To sleep, perchance to dream

Une femme has been sleeping erratically the past few weeks. It's probably a combination of hormones and warm weather, but I seem to wake up warm and restless between 1 and 2am and it takes an hour or so to get back to sleep again.

Usually I don't remember my dreams, but had a very real and vivid one last night. I dreamt I dropped over $4K at Louis Vuitton. And I don't even really like LV bags that much. I woke up to one of those "whew, it was only a dream!" moments. But the residual guilt from my dream lingers, which often happens when I behave badly in my dreams. Here in LA, you can't spit in any direction without hitting a Speedy. Style books will tell you it's one of the "classic, "iconic," "must-have" bags in every woman's collection, and it seems a lot of women agree. It was one of the first designer bags that I purchased (based on that premise) and one of the first that I sold, mainly because it was so ubiquitous but also because it really wasn't practical for me. I'll also admit this was a nostalgia buy: when I was a young, poor working woman in New York, I used to see the (I assumed) successful career women with their LV monogram bags, and so that association stayed with me. But ultimately, what I admired in the past didn't translate into the present.

~

Don't Panic...

...if chez femme suddenly looks quite different. I've been redecorating again.

Meme: Brand Soup

Shefaly tagged me last week for her meme, "The branded life." She did a very sequential, chronological accounting. Mine is more of a brand collage, grouped very loosely by product type, and (mostly) accounting for a typical work day. Now, if I can just figure out how to load into Blogger the images I spend two hours copy/pasting into a Word document, I'll be happy to share it with you. Any suggestions are welcome.

Edited to add: got it, finally.

Coming Attractions

This week all of my Word Mojo™ has been directed toward composing eloquent and motivational staff performance reviews, but I'll be back up to speed next week.

Shefaly at La Vie Quotidienne has tagged me again for a meme. This one requires taking some notes, so I'll be working on it over the weekend.

I've also been playing with some powder foundations and will be reporting my results.

Have a lovely weekend! If you're planning to hit the Gigaplex to see Sex And The City, please don't get trampled by crazed Manolo-clad fans all hopped up on fashion and Cosmos.

Six and the City

(Title and pic in honor of my upcoming trip to NY next week)

It's a meme-tastic week here chez femme!

Tagged this time by Always In Style. Theme is Six Unremarkable Quirks.

So here are mine:

1. I'm a map freak. I'm fascinated by maps and can look at them for hours. This also makes me an excellent navigator.

2. I can't sleep in a room with strong food or animal smells.

3. I hate coconut. The texture makes me gag.

4. As a young child, I used to pull all the fur off my stuffed animals, as sort of a nervous reflex. My son does the same thing.

5. I never go anywhere without hand lotion and lip balm.

6. I can't stand cold air blowing on me, no matter how warm it is otherwise.

If you are listed on my blogroll and have not been tagged the for the last two memes, consider yourself tagged!

Meme: More Factoids About Moi

Tagged by Shefaly at La Vie Quotidienne:

1. Last movie you saw in a theater?
"Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day"

2. What book are you reading?

The Good Husband of Zebra Drive by Alexander McCall Smith, also just started Père Goriot by Honoré de Balzac.

3. Favorite board game?
Backgammon

4. Favorite magazine?
The New Yorker.

5. Favorite smells?

Coffee, Rose, Lavender, Sandalwood, Amber, leather, alfalfa hay, manure-and-pine-shavings, redwood trees, wet pavement after a rain.

6. Favorite sounds?
Horses munching hay in a barn, red-winged blackbird calls, drumming, music (all kinds).

7. Worst feeling in the world?
Nausea

8. What is the first thing you think of when you wake up?
Coffee.

9. Favorite fast food place?
Taco Bell

10. Future child’s name?
None, I'm done procreating.

11. Finish this statement. “If I had lot of money I’d….?
Buy a horse.

12. Do you sleep with a stuffed animal?
No.

13. Storms - cool or scary?
Cool, until you see the funnel cloud.

14. Favorite drink?
Did you actually think I'd say something other than coffee? ;-)

15. Finish this statement, “If I had the time I would….”?
Travel and read more books.

16. Do you eat the stems on broccoli?
If cooked, yes. If raw, no.

17. If you could dye your hair any color, what would be your choice?

The same color as currently, red.

