Watching The Sandlot in the park:  =D

Sid when I asked him to play tennis:  …

Sid when I repeatedly knocked it over the fence:  o.O

When I woke up and could still move my arm:  =D

Is this what pros wear? 

♥the ss

Helloo,

Yesterday Liina and I spent the late afternoon roaming around Claremont.  We played guitars at Ben Harper’s parents’ music store, browsed vintage stores, pet a chocolate lab, and I ate a raspberry tart while listening to a Beatles’ cover band.  THEN A PACK OF WOLVES ATTACKED US.  jk.  

In other news, I bought a plane ticket home and installed a shelf of succulents in my room.  Turns out there is a reason I am not the furniture maker of the family.  Whatev whatev, I didn’t have a drill.  Succulents are just the cutest little plants in the world though.

[I wanted a shelf a.) so it doesn’t get weird stuff in the ac and b.) so I can close my blinds easily.]

Boom chicka wha!    

All of this stuff is from Lowe’s.   It was just one of those crazy good days.  Peace & luv,

♥the ss

Scarf, dress – Limited

Good morning,

Guess what!  There’s a family of ducks living in our swimming pool.  They really do “quack”; it’s sooo stereotypical.  But at least they’re sticking to their roots and not getting all hipster.  Sometimes they go to the creek. 

Ducks, y’all, they are so silly and cuddly.    

WAKE UP AND GIVE ME A HUG

Where you guys goin!

Holla atcha girl!

Happy June 1st :).

♥the ss

Necklace – gift from J. Crew :); Scarf – G’mas; Dress & sunglasses – Target 

Good evening,

On hot days like today, I fall back to the delicate memory of my first overnight music festival.  One scorching August weekend, eight of us ventured to the Mississippi delta in a minivan.  

The first night we found ourselves driving around a deserted field looking for potential campsites.  We came upon an inviting cove of trees, and like all good southerners, went off-roading to get there.   

The van was rollicking over some particularly rough terrain when someone asked, “What is that thing?” and two seconds later we were running over a large piece of roadkill.  It was a grotesque situation to begin with, but things worsened when we realized that it had lodged underneath the vehicle.  We pulled up to the makeshift campsite and attempted to extricate the creature, failed miserably, and in the meantime lost interest in setting up tents (we decided to sleep on top of the tents). 

At first we shunned the van and the thing, but over the weekend we matured a little and accepted it as one of our group.  We referred to it as “That Dead Thing” and it accompanied us on our mid-day trips to the festival.  Windows down, the dusty wind dried sweat off our faces and carried a hint of putridity.  We nodded determinedly and acknowledged that maybe this was happening for a reason, but probably not, and it was also probably time to open another beer. 

Our minivan toted a scent of death around the bustling town until the last day, when we pulled onto the little highway and realized that we were leaving something behind.  We turned back with distanced wonder, but we never found out what it was, and neither did we particularly care.  The delta always deals you a new hand.

Stay cool,

♥the ss

Skirt - Loft                                  Shirt - Thrift

Shoes - Sperry                            Bag - Kate Spade

Dear everything,

Well it’s been forever but I’m still lugging around this diaper bag just like the good ol’ days.  It gets caught on doors and slings me around, but it’s waterproof and babyproof so I feel pretty good about its protective shield.  Diaper bags for all! 

Anyway I’ve been rewatching No Direction Home, the documentary about Bob Dylan, and he says that Woody Guthrie songs “teach you how to live”.  I wuz like woahhh mannnn, what an ultimate compliment to an artist.  Oh art.  Exposing truths of life, having people adopt them as their own.  What romance.  Is that the point of all art?  lol idk.

In the spirit of life insights, I will leave you with: “the noble wombat”.  There’s no verb there, but what’s even better than adopting my life insight is to take it and make it into your own.  That way it’s truly relevant to your own life!

♥the ss

Helloooooo,

Lately I’ve been wearing very sensible outfits and walking to school, which is about 4 miles roundtrip.  It’s warm and sunny and smells like flowers and I’ve only almost been run over twice.  Whatever ok the point is that I don’t know how many more pictures of sensible shoes and backpacks the world needs.  But one day I will share and we can all be bored together and have a good laugh.  I’m so real life now. 

Anyway, if you happen to sense some rebellious energy, you are not mistaken.  That’s right, I am now the proud owner of one hair feather. Yes, sometimes it looks like an oddly misshapen rattail, and yes, I put it in a ponytail (ONCE!) and it got a large kink in it.  Despite these qualms, it’s as if I’m harboring a little piece of nature.  And we all know nature is freedom.  And when I find myself sitting in a corner of the library silently crying into my textbooks, it’s quite consoling and reminds that I’m ALIIIIVE.

Juust kidding.  Sort of. 

♥ the ss    

Carefully weighing my hair feather options.  That one did not cut it.  

Here’s the winner!  Thank you Liina for documenting.  And to Venice Beach :).  

Good morning,

This morning I found myself googling “science projects for 4^th graders” because sometimes they can be fun you know?  And I’ve been DYING to make one of those “tornados in a bottle” with colored oil and glitter and just having a grand ol’ time.  (It’s been in the 40s and raining for the past 3 days here sooo yeah.)

If I was a science teacher I would be like “Ok here’s what a tornado looks like” and show the tornado bottle, and then yell “AND HERE’S A HURRICANE!” and spit out water everywhere. 

Umm anyway, this project is on hold until I drink 4 liters of club soda.  But then it will be ON!  I invite you to do this with me.  

