Jet!

Ever since I said I'd talk about clothes, I've been avoiding it. It's not that I don't have anything to write, or that I don't want to write, it's that I have trouble putting everything in my head down. So this might be one post or a series of posts, or who knows. First off, I love clothes. And I have a lot of them. In fact, I probably own more clothing than I really need. Actually, take away that probably, change it to definitely. I can't help it though. I love clothes and putting outfits together. And I hate summer as a time for doing that. I prefer the weather a little bit chilly so that I can layer, wear a jacket, put on some tights, whatever. I don't like in summer how when I have more than two articles of clothing on it suddenly becomes overwhelmingly hot. I'd love the weather to be in the high 50s, low 60s in the morning, mid to high 70s in the afternoon and go back to morning temperatures at night. I'd love it. But then, changing weather is something that makes putting together outfits so much fun. Dressing for sun one day and rain the next. Not that it matters much when you're stuck in the house all the time like I am. But I still get dressed like I'm leaving the house. I refuse to lounge around in my pajamas all day, if only because it would make me feel even sadder about being in the house all day. Clothes make me happier. I think I am going to make this a series - if only because I have too much to write and too little energy, since I finally decided to get my ass in gear and do some exercising today. Tomorrow - inspiration behind my style and why I've decided that pants are a thing of the past. And ignore the title of the post, I've got some wings playing.

Whistle while you work

I'm too tired to write anything profound. And my moisturizer is apparently making it easier for the bottom of my laptop to become covered in sweat when it sits on bare legs. Yeah, it's kind of disgusting. I had a lot to do today, and will continue on with busy days as long as my mother has things that I can do around the house. It's nice to be busy. I like having my to-do list and being able to check things off as I go. And I especially like looking at the list at the end of the day when all the boxes are checked and it's time to make a new list. I guess I've been feeling less than accomplished lately and it makes me feel better to actually be doing something, even if I am still stuck in the house.

A different world

I know approximately ten million days ago I said I would be talking about clothes. But that has to wait until another day. Today I have something more important on my mind. This morning as we ate breakfast, my mom read the TV Guide and remarked "Prom Night in Mississippi? I'll take it that's a horror movie." But, as I explained to her, it's actually a documentary about how Morgan Freeman offers to finance the prom in the small town in Mississippi in which he lives, as long as the prom is integrated for the first time. What this documentary made so glaringly obvious is that it's a completely different world down there than the one I live in. Parents didn't want their children to go to the mixed prom. They even still held a white prom. Of course, those parents insist they aren't racist, but the evidence would seem to prove otherwise. It really shows that as much as people like to use our President as an example, America is not post-racial. While in many places, people have been liberated of such prejudices, there are still so many places where racial harmony is not something that has been accomplished. There are still places where people think interracial relationships are wrong, where they still use the n-word, where they believe that the races are better separate. It's disheartening that in this day and age we still have those problems. But it's also reassuring to see, like in the documentary, that with generations comes more understanding and more acceptance. The teenagers in the documentary are my age. And they were standing up for something important. Maybe we can change the world we live in.

"And in fact, there's something very charming about cows"

The quote comes from Isaac Mizrahi in Unzipped, the documentary made about the creation of his line for fall fashion week in 1995. I watched Unzipped this afternoon - part of my day of fashion documentaries. I really enjoyed Unzipped, partially because Mizrahi himself has such a vibrant personality but of course also because of the clothes and especially the models. Having grown up in the 90s, I never really witnessed the heyday of the supermodel. But Unzipped has Naomi Campbell and Cindy Crawford and Kate Moss, even Carla Bruni back when they were "it" as far as models go. Unzipped follows Mizrahi as he comes off a spring showing where his clothes are ill-received. It's really fascinating to see the creative process that goes in - he draws inspiration from old movies to create clothes for a (90s) modern woman. Seeing all the work that goes into the design and production, and production of the show really puts the fashion world into perspective. I also loved his interaction with Eartha Kitt and his singing of the Mary Tyler Moore theme song. It kind of makes me wish that I had watched The Fashion Show, but really, when I read the recaps on Project Rungay, I'm okay with the fact that I didn't.
My second documentary of the day came focused on Marc Jacobs as he ran both his eponymous lines and Louis Vuitton. I had seen part of the documentary on the Sundance Channel, and when I saw it on netflix, I knew I had to rent it. Especially because the part that I had seen (the part that starts off the film) has him dressed in an elaborate pigeon costume. How could I say no? I thought the most interesting thing about this documentary (so far. I admit, I haven't quite finished it, but its on the list for tonight) was how much Jacobs has changed since it was filmed. As far as I know, it was filmed before he went to rehab then got really buff with slick hair and whatnot (thanks to Refinery29 today for giving me the facts to put that in perspective). I think that something that was really well highlighted in the film was Jacobs' versatility. After all, he designs for LV as well as his own lines which are often like night and day in their difference.
The third documentary is something I'm waiting for, but my sister happened to post on my facebook wall about it earlier this evening. I cannot wait to see The September Issue. Every time I watch the trailer I get more excited. I know some people say that Anna Wintour isn't doing a great job, that Vogue is getting outdated, that it's losing its relevance. Well, fuck them. I love Vogue, and I love that its over the top with the cost of the items, and you know what? That's what I want from Vogue. I don't want Vogue to be accessible. Vogue, to me, is the epitome of the aspirational fashion magazine. And I have absolutely no ill words for Anna Wintour, because to some degree, I think she is what editors should be. Editors should be powerful and feared and judgmental. That's how you get good work. Also, I love Andre Leon Talley. He was in Unzipped briefly and from the trailer, he looks just as fabulous in The September Issue. Can't. Wait.
I have three more fashion documentaries on my netflix queue. I'm pretty excited.
Tomorrow I'm going to write about my own personal fashion/clothing life.

