Supporting the World I Want To Live in, or Justifying Spending Money, OR, See Title Of This Blog.

A few weeks ago, I had a Moment.

We all get these, I think. Moments at which we are suddenly driven with a desire to change our worlds. To make things better. To fix X problem in our lives which, although not life threatening, is one of those little daily annoyances that make us want to curse at business meetings. (Or maybe that's just me.)

Some people may have them about BIG things. I'm not ashamed to say that mine usually involve clothes.

Okay, I think they ALWAYS involve clothes. I don't know why. I don't think of myself as much of a clothes horse, although I do like to make a statement with my outfit, when I can; I think partially due to the conservative work environment I'm forced to live in five days a week. (See title of this blog.)

And it's not just clothes--I also have an obsession with GEAR. (Would I include shoes here? or in clothes, above? No matter.) I want things that work, simply, and don't do anything I don't need them to do, and do EXACTLY what I WANT them to do, all the time, with no backtalk.

(Man, the backtalk my new phone gives me, sometimes, will just blow your mind.)

And I've lived in Capitol Hill for five years. I'm not exactly surrounded by jeans-wearing engineers in my off hours. (My mother: "Every time I come to see you here, I think to myself, 'There must be a costume party happening somewhere,' and then I realize, no, that's just the way they dress all the time.")

(You should see the Hill on Halloween!)

Anyway, yes. My ideas regarding clothes. They came to a head a few weeks ago, and, while inspired through rage, I sent the following email to a young entrepreneur that I know:

"Hey there. While you're changing the world, can you also give me the following?

1. Hooks on strapless dresses that attach to the supporting bustier. Obviously, the hooks (on both garments) will need to be standard widths apart, so that all garments work together.

2. Pants that have hems that can be risen or lowered, depending on heel length, so that a woman isn't forced to choose, roll up hems (never works), or buy two pairs of the same damn pants.

3. Some sort of neoprene-with-support bustier? Probably not neoprene, but something like it. I love my traditional corsets, but there is a material out there SOMEWHERE that will lift, support, and be somewhat flexible. Somewhere. (Out there.)

4. Shoes with retractable heels would be great, too. God, I wish women designed more things.

5. And finally, some kind of small bag item that carries a few things, that is wearable, and not nerdy. In a really perfect world, I'd own this:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/49864328/ms-money-penny

But something much simpler would be fine, too. Sigh.

6. While we're talking about bags, I also want a larger bag that is convertible from backpack to messenger to cross-body to cross-back. I wouldn't need to own so many things if I could make them do what I wanted them to do.

Got it? Good. I'm glad we had this conversation. :)

--Aarwenn"

(Yeah, perhaps that last sentence is a bit snotty. He thinks I'm cute, I can get away with it.)

I was just rambling, you know? Having a Moment. Not really expecting anything. Because he is an entrepreneur and a dreamer, what does the workaholic do but GET BACK TO ME WITH FIXES.

*Coming Monday!*

Have now officially survived all six weddings I was supposed to attend this summer. Close call.

I don't think I've slept in four days. Maybe more. But I'm surviving, and that's what counts. Yes?

I Shake My Bumbershoot In Your General Direction

Hello! How was your Labor Day weekend? Good? Excellent. Did you go to Bumbershoot? I did not, in spite of invitations, and I hear it was great. But one can't be everywhere, and instead I spent a lot of time with people that I really dig, and also I redecorated my kitchen, almost got thrown out of a bar, (related: survived a bachelorette party) and put a blonde to work washing my dishes. I opened my house up to guests, and also, spent quite some time away from it. I got my bridesmaid's dress tailored! I went to West Seattle twice! I went to a LOT of restaurants and brought home pounds of leftovers! I found TWO new good hip hop places! (God, I miss dancing.) I had two very serious and productive relationship talks! Did I mention I redecorated my kitchen? Like, for real? No pictures, sorry. I didn't want to stop and take the time to take "before" pictures, and without the "before", the "after" won't have quite as much affect. I still may take some, though.

Now that I have redecorated my kitchen so that it is, in fact, usable, and even attractive, my next project is to inventory everything in my fridge and cabinets. Yes, everything. Since this fridge isn't yet within my budget (or lifestyle), I'm trying to simulate it with cunning. And hacks.

Speaking of, has everyone seen this? This is what I see when I close my eyes. Every. Day. This is the future, and it is SO CLOSE. This is going to happen. It's already happening, somewhere else in the multiverse, and this one is going to jump there, if all of us keep pushing to change this world.

Sometimes Life Just Works Out

I couldn't figure out what I wanted to listen to, a moment ago. I called up (on the new application Spotify, which is pretty good, everyone go check it out) the first two songs that were stuck in my head:



And then Jane Fonda, by Mickey Avalon, a song that I am not linking to because it's so dirty (but great!), and then:



(The above song isn't all that clean, either, but way less dirty than "Jane Fonda".)

And then I couldn't decide what was next. Ambient? RJD2? Or classical? Finally I just went to my RJD2 station on Pandora, my old standby, and THIS song came on next:



Thanks, universe. That was pretty great.

Like If You Described the Bible as a Story About Some Guys Who Travel Around and Talk To Each Other

"Like the Princess Bride?" I said, raising an eyebrow.

"I haven't seen it," he said.

Silence on my end.

"WHAT?"

"What?"

"You haven't seen THE PRINCESS BRIDE?"

"What about ME would imply that that is a movie that I would want to see?"

I looked at the angry, smartass engineer across from me at the table at lunch. He enjoyed all the same webcomics I did, and we even had the same phone. Sure, he tended more heavily to straight up sarcasm than I did, me preferring to stay on the side of snark, but there was no reason that he would NOT like The Princess Bride. Wait.

"Do you KNOW anything about the movie?"

"I know it's about a girl who falls in love with a guy who goes away and becomes a pirate, or something, and then she thinks he's dead and marries someone else, but he comes back for her. And there's a guy with six fingers."

A little part of my soul died, but I was relieved.

"Okay. I see the problem. Hmmm. Okay, you've seen The Big Lebowski, right?"

"Of COURSE I've seen The Big Lebowski!"

I held up my hands in a placating gesture. "Okay, okay. Just checking. Okay. Describing The Princess Bride as a movie about a girl and a guy who becomes a pirate, and there's a guy with six fingers on one hand, is like describing the plot of The Big Lebowski as a movie about a guy who gets his rug peed on by a low-class criminal and gets involved with a rich guy and his weird ex-wife. It's technically TRUE, but the movie is about so much more than that. It's the environment that's created, and the quotes, and the interaction between the characters. It's not about the plot. The Princess Bride is the same way."

He stared at me.

"Okay. Maybe I'll check it out."

"Okay."