18. Name all the different cities/towns you’ve lived in?
Palo Alto, Los Altos, Dayton, OH, San Luis Obispo, San Jose (Costa Rica), Princeton, NJ, Woodside, Sunnyvale, Arroyo Grande (means Big Ditch in Spanish!), Los Angeles, Culver City

19. Favorite sports to watch?
Equestrian events, American football

20. One nice thing about the person who sent this to you?
She is quite intelligent.

21. What’s under your bed?
Storage boxes with our ski clothes.

22. Would you like to be born as yourself again?
Yes. But with better hair.

23. Morning person, or night owl?
Morning person.

24. Over easy, or sunny side up?
Over easy.

25. Favorite place to relax?
Outdoors on a patio overlooking a lake.

26. Favorite pie?
Key Lime.

27. Favorite ice cream flavor?
Moose Tracks.

28. Of all the people you tagged this to, who’s most likely to respond first?
Probably materfamilias.

Tagging materfamilias, La Bellette Rouge and Thomas at The Sunday Best.

Weekend Update

I've been tagged by La Vie Quotienne and Always In Style for memes, and I will get to those shortly, I promise.

Of the jackets I perused for spring/summer and an upcoming business trip, this one was the winner:

The Ann Taylor jacket is nice too, but it has a lot of silvery threads running through it so it's more of a standout piece.

A couple of commenters in the Poaching thread mentioned adding vinegar to the water. I was certain there was probably a reason for this, and so tried it. It makes the egg white cook up more solidly and cohesively, so I've now replaced the salt with vinegar in my egg poaching process.

Six Random Things

Linda Grant at The Thoughtful Dresser has tagged me for a meme, Six Random Things. In no particular order:


1. I'm a fifth-generation Californian. My dad's ancestors were Scottish and Welsh miners who came during the gold rush of 1849-50.


2. When I was 18, I broke my pinky finger on my left hand by smacking into a concrete wall during a charity fundraiser roller skating marathon. I didn't realize it was broken, skated for another 6 hours afterward and never had it set, and now it's permanently crooked.


3. I don't like sweet drinks, the solitary exception being root beer.


4. I'm terrible with remembering names of people I've just met. But if they tell me their birthday, I can remember that hours later.


5. I have no known allergies.


6. My first car was a '67 Mustang.

Tagging: Duchesse, Belle de Ville, Meg, Ashe Michief, Nancy, and Miss Janey.

Les Cheveux

Jury duty update: Seated as Juror #9 yesterday, I was flicked by the Prosecution today during one of their preemptory challenges. And I'm certain my answer in the affirmative when asked if I thought some drugs should be legalized had nothing whatsoever to do with it. "The truth shall set you free" indeed.

I'm almost as mental about my hair as I am about my weight. I don't have Good Hair. I have baby fine, thin, straight hair that grows about 1 inch per year. When I was young, of all the fairy tale heroines, the one I most wanted to be was Rapunzel. I yearned for long hair that I could wear in two braids, Indian style.

(With 20/20 hindsight, I'm glad I didn't look like a brunette version of this in all of our family snapshots!)

But my mother wanted no part of dealing with tangles and snarls and claimed that my hair would look "stringy" if long. So my sister and I had short, short hair throughout our childhoods, which I still blame for never being chosen to be in school plays. Between the ages of 14 and 30, I've grown my hair out to shoulder length or a little longer probably half a dozen times. And in recent years, have gone through growing the layers out until it gets to about chin length. Yet I always end up cutting it short again. My mother was right: it does look stringy.

