The Freckled Diaries

Welcome!

I've been getting lots of visits to this site and my YouTube video ever since Trish and Dottie from Let's Go Ride A Bike so graciously did a post about me and my bikes. So, welcome!  I don't do nearly as good a job around here as they do over there, sorry. I'm lazy with remembering to post, frequently skip posting pictures, and I don't cover cycling exclusively--just a little journal/ranting space that some people might find interesting. Oh, and for a librarian, the state of the organization and uniform application of my tags is an absolute joke. An embarrassing joke.

But all disclaimers aside, welcome!

Today, actually, I have some interesting bike news to share, so it would seem that the timing worked out pretty well.  Today, I did my bike commute for the first time in an embarrassing seven weeks. As you may or may not have seen in my recent comments at LGRAB, I wimped out in the first or second week of December after one very, very cold and uncomfortable ride home one evening (and a sick day the next day). I put a lot of cold weather "gear" (more on that later) on my Christmas wish list, and figured I'd start back up in the new year. Then the new year came along with near record low temperatures and very high winds, making the wind chill something frightening. I have said it before and I'll say it again, I have no idea how Dottie manages. I was half frozen just cycling around town--I can't imagine an hour-ish commute in 10 degrees with wind! Eventually, the weather went back to normal but I was being a bit lazy in my Metro routine but finally, today I got my act together and rode in to work.

I also finally got to give my new stuff a proper try--I've been using it all here and there, but never as how I'd intended it to be used (ie--the commute).

First--my helmet:

 

It's a Bern Berkley helmet, with a liner/ear flaps for warmth. It also has a little place to plug in an iPod, and speakers in the ear flaps. I've had this helmet for at least a month but because I don't like the idea of riding on the streets with music going and planned on the iPod feature to be an "trail only" thing,  I hadn't had the chance to try out the speakers. Until today. It's awesome! I suppose it's the same feeling as headphones, which I never used on the trail before. It really makes the trip even more fun than it already is. And because the trail was nearly abandoned this evening, and I'm kind of silly, I was singing right along with my music (and I'm pretty sure no one heard me).

Next: my coat.

 

It's Eddie Bauer's Insulated Girl on the Go Trench. It's some waterproof breathable material with a removable down liner (that's the insulated part). If I hadn't really wanted something for waterproofing AND warmth, I'd have gone with the Belted Girl on the Go Trench because I like the shape of it better, and it's longer and would maybe mean I wouldn't have to use the "mountain guide" waterproof pants I also got (more on those when I use them--only for rainy commute days though). This thing, plus the Under Armor I'll talk about in a minute, and an old Brooks Brothers cable knit pink wool sweater kept me nice and toasty the whole way (a little TOO toasty by the end).

Under Armor

 

My top is like day-glow lime green though. These things are amazing. Like wearing little toasters. I've never been a super-athletic person (and the closest I ever was to being super-athletic, I was a swimmer), so all of this "runners gear" stuff just never seemed to apply to me. But I'm a total convert, it's amazing. I was even sleeping with this stuff under my nightgown during that terrible cold snap I mentioned earlier.

On top of the Under Armor, I had regular yoga pants and the wool sweater I mentioned. Two pairs of SmartWool socks, sneakers, some North Face fleece type gloves under an old pair of leather gloves (all stretched out). Then, the coat I showed you and my helmet. Total success, except for the feet which were very very cold but not frozen or frostbitten or anything. I think I need to rethink the sneakers. The rest of me felt totally fine, even pretty overheated at times. Not bad for the mid/high 30s. I will need to find a better foot solution, and I know that if I give the 20s a whirl again, I will need something better for my hands. As it is now, I'm back in the winter commuting game!