Holla back now,

♥the ss  

Good afternoon,

The time has come to acknowledge the note at the :21 second mark in the RHCP song “Soul to Squeeze”.  This note is the “soul” (ha ha!) reason that keeps me coming back to this song. 

The first 20 seconds totally bog you down in bass.  You think the intro is only going to last 6 or 8 seconds.  You become intrigued so you stick with it.  Eventually your lungs burn for air.  There is a complete absence of freshness.  You desperately need a release.  But the intro is willing to let you suffer (much like a honey badger). 

Around 18 seconds, you become aware of a build up.  What you would give for some sweet air.  Finally it comes.  And it is AWFUL.  It’s the weakest, flattest note you could ask for.  Wait - it’s a sliding note.  There is still hope.  But it only gets slightly better.  You begin to hate the song for unnecessary emotional turmoil. 

Then you realize that that one off-key, dull note is the life source of the entire song.  And it’s fighting against the Chuck Norris of bass riffs.  You realize that it has more feeling than any other note in the world.  Your heart melts.  You want MORE from it.  But it doesn’t care what you want.  You understand it signifies both hope and despair.  It encourages you to be yourself.  To show up.  To fight the good fight. 

You thank it.  The rest of the song is neutral.     

I love this note.

Good afternoon,

Today the Sassy Scientist turns one!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY BLOG!!!   

Ironically, I haven’t blogged in a good 3 weeks.  Taking a little break felt like the most authentic thing to do.   But I love writing, I love clothes, and I love this blog, so we’ll see where it goes.  For now, it is time to gather ‘round… for this is the story of how it allll began. 

One day at the rat lab, I was getting on an elevator and saw my reflection.  Everything about myself was “off”.  Nothing I was wearing fit right – shirt too tight, pants too baggy (both thrifted).  I had a bad haircut that I had sloppily put in 2 ponytails.  “Not uplifting” is how I would describe this moment.

It was around this time that my cat Shadow peed on every single item of clothing I owned.  I’m not kidding, it was a nightmare.  I couldn’t hide anything from her.  While I was at work I imagined her hoisting herself into my wardrobe, purring in delight when she found something new.  If I shut her out of my room, she would find something in another part of the house.  I just can’t give the situation justice.

Soon enough I found myself running out of salvageable clothes.  But I refused to spend my hard-earned rat money on snooty “work clothes”.  So I didn’t.  I waited it out in defiance. 

Ten months passed. 

I moved into a new apartment, which allowed me to seriously reassess my belongings.  I barely liked any of my clothes, much less loved.  Same went for my shoes, accessories, my furniture, my decorations – everything in my immediate surroundings.  It was an unsettling time of existence. ***insert winds of change***

More time passed.  One Sunday morning I woke up early.  I pretty much only wore workout clothes, so I threw some on and went shopping.  ***angels singing***

Normally I would have been overly cautious about spending money on “frivolous” things.  But there comes a time that you just. have. to.  So I did. 

I had two guidelines. 

• I only went to something based on attraction – not if I “needed” it or not.
• If I didn’t want to wear it out of the store, I wouldn’t buy it.

I went home that day with things that I was genuinely excited about owning.  This was different.  Clothes had barely crossed my mind for 6 years.  But this new idea of being “more than neutral” about my belongings re-inspired my pastime of styling outfits.  And about 2 months after that I decided to start a blog.  

This process of buying only things I absolutely love (for my apartment, wardrobe, everything) and giving away what I felt neutral about lasted 9 months and appropriately ended when I ran out of money. 

Despite my current lack of funds, I love having a minimal amount of quality things and loving them 100%.  Clutter bogs your life down.  This might have even saved money in the long run since my desire to replace things is now negligible. 

Anyway, the moral of this story is that the true fashionista is my cat Shadow.  She is the one who started this little personal revolution and I have her to thank for getting rid of all the riff raff in my life.  She would just pee on it and ruin it.  I’ve forgiven her. 

Maybe I should loan Shadow to anyone who needs a jumpstart in his or her personal transformation.  I could call it the first step in the “Sassy Scientist Experience”.  Do I hear a copyright??  

Farewell for now…

♥the ss

P.S. Flashback!

Shirt – Forever 21              Jeans – BlankNYC              Cardigan - Limited

Helloooo,

I haven’t bought clothes in about 7 months.  Moving out here, furnishing my apartment (bye bye rat $$), and feeding 10 cats (jk) can wipe a girl out.  However, sooner or later my clothes will start deteriorating and that will be a nice twist to the blog. 

Thinking back, I’ve always been oriented towards clothes.  Not in a cool, design-y way, but I would make a schedule of everything I wore and write down my outfit ideas.  God forbid I wore the same homecoming shirt every week.   Ah, the careless days of youth. 

Anyway, I hesitate to call this a ‘fashion’ blog because it’s more of a “do what you can with what you got” blog.  So cheers to that.  And cheers to this oddly picturesque background. 

Hope you had a fab Wednesday :).

♥the ss

Coat, scarf – Thrift                   Jeans – Vigoss                                               Shoes – Sperry                        Bag – Dooney & Bourke

Good evening,

All I know:

• The Office episode where Michael drives into a lake is one of my favs.  
• Clouds aren’t the best for picture-taking.   
• “Force nothing, resist nothing” is a pretty good motto. (Ahjan Chah)

Today is the last potential fur day.  Tomorrow’s high is 80. 

Woo wooo.  Hope you had a great day :).    

♥the ss