This weekend was another noisy one – not us, our neighbor. The first weekend we were here, the neighbor to our right kept us up all night with loud music and conversation on the patio and then this weekend our neighbor to the left woke us up with loud music and laughing and banging on the patio – finally, my deaf ear could not take it anymore and by 5 in the morning Rich asked them to turn it down a bit and they did, a bit. So annoying but seriously, the walls around here are paper thin and I was trying so hard to make the most of it and hear something juicy to blog about but it was just a bunch of lame, “i love college” babble that would make Asher Roth proud. I’ve never met our neighbor to the left but I thought she would be classy because she had Pottery Barn furniture delivered. But based on what I have seen roaming around here, even the professionals are thirty year old tweens. I have a feeling that my neighbors probably hang out on 6th street closing the bars, talking to each other via iPhone apps and showing off their Porches without actually having any fundamental knowledge about cars. Who knows, maybe they are really super cool and I will be borrowing sugar from them before you know it. But seriously, no one around here knows how to hold a door. What happened to southern hospitality?

On an up note, I do appreciate Austin style (although it should be mentioned that whoever made the fitted button up and jeans standard protocol for men did not take into consideration that a group of male friends would all follow the same fashion rule at the same time for the same occasion – it was the sight of this faux pas crossing the street, bro-crew by bro-crew, that has inspired Rich to trade his look up for the fall and I think you will all be impressed). But as for the girls that I have seen – very vintage/hipster chic and always effortless looking and well put together with simple, flattering accessories such as a nice pair of sunglasses, a nice handbag or a great pair of boots – nothing Lady GaGa-audy about it. Lately, I have been wearing a lot of flip flops and comfy clothes and the night of the Ra Ra Riot show, I had on galoshes because it had been raining earlier which sounds logical but… as we walked home by all the girls in their designer boots and stilettos, I felt a titch Bridget Jones schlumping along in my rain boots and realized that I love getting all dolled up and have been a disgrace to my motto: Fashion before function. So time to put an end to that! Time to reinvent myself! Time to stop being comfortable and back to looking smart (and sassy)! Maybe then people will want to hold doors for me if they notice that I am strutting like a warrior in 4-inch spikes.

Sunday, Rich and I went shopping and I bought a couple new dresses from American Apparel (the outlet – it’s like shopping a sale without the hassle of rummaging through racks or bins and half price means half the guilt!). I have always thought that American Apparel clothes are a bit too outrageous for me but now, after trying on a few things, I have discovered that the lines of the clothes are very flattering to my frame. And yesterday I wore a dress that I have had in my closet (here and back in Buffalo) for months. I had been waiting for a special occasion or something to wear it but why wait for an occasion when you can create one? So yesterday I wore my dress to Target, to do laundry, to make dinner and go for an evening walk with Rich around the park; Rich was in his new swim trunks . Just call me a modern day housewife (sans house, sans wife). (Yes folks, I have been applying for jobs – even retail sales clerk positions…does anyone actually look at my resume?)

Back to the dresses, I found a dress at Target that I liked, Rich didn’t like (the “tablecloth” description in the name probably didn’t help – I believe Rich said that it was so ugly that he would not eat off of it if it was his grandmother’s tablecloth) and so, with that, I put it back. (p.s. it drives me crazy when my mom takes my dad’s fashion advice) Needless to say, I thought about it and the next day I decided that I wanted the dress. So I emptied piggy and took myself to Target only to find that it had been snagged. And now I have gone to the Target website to order the dress only to see that it is no longer available (not even sold out – just not there anymore). So now, all I have left to remember said dress is an iPhone photo I asked Rich to take before I placed it back on the rack. Who would have known that that would be out only encounter.

This morning we went to the Domain! Sound cool? Shopping paradise! It was just a perfectly constructed metropolis of designer shops! Like a piece of Rodeo Drive in Austin but more convenient for me to window shop and daydream. Rich had to go to the Apple store to fix his iPhone (read more) While we were at the Apple store, this is what we saw:

What do you see? Well, the lady in red is wearing floral leggings, ankle socks and hi-tops and the jacket is wool on an 80 degree day. What stuck out most about her ensemble was the surgical mask over her face (which she removed when speaking to the salesman which I would think would reduce the spread of whatever she was trying to prevent). I nudged Rich who thought that this was odd but not too strange – he did not realize that what I was really trying to draw his attention to was the small child she was keeping in the suitcase next to her. Yes, under that white blanket is a sleeping child. In a suitcase. Any theories?