Boho Chic

 

You know when you see someone and you're like, "I totally want to look like her"? Not, necessarily like, be her twin or whatever, but you see someone and they always just look, put together? Or not just one person but you see people, and they're dressed. In actual outfits. Not just leggings and hoodies, or whatever mishmash came off the floor in a rush to do whatever errand had to be done. They're doing errands too, or just dropping kids off at school, and they aren't necessarily dressed UP, but they have a look. Somehow, they look like they curated their look vs playing eenie meenie miney moe with their eyes closed. They also don't look like they're always possibly headed to a gym, but not.

For example, the mom of the kids E babysits for. She has that look. If you asked her, she'd shoo you away and say you're crazy, this old thing, she just threw it together. But she never LOOKS LIKE SHE MEANS THAT. She doesn't look like she spent hours thinking about it, at all, but she never looks like a slob. What she looks like, is someone who literally walked off the pages of the Free People catalog. I'll get a picture with her permission sometime. You'll see what I mean.

Now, that Free People boho chic may not be your taste, or even mine. I don't know know if that is my style. I look at it and I like it, but I also feel like you have to have a certain body type to carry it off, like anything else. I don't have a style. That's the point. B did see glittery, platform, sort of ridiculous, Alexander McQueen sneakers the other night in the mall, that he had no idea were probably around $700, and said, in mock horror, "You're going to be wearing those when we're eighty and at the 4:30 dinner special, aren't you?". And I can't say that he's totally wrong. I mean, I won't be wearing $700 sneakers, ever. I may be wearing some brand of glittery platforms though. I know I have the potential for that style. The more glitter, the better. That's my motto. That's probably also a Leo thing.

 

In my mind, I'm a style covet-er. I see styles and I want to inhabit them. I just can't see that they're all wrong for me until I'm knee deep in receipts for stuff I should've never purchased in the first place. Then I'm yelling at myself because I should know better. 

This is also why I sell on Poshmark. Because over the years, I see someone like Kara, the mom of the kids E babysits for, and I'm like, "ooh, that's such a cool look". I buy stuff that looks similar, and it's all wrong for me. Or, remember when scarves were a big thing in the early 2000's. Everyone was wearing scarves. I was working in NYC on Park Ave then. I thought I would get in on that scarf thing. Guess what? Scarves are f'ing itchy. All of them. Bulky. Just a giant pain. I would see a tall gazelle-like woman wearing a pea coat, scarf, tall boots. Picture Carolyn Bessette Kennedy. Or...Gisele Bundchen. Except I'm not them. I don't have a sleek, chic, sophisticated bun. I have a messy Jew-fro where I can't tame the sides and look like I haven't washed it in a week. And maybe I haven't. #dontjudge 

 

 

Then, I end up having a closet full of ridiculous things, or not ridiculous things, but things that look ridiculous on me. I saw my friend Julie wearing the cutest James Perse jumpsuit with low top Converse sneakers. She looked adorable. I get a similar jumpsuit and look like a baby elephant. I'm not saying I'm even huge or anything. It's just that I can't seem to see the difference between appreciating these looks on someone else and realizing before buying they aren't for me. If I could, I'd be saving a lot of money and disappointment. 

Hats- same thing. Kara comes into the pool with her big floppy hat. Adorable. My friend Alex has a cool Fedora type hat to shield her from the sun on the beach. Jen- I'm pretty sure she likes a snazzy visor. I got a hat. Well. Lets just say, I tried to drive with it on. When you're not used to a wide brim floppy hat, you SHOULD NOT DRIVE WITH IT ON. I'm lucky I didn't kill anyone. I turned my head, the hat fell over my eyes and it was mayhem. Driving with no eyes is not recommended. Also, like the scarves- the hats are hot. Head = sweaty. Not good! It doesn't feel natural! Hats are bullshit! 

You'd think by my late forties I'd know what looks good and just stick to that. I just can't seem to have style envy though. I still have the will and desire to try things out that I know are going to go right to my for sale pile. I guess I should just be thankful I have an avenue to recoup my losses. 

For the record, now that I'm not physically going into a place of business daily, I think my style coveting days may really be over. I'm still never going to own anything beige. There's going to be color and fun in my everyday look. I just bought a bunch of sweatshirts at PINK with matching leggings. THAT, my friends, might be the style I've settled into for my middle age years. 

Summer of Tara

 

Summer of Tara, as I like to call all of summer...was supposed to begin, you know, when school ends, the pool opens, and life can slow down a bit. Oh, and I can get a tan. Yet, Summer of Tara was difficult to begin when we had the worst weather since like 1907 or something like that. Now, you might say- well, in light of all the sickness and death over the past year, is a little rain a real hardship? Well, yeah. Considering all we've been through? I want to say, why yes, it wasn't just a little rain. It was just more shit not to be smiling about. 

