ordinary people

It's a rainy rainy horrible day out. It's also my first day off all week and I'd had plans to bike all over town running various errands. Plans ruined, instead I'm indoors watching "Freaks & Geeks" re-runs and feeling antsy. I ran outside for a few minutes for photos and as soon as I got back in, it started pouring again.   I bought these jeans last year as I'd found them in the sale section. I really never wear pants, and certainly not jeans. Anyone who reads this blog with any sort of regularity knows this. They're just so uncomfortable and never fit correctly. I've hemmed these, but the gap in the waist to hips is so irritating. I keep these handy for lazy days such as today, but otherwise I'm not much of a fan...   The outfit was inspired by a number of things, all pertaining to the 1970s. I spent the morning chatting with my mum and going through her jewelry boxes. My mum was a major hippie. Let's get that out of the way first. Her wedding dress was something out of the Renaissance Festival, and instead of a veil she wore flowers in her hair. Today I came across a huge Taurus pendant and also her wedding and engagement ring. She and my father had picked them up at an art fair and they're chunky brass rings with some sort of topaz-esque stone set in. Not your typical wedding rings, but yet I was completely unsurprised to find them; Very typical of my flower power mum. After all this, the bell bottoms were essential and my Campus Casuals button down is the perfect psychadelic '70s print.   I'd already been in a bit of a hippie-dippie mood after re-reading 1976's "Ordinary People" by Judith Guest.   I'm such a dork for character studies. I first read this book in 10th grade. I remember that I was the only one participating in the discussions (and was probably the only one who actually read the book cover to cover, word for word). This meant that the classroom discussions were me talking to myself about the dynamic relationships among characters in the book and why they are who they are. It's an astonishingly human look at the complicated and in-depth minds of a family of totally ordinary people. If anyone is looking for a new read, I most certainly recommend this.   I've always been fascinated by character studies. I believe that one of the only reasons I like people are because there's such a variety of them but we connect and relate through these strange behaviours and feelings...which are totally ordinary but you really don't realise it till you notice how many other people are the same way.   I remember I once wrote a story about a boy and one of the things he did was when he'd feel hungry or bored, he'd open the fridge and just stare inside, not really noticing what was there, and then close it and walk away. A number of people read this part and brought it up to me as something they do regularly. It's a totally ordinary behaviour, but it's so simple and seemingly unimportant, why bring it up? I love character studies because they make you so concious of your human-ness.   One of the things I've been doing lately, speaking of ordinary human behaviour, is keeping a journal. I've found myself, being full of thought and feeling but no one to intimately share it with, in desperate need of a place to store these thoughts. So from time to time, I write in my Felix the Cat journal about being single, about how fed up I am with my work place, about how appreciative I am of my friends, about feminism, about things I'd like to do, whatever is on my mind. It feels great, if not a bit lonely, to clear my head. I've found that having less stress makes the day go by faster and a little less miserably. As a teenage girl, everyday is a whirlwind of emotion and it's good to be able to write it down instead of bottling it up.   I think in the past when I've tried journaling, I've made it all date specific, talking about what went on in my day. It was so much going on. In my new phase of journaling, I'm focusing on one specific feeling and writing it all out till I no longer feel so anxious. This doesn't mean that work isn't pissing me off any less or that I don't feel as lonely being single. It just means that I can organise all these emotions and not be quite so overwhelmed with the anxiety of them all.   Hopefully I don't bore everyone with my emotions. Sometimes it's scary when people get too emotional about things, especially when you're an outsider looking in. Yeah this is a "fashion" blog and all, but it's also written by an 18 year old girl, and that doesn't come without a lot of mix up and confusion, unfortunately.   Anyways, hopefully the weather will pick up a be a bit nicer for my day off tomorrow. I work for most of next week unfortunately, so I'd like to enjoy some fresh air and sunlight while I can! Don't forget about the Summer of Sundresses. Email me at urban_tease@yahoo.com with a photo of yourself wearing a sundress, along with your name, location, and favourite summer activity. I look forward to sharing them with everyone!