The (Other) Love of My Life

I'll be honest with you: I'd envisioned my Valentine's Day post a bit differently. This time last year, I was enjoying the #7ShadesofRed challenge and plotting an epic feast involving large quantities of cheese. This year, I spent most of the past week in pajamas, propped up in my bed next to a large mug of tea. It doesn't do to dwell on what might have been, so let's just hope that next year, we'll see my planned post about ways to avoid the morass of cheap sentiment and commodified conceptions of love that plagues V-Day.

Instead, I'm going to tell you a bit about the love of my life that isn't Jeff, or dresses, or Star Wars.

Christmas in NYC Recap

You're probably thinking "Emily, Christmas was over a week ago, why are you still blogging about it in early January?" Well, to make a long story short, I was super busy getting ready for our epic family Christmas dinner, and didn't have a chance to share my super-festive day in New York City with you until now. But I did see an awesome show (which will be in LA at the end of this month!) and eat pizza, so it's worth sharing now!

Growing up so close to Manhattan, I rarely went in and did the typical 'Christmas in New York' things. That was for tourists, ya know? Well, tourists and people who don't mind crowds, and neither of those things really described me. That said, New York at Christmastime is gorgeous, so even though I knew going in would be an uphill battle against the crush of humanity, my sister and I opted to head in three days before Christmas.

I already miss these unabashedly festive outfits.

Shelter Island

For some reason, my posts on Stuff I Have Done keep getting preempted for posts about Clothing I Love, which means that I'm writing a post with photos from my previous trip to New York while in New York again. In other news, this is my 100th blog post!

I've mentioned before that I never really change my jewelry. I've worn the same necklace and bracelet for nine and ten years, respectively, and I get a lot of comments about my necklace. People often ask if it's a guy on a horse (no), a Wyoming thing (no), a bucking bronco (no), or a degraded coastline (…sort of? To be fair, this only happened once.) While it does look uncannily like the thing in the middle of the Wyoming license plate, it's actually a map of Shelter Island, New York.

A Star-Wars-Themed Wedding Event

Has anyone else planned a wedding? I'm less than two months out from mine, and am just starting to realize that there are actually things I need to be doing. Of course, I'm dealing with that realization by writing a post about the bridal luncheon my sister threw for me while I was in New York a few weeks ago. Technically, this is productive!

I was planning to wear my beloved tomato-print dress, but after realizing that it was going to be a family-style meal at an Italian place, I 86'd the fitted-waistband idea and went with a stretchy ivory dress. Everyone from my bachelorette party wore their fascinators, and tried to limit the number of "…because I'm fascinating!" comments to a reasonable number.

Fun fact: this coat belongs to my sister, but in the past 10 years or so, I'm the only one who has actually worn it.

Orange You Excited?

Fun fact: I am getting married in June! While I was in New York for my mother’s birthday/dress fitting, my friends organized a bachelorette party and my sister threw me a bridal luncheon, and I had a blast at both. My friends know me really well (slash I have a core group of activities and foods that I really love), so the bachelorette party was basically perfect.

All I knew when I woke up that morning was that we’d be leaving on a 10:55 train to Manhattan, and that I wouldn’t be doing too much walking, but this was the perfect level of information as I love surprise parties. A good friend of mine in LA threw me a surprise birthday party last summer (my first surprise party ever!) and I was so delighted by it! I’d recently gotten this Bernie Dexter dress, and decided to wear it even though (or perhaps because) it isn’t remotely bridal.

Don’t worry, my friends provided plenty of party swag for me to wear. I thought I was getting funny looks as I walked through Grand Central with them, but it turned out that we passed someone that knew one of my friends.

Car Show Girl

News flash: I’m a gearhead. I’ve been interested in cars since at least fifth grade, when I used to borrow my dad’s Car and Driver magazines and read them from cover to cover. My dad started taking me to the NY International Auto Show in 1997, and we went just about every year until I was well into college. Once I moved to LA, though, I wasn’t around during Auto Show week anymore, so it had been almost a decade since the last time we went together. Since I was home last week, though, we were finally able to go again, and I had a blast!

Fun fact: when I was a kid, my two dream cars were a Dodge Neon and a Porsche 911. Kids have no concept of money.

Mom's Birthday Bash!

I'm writing this post sitting next to my sister Ronnie, which is possibly the most exciting event of my admittedly-short blogging journey! In fact, she helped me find the exact word I wanted ('journey') to conclude the previous sentence. We've had a super busy and eventful weekend, and I have a zillion pics of fun outfits and food to share with you. Friday was my mother's birthday, and we spent the whole day celebrating together! My dad took the day off, and we took my grandma to run a few errands and come out to lunch with us. 

Since I spent eight years in graduate school/working as an adjunct in LA, I've typically come home to visit for long stretches at Christmas and in the summertime, so I have plenty of clothing that lives in New York. I was actually pretty happy to come home and wear this Lindy Bop skirt for the first time in ages.