Black Tie Optional…

So, a very special wedding is coming up on the west coast, and I can’t wait!  Of course this means finding the perfect dress for the event of the year//century.  One challenge with this wedding for me is that it is Black Tie Optional.  I have to say I was confused about that.  What I have figured out is that this means ApppleHubs will wear a black suit, and I will get to buy a fab cocktail dress.  Can’t argue with that!  Another way I have put it is: don’t wear a dress you would wear to a cousin’s midwestern high school graduation. Fair enough.  

With that, I need your help, readers!  I have ordered 3 dresses, which are below.  Now, you don’t know what I look like, nor how these dresses look on me.  But feel free to leave your thoughts.  A few hints: I have blond/light brown hair and blue eyes.  I am working on a tan for this pale skin.  I like to boogie.

(Sorry this one is small cause its now sold out and had to use the thumbnail)

I hope this will be Black Tie Optional enough!  I can’t wait for this exciting wedding, and can’t wait to try on the above dresses.  Thanks in advance for your opinions, and thanks Nordstroms!

 

Pop Quiz Response: WestCoastApple

Thanks for the Pop Quiz, Harlow!  I was looking for a little jumpstart to get back blogging.  I have missed you all!  More to come!

OK, here are the things that ended up in my Shopping Bag after the sale started:

This pretty Joelle Cami has been waiting in the shopping cart for a while.  I love the way the navy looks (for some reason from February to September everything I buy is Navy) and think this will be killer with white jeans or a skirt.

Next is this Featherweight Merino Tunic.  I actually bought it in Sour Lemon, a pretty yellow color, but it seems to be sold out a day later so here it is in Brilliant Blue!  I like a little bright color in the summer–colors I might usually stay away from but look great with a little tan!  I think this piece is great if you live somewhere where summer means unpredictable temps–like here in SF.

Lastly is this Cashmere Argyle Ruffle Cardigan.  Sadly, at $119.99 it was too steep to get the nod this time.  PLus its hard to justify cashmere argyle in June!  But I think this would look great with unexpected pinstripe trousers in the fall.  I keep waiting for the price to drop on this one!!

Keep on shopping!

 

POP QUIZ! J.Crew Extra 20% Off Sale Top Picks

So obvi we can’t let one 20% off sale go by without a J.Crew post!

Here are my top picks:

This dress is so SO beautiful and elegant. The collar is a little wide and boatneckish. Super sophisticated. With gold espadrilles or cute colored flats, perfection!

This tunic rocks! it looks amazing with white cropped matchstick jeans, white bermudas, or even just over a bathing suit as a beach cover up. Comes in a fun bright orange too.

If you haven’t bought this yet, you should be slapped. Here’s a plan to help you remedy this situation:

1. Take your Starbucks money/horribly fattening Au Bon Pain sandwich money for three days and throw it in your desk drawer.

2. Grasp the wad of cash in your sweaty palm and exchange it for aforementioned silk tank.

3. Jump and twirl with glee.

Still pricey, but super cute and add a little spark of fun to any boring outfit. Like jeans and a white shirt.*

OKAY! Stay tuned for picks from Shiloh and Apple!

* Sidenote: for years, Shiloh and I have been justifying bizarre color and print choices by saying “how cute would this be with jeans and a white shirt?” Yet neither of us has EVER seen the other actually this fabled  jeans and a white shirt outfit that we have spent so much time and energy acessorizing. One day. One day. Maybe with those patent posy flats…

 

I love you, Polar Seltzer with Raspberry Lime

Dear Polar Seltzer with Raspberry Lime,

Long time no see. I have missed our afternoon meetings in the dimly lit break room, next to the stacks of unwanted CDs and random baked goods. (By the way – whoever baked that banana bread with the cream cheese frosting the other day, thanks a whole hell of a lot for the 4 hours of excruciating torment until people finally ate the damn thing and I could stop circling playing “you can eat it, it’s okay, no it’s not, don’t eat it..okay eat it!” in my head).

