It’s Friday Tie Day again!

Here is Tie #2 that I’m wearing today:

blue!

Again, it’s Nick’s tie and he almost didn’t have one to match the shirt. He says he doesn’t wear a lot of pink so I guess it’s to be expected that he might not have anything to match a bright pink shirt. But I did find this one, which is navy blue with tiny lighter blue dots that you can kind of see in the picture. I’m wearing it with dark denim, my sparkly target flats, and an awesome navy blue BR blazer that makes me look and feel like I should be on a boat with all of it’s shiny gold buttons!

After having it on for only 5 minutes this morning I realized that wearing a tie without a vest is a different experience. It just seems to be hanging there and getting in the way when I bend down. I need a clip! Also, it’s a lot easier to see. The vest hid most of the tie the last time but now it’s all in-your-face, which isn’t bad but you definitely have to be comfortable with people saying, “Oh, you’re wearing a tie!” and then maybe raising an eyebrow. I still like wearing it, though.

I think I need to go tie shopping!

When I was in the seventh grade, I attended an awards ceremony at school. I can’t remember exactly why we were having the ceremony; it was probably one of those end-of-the-year things, but I do remeber watching an eighth-grade girl on the softball team walk up on stage to receive her award and she wearing a powder blue skirt suit*. Now, this was the first time I’d ever seen anyone around my age wearing anything that even remotely resembled a suit. Suits were what adults wore to work, right? And here was this girl, not much older than me, wearing a beauitful skirt and blazer, looking so professional and important. That was the moment I fell in love with suits and the whole professional look, even though I wouldn’t own my first one until I was about 23 and interviewing for my second grown-up job after college. I started my first [part-time] office job my junior year in college. It was a very small medical billing business that only consisted of 4 employees when I started: my boss and his father (who helped him start the business), a member of their church, and me, the only female. The men wore a suit and tie to work every day and I loved it. I didn’t wear suits at that time but I did start buying trousers and classic button-down shirts and I felt so professional! My roommate’s girlfriend even commented once as I was walking around the kitchen of our tiny apartment in these fabulous black, pointy heels before work one afternoon that I looked like I could be a powerful executive of some company. It was probably the most awesome compliment I’ve ever received!

Anyway, the whole point of that little back story is to show you that I finally tried something I’ve been wanting to do for a very long time: Break into the masculine fashion world and pay homage to the suit by wearing a tie. And not only that, but try to incorporate it permanently into my fashion choices. So here I am:

Tada! Me in a tie.

It’s Nick’s tie and he had to teach me how to tie it but doesn’t it look awesome? I’ve received a lot of compliments on it so I’m definitely planning to wear them more often. Maybe I’ll wear them enough to start an official Friday Tie Day series on the blog. What do you think?

*I just realized that this sentence makes me sound like maybe I didn’t care about academics and was only into fashion and the sort, and not that there’s anything wrong with caring about fashion, obviously ,but don’t be fooled. I was completely the opposite; I was a complete nerd with excellent grades and an appreciation for education all through school. Still am, actually. And I’m very proud of that.

It’s that time of year again! 2011 is slowly coming to a close. Christmas (for those who celebrate) is this weekend and Hanukkah (for those who celebrate) has just begun. And Kwanzaa (again, for those who celebrate) is next week. Then there’s my personal favorite, the winter solstice! The new year is right around the corner and we’re all probably thinking about our New Year’s Resolution. Okay, maybe not all of us, but I’ve been thinking about mine. Like most people, every year I make a resolution about some big life change that I’m adamant about, like saving money or eating better, and I swear that I’m going to stick to it come hell or high water and then by January 14, it’s already forgotten. But this year, I’ve come up with something pretty good. And it’s so good that I’m actually really excited about it and have plans to start it early.

SUSHI! Tonight I had dinner with another one of my very dearest friends and we ate what we almost always eat: Sushi. It’s definitely one of my favorite meals ever so tonight I’m definitely thankful for sushi :-)\

I learned most of what I know about Sushi from jut eating it and paying attention to menus and poking around online but I also learned some interesting facts from Alton Brown, who I greatly admire and respect when it comes to food. From him I learned that it is thought that sushi was created about a thousand years go by a little old woman who lived in the woods of Japan. She was sitting down to eat a big pot of rice for dinner when she heard some bandits coming. She climbed into a tree and hid her rice in the nest of a large sea bird so the bandits wouldn’t steal it. When she finally went to retrieve her rice, it had partially fermented and had little bits of fish left by the sea bird. She tasted it, decided it was delicious, and that’s how Sushi was came to be! Cute little story, huh?

I love my parents and am always thankful for them. I have the best ones ever. Period. You should be jealous. But seriously, they’ve always been very supportive and great role models for everything from relationships to how to deal with crappy situations to good work ethic. They’re awesome and that’s that. But today what I’m most grateful for is that I can pay them back in little ways every now and then for their awesomeness.

They’re spending this weekend at a nice little bed & breakfast in Wilmington. They helped us out so much with our back yard, making it beautiful and accommodating for our wedding. They spent countless weekends months before October 1st driving two and a half hours from their house to ours (and then back!) so they could help us spread mulch, trim limbs and branches, build steps, move stuff, and plant flowers. So, to say thank you, we paid for them to have a nice little weekend away all to themselves. They stopped by this afternoon for lunch to break up their trip a bit and it’s always so nice to get to see them. Even if it’s only for a few hours. I forgot to take a photo for the blog while they were here, so I’ll leave you with the one we took while on vacation together this summer in D.C.

So thanks, Mom and Dad. I love you and am forever grateful to have you in my life!