Happy Snapshots: Summer 2015

I went to Western Europe for the first time this past summer. I went with one of my sisters to London (with brief visits to Bath and Cardiff, Wales), Edinburgh, and Paris. It was a very quick but lovely trip. Here are some photos!

Requisite tourist-y photo with the London Eye in the background (on the Jubilee Bridge)

My younger sister and I got lost while trying to walk to London's West End, and we managed to run into the little cul-de-sac where part of the Philippine Embassy was. Of course we had to take a dorky pic.

I met my friend B at the Tate Modern Museum and afterward we walked across the Millennium Bridge toward St. Paul's Cathedral.

A "street" performance in front of the British National Museum (not an actual street there)

Are you surprised that we made it to Cardiff, Wales, to check out the Doctor Who Experience/Museum? Loved seeing a life-size police box in person.

This was the site of so many great Doctor Who episodes (the Russell Davies years).

This was taken outside the Roman Baths in Bath. The walls activated my trypophobia a bit, but I made sure not to look too closely!

Lovely Fluevogs (Arabella) by the bath

Tea time at the famous Pump Room

More tea, this time in Edinburgh, Scotland

Walking up the Granny Steps towards the Edinburgh Castle

Taking selfies in front Notre Dame just to show we were there. There was no way we were going to wait in those huge lines to get inside. I know. We made really bad tourists.

Posing at one of the many bridges in central Paris. Check out the locks.

Sorry this was basically just a photo dump. I don't have much time to write a longer reflection on the trip, though, to be honest, I probably need to take the time to reflect on it more. I came back from the trip and had to start teaching less than a week later. I was pretty jet-lagged for the first few weeks of the fall semester and I'm not sure that I've quite recovered yet! But it was great to be there. I even saved my sister from getting pick-pocketed/mugged. I want to return with my husband next time.

xo, Gladys

Happy Snapshots: Spring 2015

This past June and July have been a little busier for me than in past years. I was able to meet a writing deadline this week, so I'm feeling pretty happy with myself. Note that I don't expect anything to come out of it; I did submit something for publication (academic), but it's the completion of a writing project that is always a victory for me, even if it's minor.

As I sorta promised, here are some pics from our Colorado vacation. We stayed at a rented guest house on a crazy-beautiful 17-acre place in Durango. This was the yard, you know, where a herd of deer would just hang out and eat the grass and gallop into the forest when they heard a car coming down the long driveway:

Herd of deer

Me on a horse for the first time ever! My companion was named Cielo and he LOOOOOVED to eat. He was big and slow. (Btw, I wish I'd worn a better hat, but I don't have any cowboy hats.)

My little guy (waving) on his horse named Burrito

I love that he's still so cuddly.

It was a nice vacation, although I was scrambling to finish grading during a good chunk of the week. I did finish grading on time, though. And it was a nice place to relax outside of reading student papers.

Here are a couple of other photos from earlier this year. This one with M and E was a selfie taken after we watched the musical play, Pride and Prejudice, at the La Mirada Theatre. It was really well-done and really fun. The three of us went as a birthday celebration for me. What a great ladies' night out!

Do you notice that my front teeth look more prominent? I started wearing Invisalign braces back in February, and with the realignment, you can see that my teeth are wider than they used to look. Yes, I'm finally straightening my teeth in my thirties.

Finally, this photo is of a pair of cool socks that my older sister got for me as a thank-you. They're all titles of banned books. What a super cool way to celebrate such great books!

So you see, I have been taking photos and doing other stuff besides teaching and grading. I wish I had more time for the blog -- it's a good way to practice writing and journaling -- but I hope this will do for now. Have a great rest of the summer!

Gladys

Holidaze 2014

Hello there. :-) Happy holiday season. I wanted to make sure I posted one more time in 2014. Here's my Xmas day outfit, a couple of new favorite items in my closet.

Dress: Effie's Heart | Shoes: Fluevog Liz via Raspberry Heels

The fabric of this lovely Effie's Heart dress is stretch knit and drapes wonderfully. I love how well-made it is. Plus pockets!

I love these shoes. They're a limited-edition colorway that was only available at a store in Poland called Raspberry Heels.

I know it's been a loooooong time since I last wrote something here. It's been a busy fall since I finished up school. Besides volunteering at my son's school and weekly yoga, I attempted NaNoWriMo in November and I interviewed to do adjunct teaching at the local community college -- I start in February! I'll be teaching three comp courses and am putting together the syllabi now.

My siblings and siblings-in-law had an "ugly sweater" theme. Can't really see mine, but it's a Doctor Who sweater from TeeFury.

The holidays have been more relaxed for us this year, which has been nice. Because frankly, I'm exhausted. I'm proud of all that I've accomplished this year, but it's been difficult in many ways, as anyone who's read or seen the news since the summer knows. I'm wishing you all a more peaceful, sane, just, compassionate, and happy new year.

xo, Gladys

The Doctor Is in...

