Grey Sweater Club

This picture didn't happen, in real life.  However, I wish it did (or that it existed on the computer before I had to order Christmas cards)!

On the Mister:

Sweater: Gap, a gift | Jeans: thrifted | Ergo baby carrier: a gift | Ada: so very confused

On Ada:

Reflective collar with engraved buckle: Mimi Green 

On me: 

Glasses (they're purple!): Goggles4U | Dress: Lands End | Watch: Fossil

One of the many, many reasons that I love sweater dresses is that they are so incredibly stretchy.  This exact dress made it into last year's Fall Fashion Week.  It was cute and cozy and cowl-y and curve-fitting then, and it is all of those same things now...and there are certainly more curves to fit!  This is definitely one of those relatively rare times where major body changes lead to fun new stylings within the same wardrobe.

Have you ever had a time where a body changes led to you loving a garment even more than with its original fit?  

Strong Work

"Strong work," for the uninitiated, is the ultimate compliment in medical training.  It is a commendation I have only received twice, both in this past month at our county medical center & teaching hospital.  The first time was probably related to clinical knowledge or skill.  The second was today, for my participation in the institution's time-honored tradition:

Bow-tie Fridays.

Borrowed from my mister, but hand-tied (on the first try!) all by myself, thank you very much.

Bow-ties are cool.

Good hair makes everything better

Long hours, dark when I get to the hospital, dark when I leave.  Fashionable is impractical these days; I'm living in scrubs.  Green gets you into Labor & Delivery, grey opens doors at surgery as well as L&D.  L&D nurses wear periwinkle blue. (Still haven't figured out who it is wearing bright turquoise -- maybe the cardiac catheterization lab?)  This all differs hospital to hospital; six months ago, the first time I saw a birth, we pediatricians wore the bright turquoise.

All that to say, not much of interest for Pheno:fab fodder.  Catching babies is fun, weird, stressful, and oddly surreal, and I usually look a hot mess doing it.
 
I do just want to say that when I delivered my first baby, at the very end of my very long first day on OB (how's that for an incentive not to go to a teaching hospital?), I did so with some really wonderful hair.

Seriously, I couldn't achieve that again even if I tried. 

Festivities in Review

Happy 2014!

With the festive season behind us and the new year fresh ahead, I want to take a moment to reflect on the time that has recently passed and face the promises made for that yet to come.

Like last year, I found myself with an abundance of celebratory occasions at the end of the year.  Of the ones with photographic evidence, in chronological order we have:

The Viewing of the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special

TARDIS t-shirt: Threadless | Boots: Merrell | Corduroy skirt: thrifted | Stripey socks: gift

Reaching back to November for this one, but it was post-Soup & Pie Potluck (our church's holiday kickoff, held on the Sunday before Thanksgiving) so it was officially part of the festive season in my book.  2013 was the Year of the Doctor for us-- we'd watched all the reboot episodes of Doctor Who, seven seasons' worth, between Christmas and July.  The anniversary special was enjoyed with good friends, DW-themed food & drink, and drawing straws for choice minifigs of the Doctor's various incarnations.

The Church Christmas Party

Dress: Anthropologie | Stripey socks & boots: same as above

Our lovely community does something different every year for a Christmas party -- talent show, dessert social, hymn sing...this year, it was a ceili/barn dance, complete with an accordion-wielding caller.  It's been ages since my last ceili, and I had an absolute blast, watching and dancing with everyone from our octogenarian churchbuilders to the toddlers up way past their bedtimes.  Afterwards, not wanting to waste an amazing dress by heading home at 9, the mister and I got to know some of our neighborhood beer havens a little better.  We clean up pretty nicely, don't you think?

The Most Joyful Wedding of All Time

 Dress: Modcloth | Sweater: thrifted

This was a love story to make cynics weep, something a decade in the making and straight out of a Jane Austen novel.  (No, seriously, the groom is even British.)  The last wedding amongst we four dear girlfriends (hey, look, there's Charlotte!), long-awaited and joyfully experienced.  A father's address, lovingly given, marvelously wordcrafted and speaking straight to the heart of marriage for the newlyweds and even more so for the rest of us.  An absolutely perfect winter day; dearly beloved friends and family; a happy couple buoyed up by the love and celebration of all those around them.  This was a day where Good Things Happened, and I am so thankful to have been witness to it.

