Worn over and over and over

Sweet Audrey of the deservedly popular Putting Me Together is hosting... One Piece Many Ways. And since I've been sweating my way through most of the crappy looks I've been wearing, taking a walk down memory lane seemed like fun.

So... what have I worn the crap out of?

  

  

  

This maroon skirt is so easy to grab and go when I'm feeling rushed, and it works with the majority of my tops. Does it create looks that are super diverse? Maybe not. But it's a great basic and easy to wear. Blacks work, tans work, greys work, leopard, turquoise, orange, crisp white, taupe, bright red. A nice, plum maroon skirt is one of the few bottoms other than jeans that made the cut when I purged and moved my little wardrobe. And I wore it through all four seasons. 

What are you wearing the daylights out of? Is it easy to remix or is it a statement piece that you feel great in? I want to know!

Plain Jane

Being on the far side of the Pacific has, style-wise, been a little funny for me. First, I chucked some of my long time favorite articles of clothing because I literally wore them until they shouldn't be worn any more. Loved them to pieces and put them into a garbage can in the days before we left Houston. So, I'm down about 30%. Second, I kept a lot of my simple, classic, wholesome American gal clothes. Simple skinny jeans, a few buttondowns, lightweight t-shirts. Things that aren't risky or fashion-forward, but are just solid workhorse items. A glorified capsule wardrobe, if you will.

And I didn't keep summer clothing, you guys. Bad choice.

It's a great mix of perfectly slouchy sweaters and layer-able stuff with slim-fit pants. So, come fall and winter, I'll be golden, but for now, I'm sweating my buns off and rotating between this skirt and shorts (which I hate on my skinny legs- ugh, chicken knees) and a few tanks and tees.

And this desperate deficit of options, lack of first-month-in-town positive bank balance, and having a simple wardrobe means I'm stickin' out like a sore thumb. China's a little funny with fashion. Sometimes ladies look so mis-match chic, young and fresh in their boutique fashion (there's literally thousands of small clothing stores along the coolest shopping avenues here), I look like a bowl of vanilla ice cream. But sometimes these adorable young women wear the dowdiest or hodgepodged or hello-kittied looks. Perhaps another day I'll take my camera out and about with me.

Skirt: H&M...Blouse: Target...Belt: Target...Shoes: Nine West...Bag: Longchamp knockoff

Solo

I'm alllll alone today! It's Rob's first day of the school year, and he's off to meet 'n greet the first ever new class of students.

On the docket? As many girly movies online as I can find. I'm 45 minutes into Little Women. Yes, yes, yes.

Skirt: H&M...Blouse: thrifted...Belt: Target...Shoes: Chacos...Bag: Longchamp knockoff

Conundrum

What does one wear for meeting the Dean of the School of Music for the first time? Especially when the group dinner is being held at an undisclosed location? Rob and I (and all of the other new faculty we've been spending time with) all freaked out and didn't have an answer.

Neutrals. Definitely neutrals. And not too fussy.

So, this super lightweight sweater for the warm evening should do the trick. Loose, it won't touch my torso too much and make me sweat, but it's pretty covered-up.

Pants or skirt? Skirt. No, pants. The sweater looked a little weird tucked in. 

Heels or flats? Well, heels would look nicer... Crap, all my nice pumps are in our shipment. These flats will be fine.

Maaaaan, I got brutal with purging my wardrobe before this move. My dress and shoe situation is a little pathetic. And my "getting ready and looking decent" routine is a joke.

Jeans: Gap...Sweater: thrifted...Shoes: Aldo, via Buffalo Exchange...Belt: Target...Scarf: Liberty of London, thrifted...Bag: Longchamp knockoff

This is Certainly a First World Problem

So, we've decided to cough up the cash for a second VPN of my very own. Rob is a technology nut, so he loves to have access to "checking" all of his stuff (read: screwing around in a cycle of email, facebook, Detroit Tigers score, overandoverandover). And some of his screen time is legit, but mostly he likes to spend his down time mindlessly surfing and hogging our mode of bypassing the "Great Firewall," so I insisted that I get my own VPN to blog.

Oh, a VPN is a Virtual Private Network. It essentially skews signals to indicate that my computer's IP address is in America when, in fact, it is physically in China. Since I am physically in China. Normally, Chinese internet blocks websites such as YouTube, Facebook, Blogger, etc.

Being in a country that blocks most of the online goodies has been a little strange. Without the VPN turned on, I can read through my blog list on the Bloglovin' app, but not on the computer. Feedly flips me the bird either way. Pinterest works both online and through the app, so at least that's good entertainment. I can see and post Instagram photos, and can even send them straight to Facebook for our friends to see. But, I can't go to Facebook, can't post new content on Blogger, I can't click on almost any blog to comment, and, most importantly, I can't see Marion's content below the Read More line. Big fat bummer. 