But it's not just that. I feel more like...me with a short, layered cut. It could be it's just what I'm more accustomed to, but I don't think it's just that. There's something very liberating about short hair, and not just the 20-seconds-blow-dry-and-you're-done aspect. Short hair feels more free than my long hippie tresses ever did. Short hair on a woman is a thumbed nose to conventional beauty, an unfettered ride in a red convertible.

And I've just gone quite short again. Jean Seberg in "À bout de souffle" short. (Except red.)

Jury Duty

Une femme has been called to serve. With any luck, this will be a one-day deal. Yes, I know a trial by one's peers is the cornerstone of justice blah blah, but if you get empanelled, voir dire can take days, is mind-numbingly boring, and they always end up flicking me anyway.

What I've Figured Out So Far

A few days ago Shefaly at La Vie Quotidienne tagged me for a meme, Lessons in Hindsight. If I were to go back and give my 20-year-old self some advice, this would be it:

1. Very few decisions are irreversable or at least unalterable. Those choices that seem like life-and-death in your 20's (which college to attend, which job to take, which shoes to wear on a first date) will not determine the outcome of your entire life. Relax, go with what makes sense at the time, and change course as necessary. While decisions do have consequences, your entire life is not cast in stone at 18, 21 or 35. Learn from mistakes and choose better next time.

2. A sense of humor will help get you through just about anything. Some of what happens in life is out of our control; the only thing we can control is how we respond to it. Humor can be a back door to finding strength and courage, and help keep the "poor-pitiful-me's" in check.

3. You're always committed to something, whether you're aware of it or not. Examine your surroundings and relationships for a good indicator as to what you've been committed to. The trick to living an effective and satisfying life is to choose your committments consciously.

4. You can't fuck someone into loving you.

5. Life is too short to fill it with people, activities, or possessions that you don't enjoy. While there will always be some obligations you absolutely cannot wiggle out of, if the "shoulds" are running your life it's time to step back and remind yourself that you do have a choice.

6. In many endeavors, the secrect to success is often just to outlast the bastards. Perserverance is an underrated virtue. Put your head down, do your work, do your best to stay out of the office politics.

7. For greater peace of mind, don't take it personally. The grouchy taxi driver, the boss who doesn't have time to read your report right now, the roommate who says she needs to study instead of going out for a beer, the boyfriend who stays up all night rebuilding a carburetor...in all likelihood it's not because of something you said or did. Most people are caught up in their own Stuff, and if the sales clerk is less than helpful it's probably because she's upset over a fight with her boyfriend or is hung over, and not because she thinks you're a disgusting slug because you didn't wash your hair that morning.

8. Make kindness a way of life. Nothing else costs so little and yields so much. While some people may seem to bring their misfortunes on themselves, keep a healthy dose of "there-but-for-the-grace-of-God-go-I" in mind.

9. What you put out into the universe will come back to you. Positive people tend to attract other positive people. Gratitude will bring you more to be grateful for.

10. My Goldilocks Philosophy: luxury isn't about having more/bigger/more expensive, it's about having what's Just Right.

I'm tagging Maya's Granny, materfamilias, and La Bellette Rouge (once the adrenaline from her Whirlwind Weasel tour of NY wears off) if they wish to participate. Anyone else who would like to run with the meme, go for it and leave a link in the comments!

Chez moi

I've been home since Friday afternoon, and enjoying (almost) every minute. No more technicolor dreams (and extreme nausea) brought on by pain meds, no more "coffee" that tastes like something wrung out of a dirty dishcloth, my own bed and best of all my family and pups nearby.

I'm getting aroung on one crutch, and experiencing negligible levels of pain (0-2 in nurse parlance). Still having to spend more time in bed than I'd prefer, but I'm trying to be a good patient and not overdo. Thanks again to everyone for your good wishes.

Am hoping to resume somewhat normal posting by early next week with more musings on shoes, "Cruise" and more.

Eight Random Things

Just meme-ing around!

materfamilias tagged me for this meme sometime around the last new moon, and I've finally dug up eight things that might be of interest to someone other than my mother or my chiropractor.

