Ecoatnomics

I haven't bought a coat and I haven't fixed my TV.

My conscience won't let me buy the $1,200 Burberry coat. I definetely can't afford it, and I buy things I can't afford all the time (see: every entry on this blog), but I just can't make myself walk down the street - it would be that easy; I live in Candy Land! - and lay down for it. It's just... too much. How unglamorous to have to say that.

And someone who knows nothing about plasma televisions said to me: "I've heard that plasma screens just do that sometimes, man, like the lava that's floating underneath the screen - the plasma (the magma!) - gets stuck somehow." Well, that's good enough for me! Will just ignore it til it goes away.

Can't ignore the cold though, so I'm going to have to pony up soon - somewhere between Lands End and Burberry. That sounds like a song name - "Somewhere between Lands End and Burberry."

...sung by CRAZY.

Blue Spot

No, not the one on my wall. The one IN MY TELEVISION. My huge, 52-inch, flat-screen plasma television on which I watch THE FOOTBALL. The one I paid more for than I have ever paid for anything, ever, ever? Has a big blue spreading spot where underneauth - I think? - a bulb has gone out. Or bulbs or what. I don't know. Whatever it is, I know it's going to be expensive.

Hook 'em Horns!

Texas Fight! That is all.

It's 4:29 p.m. and OU still sucks

Just returned from a relaxing few days in La Jolla, California. I was grateful to have some unseasonably warm and sunny weather from which to tan by, some spare hours with which to read and reflect (mostly on the freakshow that's been my life since our last visit to the same resort in 2005 - I say freakshow in only a minimally negative way. Some freakshows are fun.) and the freedom to sleep in, which I did with only limited interuption from work dreams.

I was not, however, impressed by the boutiques or the general shopping climate at all. I did score a pretty cashmere cardigan and shell on sale from White House Black Market, but I have one of those next door to my office in Chi, so it wasn't the exhilarating omg gorgeous one-of-a-kind SoCal find I was hoping for. My problems, they are burdensome.

Now trying to decide whether to keep my original flight and return to Chicago on Saturday afternoon or to rebook for Sunday because apparently I was smoking crack when I booked my tickets - in the middle of the Red River Shootout! If I stay and we lose, it'll be a waste of time and money. BUT! if I leave and we win and I miss the whole thing, well, that's just a situation a Texan should never put herself in. What was I thinking?

(Not really, Mom. It's a turn of phrase)

Ready to start my summer vacation. Where is everybody?

Current temperature: 53 degrees

Oh. You say it’s October? I almost didn’t notice. Really! And I’ve said before that work topics are a *No-No on this blog – I generally like to leave work at work and devote blogging to the other Highly Important Things that occupy my mind like shoes and Silver Oak Napa. BUT. I only have one explanation for the absence of blog posts, and that is that I’ve been working on a large project since mid-April and essentially McFlied the entire summer in the process. HOWEVER, THUS, AS SUCH and THE IRAQ, we made a plan and then executed that plan (hi Jeff) in South Carolina a few weeks ago and I hope to Return to Blogging! with fervor.

Ok, BUT FIRST, I really desperately need to get my sh*t together, like, I need to clean my house and organize my files and attend Junior League meetings and get back in the gym and go grocery shopping and balance my checkbook and I kind of need emotionally to do it all TODAY, like AS SOON AS I GET HOME or my brain will explode, THEN? MAYBE? I’ll feel better. Here’s hoping. Ha!

After I do that, I’ll probably have to face the fact that summer is gone. But I love the fall here (we never really had fall in Texas), so this whole coming to terms with reality is a good opportunity to return to blogging about my original intended purpose: to write about things I like. Shopping and style. So let’s talk about two big-ticket items that I need for fall and winter and see if I can’t be inspired back to blogging regularly. Or, you know, ever.

A dress coat

Every year for the past three years, I’ve bought and re-bought this basic black wool dress coat from the Victoria’s Secret catalogue. It’s warm, it looks good, but the lining rips in the pockets and the bodice every year and it’s more affordable to just replace the whole thing than to replace the lining so I end up buying the exact same coat year after year. Dumbass. This tells me that perhaps this year I should spend more money on a higher-quality winter coat that will last more than a year. So I’m considering laying down the cold cash and buying the **Granddaddy of All Winter Coats (I almost typed “Goats” – I love goats!! I love them! I really do.), a Burberry coat. I refuse to buy a North Face coat (I did it again! A North Face goat!) because I also need…

Ugg boots

I love Uggs for all the right and wrong reasons. Mostly I love the concept of sheepskin-lined boots (right reason), but since I’m a little trendy (wrong reason) I bought Uggs back in 2003. They served me incredibly well until I forgot them in a shopping bag under the table in a bar/club last year during my send-off party from my old job. The shopping bag also contained a pair of Havianas and some gym clothes, so I really lost out. At least I didn’t have a pair of Rainbows and a Nalgene in there. Or I’d have to slap myself in the face - for the same reason I can’t buy a North Face coat - I can only handle one super-trendy/everybody has one/clone-lemming item at a time. Props, however, to those who can pull it all off.

So, it may be October, but I happen to have procured two things that would make any girl happy – a vacation and a shopping list. Not bad.

*At least this guy had a good summer vacation.

**I imagine he looks something like this. I mean, right?