Pushing the Envelope

Long days! or are they short days? Maybe it's all in how you look at it. I leave the house by 6 am, and I don't get back home until close to 8 pm. Long days at work, and short days at home.

sweater — Worthington (thrifted)

skirt — (thrifted)

belt — (don't remember; older than dirt)

shoes — Mia (DSW)

These days, my days start at 4:30 am, which is what time I set my alarm. (That's a far cry from a few short weeks ago, when my days pretty much ended at about that time.) Anyway, when I got this job, I decided to set my alarm for that ungodly early time because I just do not get along with mornings. AT ALL! I tend to be a night owl, so it's much easier for me to stay up until 4:30 am than to get up at that time.

I could set the alarm for 5:00 am, and technically I would still have plenty of time to get out the door. Unfortunately, I'm a creature of habit, and I knew that no matter what time I set the alarm, I would end up pushing the envelope as far as I possibly could and stay in bed to catch a few more minutes of shut-eye. 

But if I I did set the alarm for 5 am, I would still stay in bed to the last possible moment — trying to delay the inevitable of having to get up. And then, because I didn't leave myself with enough time to get ready, I would end up running around like a crazy person trying to get out the door.* By setting the alarm for a half hour earlier, I can still stay in bed and get up and have plenty of time. I know, this sounds completely ridiculous.

* If you have ever seen me in action, you would know that I wasn't jesting. When I'm pressed for time, I get so worried about forgetting something that I grab everything and anything that isn't nailed down. And the later I am, the more stressed I get, and the more I grab.  (There's a reason that my co-workers at my last job used to call me the bag lady — I needed multiple bags to hold everything that I grabbed as I was running out the door).

Anyway, that was the long-winded version of saying that I get up sometime between 4:45 am and 5 am. I  have to leave my house by 5:55 am to get to the train station by 6:30 am. (The train doesn't come until 6:50 am, but I have to get to the station early to nab a parking spot. Even at that hour of the morning, I end up having to park in the overflow lot.)

It's still dark at that hour, so I've been getting to see the sun rise each and every morning. That in itself is a pretty novel experience for me! The 6:50 train arrives at Union Station in DC at 8:17 am, and at that point, I just follow the stream of people flowing out of the station and into the streets. From there, it's a short 10-minute walk to my office. At 5 pm, I reverse my steps and leave the office, catching the 5:20 train out of Union Station.

Unfortunately, getting dressed in the dark and when I'm half asleep has its drawbacks — the main one being that I don't see how I really looked until I see my pictures. (I also have to rely on the weather report, which can be a bit sketchy.)

This outfit was a case in point. I usually like my skirts shorter, rather than longer, so I hoisted this skirt up to make it shorter. Unfortunately, however, when I did that — the proportions were completely off. These shoes really demand a longer skirt to pull them off. (Remember these shoes from here and here? They were the shoes with attitude!)

Over the weekend, I restaged the pictures to see if the longer length looked better. And I have to say, it made a HUGE difference! (Could I actually be starting to catch on to this fashion thing?!)

Wouldn't you agree? 

As a side note, I wish I could take all my pictures on the weekend so I can take them in the daylight. The quality is just SO much better!

I actually don't mind the commute. I like the train -- it's very soothing, and relaxing, almost as if you're being rocked to sleep. By the time I get home, I have completely unwound from the day. Completely different than when I was driving to work and dealing with the traffic. The biggest problem is that I don't have enough hours in the day to get things done.

But when did I ever?

I'm lucky enough to squeak in on the Bloggers Do It Better animal print challenge. Lucky that I had happened to wear an animal print (my skirt) and lucky enough that I was able to post it in time (29 minutes and counting by last watch). It's amazing to see how other people have styled their animal prints so that everybody looks different (I really like the use of color ... something that I need to try more of.)