Anywhoo, PSwRL, you make every day better. You make me feel weirdly full when I chug you and my stomach fills with carbonation. You make me sneeze sometimes when the fresh and poppy little bubbles go in my nose. You have a cute little bear on you. I came to enjoy our time, the feeling of your cold can in my hand, the tinny popping noises you made next to my computer, before I went to that really long meeting I had forgotten about and then you were warm and flat when I got back. (Sorry about that).

And then something went awry, PSwRL. And you were gone, gone for too long. In your place was the maniacal little scrolling SOLD OUT banner, mocking me and my unsatisfactory remaining choice between Orange Crush or Mug Root Beer. But I kept coming back, every day right around 3pm. And one day, you were back. My hands shook as I straightened and smoothed my dollar bill (you cost $0.85 now. WTF is up with that?) and fed it to the machine. vEND popped up, and I could hear you making your clunky little aluminum journey to the swinging door. As soon as I reached for you, I knew something was wrong. You were yellow. Jaundice? No. You were LEMON FLAVORED. This is not what I wanted. Now I felt spurned. You had sent an inferior version of you to visit me in your place. As if I would  not notice.

Well, now you are back. I know because I saw someone else drinking you. And I said, “HEY WHERE DID YOU GET THAT!?!??!?!??!” and lunged at their can.

So I went and bought you. I was still a little hurt at first, but now that we’re together, I think I can let the past be the past.

But I trust you know I will not forgive your dalliances a second time.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Harlow

 

.EDU

College email is something that you take for granted.  It’s always ready to give you your facebook updates, tell you when class is cancelled, warn you that your library fines are going to prevent you graduating, etc. 

 .EDU is an emblem of pride worn at such times like when the woman at the JCREW counter askes for your email addres…”Um… Yes. Of course I would like 6 emails a day about Jcrew Sales, arrivals, crew cuts and new Italian leathers! My email is Shiloh.pitt@USC.EDU (upsidedown smile).  This simple interaction is a personal victory, casually proving my self esteem a reminder that a. I am enrolled in college and b. that to this stranger, I MIGHT be very brainy and intelligent.

So how long IS too long to continue to use my college email account?? Here is some background info: I went directly from undergrad to a graduate program at the same university. Diploma number one was a successful accomplishment but I had to finish my masters degree credits with a summer online class that was completed about two months after graduation.  As you might imagine I was not the Universities most responsible student and paid little attention to deadlines and degree progress. So when it was time to graduate the records office lacked a clear understanding of my the degree path my “studies” had taken me. From being a transfer my sophmore year to several major changes, I probablly could have convinced them I had earned a PhD (ok not really at all. This statement is so far from true. I am lucky they ever issued a diploma at all – let alone two of them).  Here is my point. All my friends at USC got a strongly worded email from the Univeristy that their .EDU accounts will be terminated unless they swiftly activated their “@.alumni.usc.edu” account.  This was a shocking moment for all soon-to-be graduates. Wow. I am graduating. YIKES.

Now, I never got this email and I still have yet to see anything remotly close. I continue to get updates about Campus Crime and Class enrollment dates. I get emails about student surveys that “Need My Help!” so they can write their masters thesis. Even invites to speakers and other campus crusades sending the word out to the masses. While I happily ignore this steady stream of junk mail I have to wonder? What glitch caused my email address to be slighted from the Account Termination doomsday email? 

I know what you are thinking and I was thinking it too. Naturally instead of addressing the “Did i ever really graduate” issues, I simply stewed in my own anxiety convinced I had never actually met the requirements to be an @alumni.edu!!

The pride I used to feel with my .EDU email address changes quickly to  shame and embarassment when you are 25 years old. As I spell shiloh.pitt, my legit alumni friend gasps and says “You still have email!?”. 

