I'm leaving the Cloister

Well. That's it. Olivia had to post on my blog and now it is ruined. I'm giving up.

Just kidding. For a while now I've been thinking of doing a total blog revamp. The title and url of this blog were not very funny naming ideas I came up with two years ago, and I've been wanting to change them ever since. So I've decided to start over with a new name and a new concept.

This blog was created because I was moving to New York and starting graduate school. I've since finished my program and moved back to Seattle, and in case any doubt still lingered--this month I received my diploma and the bound copy of my thesis in the mail. (It was all dated as 2011 though, so I just squeaked through in time to assure that my '11 graduation tassel isn't a lie.) It feels really good.

So now my life is all about my new job and the awesome weirdness of work as a costume and textile expert at a local history museum. So I invite you to my new blog: Things I Vacuumed Today. I can't promise adventure or romance, but there will definitely be bustles.

The sooner Clara blogs, the sooner we can start Emma

Hello Clara's readers,

I am making a special guest appearance on Clara's blog this afternoon as Clara is currently occupied washing gloves for MOHAI.

We had a very busy, and accomplished, day. We both did the following (all were done together except #1):

1. Exercised! (Clara went running, I went to kung fu)
2. Watched Project Runway All-Stars
3. Ate lunch
4. Walked to Broadway
5. I bought a pair of pants.
6. I bought a book at Half Price Books (Notes from the Underground, for my book group)
7. Went to Elliot Bay Books where Clara bought herself a calendar, now she'll be so organized!
8. Bought the new Gotye CD. If you don't know who that is, listen to this, you'll be obsessed in no time.
9. Stood in a long line at Molly Moon's, both got strawberry ice cream in a waffle cone: best decision all day.
10. Went into the all-purpose store on 15th Ave. where Clara bought some hooks for her bedroom (this was the fourth store she'd looked in this afternoon)
11. Clara took a nap, I did some lesson planning for next week.

That's been our day so far! Now I've convinced Clara to give up her to-do list for the day and we're going to eat, drink a beer, and watch Emma (the new BBC version, not the Gwenyth Paltrow version)

Sincerely,

Olivia, the roommate

Things I Vacuumed Today

A few weeks ago one of my blog-reading friends asked if I had vacuumed anything interesting lately. When I responded with an actual answer of a few things that I had vacuumed, we agreed that maybe I should just give up the blog and change to a twitter account listing weird things I cleaned at work. To us, this seemed hilarious.

What do you think, readers? Would you like to get fascinating life updates from me like:

-Vacuumed wooden beer crate

-Washed Hypercolor T-shirt

-Used cotton ball to clean orange helmet

-Used Q-tip to clean shot glass

-Stuffed smelly wedding dress into fume hood

I love my job, but it often strikes me as a really weird gig. When I try to explain what I do, the first question people usually ask is, "Ok, so what do you actually do all day?" And then I have to respond with something like, "Well today I tenderly washed a novelty T-shirt from the 1990s in a bath of water and gentle surfactant."

Clara's Nightmare

When I moved back to Seattle, I wondered how it would effect the way I dress. I had started dressing up more in New York, and I kind of wanted to keep that going. But Seattle is such a casual city I wondered if I wouldn't start just throwing on my awkward jeans and saggy T-shirts and not care. But I'm very proud to report that I've been consistently dressing up for work. Most days it is skirts and dresses, and often heels to complete the look. I knew I had done well when one of my co-workers noticed that I was wearing pants one day (don't worry, they were nice pants) and asked if it was the first time since I started my job. I was able to tell her confidently that it was actually the third.

So the other night I had a dream that confirmed just how attentive I've become to what I wear. In the dream I was at work, going about my regular day. There were lots of mirrors at work (much like my new apartment) and every time I passed one I was confronted by the fact that I was wearing a really hideous outfit. I had on a white turtleneck with some sort of Christmas pattern on it and a pair of giant mom jeans. The whole thing was very unflattering and lumpy and I basically looked like Jerri Blank from Strangers with Candy (pictured above). I may have had the same haircut too. Every time I saw myself in the mirror I was like, "Why am I wearing this? Why did I stop caring? If only I could go home and change!" The worst part of it was that no one commented. Horror of horrors, NO ONE WAS SURPRISED TO SE ME LOOKING THIS WAY.

When I woke up I was relieved it was just a dream and took extra care that day in picking out my clothes. But it begs the question- what kind of person have I become? What does this say about me that I'm having nightmares about not wearing a good outfit? I'm basically a ditz stereotype from a teen movie.

But then again, I'm a fashion historian! I have to keep up appearances. This week the sketch artist for the Seattle Times got a tour of MOHAI and I doubt he would have drawn me if I wasn't so fabulous. You have to check out this awesome little article about the museum move. He even captured my pink tights!