A surviving sunflower. The other weekend I brushed a guinea pig-sized pile of fur off Mia and stuck clumps of it in the cleavages of leaves to stalk of this surviving sunflower. The other one--only two of these seeds sprouted--squirrels toppled when they decapitated its newborn flower, this despite my carefully choosing non-seeding varieties. I guess the flowers still taste good, or--here's a thought--maybe the squirrels are just malevolent vermin.
Two miles, my first such long swim of the summer. But I have gained some endurance, because my shoulders never bleated, neither in the third k nor afterward.
Yesterday AEK, Soccer, and I drove out to Littleton where our friend George was in an arts festival.
(I would call George "Monkey" because she likes monkeys a lot, except that Scarf's daughter is already Monkey, but George has precedent as a woman's name and a monkey's name and her square for our first baby quilt was, of course, of Curious George. She is in the neighborhood bookclub, though emeritus for having removed to Capitol Hill.)
She and her mother design and create handbands and purses. Handbands as an accessory I could take or leave (meaning, leave), but her fabrics are fabulous and AEK and Soccer looked adorable in theirs. The purses are works of art and I actually bought one, pretty and impractical as it is. It joins the dress I bought a couple of months ago and am reserving for my upcoming 20-year high school reunion.
Thursday as my coworkers and I discussed the new restrictions on carry-on baggage, I lamented that I didn't want to check a bag containing The Dress and risk its going missing in Cincinnati, where I have to connect. CoolBoss and Minnie liked the dress I was wearing at the time, thought it flattering and appropriate and lisaish, and therefore wanted to see The Dress. I brought it in on Friday to model briefly and they both approved. They didn't question my workaday Dansko sandals with it, but Saturday when I told my three bookclubmates about my plans for the purse, they wanted to see the dress, and later when they saw (and strongly approved) it, they hated the sandals with it. RDC agrees that they are "too big" for such a dainty dress.
AEK has my same sandals but in bone, which I thought was too close to the dress color (and privately considered to teeter between white leather and cringeful taupe). Maven suggested black, since the purse has black in it, and I have the sandals in black too but I don't like black shoes with pale colors. Scarf suggested red shoes, for sassyness. But I am not sassy, and I do not believe Cynthia Heimel's suggestion that all you need are white sneakers, black boots, and red heels. I would not be comfortable in red shoes. I would consider, say, celery- or lime-colored shoes (oo, I sound like Treehorn's mother, trying to find a hat that matches her dress, in just the right shade of green). But not red.
Then I remembered my linen slingback sandals, "natural" colored linen and thinly trimmed in brown leather. I can walk and dance in them, they are dressy and belong to that small number of shoes I keep in their boxes, and they do good things for my legs.
Sunday RDC and I stopped for a bite of sushi after the gym, and as we walked home we passed Scarf and a visiting friend of hers whom I had met on Friday and liked immediately. I abandoned RDC and accompanied them shopping, where they tried to suggest wedges and stacked heels and toe-floss and t-straps and shoes that tie up the calf and Scarf insisted slingbacks don't go with a sundress (?!) and I stood fast.
I am going to wear eyeliner to this event, and that is enough costuming for me. I am not going to wear garish shoes--garish in color or style--too. Plus if I wear the slingbacks, my additional refusal to have any pedicure that involves sloughing off my callouses (which I need to walk on) or putting make-up on my feet won't shame the local What Not to Wear collective. Based on photographic evidence, Haitch called the Dansko sandals atrocious with the dress, buth both she and my sister said the slingbacks, on the other hand (literally on the other foot, since I posed in one of each) were fine, so I'm calling myself done.
But it's awfully fun to have girlfriends (and a friend, and a sister).