22 March 2011

Monday Road Trip




I can't remember the last time I went to a concert. Wait, yes I can. Four years ago, Death Cab. It's been an embarrassingly long time and since I've been feeling so edgy lately my husband looked at my long concert list I handed him and is trying to put a dent in it. He's not usually so quick on such things, but I middle of the night messaged him a list and by morning he was waking me up to tell me that we were going to go see Cold War Kids.  I confess they aren't extremely high on my list of must listen to bands, but a portion of their songs are enjoyable.

Since I do live in the middle of nowhere, we had to drive to Vermont to see the concert.  And since this is the frigid north, the roads looked like the photo below.  Of course this also has something to do with VT's heinous road policy.  I can assure you the NY side of things looked much better.


To get to VT, we have to travel by ferry. Travel time is often dependent on catching the ferry and we were out of luck since they were roping it off while we were at the ticket booth which meant a wait until the next one.  Fortunately for the wait and the ride I amused myself by taking photos of us.  My husband hates when I do this, but look, he's just so darn cute (and please ignore my snow-frizzed hair)!



And because there is a marked difference between my casual wear and my work wear, I've included a full outfit photo below. There's only a bit of vintage present mostly because I abandoned my other outfit choices after realizing the snow wasn't going to stop.  What's significant about this outfit is two things really: 1) my tunic, but more on that shortly and 2) leggings, apparently this is the first outfit that was legging approved by my husband who keeps calling them tights and was weirded out by them when I tried them on several times before. He never usually mentions anything about my clothing choices, so I think he's trying to politely say too much of my butt was showing. 


Outfit consists of:
Sweater: drape front black cardigan by Joie found at Last Chance
Tunic: cotton green and black empire waist tunic by Magazine found at Marshall's
Belt: 1980s black belt borrowed from a thrifted dress
Leggings: gray leggings found at H&M
Socks: black and silver sparkle socks found at TJ Maxx
Boots: black suede buckle boots by dv found at TJ Maxx


So what's so interesting about that tunic? Meet my 2007 Marshall's purchase. Light and airy it seemed perfect for travel.  As in China/Tibet 2007.  Some evidence below:


The thing about packing a medium sized half-full suitcase (saving room for purchases) for a five week long trip is that eventually you'll have to wear the items in there over and over and over. This tunic (or maybe it was a dress then? it seems longer) saw much more wear than these pictures would suggest.  By the time we both limped back into Phoenix, we managed a bit more wardrobe rotation together before it was relegated to the back of the closet because I was sick of seeing it. 

Then the move of 2008 happened and the house buying of 2009.  I'm still unearthing treasures I've forgotten about (please tell me this doesn't only happen to me) and discovered a space bag stuffed with clothes from grad school.  And there was my tunic, super soft, slightly faded, and ready to be welcomed back into the fold.

3 comments:

Karen/Small Earth Vintage said...

I love this post! I can totally relate to the music thing. The last real show I went to was Neko Case two years ago. But we're going to see British Sea Power in Chicago this week (woohoo!). Good music stopped coming to my town when our one good venue for it upgraded to a larger building that now hosts mainly tribute bands and Mega 80s shows. Blech. But that's changing, a new smaller club is opening, and I'm going to the grand opening Guided by Voices show in April!

I also love seeing you on your China trip and how you re-worked that cute top into your wardrobe. (You look great with short *and* long hair by the way!) I have many many things in my closet that are several years old (not necessarily vintage) that I still wear regularly--and, um, also, I'm sure, many I've forgotten are there. I'm overdue for closet cleaning.

Aimée - Vint Condition said...

Thanks Karen! Our town gets the same kind of bands as you. It's a heavy mix of cover bands with the occasional snarly local garage band. Last night I was looking around the venue last night thinking that our town could easily support something similar. Most of the attendees were college students and we have a community college and state college in town here.

As I was posting my pics of China, I had some hair nostalgia. It worked great in AZ where I had an amazing stylist and there was low humidity. It didn't transfer well here. I wonder what you'll find in the back of your closet since I'm still digging around mine!

... said...

i'm so glad that your hubs got your butt in gear and got you to a show! it had been at LEAST 4 years since i went to a show until this year, and I never realized how much I missed it until I went! it's a nice feeling.. and by the way, you look adorable. i love how your hair looked when it was short too - i've never seen it that way!