Stella on my shoulders...

Makes me happy!  A little John Denver for your Sunday afternoon.  Stella prefers to sit in my lap, but sometimes when she wants my attention and she's not getting it, she'll decide to scramble up my back and rest on my shoulders.  It's super cute, until she digs her claws into my back for stability.  Oh Baby Cat, you're lucky you're so cute.

I don't have any new outfits since my week in Virginia.  I literally took a suitcase full of dirty clothes with me to the Mister's place and it wasn't particularly well thought out.  And I've had to go sit at the airport for 6 hours twice this week.  I'm still on call today until Wednesday, but it looks like I might get to sleep in my own bed again!  It's the little things.  But I just wanted to update to let y'all know I'm still here!

Rose Gold-Colored Glasses

Good morning!  I've been camped out at the Mister's place for almost a week now and I've been trying to get out of bed when he leaves for work because then I'm tired when he is tired.  I'm not sure if it really counts as "getting out of bed" when I crawl out of the bed, pull on the Mister's comfy flannel robe and snuggle up on the couch under a blanket with my laptop and cat.  I even have a pillow out here!  I may as well be back in bed.  But I'm awake!  And I'm drinking coffee!  That has to count for something right?  Besides, as much as I hate getting out of bed, I really like getting up early b/c even if I dick around on the Internet for three hours, I can still manage to accomplish a lot before noon!

So!  The mister & I finally got to celebrate Valentine's Day on Saturday night.  We didn't really make a big deal out of Valentine's Day last year.  I don't even remember if we went out to eat.  I'd have to ask the Mister.  He's good at remembering things like that.  But we missed so many occasions together while he was deployed (his birthday, my birthday, our ANNIVERSARY!) that I think he wanted to make this Valentine's Day really special.  So he made a reservation at The Melting Pot and told me to bring something pretty to wear!

As soon as he said that, I knew what I was going to bring.  I bought this dress at the Salvation Army with all the Target deadstock a few months ago.  It was a Liberty of London sample dress and it fit like. a. glove.  Seriously.  And it was $8.  I couldn't have passed it up, no way.  But as yet, I hadn't had an occasion to wear it.  But what says Valentine's Day MORE than pink & purple florals?

Unfortunately we waited until AFTER dinner to do my outfit photos.  The lighting in the mister's apartment isn't super (sidenote: there is NO overhead light in the bedroom!) and the steam from the fondue pot loosened most of the curl right out of my hair.  Of course the Mister thought I looked beautiful, but that's because he always thinks I look beautiful and that is why I love him.

Liberty of London for Target dress - Salvation Army; Pinky-nude heels - Forever 21


Also, I'm used to taking my outfit photos by myself, in my kitchen.  Having the Mister take the photos was fun, but it made me feel silly.  And when I feel silly, I move around a lot, so more than half of the photos were either super blurry or he caught my face doing something weird.  I was looking through the photos going, "Does my face look like this?  Like all the time?"  He's a good man though and he assured me my face does NOT look like this all the time.

Oh and did you notice something kind of shiny & blingy on my arm there?  Speaking of being a good man.  Ladies, let me tell you a story about Pinterest.  Pinterest is the Mister's new favorite thing.  Wanna know why?  Because he uses it like a giant wish-list for me.  Several months ago, I pinned a gorgeous rose gold Michael Kors watch, never in a million years even thinking about acquiring it.  I pinned it more for a reference b/c I really liked the size and shape of the watch and the rose gold sure was pretty.  A few visits ago, the Mister & I happened to be at the mall and we ducked into the Fossil store because I knew they had some rather lovely rose gold-colored watches that were a similar style, but more in my price range.  I mentioned to the Mister that I've never had a "nice" watch before.  The nicest watch I've had was a silver bracelet-style DKNY watch that I only bought b/c with coupons it was $60.  And I wore it to work for three years and beat the hell out of it.  Now I wear a $12 watch to work and I wanted something a little nicer for wearing away from work.  I showed the Fossil watches to the Mister and said I was thinking about maybe buying one in February, when I would get my tax return money.  Being the sneaky Mister that he is, he socked away this information for future use.

Cut to Friday evening when he came home with some gift-wrapped packages.  He was so excited for me to have my present that he asked if I wanted to open gifts early.  We were originally going to wait until AFTER dinner Saturday night.  Luckily for him, I had already wrapped his present, so I said sure!  Now, let me pause to tell you what I was expecting to open.  So when I unwrapped my gift and opened the box, I was shocked to see THIS!  This watch is hands-down the most gorgeous thing I have ever seen.  I had to wait to wear it until Saturday morning b/c I have teeny-tiny baby wrists and we had to go have some links taken out, but since I first put it on, I never want to take it off.  And when I wear it, I find myself staring down at it and stroking it like Gollum and his precioussssss.  I kind of feel like Braggy McBraggerson, but the Mister spoils me absolutely rotten and I love him for it.

