Maize Maze

I can scratch number 5 off my Fall To-Do List! We visited a corn maze this weekend, and it was fall-tastic!

It was a date day with my husband so, you know, I was trying to look cute. Robert's a fan of this (thrifted) heart-print dress, and so am I! And so was a random chick in the corn maze who told me she loved it. Thanks random chick! 

So I have no sense of direction whatsoever. Zero spatial reasoning. That's not so much my thing. What is my thing? Corn/sky combos. Oh, America! You are beautiful!

And I really wanted to do the maze despite my lack of being able to get anywhere ever without a GPS, but I also had a little anxiety. Like: What if I got lost in the maze? What if I I couldn't find my way out and it got dark and cold and I was tired and hungry and thirsty? What if I just walked in circles forever and ever ever. What if? 

But I had a flag to wave just in case I actually did get lost and then the nice maze people would save me. I also had Robert as a partner, and that man can make his way through a maze! Excellent spatial reasoning. A strong and powerful sense of direction! So it ended up I had zero anxiety (although I rarely had any clue where I actually was in the context of the amazing maze).

Basically, I just enjoyed the view. Cornflowers! Butterflies! Giant billowing clouds in a beautiful blue sky! My handsome husband holding a flag!

And I clearly ditched the cardigan because, while it may be fall, it still got pretty sunny and hot in that maze! We ended up walking for an hour and a half. We were adventurers. We were on a quest. We had goals, and we were going to accomplish them.

And we made it to the end! Yay! Corn maze conquered! Success!

The experience left me with the following questions: Why are you so pretty, corn maze? Why were you so unexpectedly filled with beauty? Why do you make me want to sing patriotic songs? 

Oh corn maze, you make me proud to be an American. (Only complaint: the flying grasshoppers. Those are scary to me. Grasshoppers should just hop short distances. They shouldn't be able to get up in my face.)

I like clogs

I bought more clogs. I actually bought two pairs of clogs that were basically identical. (It wasn't on purpose, I bid super low on them on eBay and won both. These things, they happen in the world of eBay.)

And then I wore one of them to school and the clogs literally fell apart. As in: chunks were coming off. As in: I had to duct-tape those suckers three times. As in: my students thought it was hilarious.

So that first pair has obviously been dumped, but I still have these lovelies. I haven't worn them to school though because I was so traumatized by my last eBay clog debacle. Can I trust them to stay together without the power of duct tape? Right now, I'm just wearing them on dog walks, but maybe someday I'll recover and wear them elsewhere. Or not. They're kind of perfect for dog walks. And also dog walks are kind of perfect lately. (Leaves are falling! I'm wearing a sweater... with shorts, but still! A sweater! Leaves! Fall! Clogs! Clogs!)

The Moon

Riding shotgun, rolling down the road, following this gorgeous moon...

Loving It

Lately I've been loving...

 1. The ocean, which is so gorgeous on gray days.

2. This bird agrees. He is into the stunning monochrome.




3. And so does this song.  (I mentioned it in my last post. It has been in my head for days.)

4. The ocean is pretty gorgeous on sunny days too. This is a shot from Robert's grandpa's Myrtle Beach, SC condo, 23 floors up on the last day of summer.

5. And while it's lovely to be able to put your feet in warm ocean water, I am so ready for fall. Summer has been really amazing, but the school year is already in full swing, and I'm itching for some sweater weather. Bring it on!

Grey

I was at the beach on the first day of fall, and I got to wear a summer-thrifted hoodie to combat the wind. (And okay. I would have been fine without a hoodie, but it was fall, and I really wanted to go for it!)

Have you heard that Ani DiFranco song "Grey"? I recited the lyrics to my husband on the beach: "The sky is grey/ the sand is grey/ and the ocean is grey/ and I feel right at home/ in this stunning monochrome/ alone in my way."

It's a really sad song, and I really love it. I feel like the ocean is the best place to feel sad. It's just so huge and vast like it can swallow up all your problems and heal you. That's how I feel about the ocean, especially on grey days.

Fall To Do List

It's officially fall. OFFICIALLY FALL! (Boots! Leaves! Fairs and fun!) And I have plans, people. I have some serious plans.

Fall To Do List:

1.  Carve a pumpkin

2.  Go camping

3.  Make s'mores

4.  Eat pumpkin pie

5.  Go to a corn maze

6.  Go to a fair

7.  Host Thanksgiving

8.  See the leaves in the mountains

9. Go hiking

10. Drink hot cider

(It's good to have goals.)

Only You

Here's the thing -- if a movie is about someone traveling to Italy and finding love, well,  I'm probably going to love it.

If the movie stars Robert Downey Junior and Marisa Tomei, well, I like it all the more.

And if it regularly references Roman Holiday, one of the best movies of all time, I'm definitely all about it.

Apparently, it was a really poorly reviewed movie, and even Marisa Tomei dismissed it in an interview once (and I was like "No! No, no, no! I love that movie!"). Look at those beautiful Italian buildings! And that blonde lady is Bonnie Hunt, who plays the funny best friend. I love Bonnie Hunt! I want her to be my funny best friend!

Plus both ladies rock some fantastic outfits and Marisa's short, little hairdo is enviable.

