To skinny jean or not to skinny jean?

Hello Island readers! Welcome to the first post of 2013. I trust everyone had a wonderful New Year's Eve and spent New Year's Day as everyone should: sleeping in, eating breakfast food all day, and lying on your couch watching Pitch Perfect. Face it, lying on your couch is not that different from mermaid dancing.

As I discussed in my last post of 2012, 2013 is the year that I do a better job at being the leading lady in my own life. The only way to make sure that I do this and achieve leading lady status is to select things that I can do to achieve this goal. The only way to know you've achieved a goal is to quantify it so I've decided that I need to put some actual parameters around how to do this. So of course, that means a list. I don't have all the specifics worked out yet but here's my first draft:

• Get involved in volunteering again
• Take a dance class (maybe tap or ballroom just because)
• Go to Paris
• Be the instigator of plans 
• Allow my friends to set me up on blind dates (I mean, why not?)
• Be more spontaneous (I'm not sure how one quantifies this but that may be the point)
• Be more daring in my fashion choices and dress like a leading lady

Today we focus on this last one since I'm struggling to define my fashion identity. I'm not sure that I've ever really had one. In high school, I wore a lot of black and baggy clothes (I would say this was because I was on the tech crew for most shows we did but really it was a self-esteem thing). I did try to branch out more in college - wore more skirts and dresses and "going out" clothes (at least my version thereof). I even wore tank tops without a cardigan. Crazy times.

The cardigan has probably been the only real staple of my wardrobe over the years. I believe I may have actually been called "Cardigan Girl" at one point but I may also be making that up. Clearly, I am a Southern lady since I do love a sweater set (and we all know how much Southern ladies love sweater sets). In college I was particularly attached to sweater sets. My favorite was a baby blue one (really?) with embroidered flowers and a little tank top to match. It was from the Gap if I remember correctly.  But I also really like cardigans in a punk rock, Patti Smith, grunge sort of way. I love long cardigans because they somehow feel fancy and having a cardigan is always a good idea. I've also come to embrace dark jeans as my favorite fashion invention of all time. Yes, I would like to wear a pair of jeans that make my legs look longer and are slimming all at the same time. But there really are only so many combinations of cardigans, basic tees, and dark jeans that I can get away with. At some point, I need to dress like a leading lady. And if I'm following the Kate Winslet school of leading ladydom, then I need to invest in some wonderfully tailored blouses, a blazer or two, and a few "perfect" dresses. And scarves - Kate knows how to rock a scarf unironically.

It's also possible that I will need to embrace two items of clothing that I have sworn to never wear: skinny jeans and knee high/mid-calf boots. Now don't get all excited - there are some people who look marvelous in skinny jeans. Many of my friends are those people. And all of them can rock knee high or mid-calf boots like champs. I envy their easy relationship with their boots and the carefree way in which they accessorize with scarves and cute jewelry (it's like they already went through leading lady school with Ms. Winslet). I, on the other hand, have large calves and feel like skinny jeans accentuate the parts of my legs that dark jeans (non-skinny variety) help to make awesome.

But things change don't they? On New Year's Day instead of eating breakfast food all day and watching Pitch Perfect, I spent the day with my parents. We watched football (seriously Michigan?) and had a nice dinner together that did not involve breakfast food. Most importantly, my mother gave me a pair of purple skinny jeans. I have no idea what possessed my mother to purchase them (originally for herself by the way) and I have absolutely no idea why I really like them. I didn't think I would but I do. A lot. So much, in fact, that I am now on the hunt for a pair of boots to wear with them. I own ankle boots but those don't look right and if I'm going to take the plunge and wear skinny jeans, shouldn't I get the boots to match?

Now just because I'm accepting one pair of skinny jeans into my life does not mean that I accept skinny jeans for all. I still stand by my previous comments on men and skinny jeans (or as my friend Daniella likes to say, "he'd be cuter if he had worn different pants"). This is simply a fashion experiment for me. How will I know that I don't like them if I don't try wearing them? So this weekend I will find the perfect (and affordable) pair of boots to wear when I rock those purple skinny jeans. And I will begin my journey of being a fashionable leading lady.

So tell me how you feel about Steve Guttenberg?

Back before I moved to Arlington, I used to tell people that I wasn't cool enough to live here. I was specifically referring to Clarendon, a cool kid neighborhood where my company's office just happens to be located. My friend Emily described the neighborhood this way, "This neighborhood could only get hipper if they put a bird on it." If you have no idea what this means, hopefully this video will help you:

When Emily posted this gem, I was at the airport in Orange County waiting for my flight back to San Francisco. I starting laughing loudly and the two people sitting near me seemed a little startled. The man asked me what was so funny and I had to explain it to him. His response was that he was from Portland. And then he returned to his book.