Alive and Well

Just checking in here. I tend to abandon the blog when I'm busy with things that I don't want to (or cannot) procrastinate from.  Basically, work started up again, which is good because I was kind of climbing the walls there for a bit. It's slightly odd, though, because while I work for a Joint Committee ("Joint" referring to both the House and the Senate) and my "real" office is physically located on the Senate side and because the office I work out of 90% of the time is the Senate Library and has nothing whatsoever to do with the House, all Joint Committees must choose a chamber through which to process its paperwork. My Committee chose the House, so in all technicality, I am a House employee (even though I've been over on that side of the Hill maybe 4 times in the past 6 months).

Our Committee's polices dictate that we wear full business attire whenever the House is in session (and my own boss prefers business attire at all times, but that's another issue). Committee staff tends to dress up more than Member/Senator office staff and non-office staff (like the library, etc). The House has been in session, the Senate has not. And again, I am physically located on the Senate side, and it's about eleventy billion degrees below zero outside these days. End result? I'm pretty sure I'm the only person in the entire US Senate wearing a dress and nylons. Most people are running around in jeans (dressed up jeans, but jeans nonetheless) or are otherwise in "weekend" type clothing, which is very weather appropriate.  I get odd looks in the lunch line. But rules are rules and truth be told, even if work-casual type clothing were allowed (slash not frowned upon) I wouldn't have a thing to wear anyway. I've got two speeds these days--"to the nines" and "baggy, possibly with holes".

This brings me to today's outfit. 

Sorry for the poor picture quality--it was the best I could do. Closet mirrors don't make the best setups (particularly not when said closets are in extremely messy bedrooms-come-bike-garages). Anyway...

This was my first day wearing this dress which I love for a few reasons: it's pretty warm, it's pretty stylish, it makes me feel as if I should be employed at a newspaper sometime in the 1940s (one of these days, I have to get into how I'm pretty sure that on a subconscious level, I have modeled my life after Lois Lane's...it's un-freaking-canny). Also, it earned me about 30 compliments today (one from a particular young man who, well, it's nice to get compliments from if you're me :) ).

The major reason I love this dress, however, is that I bought it when I first moved to DC, in or about July 2004. The idea was that this would make a nice interview outfit, and I had images of myself toiling away into the wee hours of the morning for some important Senator, in my first incarnation of Capitol Hill career ambition. Two issues: it was too small, and was therefore an "incentive" outfit and, I did not have a job on the Hill at the time and wound up having very serious problems getting one. I eventually wound up moving in the exact opposite direction of the "incentive" to fit into this dress, and after years of hard work and heartbreak, gave up on the idea of ever working on Capitol Hill.

Today, after a few more years of hard work (physically and professionally), I wore my dress, toiling away in the US Senate. I didn't even realize the relative significance of this until late this evening. It's just something that happened. And the irony of ALL of this is that I became a librarian SPECIFICALLY because I had given up the idea of a Capitol Hill career. This was the next phase, a new leaf, "Plan B", however you want to think of it. The job with the Senate Library pretty much landed in my lap, it was almost a total fluke. I had absolutely no intention of being a Capitol Hill librarian--I actually wanted to work (if I'd had my pick) in an academic library's rare book room. Anyway, now I'm working on Year 2 in the Senate. Also, I broke out this dress not because I finally had the job and the dress size to match my mental picture--I broke it out because it's warm and it fit....something that can be said about maybe four articles of clothing currently in my closet. The image that ambitious but pretty lost 23-year-old just happened...by accident. 

Tomorrow, I think I'm going to go do something that my 19-year-old self promised myself I'd do when I'd "made it" on the Hill. Go get my shoes shined. It's another little oddity in my bizarre obsession with a Capitol Hill career--there's a shoe shine station in one of the tunnels on the House side that, as a winter break intern in 2000/2001, my very first of what would turn out to be many work experiences on the Hill (during the Clinton/Bush changeover time), I looked at as...I don't know. I wasn't impressed with it because shoe shine stations are all over the place. But I guess I just pictured various members of the Washington political elite stopping for a quick shoe shine on their way to or from important meetings or something. I don't know. I just remember liking it, and telling myself that once I'd made it, I'd go get a shoe shine. 