Most people don’t suffer this plight because when they graduate a diploma quickly arrives in the mail. I will save the whole story for another post, but lets just say Angelina and Brad must be so busy with adopting children that they “missplaced” the diploma envelope soon after it arrived via US MAIL. Luckily – a year later - USC has REISSUED my diploma, so I know for sure I am a graduate living a sweet life as an @usc.edu. Like a plane crash survivor or a gun shot vicitim, I feel like I have a second chance at life.  This email account might just be my second chance at college. Maybe one day I open that RE: Blogging Seminar Rescheduled to Thursday nights, email and go right on ahead and enroll. Maybe this time around I will get something more out of college than an email account.  

 

heartshaped stumblings.

Well, I am back.

You can remove my face from milk cartons and those little black and white cards that flap in the wind on bulletin boards outside post offices. And until the next time that my real job swallows me whole and spits me out into a raggedy, caffeine-soaked, LCD-burned quivering mess that requires 5 days of non-stop sleep and devouring Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches to fix, I am newly dedicated to filling your minds with unnecessary items to purchase, eat and also to write about stuff that bothers me, which is most things.
To celebrate my triumphant return, here are some things I am happy about:

Summer Fridays. My company is one of the kind few who believes that pretending we will be allowed to take every other Friday off to “work from home” is a benefit! I won’t argue though, because I consider these an inalienable right, and am determined to spend every other Friday from here to Labor Day planted firmly in the sun, be it outside my apartment in sweatpants with laptop, or in a boat off the coast of Cape Cod. That’s it. Embrace the jealousy. (You can rub this back in my face when I spend the vast majority of them right here in my florescent box).

Sigg Water Bottle Crisis Solved. I was at EMS the other day and broke down and bought one of these Sigg water bottles.

They only had the most HIDEOUS one ever.

I convinced myself it would be okay and drew on it with a Sharpie until it was somehow worse than before.

Four days later, I bought a TOTALLY ADORABLE one at the gift shop of the gym. This isn’t it, but I couldn’t find one that looked like it, and I thought this one was also very adorable. Just not as adorable as mine. I will now give my old one to the boyfriend, Kingston, who will be forced to cart it to work with him under the guise that I care about his hydration and am not merely trying to assuage my consumer guilt.

LOST Finale! Oh my gosh. I don’t even have words to describe my excitement. It’s sort of like Christmas and your birthday rolled into one, with the excitement and sense of the imminent receipt of great gifts, followed by emotional crash at the long summer months Lost-less.

“But, Harlow,” you say, “unlike Christmas and your birthday, you will not have any gifts when LOST is over.”

Well you would be right. Unless you count two blown retinas from watching so much awesomeness and a whole pile of sweet, sweet knowledge as gifts, which, obviously, I do.

That’s all for now.

 

A few musings…

Hello there readers…a few quick thoughts for Tuesday

First, did anyone else see the Duggars on the Today Show last Friday.  If you don’t know the Duggars they are a family with 17 kids.  All the kids names start with J, and they have their own Discovery Health shows, hour specials where you see them eating 12 loaves of bread in a day, building a huge dorm/house, and generally making merry with their kin.  Its quite the spectacle.  Anyway.  On Friday they were on the Today in honor of Mothers Day, all 19 of them.  While on the segment, they surprised the 17 kids with the news that they are expecting #18.  My own shock was nothing compared to the funny/awkward/surprised/scared/naivelyhappy reactions of the 17 other kids.  You know the oldest one, a guy who is probably 21, now realizes–ok that does it I officially have the craziest family and need to get to a Party School ASAP.

Next, I have to comment on last week’s American Idol.  Now that we are getting down to the wire, the contestants have to step it up.  Last week Jason just tanked and the judges let him know it.  Jason, being AppleHubs least favorite Bob-Marley-impersonator, looked actually relieved to be leaving last week.  Can’t blame the guy for trying.  I am pretty excited for tonight’s sing-a-palooza.  I hope Syesha rocks it out and makes this a real race.  Wondering if she could split the David vote? Hmm.

Next–LOST. is. Amazing. right now.  Every episode is getting better and better to move at fever pitch towards this year’s finale. Every episode gives us more information and also more questions–its so great to hear all the fans coming up with such amazing theories right now.  I can’t help but feel this nagging sense of dread as I feel the moment coming soon where theres sort of a “great divide”–I know it will be rough on viewers, especially this viewer!