Without competing with Rob for use of the VPN, I will be able to blog in peace, take my time uploading photos, writing and linking all at once in the Blogger editor (I've been writing word documents and copying them in. The formatting boogers itself every time, which is obnoxious). 

So, in short: I've been super absent, and I'm sorry. Before the move, I didn't have time or focus enough to blog, and now I don't have easy access to it. And, even though I've been reading a whoooooole bunch of  your blogs, I haven't been able to say hello, compliment all of the lovely looks you ladies have been featuring lately, cheer you guys on in your recent life-stuff, or sympathize with your head or heartaches. I hope this technological coup lets me say "Hey" a little more often.

Pants: Target...Tank: thrifted...Shoes: via DSW...Bag: Longchamp knockoff

Pros and Cons: China Edition

Things I am finding that I miss.

• Cotton Balls. I used a "cotton pad" to remove my nailpolish, and it's like a disintegrating wet nap.
• Rubbing alcohol. I had no idea how useful this stuff was in my every day life until it was gone. 
• Paper towels. While I appreciate the reusability of rags, I would really prefer to do some of this move-in massive not-a-dustbunny-of-my-own-creation cleaning with a paper towel and then throw that shit away. 
• Ditto on Swiffers.
• Trustworthy fish. I would really like to try to cook a wok-prepared steamed salmon meal at home, but everyone is telling us to steer clear of fish. 
• Granola Bars. Except I dispelled this one earlier today- we found some really overpriced Oats and Honey bars at a specialty international grocery. Beaucoup bucks, but comforting and great energy. Now, if only I could find Nutella...
• Access to furniture shopping. It really isn't a "thing" here. There is no Target furniture section or Pottery Barn. The nearest Ikea is 2 hours away by public transit and train. And my furniture is all really crappy. 

Things that I kiiiinda prefer over here.

• My nail polish remover smells vaguely of vanilla, rather than chemical and fake vitamin E.
• Way less wasteful packaging and a cultural norm of tiny garbage cans. Our trash situation is heavenly. 
• A cultural norm of daily produce shopping. Um, fresh and fabulous.
• Using an umbrella daily as a sunshade. Pale skin is fashionable, so I'm like the queen bee already, but practically, it makes walking around on these hot hot days a little more bearable. 
• Having no choice but to slow down. It's too hot and I know too little of the language.
• Ginger scented dish soap. 

The evenings are getting down to only 88 degrees now! We're sweating like mad still, but at least I have some kind of desire to look halfway decent after 7 pm when we go out for dinner with friends. That's a step in the right direction!

Dress: Target...Belt: Target...Sandals: Chacos...Bag: Longchamp knockoff

Dog Days? Nope, just an extended record high.

Uuuugh, I'm getting really sick of these hot days. Suzhou and Shanghai have been "Red Alert" and record highs (highest recorded temps in 140 years) for days on end, and no real relief in sight. One day last week, the government flew planes over some clouds south of the city and dumped dry ice to force some rain to bring a little relief. Which lasted about 4 hours that night.

Two problems:
1. I'm sweating through all of my summer clothes (my hot weather collection got largely donated because it was either some poly blend or falling apart).
2. My "summer looks" are a rotation of the same four tees and the same one pair of shorts. Because I don't wear shorts. But I have to wear shorts. Or I'll croak.

Two perks:
1. With no dryer, our washed items are hung on the outdoor patio and are dry in literally 45 minutes.
2. I'm more hydrated than I ever have been before.

We're really wishing we could do more exploring the city, but it's way too hot out. We feel like we done our fair share of trying out the busses and successfully doing runs to the market, so we'll sightsee in September when it's cooled down a little. Function before fun for now.

Oh, and if you guys want to hear more about life over here in China, hop over to McClures in Suzhou. Warning: you might see photos of dead chickens and baby tushes in slit pants. Both are normal over here.

So, what have I been wearing?

Booooooring. But it's too hot for anything else.

How I Spent July

Well, hello, dear friends! I wrote a little note to you all yesterday to tell you that we've successfully made it to Suzhou, China. Today is our fourth full day in the city and we're finally feeling a little more adjusted to the time zone, have the essentials handled for our new apartment, and have been able to order and accurately pay for several meals. Big successes, all around!

Starting July 30, we moved out of our sweet apartment in Houston and drove our last few belongings that would be placed in storage (favorite dishes, good knives, artwork, etc) along with our four large suitcases for the flight to China in a trailer behind the Jeep. We took two days to get up to Ohio, stopping along the way to spend the night with a dear friend from grade school who is living in Missouri. A visit and the stopping point couldn't have been more refreshing.

We spent three weeks with family and friends in Ohio and used our time to the fullest! Half-way through, my sister was married in a stunning and perfectly simple ceremony along Lake Michigan, and I was so grateful to be able to take part in her bridal shower, last minute preparations, rehearsal dinner, meet and greet time with her husband's family, and a little bit of family vacation time in the rented house after they took off to honeymoon. (I'm pretty sure I owe you all a thorough post, the wedding was beyond perfect).