I don't feel like a member of the Washington political elite and I'm not. I may be just about the farthest thing from it and I no longer (and haven't for years) strive to be among them. But somehow still, I feel like I've made it. And my shoes are pretty scuffed up :).

And Now For Our Favorite Game...

"Pretty or Ugly"?

I'm not sure how many people have followed me from GreatestJournal yet (my guess: not many) but it is officially spring so we're going to have a springtime edition of Pretty or Ugly.  I bought many new dresses last spring so I probably won't be adding to my wardrobe this year, but it's still fun to look at the fabulous (or horrific) options in Women's Apparel ("full figured" or "plus size" as many know it). 

For this installment, I'm concentrating only on daywear, with a focus on dresses which could be worn in a non-business wear work environment (with the addition of a cardigan or similar).

This was actually really hard this year.  The higher-end stores and designers have actually noticed that Women's is an underserved market in the fashion industry and over the past several years have really been putting out good to high quality clothes for the market--much of it quite "in fashion".  Either I'm getting nicer, or there really wasn't much to snark at!

(1)  I actually rather like this dress.  I'm not sure how it would look on a larger figure (although I do have my suspicions...) but it is really a sweet and normal looking springy dress.  If you don't understand the "normal looking", this is probably your first visit to "Pretty or Ugly".  You'll see. ("Context", Lord & Taylor, $168)

 

 

 

 

(2)This one is a tougher call.  It is most certainly Not For Me but I can't decide if it's hideous or kind of off-the-wall cute.  I'm leaning to cute, but I can't imagine where one would wear it.

("Kate Hill", Lord & Taylor, $168)

 

(3)  Possibly a better alternative to the first yellow sundress, though I do know from experience that this designer has serious quality control issues.  Everything looks great from afar or on models or mannequins but up close or once you try them on it can be a real mess.  Cheap fabric that looks terrible up close, really poor workmanship and worst of all, no attention to proportion at all.  Type of designer who makes dresses in all sizes but doesn't adjust the size of armholes, or lengths of skirts or something.  It can be bad.

 

("Robbie Bee", Nordstrom, $88)

 

 

(4) Same designer as above, so same potential issues.  Basically the same dress but done differently.  Now, beyond my issues with the designer's questionable quality I really can't make my mind up about this one.  Black and white and turquoise is very nice but that print!  It kind of looks like a barcode or something.  Maybe if it was a floral black and white....or are the blocks nice?  I'm really on the fence.

("Robbie Bee", Nordstrom, $98)

 

 

 

 

 

(5) Another one that could go either way.... I'm all for girlie, trust me.  But the ruffles and flouncy cap sleeves.....that might be a bit much.  Plus, beige?  Why beige?  I suppose such a ruffly thing would need to be in a muted color.  I just don't know about this one...

("Suzy Chin", Nordstrom, $158)

 

(6)Now, I really love this one.  I'm not sure I could wear it (it's very bold for me and again the cut is questionable for my figure) but I think that this is among the nicest I've seen, in terms of the quality and how "in fashion" it is.  I can't really say much bad about it.

("Maggy London", Nordstrom, $128)

(7) This one is probably my favorite which is kind of weird because I'm not crazy about bold colors and prints (as was my problem with the one above).  Wouldn't you know, it's also the most expensive by a long shot. Imagine that. I'm a big fan of the Empire waist and while V-necks are still new territory for me (too much cleavage and I'm still convinced that they make your shoulders look wider), I know logically that they are quite flattering.  I like how it kind of reminds me of cherry blossoms (somehow) and the colors, while bold, are very nice especially for my coloring. A+ dress! ("Rachel Pally", Nordstrom, $234)

That's it for now!  That's all that caught my eye this early spring season.  There will be more, and likely more snark at a later date!