Oh how I love romantic comedies. Oh how I love Italy. Oh how I love "Only You."

Tony Curtis

I love Tony Curtis. He's just so much trouble. Here are my three favorite Tony Curtis incarnations:

Tony Curtis in Some Like it Hot

Tony Curtis starts out the movie as his normal dashing self. There he is on the left of Marilyn Monroe.

But he and Jack Lemmon witness a mob killing, and they dress up as women (Tony's on the left again) to get the hell out of Dodge (and by Dodge I mean Chicago and also they're part of an all-girl band, and really it's just one of the best comedies of all time).

But one get-up isn't enough! He also pretends to be a rich dude with a heavy eyeglass prescription. In all his looks in this movie, Tony Curtis is hilarious and adorable.

Tony Curtis in Sex and the Single Girl

In "Sex and the Single Girl," Tony Curtis is straight-up smooth and a bit sleazy. He's an undercover reporter trying to expose Natalie Wood who plays a Helen Gurly Brown kind of character. Oh man, I love '60s movies. So much.

So while he's not pretending to be a woman in this photo, he still ends up in a woman's robe. And rocks it, I might add. Natalie Wood is killer in this movie as well. That girl sure can wear a dress.

Tony Curtis on Roseanne 

The Tony Curtis in this '90s sitcom is not as smooth and sexy as the Tony Curtis of the '60s, but I still love him, and, hey, so do a lot of the ladies!

Loving It

Lately I've been loving...

1. Dansko clogs. They are so comfortable. So comfortable.

2. Community. I thought this show was going to be too smug and cerebral for me, but it turns out smug and cerebral is sometimes just my style (and there's heart too -- which saves it).

3. "The City of Ember." I'm reading this as a read aloud to my older students, and they are loving it. (And I love it too. That's why I picked it as a read aloud.)

4. Books on Tape. Or, I guess, Books on Cell Phone. I've been listening to "Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell" while cleaning and working out. It makes time pass a little faster!

5. Dinner club. We meet every two months and bring food based on different themes. Last Saturday, our theme was "Ballpark Food," and it was delicious. I made caramel corn that was crazy addictive, and I've had too many leftovers! Too much caramel! Too much corn! But so yummy! Maybe our next theme will be something healthy like "Raw Vegetables and Kale Juices." What do you think?

Style Icon: Judy Funnie

Did you watch "Doug"? It was a cartoon on Nickelodian that aired during '90s right around the time when I watched a lot of Nickelodian. Doug was tremendously lovable and terribly awkward. I liked him lots, but when it comes to style icons, I have to turn my attention to his older sister, Judy Funnie.

Judy Funnie, like the other cartoon characters on the show, only wore one thing, but that one thing was totally 1950s beat-generation fabulous. You could just see her interpretative dancing in a coffeehouse spatting out spoken-word poetry. And I loved her for it.

Oh Judy Funnie, never change. (And you never will, thankfully. You will keep wearing the same thing over and over and over again.)

I'm a '90s chick

This weekend, we went to our dinner club (Theme: Ball Park Food. Food: All terrible for you and terribly delicious), and I dressed like it was 1995.

I think I might dress like it's 1995 for the rest of my life. The '90s were the best, man. Pretty printed dresses with combat boots? Yes, please. Yes.

I am madly in love with the quirky print on this dress and its aggressively pink shade. I thrifted it during my epic thrift haul. 

At dinner club, the same woman who was shocked that my romper was thrifted was also shocked that this dress was thrifted, and I think I am slowly but surely bringing her over the dark side (if "dark side" means "awesome side where thrifting is celebrated and dresses are bright pink").

I bought the shoes on eBay last year, and I love them. The weather turned just cold enough to wear them this weekend, and I was so stoked!

It's happening, people -- the slow turn from summer to fall. (It's a very, very slow turn in the South.) This is my favorite time of year for all the obvious reasons -- the boots, the beauty, the food, the holidays, the silly fun (pumpkins! corn mazes! carnivals!). Oh yes. It. Is. Happening.

Style Icon: Salvador Dali

Because of the mustache.

It is just such an impressive mustache.

How to Marry a Millionaire

Mmkay, "How to Marry a Millionaire" is about as shallow as it sounds, but, really, in the end, its message is that you should marry for love, not money. (And if you marry for love, you might be rewarded with surprise money!)

The most obvious reason to see this movie is its cast -- Betty Grable, Lauren Bacall and Marilyn Monroe. Hello Gorgeous-es!

A less obvious reason to see this movie is that Marilyn spends much of it bespectacled, and I adore bombshells who wear glasses (and, yes, the men still make passes).

Isn't that above picture just so Sex and the City? The movie is about fabulous looking women wearing fabulous clothes hanging out with their friends and chasing/ complaining about men. Some things never change, huh?

Also Marilyn wears a bejeweled swimsuit and clear plastic heels. So it has that going for it.

In the movie, Lauren Bacall is the prickly, intelligent one, Marilyn Monroe is the sweet, not-so-bright one and Betty Grable is somewhere in the middle. (There's also some men in the movie as the whole plot revolves around landing a millionaire, but they're pretty forgettable.) It's a fun, frothy movie, the perfect thing to watch when you're drinking something bubbly.