One of my many accomplishments this week was that I finally got cable and internet (and a landline phone-what?) installed. I have tv again! After a delightful evening out exploring Arlington (thank you Allison and Thayer), I was flipping through channels and stumbled upon the 1987 "classic" Three Men and a Baby. I can't remember the last time I watched this movie. Here are some highlights:

• Leonard Nimoy (yes, Spock) directed this movie. Please take a moment to consider how funny this is. He did not direct the sequel but he did direct and an episode of TJ Hooker.
• There was a time in our collective past when Steve Guttenberg was a very popular, well-paid actor. He was also very popular with the ladies (apparently). This seems like something we should all discuss at some point because if this can happen, imagine the possibilities for us all. (And for the record, I love Steve Guttenberg, particularly in The Boyfriend School.)
• If I understood the opening sequence correctly, Tom Selleck, Steve Guttenberg, and Ted Danson are the epitome of hip, sophisticated, urban cool. They're men about town (literally depicted in the mural Steve's character paints in the entry way to their home) and possibly were the 1987 version of hipsters (if there could be such a thing).

I've discussed my love/hate/love/hate relationship with all things hipster in the past. Alameda was definitely a hipster haven and benefitted greatly from the need for trendy coffee shops, local art stores, and cool kid bars. I admit that I have hipster tendencies; I love Wes Anderson (considered by many to be the original hipster), The Decemberists, owls, hedgehogs, and polka dots. But that's where the similarities end. I'm too old to be a hipster although I'm exactly the age one should be to love irony, PBR, and discussing Neil Diamond music. The problem is that irony makes me tired, PBR is terrible, and I actually like Neil Diamond.

I have a very wise friend named Matt who enjoys making comments about my coolness."Just tell them that you actually liked stuff before actually liking stuff was cool." This is one of my favorite things Matt has ever told me. In this one sentence, Matt figured out my entire life and has given me my new gauge for how to make friends. Now I'll have to ask new people I meet if they like irony and if they've always liked something. I imagine the conversation will go something like this:

(Erin meets New Friend in the cereal aisle of Trader Joe's.)

Me: Hi New Friend.
New Friend: Hi Erin.
Me: Random question, if you had to pick a KISS solo album to listen to on a Saturday night, would you pick Peter Criss or Ace Frehley?
New Friend: Neither-we all know that the KISS solo albums were just an exercise in ego. If I'm going to listen to KISS, I'm going to listen to Destroyer or Creatures of the Night.
Me: Good to know. Another question, at sporting events when people sing those annoying add on lines during "Sweet Caroline" do you sing along?
New Friend: No, Neil Diamond wouldn't approve.
Me: Have you always liked Neil Diamond?
New Friend: Yep. What's not to like? I mean, "Cherry, Cherry" is classic 60s pop music.
Me: How do you feel about irony?
New Friend: Well, irony is not really something that I feel any one way towards. As a literary device, it's useful and interesting. As a lifestyle choice, well, people could do better things with their time. I always thought that there should be a punctuation for irony. (Side note: this is an actual thing. People have proposed a special punctuation for irony. For real.)
Me: I couldn't agree more, New Friend. Well, I've gotta get back to work. Nice seeing you. Are you up for trivia on Wednesday night?
New Friend: Sure, but we still need our sports person and we're not ending the night at Spider Kelly's.

Scene.

Punk rock, avocados, and provincial hipsters

In two weeks, I will no longer be a Californian. I'm not really sure that I'm one now but I'll be giving up my only claim to being a Californian: my California driver's license (which I'm looking forward to since it's a horrible picture). When I started this blog last fall, I was trying to figure out how to live here and be me at the same time. I think I've figured out a few things so I thought I'd revisit the list I made right before I started writing from the Island. This list was really the start of the blog so let's see how these things look another year later.

