Lesson Learned

Just a hint of cool in the air. Living south-ish is so strange during the fall. The mornings are gorgeous, the afternoons are baking hot, the evenings turn me into a weenie, shivering and pulling my hands into my sleeves.

This jacket and I are still figuring one another out. It was my very last purchase in the States before we left for China (thanks, Ebay) and I'm very, very glad I own a great quality mid-tone trench. But, it's heavy weight and the belt loops are quite far back, so I'm always nervous that the belt is slipping out. Is that a legitimate qualm?

I have a bunch of other coats, jackets and blazers, as well as more shoes!, arriving soon in our shipment (which we had picked up in Houston in late June). We were supposed to receive it last Sunday before the week-long National Holiday, and the Customs tracking system even told our agent the paperwork was ready and customs would be open for pick up on Sunday, the holiday "make up" day... but the employees of the warehouse all decided to just up and take the extra two days off. So, we are rescheduled for a Friday delivery this week. Moral of the story: if you move to China, expect to pay an arm and a leg anyway, so cough up the cash to pack a third suitcase or just coerce your friends and family into bring two 50-pounders when they visit. It will take just as long to get your goodies by visit as it will by shipment.

Well, now we know.

Jeans: Gap Real Straight...Tank: thrifted...Trench: J Crew Madewell via Ebay...Shoes: Nine West...Bag: Longchamp knockoff

Like Sardines

Isn't it fun when life gets busy and fun and you get super blasé about documenting anything for your blog?

And when you return you have this junker outfit that you managed to capture? Nothing actually fashionable, or creative, or interesting.

Whatever.

We've been occupied, and I like it. Hop over here for a quick rundown of what we've been doing.

Jeans: Gap...Buttondown: Banana Outlet...Shoes: Sperry via DSW...Bag: Longchamp knockoff

And a quick story: it's National Holiday, which means almost everything of significance is closed. Like President's Day or something. Except it goes on for 7. whole. bleeping. days. Which should be awesome, except it means everyone either travels, clogging airlines and trains, or plays tourist in town. We thought we'd do the cool thing and do more exploring our new city and wound up in a sardine-like nightmare bus getting out to Tiger Hill. I don't know if you guys saw it on Instagram a while back (@katebmcclure and @robertwmcclure) that we started a hashtag #tallguyinchina. Rob is so out of place in so many situations, standing literally heads above the rest of the population, but a packed bus is a special form of torture. His rear end usually ends up right in line with someone's oversized backpack, or his head gets mangled in the plastic hold-loops in the standing room area. I love the idea of public transit, but, sometimes you just gotta buck up and pay way too much for the bodily comfort of a speedy, just-the-two-of-us cab ride back across town.

We will not be going anyplace interesting for the rest of the week. We'll try again during a normal weekend.

Hope you guys are well! Any absurd stories?