From Plastic Sandals to Leather Boots: A Journey to Overcome Fashion Intimidation

It started out innocently enough this 4th of July. I left the Waterfront Blues Festival with the lovely Madeline and a fully developed *Mike's Hard Limeade buzz. Naturally, we decided it was the perfect time to go shopping for shoes.

I ended up buying these beautiful, dark brown suede, over the calf Cole Haan boots. I was pretty excited until the buzz wore off and I had them in my closet next to my lovingly broken in Chuck Taylors, Sambas, and Locals sandals. Meh, so I guessed that since it was summer all they really needed to do was sit tight and look pretty until the fall. But every time I looked into my closet that old Sesame Street song would play in my head,
"One of these things is not like the other, One of these things just doesn't belong". The problem is, I haven't attempted to wear boots since I was twenty. Actually, no, that's silly. I've worn boots MANY times since then. In the forest. Working. Which did cause me to suffer some very unattractive "boot feet". Tall utilitarian leather work boots worn for 10+ hours a day during the summer heat....yeahhh. Needless to say, my feet were pretty much the new hotness for a couple years. So what I really meant is that I haven't tried to put together an outfit anchored by cute boots since I was twenty. Ultimately, I decided to figure out how to wear them with my wardrobe laaater (I picture my friend Miki saying that and giving a care-free, dismissive little wave at the problem. It makes me smile).

As fall started to approach, I still didn't see how I would take the fashion leap from wearing over sized V-neck T-shirts and jean shorts cut off at the knee to prancing around in my new leather beauties. Well, Europe has made me a little bolder. So bold, in fact, that I set out this morning to H&M determined to buy my first scarf. And I don't mean a winter scarf. Cutting edge fashion, my friends. Ha! This would be the first step in my transformation to "boot-wearer". Simple enough, right?

But something started to happen on my Underground ride to the city center. I started to get really jealous of all the women wearing boots. Seriously, at least 75% of the women at any given time are wearing boots. "I want to wear my boots", I mentally pouted. Since the length and cut of my jeans do not lend themselves to a boot wearing situation, I begrudgingly knew what I had to do. It involved a trend that I had really hoped to let pass right on by. And I've been very successful at doing just that for the last few years. Alas, the boot mania took over and made me bolder than ever (that is saying a lot, because I used to wear some crazy hippie dresses and old wool sweaters depicting fox hunts to my very conservative and fashionably unimaginative Catholic high school). So I did the most inexpensive thing to update my wardrobe to "boot friendly". I bought leggings. Who do I think I am that I go out and buy leggings? The answer is, I don't know. What I do know is that trying new things when you've been in fashion rut for the last 8 years is actually easier around strangers than good friends. And douchebag Portland hipsters. It provides the anonymity to try something different, take it out for a walk, see if it feels nice. Also, Josh commented the other day on the fact that since we're Americans, no one here is ever going to think we're really that cool anyway.            It's very freeing.

So to wrap this up, the extremely enlightening, important, and life enriching point of this story is that I can now wear my boots. Or that I'm taking risks. Or something.

And for the record, I did buy that scarf.

This post if for my real life fashion icons - Maddie, Megan, and Miki

*Hey, you know what? It was a hot day and that was the coldest alcoholic beverage available for purchase. It was served on ice which is something that I wouldn't mind these Europeans getting on board with. "Ice is unhealthy" my ass.

Coin Pooper

I told myself that I would blog at least once a week. Considering the fact that my only real obligation right now is to make dinner every night, I thought "Eh, that will be easy...I'll probably over blog." Well, my friends, I have been mentally and emotionally exhausted this week. I needed some time to process all the changes that have taken place in the last couple months. The first part of the week was rough, but it's getting better. I've absolutely adored all the emails I've received even though I have not responded to any of them. However, one of my goals for next week is to do just that. Get excited.   

Last weekend was awesome. First we bought a car - a silver VW Golf. We don't have it in our possession yet because we needed an address to be able to register it (more on that further down), but the whole process of test driving it, negotiations, and getting financed took less than two hours!

