Category — Thoughts On Grown-Upness

I’ve been a real live grown-up for more than three years now, and one of the trickiest things about being a working girl – aside from doing your own laundry, taxes, and figuring out what’s for dinner – is finding the perfect work bag.  Any working girl will tell you, the perfect work carryall is bizarrely hard to come by.  Sometimes you find the perfect bag, but it’s just too heavy, or worse, professional-looking, without any fashion at all.  Here are my criteria for the perfect work bag:

1. Style.  An ugly bag is an ugly bag is an ugly bag.
2. Weight — this is a big one for me.  I always fall head-over-heels in love with big, obnoxiously heavy bags, and that just won’t do in a typical 9-to-6.
3. Pockets, and magic secret compartments … especially one for your cell phone, so that you’re not always doing the crazy I’ve-lost-my-phone-in-my-bag dance.
4. Room for a laptop or ipad.
5. I also really love the option of a messenger strap – for comfort’s sake.
6. Structure.  But that’s just personal preference.
7. A bit of it factor.  If I’m going to endure suits (blech!), I’m at least going to carry one heck of a great bag.  Fabulous shoes don’t hurt either.

Bags, First Row: 3.1 Phillip Lim Pashli Satchel // Marc by Marc Jacobs Too Hot To Handle Colorblock Shopper // Michael Kors Collection Blake Large Satchel // Second Row: Diane von Furstenberg 440 Top Handle Embossed Croc Bag // 3.1 Phillip Lim 31 Hour Bag // Tory Burch Robinson Double Zip Tote

shopbop satchel

I am admittedly a huge fan of accessories. It’s all of that sparkle and color and mix-and-matching. I get caught up in it. And last summer, when the idea of an arm party full of friendship bracelets took it’s turn on the trend-wheel once again, I was right on board. Really, who didn’t love friendship bracelets back in the day? But fast forward to the present, and I quickly realized that a wrist full of neon-colored floss didn’t translate quite as well when I was meeting with a client or talking to a judge, so for the time being, all of my pretty homemade friendship bracelets are tucked away in a drawer until the next cruise.  But this season’s hottest arm party bracelets are full of mixed metals and leathers; a.k.a., I’m hooked. I love that the newest stacks of bracelets are a bit more sophisticated but still edgy.  And I want.them.all.

I love the idea of mixing different colors of warm leather, mixed metals, and plenty of sparkle. Are you re-creating your arm party this season?

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Although I am unbelievably type-A and have every other aspect of my life organized, I am a messy-house person.  I clean for guests, exclusively.  I used to crack jokes about being messy.  I won over roommates by being a good cook – friends were happy to pick up when I made chicken-and-dumplings and homemade salad dressing.  My husband, he’s messy too.  So we charmingly declared ourselves “two peas in a pod” and scraped together what we could for the occasional maid service (whom we could have kissed at the culmination of each visit.)  Nowadays, the hubby and I work crazy hours.  We have one car and I pick him up from public transportation that he rides from the hospital each night around 9:30pm.  I then scramble to throw dinner together because I can’t stand the idea of something frozen or served through a drive-through window.  Then we eat with our computers on our laps, sleep, and do it all over again the next day.  I’m not complaining.  I couldn’t be happier.  We all have our own stress and our own hectic schedule to juggle – I don’t ever judge whether someone is justifiably “busy” – that’s just crazy.

But here’s the thing … how do we throw a baby into the mix?  I just can’t imagine.

The fact that I’m even writing “baby” on this blog scares the pants off of me.  (Actually, I think I’ll keep my pants on, I wouldn’t want to add to the ever-growing laundry pile.)  It’s about to get personal here, people …

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I have been on the hunt for that perfect pair of glasses for what feels like an eternity now.  I have also been near-blind since about the second grade when my teacher caught me squinting up at the chalkboard.  It was all downhill after that.  Since then I’ve been through one disastrous pair of prescription glasses after the other.  I went through my red plastic Sally Jesse Raphael glasses phase.  I broke a few pairs in between those.  Then I had a thin tortoise shell pair of frames that I’ve painfully worn, only on those days when I could not stand to wear my contacts for a second longer.  But today, I’m ready to proudly wear my glasses.  (Evidence, below.)  Geek has to be chic by now … right?

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