Potpourri

Belgium was great - had a good time and some great food. And, at the Brussels airport, found the navy blue dress I had been seeking. Score!

Since I've returned, life's been a lot of running around. Lots of work stuff going on, started rehearsals for a new production, some friends got married. The Guitar Hero and I got rid of a lot of stuff and he rearranged the living room so I know longer feel like our living room is overwhelmed by superflous pieces of furniture. I'm kinda of a clean and simple lines type of gal when it comes to home decor.

Tomorrow evening I'm having some friends over for a girls' night in and clothes swap and baked up this delicious apple cake. Yum yum. Go bake some yourself.

The weather's turned cold and rainy and will most likely stay that way for the next six months so I'm returning to my hermit habits of staying in and cooking and watching Dexter and huddling under afghans. If needed, you'll know where to find me.

Shopping update

So I went downtown yesterday in the high hopes of picking up a dress or two for a conference next week. I had found this gray empire dress and this black wrap dress and this light gray t-shirt dress plus this blue one on the Esprit online site and thought, I'll try these babies on, maybe purchase one of them and hurry back home before the crowds drive me mad.

Apparently, the Esprit shops in Hamburg do not carry the online Sortiment because they didn't have crap in the way of dresses. I ended up slogging my way through masses of slow-walkers for two hours and came up with nothing. Arrgh! Dresses are all over fashion spreads this fall and yet nobody's carrying anything for the Doctor.

On the positive flip side, the useless shopping trip forced me to clean out my closet today. I have a few ideas in mind and, as an added bonus, have a huge bag of clothes to give away. Which means there's room in the closet once I finally find something I like. Even if I have to order it online!

Hello? Is this thing on?

Has it really been two months since I posted? Jeesus...
Here's the short version of what's been going on:
- Trip to the States was great. Bit stressful cause it wasn't all for fun, but got to see a lot of the country which was nice. A number of burritos were eaten. Got a great dress at Old Navy and summer shoes at Target. My hardware handbag rocked the conference in D.C. Thanks, Allie, for the shopping tip.
- My older niece graduated from high school and leaves for college in a month. That makes me old. Guess what makes me even older? Realizing I have no idea what kids take to college these days. I'm guessing quarters for the pay phone are obsolete. As are floppy disks.
- Spent June working my butt off. As in the number of hours of overtime were double the number of hours I get paid for. Finally cried uncle, which turned out to be a good thing. Should have someone assisting me soon.
- Bought a new laptop that's just the cutest thing in the world because it's so little (but has a normal keyboard - yay!).
- The Guitar Hero got a Wii so I might, just might, start working out with the Wii Fit. Because seriously, I'm getting the body of a flabby old lady. And that's just sad.
- And we're going on vacation in two weeks. 10 days of sunshine, just reading, relaxing and snorkeling (if I can figure out how!).

The doctor's cuckoo for the perfect outfit

I sometimes wonder if I might have a touch of OCD. Seriously. The people who know and love (and are sometimes highly annoyed with) me don't wonder this; they, indeed, know it to be a fact. My little case of obsessiveness manifests itself most prominently in one aspect of my life: namely, answering the question of what to wear. And although it sounds a bit like a joke, and, let's face it, it really can be, sometimes it's just very frustrating. Less than three weeks ago I spent two mornings in a row nearly in tears because after putting on and then tearing off half of my closet, I still felt like I didn't have that perfect outfit to wear and was reduced to boring mediocrity. On both occasions I arrived at work an hour later than normal. Keep in mind, people, that I only live fifteen minutes away from my office - my saving grace is flexi-time and approximately a billion hours of overtime saved up. Things have gotten better since then, thank god. I've done some shopping (losing weight had actually left some holes in the ole spring/summer wardrobe) and I've been really, really good about planning what I'm going the next day before I go to bed. That alone has been a huge help. But the whole thing makes me so mad at myself. It's such a superficial thing, and I know much of it has to do with my own securities about how I look (that's another month of posts in and of itself). And I'm also angry that I can't just accept this one thing about myself, that my brain has a bit of faulty wiring, and work with it instead of trying to fight it. So if you see the Doctor tripping over is today a black sweater or green t-shirt day, please don't judge her. She's not trying to be a fashionista bitch. She just didn't do her job of wardrobe planning the night before.