Outfit for a Tuesday: Animalistic and Amulet

Over the past few weeks, all mental capacity has been inundated with strategic imperatives and subsequent seamless tactical execution for my brand the coming year; after presenting a plethora of comprehensive ideas over the summer, we were tasked with revisiting our thinking, infusing even more potent urgency into our planning. After toiling for hours and delivering a revised presentation, the team continues to be wrenched and rung, more water or more blood being desperately sought from the proverbial stone. With winter and holiday festivities looming, it has been, needless to emphasize, a stressful few weeks. Weary and frustrated though I feel, my younger brother is visiting the city and the stupor of tryptophan-laden turkey impends, so, I am feeling optimistic.

Last Tuesday, seven days ago but still completely melting into my mind as time blends and hours cease to seem to be discrete, measurable elements, I abandoned my new black jeans that have become ubiquitous, appropriate in my new casual office, opting for a refined but saucy leopard pencil skirt. A strategy I have employed since university days, exhausted from library marathon sessions and copious papers, when fatigued, I like to dress more formally, to at least give off a superficial air of being pulled together. A complete posturing. Typically, it works wonders. Play the part of a happy woman, find eventually that happy you have become. Stop wearing the same pair of pants, put forth effort, the organization of thoughts and confidence of competency will ensue. Or, at least, like these spots in the wild, painted across fur swathing tightly bound muscular flesh of a prowling beast on the hunt, the skirt is some camouflage.

This brooch, a golden cross-flower hybrid, centered with a cluster of rhinestone stars, reminiscent of some ancient religious relic adorning a bishop cap or frock, was a gift from a friend of mine, while we lived together in the dormitories our sophomore year. Impeccably fashioned, always, her style was classic and sophisticated; though rooted with beautiful neutrals and basics with a twists, her outfits were always vividly memorable, at least to me. She must have been cleaning her closet, clearing out a few items, when she came across some brooches she knew I would enjoy. Fixing them to a pale pink satin ribbon, she left them for me on my desk, with a note succinct but sweet. Enjoy. A bit of surprise and luxury, amidst a day of weighty biology textbooks and trying problem sets. She lives on the opposite coast now, in northern California; we have not seen one another or spoken in years, though, I like of her often fondly, sadly.