And just because it makes me laugh, I have to tell you this.  So, when the Mister went to look at watches, he totally had my Pinterest pulled up on his smart phone.  And when the ladies working the watch counter came to ask if he needed any help, he showed them his phone.  And then he explained what Pinterest was and how he uses it to shop for me.  And these ladies were SO impressed with him.  They basically gave him the Boyfriend Of The Year award right then & there.  And I have to say, I agree with them.

Oh and one more thing...if you were wondering what I got the Mister for Valentine's Day.  We took it in to be framed.  We're big old nerds like that.

Drinking Coffee at the Mister's House!

Good morning!  I'm back in Virginia and this time I get to stay for a week!  We're celebrating Valentine's Day tomorrow night and I'm going to make sure the Mister takes a picture of my outfit!  I plan to look super pretty!  Then on Sunday we are meeting up with one of my friends from high school who is in town for work training!  But you want to know what the best part of this week is?  Well, all you have to do is look at the picture!  Stella is here with me!

One of the worst parts of this long-distance relationship business is having to leave my kitten at home.  I feel like the worst cat-mom ever.  And this month, it feels like I haven't hardly been home at all!  So when I got a 5-day trip immediately upon getting home from Virginia last week, I knew I couldn't leave Stella when I came to visit the Mister this week.  And being the amazing guy that he is, he told me that of course I could bring her!  And then he went out & bought her a litter box, some treats & a toy!  I could NOT stop smiling on the drive home from the airport last night.  My whole little family was all together!

This is only the second time Stella has flown, the first time being almost exactly three years ago when I first brought her up to Minneapolis!  I had to fight with her to get her into the carrier and she was REALLY not pleased with me, but then she did great on the way to the airport (we even took public transit!) and went right back into her carrier after I took her out to go through security.  She was pretty chill on the plane and only started crying a little bit when we were on our way home, but I think that was because she was hungry.  I didn't want any bathroom issues, so I put her food away around noon yesterday.

So far she's doing pretty good acclimating herself to the Mister's apartment.  She's a very resilient little kitten, which I think is one of her best qualities.  She's like me in that.  We both adapt well to just about any situation!

Intervention

Y'all?  I have a problem.  Remember how I said I was going to stop bringing home pants?  Well, I brought home another pair of pants.  And that's not even the real problem here.  The pants in question are a pair of legging jeans from Gap.  THAT is the issue at hand.  This is the 4th pair of Gap legging jeans I've bought in the last 4 months.  Granted, they have all been different fabrics and colors, but still.  It seems to be getting a little out of hand.  My latest acquisition is this sweet pair of black velvet pants.  I never thought I needed black velvet pants until I spied these lovelies on the sale rack for $14.  And, similar to what happened with the snakeskin pants, once the possibility was presented to me, I couldn't turn them down.

My other recent addiction is Words With Friends.  I avoided this game for a very long time because I hate Scrabble.  When I was a kid, my family was big on board games.  My mom's favorite game was always Scrabble and I hated it b/c while I can rock a crossword puzzle like nobody's business, I have a hard time coming up with words from those little tiles.  But when my mom sent me a request via Facebook to play Words With Friends with her, well, it's my momma.  And I love my momma.  So I accepted.  And now I've got simultaneous games going with her, the Mister, the Mister's mom and a work friend.  So many words!  And I've even won a few games!

You guys like the silly poses, yes?  Because I like the silly poses.  I get bored of just standing there smiling.  I call this one here The Flasher.

Purple tweedy jacket & Black velvet legging jeans - Gap; YES concert tee - eBay; Pink ballet flats - Gabriella Rocha via 6pm.com

Work Rules!

So, a long, long time ago, the airline that hired me merged with another airline to form a bigger airline.  There was quite a kerfuffle and rather a big to-do about the whole thing.  And we are still trying to get everything sorted.  However, we are getting closer to the point where everything will be resolved and we'll all be flying together as one big dysfunctional family.  And I, personally, cannot wait.

Lots of good things will come of this.  For one thing, I will actually have a line.  Lemme explain.  So, I've mentioned before that I work on reserve.  This means I am on call for 18 days out of the month.  On those 18 days when I am on call, the company can call me up & send me anywhere!  With as little as 2 hours' notice!  Twice I've been on a 6-day trip that took me to Japan & Guam with only 2 hours' notice!  So hectic!  However, with the New Way of Doing Things, I will only have 6 days on call and the rest of my month, I will be tripholder and I will know a month at a time where I am going & when.  This will (hopefully) allow me to fly more hours in less days and there will be much less sitting-around-doing-nothing.  It might take some getting used to, seeing as I've essentially been a Lady of Leisure for the last 4 years!  But, flying more hours in less days means more days off means more time to visit the Mister!  And that makes everyone happy!