Sleeeeeep

I'm really tired right now. I woke up about 2.5 hours earlier than I usually do, and its getting to me, especially since I had a busy day. Doctor's appointment, dropped my mom off at work, drove home, stayed there for an hour or so, went to the grocery store, had my internship meeting, picked up lunch at Balducci's, ate lunch, went to another grocery store, made cookie dough, washed dishes, cut out cookies, baked cookies, washed more dishes, made icing, iced cookies, ate dinner, washed yet more dishes, finished watching sytycd, packed up cookies, addressed boxes...and that brings me up to right now at 11:38. Phew.
When I'm less tired, I'm going to write a clothing/fashion related post since my movies from netflix are both about designers right now.

It's a Feel Good Thing

I'm almost done with my room. I've rearranged all the furniture that I need to. I've inhaled more dust than is probably safe. I'll post before and after pictures soon. Right now I'm focusing on cleaning surfaces - less clutter = happier Hanna and what I want to do with my walls. There's quite a bit of blank space and also some stuff I want to replace, since I am no longer eleven years old. Not much else is new in my life, though tomorrow I will hopefully have something more interesting to talk about since my internship starts. With any luck, it'll give me something to occupy my time with.

I got a news flash for you, Walter Cronkite

Last night while eating dinner with my parents we watched an hour long tribute to Walter Cronkite. As I saw my parents think back on their lives as they watched, it was clear that to some extent, Walter Cronkite was the voice of their younger lives. I thought about what that'll be like when I'm older. I won't have that experience. We don't have that one trusted man anymore. Walter Cronkite unified a nation of people. People my age rarely watch the evening news anymore. We're not in that golden era of journalism anymore.
I think it's what all of us go to journalism school for, at least in part. We don't necessarily want to be the national face of the news, the bearer of bad news to the country. We don't all want to even tell the news stories. But we all want that trust. We want people to look to us as trustworthy actors of the media. Maybe none of us will be the voice of a generation. But we'll work toward it anyway. I think in some ways we're moving toward the future and toward the past. We learn all the newest technologies, we learn how to produce tight video packages and edit for online flash content. But inside a lot of us is that longing for things to go back to the way they were - when people read newspapers and magazines instead of looking online. I certainly hope that while I'm around those two things don't go out of style. Something about reading something held in my hand is so much more satisfying than reading online. Also, I'm not really a big fan of looking at photo editorials online. It takes something away.