Things I've Learned While Living in California

1. Date off island. Alameda is an island and according to a friend who has lived here for 20+ years, the only way to date is off island. His theory is that if you date on island everyone will know and talk about you because everyone knows everyone else's business. I'm not sure that this is an Island thing or a small town thing. If I lived in a small town the same thing would be true so I've decided that this is not so much a California thing as a "live in a larger city if you want more privacy" thing. 
2. I will never be local. I actually wrote about this not too long after I started the blog. I've been here just about 2 years and that still only equals a nanosecond to some people. As I wrote previously, it doesn't matter that I'm involved in the community, shop local, and tell everyone how awesome Alameda is. Still not enough to be a local. I was willing to work to be a local but I don't know to how here. This is one of the reasons I'm not terribly sad about moving back to Virginia. I'll miss my friends and certain things about Alameda, but I don't really have an anchor here.
3. Double parking. I still don't get this. I know people double park everywhere but it's like a sickness or an addiction here. It's not a safe practice - streets are fairly narrow so it's not always possible or safe to go around someone who is double parked. It's also not safe for pedestrians who might be getting out of the double parked car or are trying to get around it. And don't even get me started on bicyclists (in general and when they're trying to go around a double parked car too).
4. Provincial hipsters. It's difficult to be both provincial and a hipster haven but Alameda seems to be able to pull it off AND do it well. I went to the Alameda Fourth of July parade this week and it's the perfect combination of both. A parade that features the Girl Scouts, the NRA, and a group of organic backyard farmers is pretty much the epitome of provincial hipsterism. I still don't want to deal with your ironic statement babies but thanks, hipsters. Without you there probably wouldn't be any cute coffee shops, local art stores, or good pizza places in Alameda. I appreciate your efforts, I just prefer my men without scarves and wearing non-skinny jeans.
5. Food judgement. Two years has not changed the fact that I like bacon and chicken and I am okay with them not being organic, free range, or local. I'm cool with it if they are but I'm not going to go out of my way to make that happen. I also like cheese (fancy and processed) and I occasionally like to eat Kraft Macaroni & Cheese (it's the cheesiest). I'm not ashamed of any of these things and I am finally able to say that within this state and not care if someone judges me. If you want to be a vegan or raw foodist or whatever else, be my guest. You stay out of my shopping cart and I'll stay out of yours.
6. Humidity, heat, and cold. I wore a sweater the entire time I was at the parade on Wednesday. And I was comfortable. If I had taken it off I would have been cold. That just doesn't feel right to me. As much as I love the fact that I can sleep comfortably with my windows open most of the summer (it's really more like most of the year) and am not currently melting, I miss seasons (particularly fall). Get ready leaves, I'm dying to see you change colors. 
7. Punk rock and cheese. I just reread Gordon Edgar's book Cheesemonger. If you like cheese, you should read this book. I enjoyed it even more the second time around. He's a punk rock cheesemonger. I totally understand how the two are linked and I like his honesty about being in the cheese business and all the snobbery that comes with it. I'm not entirely sold on collectives but that's okay; I think he would understand. Gordon made me feel better about food judgement and dealing with it like a grown-up instead of like a petulant child. Also one of my favorite quotes is in this book: "A lot of punks say they hate everyone, but a wise friend once said to me that punks are basically nice people pretending to be mean, whereas hippies are mean people pretending to be nice." (page 205)
8. Buy "local". I'm a loyal local shopper. Even if I no longer live in the immediate area where your store is but I like your products, I will buy them online or stock up when I'm back in town. Being a New Orleanian, I fully support the idea of buying locally (and I still buy locally even though I no longer live there) but I still feel that people here too narrowly define "local" or "locally made." Sorry, I have a much broader definition of local and it doesn't mean grown in my backyard (because I don't have one). I also think that there's too much negativity placed on shopping at non-local stores. I'm tired of feeling bad about going to big box stores or chain restaurants. Trust me, I get it but sometimes I just want to get stuff done instead of having to go to more than one place or I want to eat a burger where I don't have to hear about how the cow was treated or that the tomatoes were grown 5 feet from where I'm sitting. It doesn't make me a bad person - it just makes me practical. And that's not always a bad thing. 
9. Adding avocados = California. This may, in fact, be the biggest myth of California. Slap an avocado on something and it's instantly healthier and more Californian than it was before. I didn't notice this much before I moved here but now I notice it all the time. The funny thing is that it happens here too (at all types of restaurants). My friend, Erin, recently pointed out that most of the avocados (or avocadi - I prefer this version of the plural) consumed in the US actually come from Mexico so it's not just a myth, it's false advertising.
10. Everything's pedestrian. I love walking in Alameda. This might be what I will miss the most when I move. It's so easy to walk places here and it's always a lovely walk. A year ago, all I did was drive and it was annoying. I still drive to work and the grocery but I find myself walking to a lot more places theses days. I still have some issues with pedestrians when I'm driving (don't flip me off because I have the right of way and you're not paying attention - DON'T WALK applies to you too) but overall, I've gotten used to the pedestrian nature of Alameda. 

Bikers, well, they're another story. One day I'm sure I'll understand them too.