How silly is that title. But yay, I am done!!! I found out a couple of days ago that my dissertation was officially accepted by the university. I'm all but diploma at this point. I came back from my trip this past Tuesday, and since then I've been trying to catch up both on what I missed at home and on sleep. Still in a bit of a fog, to be honest (partly because I can't shake off the sleeping habits I acquired this summer, combined with having to wake up early to take my son to school), but I am definitely more relaxed than I was the past few months.

Getting the rest of the committee signatures last Monday was a nice experience. I had a lovely chat with two committee members. The last one was my other co-chair, and while waiting at the cafe for her I saw this:

Looks like the TARDIS has been moonlighting as a door somewhere, doesn't it? Haha. I thought it was pretty cool, seeing something like that while on a journey specifically seeking to become a doctor myself. ;-)

Co-Chair and I spent quite a bit of time talking about how to turn the dissertation into a book. I was just following her lead ... that's the way she works, constantly thinking about the next step. It was flattering, I'll admit. She's not the easiest person to impress, and she was quite happy for me and called the project original. It was probably the best face-to-face meeting we'd ever had. I'm still not interested in getting a job as a professor and having to move away, but I'm considering applying for postdocs in the L.A. area. We'll see. Competition is incredibly fierce all around nowadays.

After that meeting, I had a fantastic dinner with Joanne and Dorothy -- both of whom are members of the MotleyFlue -- and we took these:

Of course we had to take the requisite Fluevog shot, courtesy of Dorothy. I wore my new burgundy/black/pink Sandras and Joanne wore her blue Guides (which I also have). Our pose in the second photo is due to a private joke, but it actually turned out to be a good photo of us, which is hilarious since we were totally hamming it up! Anyway, I had such a fun time with these kickass women. (I have to say, I'm so blessed to be surrounded by amazing women in my life, from my friends to my all-women dissertation committee to my mom and sisters. I have some great men and boys in my life, too, but I definitely have close relationships with more women than men.)

Also, the food in the Bay Area is reliably excellent. That's one thing I miss about living there. If you ever get a chance, try Isla in San Bruno (yummy Filipino food) and Paisan in Berkeley (American). And the quality of the Thai food in San Francisco, even the small hole-in-the-wall places, is outstanding.

Anyway, I don't have anything big lined up for the fall, but I'll probably look into applying for postdocs. I also want to work on NaNoWriMo in November. I can't wait to go back to a very different genre of writing! Cheers!

xo, Gladys

Birthday Fun at the Huntington

So, I'm still struggling to finish the same dissertation chapter I talked about last time. But I'm getting so grumpy from lack of sleep that I thought I'd take a break to post here and fondly remember some recent events. My dear friend M and I had a ladies day out last weekend to celebrate my birthday. We went to the gorgeous Huntington Library and Gardens and of course we dressed up. It turned out to be perfect weather, and really the whole day and evening were fantastic. What a gift.

Dress and sash: Tulle via Modcloth | Cardi: Banana Republic | Leggings: ? | Shoes: Fluevog Erika (different colorways available)
M is also wearing a Modcloth/Fluevog combo. Her boots (compliment-magnets, I tell you) are still available (Bartoli in red).

My dress without cardi or sash

With cardi but no sash

Trying for fierce expressions

Closeup of my new glasses. This is my usual expression when I look at people/cameras.

We enjoyed ourselves at the Huntington, as expected. We loved walking around the place in our pretty dresses and even better-looking and comfy shoes. Our favorite thing was seeing the mind-blowing Archimedes manuscript exhibit. Archivists and restorers are hardcore. Seriously.

Of course we had to eat somewhere special, so we went to the famous soup dumpling restaurant, Din Tai Fung, in Arcadia, just a few miles away from the Huntington. If you've never been and you love delicious fresh Chinese food and you live in SoCal or are visiting, I highly recommend it.

Then of course we got dessert, despite being already stuffed. These were from J.J.'s in the same plaza as the restaurant.

Then, what do you know, in the same plaza we found a cute little clothing store. Their markups were unfortunately too much. We tried on a couple of things anyway, including these adorable rompers that caught our eye from the window. They're certainly well-made and of good fabric, but much too expensive (at least for us -- does $140 for a romper sound reasonable to you?).

Special thanks to dear M for making my birthday special this year! Oh, and thanks also for drawing this for me:

Can you guess who it is? Ah, she knows me so well. Hee hee! #Cumberfangirl

xo, Gladys

Christmas, Doctor Who Edition 2013

Do our outfits remind you of something, or maybe someone?

That's right! My sisters and I dressed as three different Doctors. From the left, my older sister is dressed as #10 (David Tennant, probably my favorite Doctor), my younger sister is dressed as #11 (Matt Smith, her favorite), and I am dressed as #9 (Christopher Eccleston, the fantastic one-season wonder who is my second favorite).

