I was excited for today because it is, well, Friday and who doesn't love the promise of the weekend? Fridays are typically dress-down (a.k.a jeans) days at my school, and today I made the ultimate mistake. Knowing that it was picture day (when will I stop getting excited over that?) I wore a dress. I barely got into my classroom when my teammate (whom I love dearly, by the way) slid into my room and gasped. She gave me the third degree over wearing a dress instead of jeans. I tried explaining that it was picture day, but she wouldn't take that as an excuse. It was at this point that I took a deep breath and explained to her the pleasure I get from dressing up. I love to dress, and in recent years I have also taken great pleasure in accessorizing. It's almost like a game to me - how good can I make this outfit look?
I blame this seemingly sick fascination on my grandmothers, actually. From the time I was little I can remember both my Italian grandmother and my Irish grandmother dressing up before leaving the house. Even my Italian grandmother's housecoats were beautiful. They both wore jewelry - my Italian grandmother wore gold and my Irish grandmother wore mostly costume jewelry (I can still remember sitting on the carpet in front of the big boxy television watching Mr. Rogers and playing with the Cool-Whip container of clip-on earrings. My two favorites were lavender and orange.). I loved wearing dresses and perfectly matched outfits to elementary and middle school, but in high school I tried the grunge thing. Turns out it wasn't my thing. College was a different story because it was easiest to wake up and throw on some jeans or "lounge pants" and a sweatshirt and run to class. But once I started working in the real world I couldn't wait to get my cash on some clothes.
I'm a total bargain shopper (this I attribute to my mother, who would never buy us regular priced clothing. I HATED being dragged straight to the clearance racks to look for school clothes. But now...)... If it isn't the right price I won't buy it, even if I think I love it. Because the reality is that it's just clothing, and I can't love it enough to justify spending too much for it. I look for clearance and sale signs only. Again, it's like a game for me to find high quality clothing for screaming deals! I love the thrill of chasing down that perfect item of clothing.
Dressing up gets me up in the morning, plus I think it's important for teachers to dress nicely to impress and command the respect from students. My kindergarten teacher always had the best outfits - I even remember a specific pair of silver flats that I would find myself hoping she would wear every day, which of course she didn't because she had a different pair of shoes for each outfit. In fact, I saw her a couple years ago and she showed me the bag full of shoes she keeps in her car so she can change them throughout the day. She's in her 70s now. I love her. However, I haven't mastered the shoe obsession yet, only the clothing collection.
Anyhow, after this long and stressful week, I treated myself to a massage this evening. Massages are heavenly. I love the feeling of knots being released from my back muscles. Many times, if I'm lucky and focus only on my breathing, my muscles will relax and I will go into a state of awakened sleep, if that makes sense. Luckily that happened to me tonight and I am looking forward to a good night's sleep!
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