Friday, September 28, 2012

#309 Speaking of Fashion...

Since I'm on the subject of fashion and wanting to dress in a more interesting way, the most interestingly-dressed person I know is my cousin, Susan Riedweg.  She is a clothing/handbag designer and is incredibly talented.  She is always wearing something cool and marches to the beat of her own drum.  I especially love that she re-uses and re-purposes things (not just clothing/material). 

On her website she mentions being inspired by her great aunt, among others.  Aunt Frieda worked at Ayres department store and at one time worked in the fur department.  She saved the mink paws after they were discarded and eventually saved enough to make her own full length mink coat.  The epitome of re-use and re-purpose!  I have some old pictures of her back in the day and she was very stylish in her own right. 

#308 The Sartorialist

This morning at the gym I happened to read Indianapolis Monthly magazine's September 2012 issue.  I came across an article about a guy who has a fashion blog - The Sartorialist.  I looked at his name.  I looked at his picture.  Back to the name.  Holy cow - this guy was in my high school class!  Very cool!  I totally remember him.  He did dress well and I remember him wearing a sweaters around his shoulders.  He mentioned in the article he used to work at Chess King in high school.  Ahhhh, Chess King.  Too funny. 

I admit I had to look up "sartorialist" in the dictionary and this is what I found:  sar-to-rial.  adj.  1  of tailors or their work  2  of clothing or dress, esp. men's. 

I am by no means a fashionista, but I feel that I've improved style-wise each year.  I would like to wear more interesting things.  Alas, they don't always come in sizes to fit uber tall gals. 

Friday, September 14, 2012

#307 KISS Is On My List

Two weeks ago I went to my first KISS concert. I was about 20 years too late. Better late than never! I loved it! After the KISS Expo debacle (see Post No. 283), Heidi and I made out much better and got to meet the band before the show. Luckily that meant we missed most of Motley Crue. I do like a couple of their songs, and I am bummed I missed seeing Tommy Lee play drums upside down, but as a live performance, they are pretty nasty. They even have water cannons (which we missed) and to top it off, throw five gallon buckets of water on the front rows (which we did not miss). Classy.


KISS, on the other hand, is awesome! They put on a fabulous show. Flying, fake blood capsules, rising sections of the stage. Who doesn’t love watching men in their 40s and 60s wearing black spandex and makeup?


Paul is definitely my favorite. He still rocks at 60. Heck, they ALL rock at whatever age they are.


I went to my first KISS concert at age 43. I hope it’s not my last. To misspell The Cure, “KISS me, KISS me, KISS me!”

  

Thursday, September 13, 2012

#306 Two Sets of 3s

This past Tuesday, September 11, I was driving to play tennis.  Throughout the day I had taken time to say little prayers for all who had been affected by the tragedy 11 years ago.  During the drive, Alan Jackson's song, "Where Were You (When The World Stopped Turning)" came on so I took more time to reflect. 

At one point I thought about the "struggle" I've had with my new parking garage at work and how there is no good way to get out of downtown anymore.  I dread leaving work and am ashamed that I get a little (ok, it's a lot) road raged about having to park there. 

I remembered a John Wooden seminar I attended at work not too long ago that talked about the "Two Sets of 3s" which are:

Never lie
Never cheat
Never steal

Don't whine
Don't complain
Don't make excuses

It is the last three that I focused on during my drive to tennis.  There are thousands of people that were directly affected by a horrible tragedy and they lost someone they loved.  I am accomplishing nothing by getting upset over traffic.  Well, except to make myself miserable for 45 minutes.  I'm blessed to have a car.  If I had to ride the bus it would take me over an hour to get home.  I need to do as John Wooden did and stop complaining. 

Yesterday I took a deep breath as I left the parking garage.  I started listening to one of my Cake CDs for comfort (appropriately it's the Comfort Eagle CD).  I did get a little ticked (baby steps) but I handled it way better than I have on other days and I may have even discovered a little better route home. It's a work in progress.