I don't want to be a downer so we'll talk about some good stuff. 

E had a banner academic year amidst this crap sandwich of an introduction to middle school. We sort of expect middle school to suck, right? It had it's suck factor, of typical middle school BS, coupled with Covid protocol. But we didn't get sick, he didn't get sick. And really if I have to be honest, academically, for a kid that isn't the best at sitting at a desk for hours on end every day, being home every other day to work at his own pace, wasn't the worst thing. He'd work, drum a little, work, piano a bit, work, ukulele some, work watch Dawson's Creek. I'm pretty proud that not only did he end up on the honor roll for three out four marking periods but he also watched almost all six seasons of Dawson's Creek. He only didn't finish because he said the last season started to get boring. I can't even argue with him because I didn't even watch the whole last season myself. His pop culture education is SPOT THE F ON though.

E also counted down the days to getting to Maine for his seven weeks at Camp Wekeela. We were able to get three of his local friends to go for the second session. Which, considering being locked in the house, on screens for months, not being ideal for any parents or kids, wasn't really that difficult to convince the parents that these kids needed time away, with no internet, gaming, texting, etc. They're all still there now for about another week and a half. 

Unfortunately, I'm not really looking forward to him coming home. Not because I don't miss him. More so because Covid is ramping up AGAIN. While HE is has been vaccinated since June, and B and I have been vaccinated since April, the Delta variant is no joke. My friend who is vaccinated recently got it and said it was awful. She said she's thankful she's vaccinated because it could've been so much worse, but she still was scared, really sick. and worried for her kids who are too young to be vaccinated, and her PETS, who she was told that also could get it. It was a really difficult time. 

Of course, I'm worried and I'm angry that we've done what we were supposed to do, but other people are refusing, this shit is still spreading, yet, they still want to unmask everyone like it's over or like they're just over it. Now. if only the virus would attack the stupid, defiant, and selfish, that would be fine. Except, it isn't. It's random. And that sucks. I'm just not going to go on about that in this entry. I'm going to actually write a list of the stupidity I've seen and then debunk it all in another one.

We haven't been down the shore much at all, mostly because of the weather. Usually we'd go down one day a weekend, but, rain. We've really just stayed close to home. It's just easier and we're just tired. B has had to run around a lot because we have a an Extreme Karen neighbor who ratted him out for working at home during the pandemic. Apparently that's not allowed in our town, well, when someone complains. Meaning, people do it to the point of advertising in our local Facebook groups, HOWEVER, if someone complains, you're SOL, and you're shut down or fined. We obviously opted to shut down because we weren't in the position to pay fines, DURING A PANDEMIC, so B opted for plan Z, and found an outside space to work from. It just means a lot more running around. There were some positives of Extreme Karen having nothing better to do, one of which being, E getting creative. He wrote a song, Queen of the Boulevard about her and the situation. Since I'm his Momager, I will have him play it on our front lawn when he gets back from camp. Especially considering Karen likes to walk in front of my house on her Starbucks route. 

We'll go back down the shore when E gets home. It's just a lot more fun when we can take a friend of his with us. He's at that age that he isn't that interested in being with just us, and we're not that interested in hanging with a kid that doesn't want to hang with us. I remember being twelve and only wanting to hang with my friends. He also is doing a short theater camp at Curtain Up, the company he did Aladdin through. They're doing The Addams Family. He has so long between Wekeela and school starting, I wasn't having him sit around for a month. 

I have no other real news. This was more just an update to get myself back here. I also didn't want to start with a giant rant. Because you know, I've said, that's partially why I stopped writing. I was ranting all the time. Or I wanted to rant. I also don't really have the time. I'm not at a desk anymore. I used to write when I sat at a desk. Today. I actually took my laptop to the POOL. But I can barely see because of the glare. Not because I'm turning a year older on Monday. Although, I'm thinking I may need to see an eye doctor too. 

It's a gorgeous, perfect ten day today though and I feel like I'm making weird tan lines on my legs with the laptop on them. I'll end here, being thankful AF that the town pool is open this summer. I was clearly the angriest person in Glen Rock last summer without my favorite spot. I'm thankful for the Wednesday late night here. Thankful that I ran into mom friends and acquaintances I haven't seen in two summers, one new old friend or old new friend that I haven't seen in like fifteen years, and that I'm back at my perch at the second umbrella, usually surrounded by my people. You know who you are.