Shirt: Old Navy
Skirt: Made from 80s Goodwill dress (shoulder pads & all!)
Shoes: Target
Belt: Charlotte Russe
Necklace: Gifted
Second Necklace: Lucky Brand
Like my silly photo shoot? Don’t mind my messy room. It’s how I live. Messy & mismatched socks are my way of life. Now if only I had a designated photographer every time I decide to dress up..
My Goodwill 80s dress for an 80s Prom social freshman year before resurrecting it as a skirt!
(also check how short my hair was back then!)
I wore this outfit to a luncheon for Pace Center for Girls, which was wonderful. All the women in my family, including Jessica and my spunky Grandma (she went skydiving for her 80th birthday!!), gathered at the Hilton to eat chicken salad and learn about all the wonderful things this organization does for the troubled young ladies of our community. It made me cry (but what doesn’t, right?) but it also made me incredibly proud of my big sis, who’s a bada$$ social worker there! She helps so many girls every year that would otherwise be picked on, abused or in juvenile detention.
This luncheon, combined with reading “Little Bee” by Chris Cleave, made me realize how little I have been doing for others lately.
The back of this book says:
“This is a story of two women. Their lives collide one fateful day, and one of them has to make a terrible choice, the kind of choice we hope you never have to face. Two years later, they meet again–the story starts here… Once you have read it, you’ll want to tell your friends about it. When you do, please don’t tell what happens. The magic is in how the story unfolds.”
In keeping with the requests of the author, I won’t tell you want it’s about.. but I will warn you: This book made me really upset. I cried a lot, but I also couldn’t put it down. I finished it in about 3 days, one of which was spent blubbering and squinting through teary eyes at about 3 am. I think that’s probably a sign that it’s a good book, but at the same time I’m not sure I would wish the disturbing images in my head upon others.
There were, however, some really beautiful prose which I folded down the pages of and it definitely makes me want to help others. Unfortunately, it makes me want to help people in a way that I am not capable of at the moment, but one day I will have the means to help others as much as I feel that I should.
For now, I think I will volunteer at the Pace Center and see if I can make even a tiny impact on some wonderful young women’s lives. I will keep you all updated on how it goes. Here are some of my favorite quotes from the book:
- Learning the Queen’s English is like scrubbing the bright red varnish from your toenails, the morning after a dance. It takes a long time and there is always a little bit left at the end, a stain of red along the growing edges to remind you of the good time you had.
- I ask you right here please to agree with me that a scar is never ugly. That is what the scar makers want us to think. But you and I, we must make an agreement to defy them. We must see all scars as beauty. Okay? This will be our secret. because take it from me, a scar does not form on the dying. A scar means, I survived.
- England was made of dawn mists that rose to the horse’s shoulder, of cakes cooled on wire trays for the cutting of soft awakenings. My first real choice was what to take at university. My teachers all said I should study law, so naturally I chose journalism.* (Seriously?! Two of the main characters in this story are both journalists, and the back of this book did NOT tell me that. Weird.)
- Tea is the taste of my land: it is bitter and warm, strong, and sharp with memory. It tastes of longing. It tastes of the difference between where you are and where you come from.
There are several other worthy quotes, but this post is already lengthier than planned, so I will leave you with what I am thankful for:
I am thankful for living in a nice house with a wonderful family in a free country. I don’t always show my appreciation for good ole ‘merica, but I am very thankful to live here.
