Headless Outfit Series: Part Deux

Perhaps it's been an unusually beautiful and well deserved autumn, but I have heard more comments regarding happiness and fall weather than ever before. Autumn means not feeling so bad about wearing too much black. It also means eggplant and teal — together. Crisp, crunchy leaf weather means tights (and thigh-high knit socks!). And textures. Bittersweet branches mean crops and longs. And donning outerwear based on the maples: less when the green's still around and more when the tree out my window bares it all.

6:09 p.m.

I try to save every draft of everything I write. Sometimes, as with all writerly things, a most favorite vignette is tossed out for the good of the piece. The story just isn't going in that particular direction. Still, there are things worth saving. My grandfather wrote a book called Never Spit in the Wastebasket, and I believe him.

When I was 12, I took up the cello and sat first-chair through high school. As a senior, I was accepted to study cello performance for a summer at the Missouri Fine Arts Academy. Instead of a cello professor, Dr. Childs, a vocalist, coached me. We met in his office once a week, and while I played a Brahms sonata, he sang the melody. After a grueling rehearsal, he sat back, paused and said, “I don’t know the reason why Brahms wrote this piece, but what I’ve gathered is when he wrote it, it must have been raining. Tell that story.”

8:56 a.m.

Liberty as viewed from the telescope in my father's hotel room.

The Headless Outfit Series

5:11 p.m.

After-work snackettes are necessary whilst playing Scrabble with T.

A large, book (or two), preferably with many large photos and interesting captions, is necessary as I await my chance plant a Bingo.


Chipp Kidd with milky tea, honeycrisp apples and very manly bread and butter.

3:48 p.m.

I love these!

It's the moody toast pillow by a Seattle-based duo called Wonder Thunder. Check out their blog and more clever goods on etsy.

1:04 p.m.

Things that pair well on cold, rainy Fridays:

Oversized, textured sweaters and opaque tights in muted tones.

Frothy cappuccinos and coffee cake

Industrial-strength shea butter lotion and my dry, scaly lizard paws.