn't end up posting. Some of these are as old as the summer before my senior year of high school. Note the awesome bathroom outfit photos.





I suppose it's an opportune moment to mention that I've decided to start growing my hair out! Not to the way it is in those photos, but to about my shoulders. I'm hoping to rock a nice shag, the big girl version this haircut that I had when I was 13. Just maybe actually styled a bit instead of just left to dry and a bit more layered...


Note the iMac in the background.

All right, 17 photos of me is way more than one post needs! I should get myself to bed before I turn into a pumpkin.

Also, an anonymous commenter asked for some hints about where to buy an awesome 80s prom dress. I can't tell you any specific places to look except in the San Jose area, but I see nice ones at Goodwill all the time. And Salvation Army, for that matter. As with all thrifting wants, it'll take a while to find the perfect one, so just be patient and open-minded. I bought my 60s floor length navy chiffon prom gown for $8 after buying a $35 80s one on Etsy that just wasn't working out.

do you wanna make tea at the BBC?

Busting out my corporate executive pose:

blazer: found in my high school's costume closet -- skirt: thrift -- shirt: thrift -- shoes: Pour la Victoire via Loehmann's

Today I got to pretend to be a serious grown up! I had my final presentation in my postmodernism/writing/oral communications/research class, and part of the assignment was to dress nicely. One of my classmates showed up in a tux, just to be tongue-in-cheek. Since it was supposed to be formal, I went out and bought nylons since my skirt is already informally short. These nylons were the closest I was able to get to my natural paleness, but they were a little too tan still. I am absurdly pale.

The paper I presented today is about postmodern notions of authenticity and identity as seen through the case study of thrift and vintage fashions. That's right; I did a serious assignment about thrift style. Remember that survey I posted up here a few weeks ago about thrifting? I used quotes from  you!

My presentation is a solid 11 minutes, but I've uploaded the whole thing to share with you in the (vain?) hope that someone out there will watch it ;) Sorry you can't read the slides... they're all just words anyway.

More than Just Dress-Up: Constructing an Authentic Identity from sophi on Vimeo.

Today's title comes from The Clash -- Career Opportunities. Seemed appropriate given how much today felt like playing academic. And I've got summer internships on the mind. Hmm.

all those things you're supposed to do

 
dress: thrift, altered by me, $3 -- blazer: thrift, $5 -- shoes: BC footwear via Nordstrom Rack, $40

Today, I had that "oh my god, what am I going to do with the rest of my life?!" moment. You'd think that it would have happened before--I'm probably the most long-term-minded person you'll ever meet, but I guess I've always thought it'd come to me in time. Well, more accurately, I tend to believe that I'll do with the rest of my life whatever it is that I find most compelling at that particular moment. When my passion for English class was at its zenith, I just knew I was going to become an English professor. I'd sit around in class daydreaming lesson plans. When I spent all my leisure time baking, cooking, and attending to household tasks, I was pretty sure that just being a homemaker would make me pretty darn happy.

Since I've gotten to college, though, that whole let-yourself-explore mentality has helped me shed some of my need for a grand objective. But come on, really, what do I actually want to do? I'm an Studio Art/American Studies double major who works in the photo lab and teaches sex ed. Until this morning, I've maintained the stance that I don't want to go to grad school except to get an MFA. The reading and writing load really gets to me sometimes. But I'm just not sure that I want to pursue a career in art. I want a career that allows creativity, but I can't envision myself making my living with art. I love teaching, sure, but I'm not sure that I want to be a photography teacher. That sounds good, but so does teaching sexual health. So does working at Planned Parenthood. So does being an editor (proofreading is a hobby of mine). So does managing a photo lab. You get the idea.

So I was sitting in my lecture today, noticing that my American History professor was especially on-it this morning. She's one of a handful of professors I've come to admire and sort of idolize in my time in college thus far. All of them are female, under 45, incredibly eloquent, experts in their fields, and fantastic lecturers. And they're all beautiful and stylish, too! (Not that aesthetic considerations make anyone more or less qualified, of course.) Basking in the academic brilliance, it hit me: I could do this.

I love teaching. I love thinking. As much as I might complain about writing papers, I do enjoy creating them. I'll spend a week with the prompt floating around in my consciousness, toying with possible topics and bouncing ideas off of each other. I love words. I love the ability words give us to share our ideas and explain our experiences. I love how language facilitates knowledge and understanding. I love how language tames and gives order. Language even informs my art, as my video art teacher pointed out--my work is almost always verbally and linguistically informed.

So what do I want to do? I have too many ideas and not enough conclusions. I guess the good news is that I don't have to make that decision for a while.  I also don't think that what I decide I want to do upon graduating at age 21 is hard-and-fast. I'm open to changing my mind.  Even so, I'm terrified of existing without some vague trajectory. Being so open to different careers is probably an asset in today's job market, but I've totally bought into that pesky cultural obsession with having Dreams. I suppose I could just aim to finish undergrad, but that isn't good enough anymore. Hmm...