Here are the guidelines:

Link back to whomever tagged you.
Post these guidelines before your list.
After you list your eight things, tag eight (of however many you want) other bloggers.


So here goes:

1. I have an almost encyclopedic memory for song lyrics, and have ever since I was a child. Even though I can't carry a tune to save my life, in grade school I was always welcome in the choir, because by the time we hit the 7th verse of "My Darling Clementine" (or whatever quasi-historical/patriotic/seasonal songs we were performing) I was the only one who could remember the lyrics and keep the rest of the group going.

2. I can still remember the botanical names of a few score of plants and trees, thanks to being required to memorize and identify them from a few leaves or a flower in college botany classes. In fact, I am a veritable font of all kinds of useless nickel knowledge, definitely an asset for Trivial Pursuit.

3. I used to make Renaissance and other costumes. Once I made a frog costume for the owner of a car wash for their mascot.

4. I once hung out with The Talking Heads for an evening.

5. I can't read or hear the word "heinous" without hearing it in Bill's (or was it Ted's) voice. Consequently, I tend to giggle every time at the opening tag of Law & Order SVU.

6. I'm extremely claustrophobic. The one and only time I tried going on the submarine ride at Disneyland, I started hyperventilating before they even got underway and had to get off the ride. I also can't ride in the back seat of two-door cars.

7. I prefer Picard to Kirk.

8. I don't own an i-pod or an MP3 player, still listen to music on CD's.

I'm tagging:
Individual Chic , La Vie Quotidienne, The Sunday Best, HATtastic. But only if you feel like it. If you weren't tagged but have a blog and want to carry on the meme, feel free!

This Blogging Life

At some point yesterday, this blog hit its 10,000th visitor (at least since I've been monitoring). I know in the Big Ol' Blogosphere that isn't much, but it's 9,998 more views than I ever imagined I'd get.

I support the concept of Blogging Without Obligation (h/t to materfamilias) but the discipline of trying to write a little bit each day, even if I don't post daily, has been a good exercise for me. Right now, I have so much I want to write about, and far less time to spend on it than I'd like, thanks to those silly things like job and family.

But I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who reads my random scribblings, and especially those who comment or e-mail me. I like to think of blogging less as a monologue and more as a conversation with fascinating and intelligent people all over the world, sort of like a big cyber cocktail party. And I'd especially like to thank all of the bloggers out there who entertain and inspire me daily.

Diamonds Really Can Be a Girl's Best Friend

Victorian bracelet from BELADORA.com.

One of my readers has asked me to pass this along:

Our Estate Jewelry Website will be donating 2% of our online sales over the Holiday Season to the Lynne Cohen Foundation which funds groundbreaking research to support the survival rates for women with ovarian cancer. This cause is very important because the survival rates for ovarian cancer are shockingly low. We would like to increase public awareness of this and hopefully do for ovarian cancer what the Susan B. Komen Foundation has done for breast cancer. Please help us by telling your readers about BELADORA.COM and the LynneCohenFoundation.org.

I've never purchased anything from Beladora, but I perused the website yesterday and they have some really gorgeous and unique pieces. I love jewelry with history. If you're looking for something sparkly and special, please do go check them out.

Phone-it-in Friday

Well, nothing funky enough for Funky Friday has presented itself this week. I'm working on a few longer posts about all of our favorite girly stuff (Shoes! Bags! Parfum!) that should be finished in the next few days.

In the meantime, in homage to The Manolo, here's what une femme is:

Listening to. This is just phenomenal work, great collaborations.

Reading. Fun!

Listening to. Une femme has been a fan of Creedence Clearwater and Fogerty since back in the day, and am happy to see him back out there with some new material.

It's Too Darn Hot!

It's too darn hot!

It's too darn hot!

I'd like to sup with my baby tonight,

Refill the cup with my baby tonight.

I'd like to sup with my baby tonight,

Refill the cup with my baby tonight,

But I ain't up to my baby tonight

'Cause it's too darn hot

It's too darn hot!