This week promises to be a great TV week too–Office finale, Idol Final 3, LOST greatness, etc.  Wahoo!

Well I guess that was mostly TV Musings instead of general musings.  More to come!

 

Slow Clap

I really have to hand it to Westcoast Apple for the Sesame Street clip. “Me and My llama” brings be right back to sitting in my family room, staring blankly at the television, puzzled at why a young girl would be able to brave the New York streets alone to go to a dentist appointment??

When I used to go to the dentist my mother would always COME INTO the exam room and sit there to chit chat to every scrubed clad individual. I HATED IT. I just wanted to go into the dentist chair alone and stare up at the ceiling entranced by the whirr of the tools, and squeezing my hands to fight the pain (our German dentist lacked the ability to recognize that sharp objects jammed at gums = torture). This, compounded by the embarrassment of my mother accompanying to the chair was pre-teen hell.  What was even worse was the occasional run in with kids I knew from school who happened to be at the dentist at the same time. Their moms would DROP them off at the front door and pick them back up when they were done. Not my mother.

This lasted till I was at least 14 years old. I remember a specific time that I tried to give my mom signals with my feet for like 20 mintues. Laying there, squeezing my hands with pain and embarassment, I pointed my feet at her, then quickly pointed towards the door. Finally she said in the most chirpy annoying voice. ”Ha, Shiloh. Are you trying to tell me you want me to leave!? “ 

Ugh.

Yes. I Do!!!

At that moment I would have gladdy had a Llama in toe, flipping through Highlights than have my mom in the room. Even Sesame Street knows it’s not cool to have your mom take you into the dentist!! That clip is genius really. Because weather you are escorting a llama or being suffocated by your over bearing mother the dentist is universally traumatic. Thanks for the reminder Sesame Street.

 

Signs of 2008//the Apocalypse

OK a quick word here from the west coast.

Yesterday AppleHubs and I were at our building’s Fitness Center for an afternoon workout.  We try to go about 4 times a week and we always see a new rotating cast of characters every time we go.  Here are a few of my favorites:

Mirror-Watcher Girl who works out in hotpants, sportsbra, and barefoot.

Puma Track Jacket Guy who reads and lifts barbells over his head on the elliptical.

Steroid-Guy who brings his girlfriend to watch him lift and she text messages meekly as he grunts.

Funnily enough, we hardly ever see the same people night after night, just once in a while.  BUT yesterday, I saw a new guy.

MacBook-TaeBo-Watcher guy.

I noticed this guy in the corner of the weight area, sort of looking down at the wall, and doing funny calisthenics, jumping jacks, sort of gymboree type dance moves.  I was like hmm that guy has carved out a small little space in the weight room to dance in his own little world.  Dance on, my friend.  It wasn’t til I went over to the bicep curl machine and sat down when I realized what he was doing.  He had his MacBook on the floor, playing a workout video, and he was jigging along with it. ?!?!

First, if you are doing a workout video, why come to the gym.  Why not do the GYM at the gym?  Are we so tech immersed that an iPod is not good enough?

Wow dude, you take the prize of Gym Character.

 

Fun with YouTube/Happy Birthday Shiloh/Randomest Post Ever

OK somehow I ended up stumbling through YouTube late tonight and I came along these gems from Sesame Street in the 80s. AppleHubs and I agreed that the below clip, which we both remembered vividly, was the most absurd upon 20 year reflection. Umm. You are bringing a llama to the dentist office, really?

Some of my earliest memories are James Taylor in the car and Sesame Street skit (related–and this clip is the star alignment of those two things.

I am older than Shiloh and Harlow who might not remember, but here goes….it first aired in 1980.

And now MANY years later our family still loves JT. Here is a video of one of the family faves, in honor of Shiloh’s Birthday! Happy Big Day!

Don’t hate me for the YouTube binge.