Holiday events without photographic fashion evidence: the Holiday Work Party, the Doctors Terry Host a Christmas Shindig, Christmas Day Feasting, and New Year's Eve. 

And speaking of New Years -- I have one resolution this year, but it's a substantial one: I will not buy any new clothing.  No thrifting, no swaps, nada.  It's not about spending less money -- though that is a benefit -- but about cultivating a mindset of "enough," of using what I have, and of not chasing the New Shiny.  There are a few very important caveats: undergarments and an interview suit are not bound by this resolution.  (I am also not going to turn down gifts, that would be ungracious.)

So, here's to 2014!  A year started in fantastically good spirits, with hope and promise and a challenging-but-exciting clothing constraint.  Happy New Year to all!

I Love My Job!

Evidenced by the fact that I've used that title for both of my blogs within the past week, it's probably no surprise that I really love my job! Charlotte's question about dreams and what we want to be when we grow up gave me another opportunity to reflect on how really, truly content I am now.  We still have dreams -- someday the mister and I will have a dog, and kids, and a farmhouse on an orchard with chickens and a goat -- and there's some substantial uncertainty in our immediate future, but compared with the Very Unpleasant Recent Past, life is edifying and I am exactly where I'm supposed to be and it is good.

So, here's another day-at-the-pediatrics-clinic outfit.  This is totally true to my sartorial professional self, and I wore green and red (okay, burgundy) without looking like Christmas, and it's even a good hair day.  Winning on every front.

 Blouse: H&M, thrifted (from near Rocket Baby, char-let!) | Skirt: thrifted | Shoes: Camper, via eBay | Belt: thrifted, a favorite | Necklaces: gifts | Watch: Fossil, via Amazon | iPad cover: Make Things Better (front & back)

 
I got an iPad Mini to be my ectopic brain for rotations.  I am very much *not* a Mac person, and there are things about it that drive me absolutely bonkers, but it's a helpful tool.

The best part?  Getting to pick out an awesome, subtle-ly geeky cover.  River Song's journal was awfully compelling, but I ultimately went with the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.  Because...that's what it is!

P.S.  The weekend away mentioned with the honeymoon skirt was an absolute delight.  If anyone is interested in where to find a(n amazingly affordable!) slice of mountainous-but-near-the-seaside heaven in the Santa Cruz redwoods, I can totally hook you up.  Don't lie, you wish you were here...

Getting My Geek On

I am just tipping past the 50%-through-my-study-program mark today, and I am *so* ready for it to be done.  I want to see people again.  I want to be able to drink some of the beer brought back from my home state without worrying about borking my higher-order focus & functioning.  I want to have to time for our Sunday night Doctor Who dates with my mister!

Despite the utter lack of anything fun in my life these days (you know I'm writing this with a review lecture up on my other screen), I'm still totally getting my geek on.  Not just because terminal nerd-ness is necessary for survival at this point, but because...well, yeah, it's the best way to cope.  And oh look, the top t-shirt on the stack today features my favorite Japanese animation studio!

I have to admit, I'm not nearly so well-versed in Studio Ghibli's works as I'd like, and I had to look up the tin man dude because I completely couldn't place him.  (Turns out he's from Castle in the Sky, which I haven't seen, so I feel a little bit better.)  So, from left to right we have Turnip Head (Howl's Moving Castle), a Laputan robot, Princess Mononoke (Princess Mononoke), the [unnamed?] dog from Spirited Away, and of course, Totoro.

 Shirt: shirt.woot | Skirt (actually a skort!): thrifted | Belt: Target, eons ago

It's been bea-u-ti-ful these last few days, finally warm enough to properly do the bare-legged thing.  Sadly, just about all of my time these days is spent right here like this...

Just three more weeks...!