We spent a rainy Saturday hosting an open house get together and a really great group of friends and extended family made the effort to come spend the day with us to catch up and say farewell for a while. In the age of Facebook, it sure is easy to check in on people, but there's truly nothing like spending time together. Other highlights of our time in Ohio included nephew visits, godson and best friend playtime, acquainting my doggy to life at my parents (we hope to bring both the beagle and our cat over in a few months), visiting and re-getting-to-know-time with my brother, who is now a big bad 18 year old adult, and a haircut from my favorite long-time stylist (nothing drastic, just took 3 scraggly inches off the ends and shaped it up, but I received exactly ZERO good haircuts in 4 years in Houston, so this was a big highlight).

In my focus to spend time with family, I preeetty much spent all three weeks in 6 articles of clothing, not including dresses for special events. Here's a little rundown of how I looked for the entirety of July:

Hope you all have had a good month (I've sort of been reading along with my favorite blogs, but I've been pretty technologically disconnected for a while).

Catch up with you all soon!

Expat

我不访问中国，我住在这里。

Go ahead and google that translation. And have a mini panic attack with me.

We arrived safely to Suzhou a few days ago and have managed to get a lot done! Our flight was incredibly easy (direct from Detroit to Shanghai), our baggage arrived safely and we didn't lose any pieces, we powered through the flight and didn't sleep so we would be sleepy in time for China's evening. We met our driver with relatively little problem and arrived in Suzhou by 6:00 in the evening to meet our representative from the University and be taken to our apartment (it's so dusty, but we're working our way through cleaning still). She helped us get SIM cards for phones, we found a small market to buy pillows and sheets, along with some fruit and a weird pastry for breakfast. The following day we walked way too far with 101 degree 9:00 am temps, saw the university library and Dushu Lake. We met up with another professor who lives in the next building over, who helped us get in touch with our landlord to figure out the internet situation in our apartment, and our VPN is working great to gain access to our US websites (Blogger included!). We also met up with the musicology professor, who called the university driver and took us to a big (like Walmart, but tripled) supermarket to buy household essentials. We did dinner and plenty of talking, the driver's English is limited, as is my Mandarin, so the musicologist did a great job of translating back and forth and we had a lot of fun. Yesterday, Rob completed the registration for working at the University and is signed up for a bank account for payroll. We have to wait until the middle of August for our first payroll cycle, though, which is a bummer. We got dropped off in the middle of a lovely older part of town, and were able to both successfully buy a map of the city as well as lunch for ourselves. Aaaand, we successfully hailed a cab, gave decent directions for our apartment (which he actually understood), and he enjoyed trying out his English on us.

We are in pretty good spirits, considering how biiiig this change is and how out-of-our-element we are. Only one meltdown for each of us so far. Doing our best to walk and explore is tough since it's so bleeping hot, but we'll find our way soon enough. We're getting along great with the other new professors, who have been truly wonderful and helpful these first few days. And, for now, we're taking great satisfaction in the little things we can control, like a nice shower, or mopping the floor.

We've taken exactly zero pictures. I'll jump on that soon!

Farewell Week and a Road Trip

Hey, friends! I'm writing a quick hello from the road. We are currently driving through Wagoner, Oklahoma and will be stopping to stay the night with a friend from high school who has wound up in Lebanon, Missouri, a perfect halfway point for the drive from Houston to Toledo, Ohio.

In the last few days, here's what's been going down.

Friend time. Lots of friend time. A BBQ on Tuesday with over 30 people we adore, a work friend cocktail night/ bromance Whiskey truck packing party on Thursay, PrideHouston festivities Saturday during the afternoon and sweated our butts off, Frame Dance show on Friday and Saturday and more friend time goodbye party after. I cried no less than a dozen times this week, and the gravity of our departure hasn't fully hit me yet, so I'm probably due to be a weepy mess halfway through the drive tomorrow. 

So far in the drive: Eddie barfed up breakfast, Critters have done extremely well in the backseat together, I guesstimated to the mile a distance to our turnpike turnoff (I love using an atlas vs. GPS), we ate our last Pattymelts, and sang our guts out to 90's playlists. But, ugh, the Jeep has a tiny engine and our puny trailer of stuff is heavy enough to make hilly areas into a 50 mph zone. The Google map directions claimed a 11.5 hour day and a 10 hour day. I think we're looking at 13.5 and 12 at minimum. That's a loooog time to be in the car driving a manual with no cruise control. 

Mmmmmm, goodbye for now, Houston. I know we're off to new adventures and change is always good, but H-town was a great way to spend our mid-20's. And thanks for a really wonderful collection of lifelong friends and tremendous neighbors and co-workers. 

Eddie. I died laughing when I saw I captured this gem.