Here comes the rain again (damn your eyes, Annie Lennox! Damn them!)

I was never a kid or teen who had a whole lot of interest in clothes. Like a lot of my generation and fellow Wisconsinites, sweatshirts and jeans ruled the day. When I did have interest, it was for the trendiest--and therefore retrospectively ugliest--items. Neon yellow moon boots? Check. Neon green stonewashed overall-skirt combo (worn to Bad English/Whitesnake concert)? Check.

I'm trying very, very hard, in my recent interest/obsession with my wardrobe to stick to a lot of colors and styles that will not come back to haunt me in pictures (and thank goodness none exist of me in those neon yellow moon boots). However, I am still loving some of the trends I see at Gwynnie Bee and my favorite stores: peplum, the return of neon in a more balanced, non-stonewashed-at-least-I-won't-acknowledge-that-colored-stonewash-made-a-comeback way.

And I'm planning my outfits before school work, mostly with giddy anticipation.

For example:

I was super excited about this dress, a Dress Barn faux wrap, that I purchased off eBay for $25. It is funky without being aggressive about it, it's flattering, and it gave me a chance to wear my beige/taupe/whatever heels, which is a trend that I think is now accepted as fashion canon (is fashion canon a thing? Should I stop talking in nerdy fandom jargon?).

I was excited about this dress, a Croft and Barrow "spiral wrap," in theory, but when I tried it on after it arrived from the eBay seller ($17.10--so important to note the price, isn't it, because I'm beginning to learn that unless it is a label I can't readily go and find myself in the store, I'm not going to pay more than $20 anymore), I discovered that "spiral wrap" was code for "no waistline at all."

Luckily, I had purchased a Banana Republic leather belt ($13, from the Goodwill in San Francisco, which has some thoroughly cool items for sale in their eBay shop) and was dying to try what I'd learned in my Beginner Belts course with Kristen. I checked in with her on an early AM e-mail, and she informed me--along with a guest judging appearance from her hubby--yes, yes, yes to the belt.

Wednesday was rainy and cold, so I reluctantly switched over to trousers--gosh, I wish you all had been at Plato's Closet the day I stopped by and the be-pierced twentysomething working the counter said, in reply to my query about selling my too-big work pants: "Do you mean...trousers?" And the italicized emphasis made it sound like I was trying to sell him some kind of illicit or embarrassing materials, like drugs or porn--and a cardigan:

Ruffled Ann Taylor cardigan (eBay, $17) with a Loft speckled gray-and-black tank underneath and Nine West pants I bought while thrifting with Kristen and Kate on Saturday. They're just snug enough around the waist to give me that lovely mini-poppyseed muffin you can see under my sweater. My favorite part besides the frilly cardigan was my necklace, which I bought at Hazel, because their Facebook page is eeeeeevil:

Sorry about the glare, y'all; better photo on Hazel FB page (it's evil! EVIL!)

I know that sometimes I can like flowers and whimsy to an alarming too-too-shabby-chic level, but the colors and the shape of this necklace called to me, and I loved it against the gray-black tank.

And then today happened. While I'd been thinking about potential outfits the night before, I also had functional training, which was bananas and kicked my ass all over the place. I woke up this morning to another dreary rainy day and was thus sullen about the first two outfits I tried:

1) A dress I purchased from the Goodwill in Arlington Heights is another one of those funky-but-not-too patterned numbers with the added bonus of a shirtdress collar without the shirtdress shape... but I think I'm still about five pounds away from a flattering fit, because my boobs make the waistline narrowly miss its target. Results: BOOOOOOOOO!

2) A stripey, springy Charter Club wrap skirt, which is also a five-pounds-more item, because the back hits me just high enough that when I sit down, I'm going to give everyone a little Bridget-Jones-going-down-the-firepole show. My bottom, it seems, is also the size of Brazil.

So this is what I committed to today. Take special note of the "Get it over with" smile on my face for the daily nerd pic to Kristen:

I guess the color combo is sort of a metaphor: it's spring, but it's also gray and gloomy here, and the trainer last night decimated me to the point that I would like to unscrew my arms and set them aside like I was Bender Rodriguez.

The top is Limited. Yep, eBay. A triumph, budget-wise, at 99 cents. I don't often buy high collars. Due to my round head and big cans, I stick to open necklines, mostly v-necks (Dave Rose of Happy Endings and I have that, and only that, in common). But I'm trying new things! I liked the color! It's mostly cute, but for the fact that I could have held in my poppyseed mini-muffin a little!

(I'm sure my dad will read this whole clothing section and say, "What the hell? Was that even English?" And the answer is: no, it wasn't English at all.)

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It was a somewhat discouraging experience at functional training last night. I seemed to be the oldest person attending class by at least ten years, if not fifteen, and I seem completely incapable of doing any ab exercises for more than 10 seconds without wanting to crawl out the door. I could only seem to focus on what I couldn't do, or how slow I was, when normally I would be excited I was doing it at all. My body is tired and aching today, which suggests I did something, but I couldn't tell you what that was, other than fail and be chunky and flabby.

I'm trying to give myself a little room to be chunky and flabby, along with crabby and sulky (ChunkyFlabby CrabbySulky is the title of my dance album, dropping summer 2014). I've been so upbeat and Richard Simmonsy that I was bound to have an off day mentally/emotionally. I'm trying to avoid what my dad calls "a pity bag," where I crawl into what I picture to be a sleeping bag full of cartoon thunderclouds with frowny faces where I stew in my own pouty juices. Probably good if I take my day of rest today and run tomorrow so that I don't drive myself further into a snit. I had to take a walking break of 2 minutes or so during my first 30 min run and that cheesed me off; I'm afraid tonight I would just get off the treadmill if I felt the need to walk.

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Not included in bio: him butt stink.

Kate met Tux this weekend, and for a dedicated dog person, she went pretty nuts. If I could pick the perfect home for him, I would pick the next person who walked into PAWS and said, "This is my first pet, and I grew up with dogs." His love of running and chasing reminds me more of a dog than a kitten. Tux is definitely less mysterious and a-holish, than, say, Plum or Trumper.

(No one is less mysterious than E. Edward.)

Tux will go back on Saturday, April 20th, so if you know anyone looking for a goofy, high-energy, lovey dog-cat, you might want to send her/him the hyperlink above. Please name it something other than "him butt stink." PAWS thanks you for that.