Downhill trend

My year goes like this...

Always, the end of summer with its darker mornings and earlier nights is heartbreaking. I cling to every last second of it, even though I know that eventually I'll have to let the season go. And when I finally do, it's ok - soon after the start of cooler nights is Halloween (which is not just a day but a mini-season, as you all in NY know), then - quicker than I think - Thanksgiving, the dizzy series of holiday parties in December, then Christmas itself. Being an early January baby, I drag out the holiday season until January 5, at which point I'm left with an empty expanse of winter on my horizon.

At about that time, I really want to go skiing. Not just for the day in NY State, that won't do it. I'm thinking full blown Alpine village, hot wine and hot apres, charming wood chalets, passports required, menus auf Deutsch (ou francais), and my ski instructor is called Gunther or Pierre, not Chris, thank you. The kind of place that looks like a James Bond ski scene was filmed there and where you'd feel like you were in a fairy tale if it weren't so darn cold.

St Anton: I was very happy to be there

This year it's been an obsession. I didn't go skiing last year (though I would not have given up an amazing trip to Africa with my sister and parents) but this winter I'm not working, and there's absolutely no excuse not to go given I've got the time, the boots, the wardrobe - everything!! I'd be wasting the best opportunity I've had to go more than once, even!!! It's MANDATORY!!!! And it's so much on my mind that it's showing in how I dress - one of my neighbors even commented that I looked like I was geared up for the slopes not the gym. My fixation is manifesting itself physically!

I will end the suspense and your undoubted concern now and tell you that I do indeed have plans to go to St Anton in February with my friend Deborah (and I am really really excited about it!!!) - and a second ski trip is also possibly on the horizon (woo hoo!!!). But that still hasn't ended my enthusiasm for wearing ski-ish clothes this winter - at least on the odd days that are below 50 degrees - and I love the look on other people too.

So yeah, it's not just me, it seems. It could be that Nordic knits and fluffy boots are what some dormant fashion clock tells us we should wear in winter, like french sailor stripes in spring. Or maybe other people have the same ski trip craving that I do. I haven't been too literal in my ski-inspired wardrobe (I don't actually own any Nordic knits and don't go around the city in actual ski clothes). But the other day, walking down 6th Avenue, I saw a guy wearing a parka, ski helmet and goggles. I had to look twice, as I thought I might just have been projecting, but no, no tricks of the mind as he pulled his goggles down and hopped on his bike. I don't know if he was purely thinking practically, as it was cold, or if he was also thinking of rushing downhill as he rode into the wind. But the fact that he owns a ski helmet and goggles made me think that he's got the same compulsion as me.

Not a literal translation, but ski influenced

Never surrender!

In my last post back in August, I mentioned that I'd changed jobs. Well, there's been more change and I'm now part of the leisure class, the 8.6%, the (f)unemployed, the pink slipped... blah blah..

And while my effort to impose discipline on my weekdays by getting up by 7am and heading straight to the gym lasted about one week (imagine - 10 years of a 5:15am alarm has STILL not turned me into a morning person!), I've upheld my vow not to wear sweatpants or crappy clothes.

There are sections of my closet that haven't been touched since last winter (the work-y clothes), but on the flip side, I get to play around with the fun stuff that I didn't get to wear as much, the clothes that weren't work appropriate and were too "day" for going out. On occasion, I do find myself a little overdressed for the dry cleaners and grocery store. But putting on something I'm happy about sets the tone for the day.

And once you're out the door, you never know who you'll run into. Last week after lunch with my friend Stephany, I was stopped by a crew to be filmed for part of an MTV pilot. While I am pretty sure I came across as an idiot, at least I liked what I was wearing (photo below).

Which just proves that, while not everything in life is under your control, you can at least try to look all right.