On Routines and Potential Ruts

During an academic term it is very easy to fall into a routine.  Mondays and Wednesdays = office hours, commuting, and teaching. Tuesdays and Thursdays = class prep, revisions, and job applications.  Fridays = teaching, commuting, and running with a cool librarian.  Saturdays = football, class prep, football, and job aplications.  Sundays = brunch and freaking out about how I'm behind on class prep and revisions.   Sometimes breaking up that routine by taking a day off or going to a talk or getting your hair done in the middle of the day and reading trashy magazines instead of historiography or literary theory or scientific journals can do wonders to refresh the mind and the soul.

It's easy to let the routine overtake you.  It's also easy to let yourself fall into a slump and be overtaken by the Academic Frumps.  There's barely time for writing your own dissertation or articles or book, much less fitting in long runs and spinning classes and a social life, so it's not surprising that many of us can begin to fall into a style rut.  I felt like that was what I was starting to do.  I had been a little too inspired by Mad Men fashion.  Didn't I have anything to wear besides pencil skirts and cardigans?  Well, yes, as a matter of fact, I do.

At the beginning of the week, I challenged myself to not wear a pencil skirt all week long.  I also wanted to stretch my style comfort level.  Inspired by the lovely Kasmira of What I Wore Today and one of her amazing outfits, I decided yesterday to be bold and combine purple and red.¹

1. Shirt - Pixie Hopkins (Filene's Basement) - remixed

Dress - Y Boutique

Tights - Target

Boots - John Fluevog

Belt - Target

Bracelet - Who Knows???

Necklace - Thrifted

Ring - Gift

I'm not sure I pulled off red and purple as well as Kasmira does, but I had a lot of fun wearing this outfit.  Now I should get back to thinking about this:

Do you find yourself wearing the same outfit over and over again?  What are your style comfort limits?