It's too darn hot!

I'd like to coo with my baby tonight,

And pitch the woo with my baby tonight.

I'd like to coo with my baby tonight,

And pitch the woo with my baby tonight.

But brother you fight my baby tonight

'Cause it's too darn hot

According to the Kinsey Report

Ev'ry average man you know

Much prefers his love-y dove-y to court

When the temperature is low,

But when the thermometer goes 'way up

And the weather is sizzling hot,

Mister pants for romance is not

'Cause it's too, too,

Too darn hot!

It's too darn hot!

It's too, too darn hot!

It's even too hot to go shopping, and that's saying something!

Waiting in Vain for Autumn

A sight you'll never see around here.

Autumn has always been my favorite season. My nerdhood status as a child was not helped by the fact that I was the only kid in my neighborhood who by mid-July was chomping at the bit to get back to school. Each new school year was like a new start: new books, new teachers, new subjects, new lunchbox, new cute boys in the class, and yes, new clothes. My mother would often start schlepping us around to buy new school clothes around the second week of summer vacation. I hated the shopping process; it was hot outside, all your friends were spending their days riding bikes and coloring the walls of tree forts with bay berry juice, and who loves to hear over and over how x makes you look fat, or you can't wear y because you're fat, or z hikes up over your butt? But I did enjoy having some new clothes to wear each year. Autumn, much more than New Years, has always felt like the time of new beginnings for me.


Between the sales and the "pre-fall" collections, I still purchase the majority of my clothes this time of year (except for this last winter/spring when I went apesh!t at Forth & Towne before they closed down). Pre-fall clothes are my favorite because a) living in Southern California, these are the items I can wear for 3/4 of the year and b) they most often are the colors that work for me. I'm trying to simplify and re-build my work wardrobe around neutrals, and I'm thrilled that grey is so big this season; it's an easy color for me to wear and looks great when paired with either earth tones (grey and rust is a stunning combo) or with bright accessories.


But Southern California is not the place to live if one's favorite season is Autumn. When most of the rest the country is pulling out those lovely fall sweaters and jackets, and taking walks on crisp mornings past the trees resplendent with colorful foliage, we're sneezing through Santa Ana's (hot winds that blow west off the deserts), stepping outside into 95+ degree temperatures, and choking on smoke from inevitable wildfires. While it's a dry heat, yes, it certainly isn't what October is supposed to be. The weather here doesn't start getting cool enough for sweaters until almost mid-November or even December, but then it will often stay sweater-cool well into June. It doesn't get cool enough, though, to provoke the leaves to turn bright colors, so with a few exceptions they usually just turn brownish-grey and drop off.

Here's a SoCal Autumn Kvetch haiku I wrote a few years back:

gorgeous fall sweaters
in shop windows mocking me
can't wear for months yet

I'll admit, we don't have five foot snowdrifts in the winter or ice storms or lots of muddy slush in the spring, so there are payoffs. But I still miss living where there are actual seasons, especially in the coming months.

Welcome, and A Disclaimer

Welcome, all you femmes of a certain age. I started this blog to have a place to express my more frivolous side, the side that loves clothing and obessesses over handbags and just the right color of lipstick. The side that is still trying to find my own style. The side that wants to make the most of the rest of my life, and feel bien dans sa peau ("good in one's own skin"). The side that enjoys good food and good wine and good company, the side the comes out to play.

I consider myself a feminist, and have (at least for the time being) reconciled these sides of myself. If you're searching for serious content, you'll probably be disappointed. Don't bother to express your dismay that I'm not writing about the plight of women under Sharia law or the FUBAR situation in Iraq or the mess the spoiled children have made in Washington or global warming. There are many, many people out there doing a far better job covering those topics that I could ever hope to, and I've linked to several of them. I'm hoping that at some point I'll have enough of a readership to share thoughts and ideas (e.g. someone other than myself) so feel free to drop a comment in the box!