Visible Monday: The Morning After

This Gap dress that I thrifted several months ago has hung in my closet waiting for weather that felt right for it.  But when I finally put the look together last Wednesday afternoon, I realized that the waist hit too high.  After I'd snapped the photos of this first iteration, I realized that there wasn't enough color in the look, though I loved the silk scarf which is covered with the wildest mushrooms, the kind that one begins to find if you traipse around in the woods this time of year.  And I had added a timid dab of oudh behind both knees.  It has a scent like the rich smell of earth, just before a rain.

I wasn't very happy with the first iteration of the look--to neutral and my students would think the scarf was fussy.  The second iteration with the red belt on the outside of the jacket was better.  All of a sudden, I was having one of those times when you can't make up your mind and the piles of possibilities grow larger as your time shortens.  The red sandals are Clarke's.  Ultimately I added a pleated J. Jill sweater and a pair of purple suede Mary Jane heels.  All items have been thrifted.

This look was just fine for what was on the agenda that evening.  Students were to have the second draft of a paper on the changing meaning of the word "American" over the various periods of American literature we've been studying--realism, modernism, and post-modernism.  In the first draft, they try to Google their way through this paper and I get a lot of Mom and apple pie type stuff.  Students have to be coaxed to use their writing to discover what they think.

The second half of class included presentations done by the students on Adrienne Rich, Sylvia Plath, Don DeLillo, John Updike, and Tim O'Brien.  Oh, and Raymond Carver, one of my favorite short story writers.

I want to thank all of my guests who attended the rollicking 60 hour pajama party this weekend.  We had guests from all over the planet--the Arctic Circle, and Panama, and the United Kingdom, Australia, Belgium, Denmark, and several American states.   We even had a guy show up.

The food was fabulous, though I'm afraid a couple of us over-indulged in Curtise' gin bottle and Melanie's martinis.  

 

Several sent their regrets--enough to make me wonder if this shouldn't become an annual event at Rags.  Any thoughts?

I am particularly indebted to Patti at Not Dead Yet Style for the hand-holding she did in the planning stages of the pajama party.  I was very very worried that the linking device she uses every Monday for Visible Monday would not work at Rags.  This post is a part of her weekly roundup of bloggers.  Visit us there.