In contrast to our (sorta) ass-kicking faces above, here we are channeling the goofy and fun aspect of the Doctor:

ON ME: Suede jacket: Ann Taylor LOFT (from many years ago) | Top: GAP | Jeans: Gloria Vanderbilt via Costco (!) | Shoes: Fluevog Qtee via Amazon

It made me happy that we all managed to get into some kind of costume. I think the casualness of our interpretations was perfect for the holidays (it wasn't Halloween or a Comic Con, after all) ... although I wish I'd worn boots rather than my admittedly-gorgeous but still-not-appropriate Mini Qtees, at least for the pic.

Anyway, here are some of my other favorite photos of the day, with lots of kiddos, yummy food, and a last look at our growing family.

Happy New Year's Eve! If you'd like some inspiration on making your New Year's resolutions, here are a few articles and video that I enjoyed:

• "Here's The Science You Can't Not Know Before Making That Ambitious New Year's Resolution" via Upworthy
• "How to Actually be Successful in Achieving Your 2014 Goals" via Good
• and "The Most Important Thing You Can Do In The New Year To Lose Weight, Get Sharper And Live Longer" via HuffPost

All thought-provoking. The takeaways? Let's make our resolutions specifically for the New Year in order to harness the power of optimism on this occasion. Instead of roaring out of the gate and being immediate-results-oriented, we should start with small steps to build strong, identity-based habits that will last throughout the year. (We won't burn out so quickly that way.) Finally? Get more sleep!

And with that, I bid farewell to the good and the bad of 2013, and look forward to a wonderful start to 2014! I wish you the same! See you in this space next year. :-)

xo, Gladys

Party Chic

It's official: I've converted both MP and E to Fluevog AND ModCloth.

We had a get-together last weekend at my house to celebrate E's recent birthday and the upcoming holidays. We planned to sing some holiday songs while E played her flute and to have some yummy wine with our potluck dinner. Of course, I had to kindly request that we all wear dresses. Even though kids and husbands were involved, it was a holiday/birthday party after all. These two immediately said yes! Which is why I love them so much. *g* And we all ended up wearing ModCloth and Fluevog, even without coordinating the specifics.

On me, far right: Dress: Trollied Dolly via ModCloth | Shoes: T.U.K. via ModCloth

MP, far left, is wearing a dress via ModCloth that was formerly in my closet but that I realized looked MUCH better on her. And she's wearing her gorgeous red Bartoli boots, her first-ever pair of Fluevogs (documented here). These two-tone red boots are simply amazing and go with almost everything!

E, meanwhile, wore the striking ModCloth dress that was her birthday present from me. This is a lovely, well-made dress with lining and a nice heavy fabric -- perfect for colder weather. It also has pockets! She bought the adorable houndstooth cat shoes from ModCloth herself. She had a very successful first purchase at ModCloth and I'm positive she's going back for more!

As for my own dress, it's one that you may remember from earlier this year, sans belt. Trollied Dolly is such a dreamy brand. Plus it's a dress that's in line with my blue obsession this fall. It goes perfectly with my Fluevog Liz maryjanes (see bottom photo below), but it also goes really well with my beige polka dot cat shoes -- same brand as E's, just a different design. The beige matches the yellowish polka dots on the dress. And check out that cat tail on the heel!

Having fun with our posing. I love everything about this pic except MY HAIR. Ugh.

Shoes: Fluevog Liz (Kitschy Kitschy Boom Boom family)

We had a great night. We made music, drank delicious sweet wine (Stella Rosa, anyone?) and ate amazing veggie lasagna thanks to E, and managed to squeeze in a photo shoot while the kids ran around the rest of the house and watched a movie. Special thanks go to my hubby for accompanying us on the piano and taking the photos, and to E's hubby for watching the kids.

Hope you all have a happy holiday season!!

xo, Gladys

1940s Femme

I was kind of in love with what I wore to my husband's company 1940s-theme holiday party:

Coat with belt: Cherry Koko via Amazon | Dress: Collectif via ModCloth | Tights: ? | Shoes: Fluevog Rubens (Baroque family)

I actually had my hair done by a professional that day. My usual hairstylist went into labor (!), so I was lucky to get her friend, Kim, as a replacement. Using a flat iron, Kim worked curls into my hair like had never been done before. It was fun to watch the magic happen as she sprayed, curled, teased, brushed, and pinned. I was really thrilled with how she managed to turn my short bob into this:

Below is an iPhone pic of me at the event, with my coat open to show a peek of my dress. Only about a quarter to maybe a third of the attendees dressed to the theme, but it was fun to people-watch. I wish we could have gotten photos of the outfit during the day. This year, we were busy for most of the day so we didn't have a lot of time to pretty ourselves up. By the time we were dressed, dark had fallen and we were running half an hour late. (Another thing I wish is that the party had been more fun. Sigh. Most of my husband's coworkers that I knew left the company this part year, and the others didn't bother to attend this year, so we hung out with new people. Unless there's a fantastic incentive to attend next year, we might just skip it. It was fun to dress up, but we could have dressed up and hung out with our friends instead. I would have danced the night away for sure.)

xo, Gladys