You smiled and then the spell was cast

I'm still in this grungey mood. All I want to wear is layers upon layers and Doc Martens and hats and braid my hair. That sentence's grammar is hardly intact, but I cannot be bothered. It's finals season. You really cannot blame me. This laziness in dressing is not however entering my school life. I've been kicking ass left and right this week - heck, this entire semester - and I feel like I'm going to go out strong.   I decided to add a bit of class to my look today. Don't get me wrong, I really just wanted to wear a dress and ripped tights and at least two sweaters and a hat. But I resisted. Okay, I added the Doc Martens for a little dose of grunge. And crushed velvet makes my grungey little heart happy.   I'm also wearing a blouse from Lalamagic, a secondhand sweater from Gap, and a triple strand (see, classy!). This is probably the most stereotypically feminine that I've dressed in a while. I need to get back into this, I can't keep going to church looking like I just rolled out of bed and grabbed something off the floor.   I hate thinking about how Christmas is in less than 20 days and I have yet to get any decorations out! I haven't done any Christmas shopping (and I don't even have much to do!) or even sent my cards out (and I have loads of those!). Instead, I'm trying to keep my head up, plow through this last bit of semester, and then I have a plan to fit all my Christmas cheer into the 10 remaning days after I've turned in all my finals. Does anyone have suggestions on how to get a quick Christmas boost? I'm also looking for good recipes, gift ideas, crafts, etc! All and everything is appreciated.   Take care & stay warm (I was freezing taking these photos!) xx

7-Up

In going with tradition and starting the post off about weather: Global warming is going to ruin Christmas. Minnesota is already 10 inches behind on snowfall for this season and yesterday was 52°F out. I feel like, to remedy the problem, I need to set out and plant a bunch of trees in a desperate attempt to stop the icebergs from melting and bring Minnesota back to its natural chill. It's really rotten when other people ruin things for you. Like the environment. I don't drive. I rarely fly. I recycle everything under the sun. I take short showers. I re-use practically everything barring toilet paper and tampons. My little corner of the universe should be luxuriously snowy with a fully fleshed out polar bear population. I shouldn't have to suffer because the idiots around me want to drive huge vehicles and throw away plastic bottles and whatever other thoughtless things people do.   Sometimes I just want to punch people in the face. I want to go ice skating and for polar bears to stop dying, dammit! I deserve that!   Since it was disturbingly warm out yesterday, I decided to go the shorts and stockings route. My friend David Mendolia gifted me these shoes the last time I saw him. Apparently his mum drank loads of 7-Up when she was younger and collected enough pop tops (or something) to send off for these sweet kicks. Despite the wedge giving me a couple inches of lift, I felt sadly short anyways. It's the weight of my hopes and dreams - I'm shrinking from dragging them around for years and years without relief. I'm also wearing brand new slouchy socks from Ralph Lauren. I treated myself to them when I was in Macy's last week buying socks for my giving tree girl. I deserve a new pair of socks once in a while, am I right or am I right?     The coat is my mum's. She bought it back in 1989 when she was pregnant with my older sister. I love it. It's like a safety blanket, not to mention the colours and the print are amazing. It was the only jacket with green in it that I could find (to match my kicks). Given that it was raining (while I took these photos) it's a good thing that it has a hood.   Also while I was taking these photos: on the block down from me, a girl came out in the alley and also started to take photos of herself. Fellow blogger? I hope so. Minnesota is seriously lacking. I know of Cambria from Jupe...but that might be it. Where're all my fellow Minnesotans at?   Oh, to finish off what I'm wearing, the vest (for extra un-needed warmth) is from Tunnel Vision. Shorts are guess and the sweatshirt is something old from the back of my closet.    I can't wait till I can start focusing on Christmas! I have 2 more presentations (1 in French), 4 final papers (2 in French), 1 production, and 3 final exams. Plus apparently a couple of worksheets, which is silly if you ask me. But then after that, it's Christmas Christmas Christmas! And wishing for snow.

What it says on the bathroom wall

I'm that person who was never ever popular in high school or middle school. I was sort of the dorky loser who palled around with the other dorky losers and who no one had any interest in whatsoever. I always sort of yearned to have some ridiculous rumour about me spread like wildfire down the hallway during passing time. That was never the case. No one could care less about me, even when I started dating one of the more popular boys in school. Since I left high school after 10th grade to start college, I completely missed out on a good two years of gossip, bad school dances, and lunch room pranks. To fill this void, I've been doing two things. One is watching high school movies, like Sixteen Candles, Heathers, Pretty in Pink, Clueless, etc.   The second way is at work. I swear, the place I work is more like a high school. There's so much bad gossip and so many outlandish rumours that float around there. There's a lot of inter-department dating and questionable pregnancies. When I left for Europe in 2011, I tried to convince a coworker to spread the rumour that I was pregnant and my parents shipped me off to a convent to have the child. That rumour didn't go anywhere. I've since pretty much given up hope...   In an attempt to be thought of, I started writing "I love Chloe" on all the boxes at work. We each carry a different box with us each day and we share them from day to day. My graffiti is now on 4 boxes. I've been writing it because a) I'm a dork and b) I want my co-workers to see it and think to themselves, "Oh yeah, I do love Chloe!" and then be lost in thought about me for the rest of their shift. It's a little bit devious.   I also had a manager wave me over today to gush, "I know who has a crush on you!" I guessed immediately (she gives obvious clues) and then was asked out by said boy as I left work. It really is like high school there sometimes, I swear.   One thing that is different: I no longer dress like I'm in high school! When I walked into class the other day, a boy said to me, "Is it really warmer to wear tights?" Nope, I said...you just have to layer up on top so all your body heat can be concentrated in your legs. But it's worth it to not have to wear pants. It was 34°F the other day so I decided it would be alright to wear shorts (I won't if it's much below that), as long as I bundled up on top. I wore MinkPink shorts that I picked up from ModCloth a couple of years ago, paired with a polka dot top from Lalamagic, a thrift store sweater, a cardigan from a church sale, and Doc Martens. I was so toasty warm on top that I barely even noticed that my legs were a bit numb. All in all, an outfit success.   Moses also came out with me (he looovvvveeesss me) and wanted to be in some photos. He was a bit dopey and this was the best one. It also shows off the runs in my stockings, which I wasn't aware were there...   Anyways, this is a short post because I'm exhausted. The count down is on: 8 days, 4 presentations, 5 final essays (2 in French), 3 final exams, 1 production. I'm going to be exhausted. Wish me luck, and best of luck to all those also in the same boat as me. Keep warm and study hard xx