Everybody's working for the weekend

This weekend was probably the best of my summer, seeing as I finally got away from my house and McLean and made it down to Williamsburg for some quality time with my sister. My best friend was heading down to visit her roommate from school and gave me a ride down and back. Traffic on the way down was horrendous - it took us 4.5 hours to take the trip. Whie sitting in the sea of stop-and-go, we listened to the numerous mix cds that she had brought with her, sometimes talking, sometimes silent. When the monotony of sitting and listening got to be too much, she asked one question that allowed us to kill time with our imaginations. "What's your ideal wedding?" She went first in answering since she had thought about it recently when a family friend got married.
When we got to Williamsburg and finally got out of the car in the parking lot at my sister's apartment, the humidity hit us like a wave. It was the most humidity I had felt in a while, thanks to the mild weather we've been having in McLean. My sister helped me with the Ikea bag that gave me the nasty cut on my arm (that seems to have resisted the healing powers of neosporin) and we quickly were inside her apartment, which is awaiting furnishing provided by our lovely parents as a birthday gift. It was about 8:30 by then and neither of us had eaten dinner, so we made a fast decision to go to Uno, where our waitress (Alina - she wrote it on a napkin in red sharpie) brought us pizza and we went home full and maybe a little food coma-y. After looking through her shelves of dvds I decided on Sleeping Beauty, which, coincidentally, almost put the two of us to sleep. Don't get me wrong, the songs are pretty, but in general pretty boring.
Saturday morning we woke up to attend to our plans for the day. First, breakfast. We went to the pancake house down the street from my sister's apartment building - an easy choice though there is no shortage of options when it comes to eating pancakes in Williamsburg. After filling ourselves with delicious breakfast foods (and some completely unsatisfying "apple" juice) we drove to the outlet mall. I've missed shopping with my sister, something we used to do more frequently when she was home. I ended up with a dress from Banana Republic and accessories from the Gap, all less expensive than usual. After we had finished shopping (and run into my best friend and her roommate) we headed off in search of some sort of frozen treat. My sister believed there to be a Haagen-Dazs in Williamsburg - attached to a Nathan's (some sort of combination ice cream-hot dog haven, apparently) but we never saw it. Instead we decided on Baskin-Robbins but then got further waylaid and ended up at a place called Retro's where I had a rootbeer float with frozen custard and she just had a cone of the stuff. And it was completely satisfying and wonderful. Afterward, we wandered around the shops a little, stopping in the Scottish shop where a year ago she and my mother had both purchased kilts. I spotted one of the same tartan as the kilt I currently possess - a hand me down from my sister that my dad purchased in the UK quite a bit of time ago. Then we went back to my sister's apartment and lazed around for a little while before dinner. While dinner was delicious, it was nothing compared to the main attraction for the night - seeing Harry Potter, which probably deserves a separate post in itself. When we got back to the apartment, we watched Mamma Mia on HBO, where we realized just how ridiculous that film is and that the woman who plays Mrs. Weasley is one of the supporting cast members.
This morning, before I was picked up at 12:30, my sister and I went to Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast and I had a large muffin and an even larger iced coffee which in no way should have been described as "small." I said goodbye to my sister, happy that I had been able to spend part of the weekend with her. About three hours after we ledt Williamsburg, we were back in McLean after a far more tolerable car ride.

Today was actually kind of fantastic. I don't say that very often. But today was good. It started off in an unfortunate matter, waking up to pick up my room before it was vacuumed and trying to dispatch the mosquito that was buzzing around. I dragged myself downstairs to sit on the couch in my hoodie and nightgown reading the paper until the woman who cleans our house had left. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the purchase I had made yesterday had arrived. My beautiful new webcam is now sitting atop my computer and I used it earlier to talk to my sister and also to a friend who was having technical difficulties that left me looking at some odd frozen images. I made myself an omelet this morning and devoured it while flipping through the crate and barrel and cb2 catalogs. I think I'd like to have a space that I can decorate using those two stores and ikea. I'd be in heaven. Plus some teacups from anthropologie. I'm in love with this whole decorating thing, though it makes me realize that I have too much stuff. And while I've realized I have far too much clothing, watching the sex and the city movie didn't help to convince me that that is a bad thing.
On another positive note, I'll be visiting my sister this weekend, driving down to williamsburg with my best friend. I'm really excited, as I will both be getting out of mclean and seeing my sister. We plan to see Harry Potter and go shopping, which sounds absolutely perfect to me.

...an elite squad known as the special victims unit

Netflix pretty much owns my life right now. The instant watch option is truly engrossing. I've watched five complete seasons of law and order svu since I've been home and I'll soon finish a sixth. And I'm watching the movies they send me. Though, I got Mystic River over a week ago and just haven't felt like watching it. But I'm sure I'll get to that in the next couple days or so. Tonight I watched the movie Swingers with a friend who is currently not in the country. He downloaded it and I watched on netflix. Because I hadnt spent enough time sitting in front of my computer. But I'm a sucker for spending time with him, so when I'm 80, my eye sight will be gone, but right now I'm having a good time. I think netflix helps me through my long and lonely days stuck at home since it saves me from midday tv. Which is seriously not worth my time. But I guess I also kind of feel like a hermit. So, it's a tradeoff.

Dracula Tree Forest

I've been completely m.i.a on this thing since I got home. I think I should probably write everyday. Just to keep myself from devolving into some sort of creature that can't form proper sentences and has atrocious grammar. I've been working in my room a lot. I've got my newly assembled bookshelves and my new chair. Today I aired out my duvet and now my bed looks completely different. My room looks very different as well. At some point, after I get everything into place in my room, I'll post some before and after pictures. I'm in love with my new furniture. I am not in love with being in the house all the time, though. Luckily, my friends have been taking pity on me and picking me up so that I can go places. I'm a big fan of out of the house. Especially since the weather has been so nice. It's nothing like what summer usually is - all humidity and 90 degree days and sitting inside because going outside means a soaked shirt in a matter of minutes. It's been in the 80s, with breezes and low humidity. It's like I'm not in Virginia. I'm going to make myself write here every day. So tomorrow's topic is netflix. And how it's making my life at home more tolerable but possibly more lame.