Saturday we went on an overnight adventure to Bamberg to visit our friends Andrew and Desma. They showed us around the city, treated us to Rauchbier (smoke beer), and took us to ice cream that looked like spaghetti. It was amazing!

Desma, Andrew, and Josh in Bamberg

 

 

 

 

Bamberg's Old City Hall

Bamberg

 

 

Josh's first Cathedral, oooh but it won't be the last

Inside the Bamberg Cathedral

Are you a believer now?

 

 

 

Many of you might remember Josh and I talking about an apartment that we really liked when we came over to visit in May. The whole building was being renovated by the owner's son, but we thought the it would be finished and gone by the time we moved here. Well, it wasn't! He finished up some of the other apartments in the building and then took a holiday. WE GOT THE APARTMENT! It's in a fantastic neighborhood, two floors above a bakery, and the private entrance to the building is through a locked gate off the street and a small patio courtyard available to all residences for use. It only has one bedroom, but the living room has it's own door and can be closed off for the privacy of our guests. That being said, sleeping accommodations will be limited to my beautiful couch or a full sized air mattress on the floor. The landlord is going to put a brand new kitchen in and we'll be able to move in October 15th. Yay, I can't wait! Living in a hotel isn't the most awesome thing ever.

Tomorrow we're going to check out the Alstadtfest in Nuremberg. One Josh's coworkers put together "drinking group" and we're all going to meet up at this festival and then go on a pub crawl. I'm sure there will be more to say on that next week.

Oh yeah, you may be wondering about the title of the post. Here you go:

None of you should be surprised by this...

 

The Water Smells Weird, But Tastes Good

I find that most blogs fall into two categories: self-indulgent or humorous. At least the ones I’ve read. And I suppose they can be both. However, I’m going to be an asshole here and create my own self-indulgent blog. My reasons are as follows:

1. I don’t really have anything else to do, and this will hopefully help keep me from going insane with my new domestic lifestyle…this and the castles, bier, hilarious European haircuts, WWII historical sites for days, far too many currency coins, and general exploration.
2. While I’m not forcing anyone to read this blog, I’m still putting my horrible grammar and sub-par writing style out into the universe. Plus I hate proof reading, so yeah…just try to figure out what all my typos and fragmented sentences mean!
3. While I love my family and friends and already miss you all dearly, I don’t want to write the same general updates over and over. Let’s keep the email correspondence personal…rar *wink*
4. I absolutely reserve the right to not to keep the content and images “family friendly”. There will probably be the occasional curse word (gasp!), lewd comment or reference (eek!), or images of German sausages that may or may not look like food (tee hee!). I’m not going out of my way to avoid offending anyone’s delicate sensibilities.

Now that the housekeeping is over and done with, it is time for some updates! Or you could just skip to the bottom of the post for pictures.

We arrived in Nuremberg last Wednesday. Business class was AH-mazing (thank you very much, Adidas) and while we were still jet-lagged, I did not feel like death upon arrival.

Josh started his new job on Monday. His role is very similar to the one he had in Portland, except he is the “new guy” here and is anxious to be brought up to speed on projects.

We’re in temporary housing at a hotel in Nuremberg. It is okay, but we’re diligently looking for an apartment. Biggest hurdle with that is finding one with a kitchen! Also, windows placed at random in bathrooms seems to be common…like a window at floor level across from the toilet that looks out into the apartment building entry way. Unfortunately, that apartment was out of our price range. Damn.

I think we may have found a car. Josh just needs to test drive it tomorrow. Word to the wise: do not go to the Turkish and Russian “dealerships” on Fuggerstrasse in Nuremberg. I really feel that the only things missing were packs of stray dogs and large tire fires.

I need to learn German. Period. I think our lessons start at the end of the month.

Houses

Large meat and potato platter

Mushroom stand at the outdoor marketplace (photo taken for Kim)

Along the River

A typical street in Nuremberg