Pocket Docket: Cargo Carried in Style

Bag: Marshalls

Boots: ShoeDazzle, Zulily

Top: Elizabeth and James, Kohl's

Hearts and Flowers Cameo Necklace

Tee: Macy's

Opening Night Necklaces

Bag: Betsey Johnson, Macy's

Top: Xhilaration, Target

Shoes and bag: LC Lauren Conrad, Kohl's

Skirt: Candie's, Kohl's

Bird and Blossom Necklace and Barrettes

Pocket doors, pocket squares, pocket change.  These phrases harken back to a simpler time yet also hint at the future.  A door, after all, is a sign of a new beginning, and you can't walk through one without something sharp to wear and a little spending money.  Then there's "Pocket Full of Kryptonite" from the Spin Doctors.  Which reminds us that pockets -- and in this case, the future -- can sometimes be scary.  Still, show me a woman who doesn't squeal like a five-year-old with a new My Little Pony upon discovering that her fresh-from-the-store dress has pockets for stashing lipstick, tissues, or emergency M&Ms.  A subtle side pocket like this is so much more elegant than the cargo kind, even if I did use the C word in this title.  

What I'm saying is, surprises -- like pastel-colored, non-pooping ponies -- can be wonderful.

Ironically, the most prominent pocket in this post is just for show.  Because as some wise -- or sadistic -- person once said, fashion over function, my friends.  In case you can't see it, the pocket imposter in question is that black square on my red T-shirt in outfit number two, and it's completely covered by sequins.  

Because if you can't tote that tube of Cherries in the Snow, then you might as well sparkle.  

Movie Moment: Wanderlust

I was excited about Wanderlust.  Mostly because it starred Paul Rudd.  But also because it was a comedy about a yuppie couple (the other half of which is played by Jennifer Aniston) escaping the New York City rat race to start fresh on a Georgia commune.  I mean, what wouldn't be hilarious about that?

As it turned out, plenty.

Now, I realize it's a little early in the review for the snark snake to be rearing its ugly head.  And I hate to be that girl.  But I also hate to be dishonest.  So, that girl it is.

George (Paul Rudd) works in an office doing something boring.  Linda (Jennifer Aniston) bounces from jewelry making to ice cream making to making a documentary about penguins with testicular cancer.  Linda wants them to buy an apartment (er, micro-loft), so they do.  But then George gets laid off and they're forced to sell and move in with George's obnoxious brother and his family in Atlanta.  During the drive down, car trouble delivers them to the doorstep of Elysium, a utopian oasis in a gadget-crazy, dog-eat-dog world.  They spend an enchanted night there, an experience that renders life at George's brother's mansion the next day as even more abrasive.  George picks a fight and breaks a dish and before they know it, he and Linda are speeding back toward the serenity of the commune.

Only, Linda's not feeling it.  Weirded out by Elysium's doorless rooms, touchy-feely psychobabble, and unrelieved togetherness, she balks when George suggests they stay for two weeks.  Yet almost immediately the two do a switcheroo, with Linda embracing the alternative lifestyle and George longing for the square society they left behind (which makes perfect comedic sense, as Paul Rudd always plays the lone straight man swirling in a sea of chaos).  Nowhere is their disconnect as apparent as when George strums the Spin Doctors' "Two Princes" on a guitar only to be one-upped by his wife's soon-to-be paramour (Justin Theroux).  Weirdly, this is the movie's high point for me.  Not the part about Paul Rudd being dissed; I didn't like that at all.  But my favorite actor singing my favorite song?  That was downright, dare I say it, princely.

As for the rest of the movie, I couldn't help but feel that it needed to be either funnier in an over-the-top, can-you-believe-this? sort of way or more serious in a poignant, indie film, damn-that-really-made-me-think kind of way.  I think that's about as bitchy as I'm going to get.  Now that that's over with, I'll return to my happy place where Paul Rudd is still singing.

A Blog Award and Some Random Things About Me

Michelle of Michelle's Charm World was kind enough to award me and a whole host of other bloggers the Kreativ Blogger Award (yes, that's the way it's spelled), an honor she herself recently received. Uninitiated in the world of blog awards, I was charmed, especially when I read that those recognized often share ten random facts about themselves. I was game, so here are mine:

1) I've never been stung by a bee.

2) Speaking of bees . . . When I was in the seventh grade, I won my elementary school's geography bee. This was a total fluke, as I was no geography buff. Afterwards I had to take a test to qualify for the state competition. I passed, which was an even bigger fluke (that test was hard!). No one else from my school had ever passed it before, and there was much hoopla, culminating in a surprise party complete with a sheet cake. At home, I plastered the walls with maps donated by my teacher and pestered my parents to quiz me from past geography bee question manuals. I didn't care about geography any more than I had before winning the bee, but people were counting on me, and I didn't want to disappoint. When I arrived at Rutgers New Brunswick on the big day, I was one of a handful of girls. I was wearing pink plastic loafers and a pink satin top. In my nervousness I chattered to the boy sitting next to me. He didn't respond. Then the competition began, and the tension heightened. Early on I missed a question about tea being China's main export (I think I said rice), much to the horror of my teacher, who had come to witness my anticipated triumph. I was toast. And that kid sitting next to me? He ended up winning! Not long after that, he won the national geography bee too, which was televised and hosted by Alex Trebek. I'd been sitting next to a genius, dithering on in my cotton candy getup while he thought the great thoughts of a future champion. I returned to school the next Monday mortified, the memory of the sheet cake haunting me.

To this day, no one else from my elementary school has passed that test, rendering my fluke a reluctant claim to fame.

3) It's been nearly three years since I've had my hair cut professionally. Partly because I hate making chitchat with hairdressers, partly because I'm lazy.

4) I once owned 300 pairs of shoes. Now I have somewhere in the neighborhood of 120.

5) My favorite color is blue (of the sky and electric, not standard crayon box, variety), even though all of my Tote Trove stuff is hot pink.

6) My favorite song is "Two Princes," by the Spin Doctors. Every time I hear it I think something good is going to happen to me. It hasn't yet, but I haven't lost hope.

7) I love books but hate libraries. They smell funny.

8) This week I made my 100th sale on Etsy.

9) I once forced myself to read Moby Dick because I thought it would be a good learning experience. It wasn't.

10) I always wanted to live at the beach, and now I do.