Another awesome thing is that I can try to bid for specific things for my trips.  For example, I can ask for layovers in certain cities (you know, like where the Mister lives!) or I can ask for no super-early report times or for no trips more than 4 days.  This doesn't necessarily mean I'll get any of that, but if it is able to, the system tries to honor my requests.  We did a mock-bid to get us all used to the new way of bidding and we got the results today.  I was rather pleased with how that turned out, but it was only a mock-bid and not everyone entered a bid.  So we'll see how the next mock-bid goes and the next one and then before you know it, we'll be going live with our bids and I'll have a line!

Today I attended a seminar about my new work rules and while there are some things that are less awesome than they were before, there are a LOT of things that are going to be more awesome!  And I am trying very hard to be positive about it.  Because really, there isn't anything I can do to change it right now, so I might as well accept it and embrace it and, in the very wise words of Tim Gunn, "make it work!"

I was very lucky to get a ride to the seminar this afternoon from one of my very favorite flight attendant friends.  It was lovely to be able to have someone to sit next to in class, though it turned out that I knew quite a lot of the ladies (and one of the gentlemen) who were there.  Getting a ride meant lots of things, including the fact that I could wear fun shoes without socks because I wouldn't have to be trudging through the sludge & salt on the sidewalks to get to & from the bus!  And I love a fun shoe!

Black Perry Ellis blazer - Thrifted; White tie-neck blouse - Old Navy; Brown snakeskin print pants - Gap; Turquoise wedges - Target 


I went back to the kitchen for today's outfit photos because the living room is a bit of a mess.  I've been reading the materials for the seminar off & on for the last week or so and I've got a few piles of print-outs going on, not to mention a stack of mail that needs to be shredded and a pile of magazines I need to read & recycle.  How am I ever going to find time to do all of those things once I actually have to EARN my pay?  Please note the sarcasm.

Also, I told some people in the comments that I would take a close up photo of the print of these pants the next time I wore them, because right now, they just look like brown pants.  I failed to do so before the lighting got so bad that it was just laughable.  Soon, my lovelies, soon!

Two-for-Tuesday

I've got two outfits for you from last week.  I'm still not doing great about updating with any regularity, but at least I'm remembering to take photos when I DO get dressed.

Also, I realize I often say things like, "I haven't bothered getting dressed" or "I didn't get dressed at all last week" and I think it makes me sound like I'm not even getting out of my pjs in the morning, which is not exactly the case.  Take this week, for instance.  I've been on call and twice I've had to go to the airport and do something called On-Premise Reserve, where I hang out for 6 hours in case they need me in short notice.  I didn't end up going anywhere, but when I was home on those days, I didn't really bother putting on an outfit.  I wore clothes, but one day it was leggings & a tshirt and another day it was jeans & a sweater.  Not exactly blog-worthy.  So, just to clarify, I do wear clothes on a regular basis.

I'm also gearing up for another closet purge.  I've been steadily adding to the discard pile and I have a few more items that are headed that way.  And unfortunately, the things I am most getting rid of are tops.  And tops are, incidentally, what I already have the least variety in.  I went to the Mall of America on one of my days off last week to see if I could hunt down any good sales and I made myself ignore ALL bottoms and ONLY try on tops.  I found a few possibilities on the sales rack at Old Navy, but they weren't anything I was in love with and I ended up coming home empty-handed.  I have two days off this weekend, so I think I'm going to plan a trip to a few thrift stores to see what I can dig up.

Leopard-print cardigan - Old Navy; YES concert shirt - eBay; Skinny jeans - Mossimo via Target; Brown MIA boots - 6pm.com

It's been a hot minute since y'all have seen those jeans on this blog.  I think I mentioned before that I got pretty lazy after I injured myself in the half-marathon. Truth be told, I'd put on more weight than I was comfortable with and those jeans were a wee bit snug, so I've been really nagging myself to get things back in order.  So far, I've managed to work out every other day for the last three weeks and I've treated myself to a few new workout DVDs to keep things interesting until I can start running outside again.  Meanwhile, I brought out ANOTHER item of clothing y'all haven't seen in a while.

Oh yes.  My faux-leather leggings.  I saw an image on Pinterest of a girl wearing leather leggings & boots, so I decided maybe I could do it to.  I added the cream-colored sweater to try to keep the look a little softer.  And I'll tell you what.  These leggings don't hide much.  I was glad to be wearing a coat that covered my bum when I wore these last week!  One of the things I'll be looking for on my thrifting trip will be tunic-length tops so I can wear these leggings and not have to worry about panty lines.  I'll also be keeping my eyes out for a few decent collared button-downs.

Sweater - Mossimo via Target; Faux-leather leggings - Gap; Gray Madden Girl boots - Peebles