Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Owning my dorkiness.


I'm at home doing the required reading for my writing course. Or rather, for my Thesis Writing Colloquium, if you want to get technical. Because I do like to get technical I just looked up 'colloquium' to see what made it different from say, a 'class.' For your edification, as well as mine:

colloquium  (kəˈləʊkwɪəm) 
n  , pl -quiums , -quia
1. an informal gathering for discussion
2. an academic seminar

Since the particular colloquium I'm attending isn't truly informal- it meets at a required time and place and is graded pass/fail- definition number two best describes it. Which means, at least in this case, there is not one bit of difference between the very intimidating sounding 'colloquium' and the much less daunting sounding 'class.' Except perhaps that there is a fair amount of discussion involved, but, in my experience, that is true of all graduate level classes. So, I'm going to state for the record that the term is probably being employed here in order to make everyone involved feel like a serious smarty pants. And I am totally okay with that. There's your first piece of evidence that I'm an irredeemable dork.


As additional evidence I offer the fact that I am wearing my reading glasses today. Don't misunderstand me. It's not that I think glasses are inherently dorky. I don't. Rather, I think glasses are inherently kind of cool and that's why I'm wearing these, even though they do not assist or ease my reading one bit. That's what's dorky. I am wearing them as part of my smart graduate student costume. I am wearing them because they make reading more fun. And because they make me look smart. (There is actual research to support this, although admitting to it makes it appear significantly less smart, probably.)

 
I wore these boots today because I'm not planning on leaving the house at all. The heels are so worn down that any additional wear would irreparably damage them. I wore them today to help me decide if I liked them well enough to have the heels repaired. I have three other pairs of black over-the-knee boots and I've often worried that these give off a vibe that's a little too 'Lord of the Rings' for my taste.




I've decided that the are worth the repair costs because they are awfully comfortable and different enough from the three other pairs of over-the-knees boots I own (which are wedge, riding, and ahem, hooker-style) to merit keeping them. But feel free to weigh in on the issue if you disagree and think they're ridiculously elfin.

And there you have it- pretentious vocabulary, unnecessary glasses, and a Lord of the Rings reference. Dorky enough for you?

3 comments:

  1. I think that in some areas of the United States certain fashion looks are more accepted than in others. For instance I wore a very similar pair of boots to work in the Wash DC area and got "told" they are too young a look for me. DC area is very conservative. In NY I wore the same boots and was told how fab I looked in them. GO FIGURE. So I say they look cool on you and you live in CA so I think people there are probably less conservative about fashion. Would you agree??

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  2. Adrienne,
    I hope you treated whomever told you that to one of your boots right up the you-know-what.
    I'd agree that California is not especially conservative. It can be extremely casual though, which often means that any attempt at looking put together results in appearing much more dressed up than everyone else. And I don't live in San Francisco; I live in a small, rather rural town. I love it, but it's not exactly a breeding ground for emerging trends.
    I don't worry too much about the age appropriateness of these boots because I never wear them with any skin showing. I find that makes all the difference for me. If there's any hint of sexiness then I become concerned that I'm trying to look like something I'm not (be that young, slim, hot, or whatever.) Covered up I think the long boots look works for any age.

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  3. I really like the boots and if you like them and feel great wearing them, thn by all means get them repaired.

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