I'm back.

I went out of town last Thursday for Spring Break. I tried to post a "hey, I'm going on break" message but Blogger was TOTALLY hosed on Thursday, so I had to forget it.

Break was good. I went to visit my folks, partly because last Sunday was my dad's 70th birthday. I got my taxes done (finally, after making a mistake on Schedule D the first time, and then realizing the second time I had forgotten to claim the $750 I made reviewing textbooks). Miraculously, I get a refund this year - didn't expect that. (some good can come of having had stocks that tanked). I do owe money to my state, but I ALWAYS do - they'd tax oxygen here if they could figure out a way to do it.

I got the couple of scarves I was working on done - the KnitPurl scarf (which is actually sort of a relief to have done, as nice as it is), the silly little Tiki crocheted scarf (which really griped my wrist after I was done with it - note to self: do not crochet for more than an hour at a time in the future) and another silly scarf, this time a sort of half-*ssed moebius made out of the Bernat "Bling Bling" (which I still say is a ridiculous name for a yarn). It's a half-*ssed moebius because I was making it in a simple yo pattern (row 1: k1, *(yo, k2tog)* to end, row 2: knit) but I got off count and tried to correct and wound up with a point on the thing. So I just ran with it and made the point the midpoint of the scarf (I wasn't ripping that stuff back). It looked better at the end if I put a twist in it and seamed the short ends, so that's what I did.

I also made a skirt - I had been wanting a sort of dressy black skirt and couldn't find a good one in the stores. So I used my current-favorite skirt pattern (Vogue 7910) and got some really nice black raw-silk blend (it's crunchy, not slippery) and made one. (I also have some nice magenta-ish moleskin I bought to use with a Burda pattern, but I may actually make another 7910 out of it, because the Burda pattern is a tulip shape and those are a pain to fit).

I did go shopping. And I found a bunch of things I liked. And I'm going to say something that I don't quite believe I'm saying, and which my 16 year old self would have dope-slapped me for saying, but here goes:

I'm really happy that the "preppy" look is back in.

Yes. The look that I spent my teenaged years ridiculing (or rather, I ridiculed the preps, the people with more money than brains, the people who drank like fish and had Connecticut lockjaw accents even though they were born-and-bred Ohioans, the people who golfed and played tennis in those goofy short white skirts and wore green slacks embroidered with blue spouting whales...). I'm glad it's back. Because, as much as I tried to deny it, my "look" was basically preppy when I was growing up. I understand preppy. I know what preppy clothes are appropriate to wear to work, which are appropriate for a casual party, which are appropriate for church. I don't always get that same vibe with the other "looks" that have been popular recently. I know how to accessorize "preppy" (although I really don't plan on going out and buying a Bermuda bag just yet...)

So I now own a knee-length skirt printed in tan and pink with a village scene - one of those border print skirt things like my high-school friends' moms would have worn. And a bright-pink knit shirt to wear with it, but I also have a dressy tan t-shirt and a pink cardigan... I also bought an Easter-egg yellow skirted suit. And a skirt and asymmetrical top in sort of a leaf green color that my mother assured me looked "really good on."

Ah, man. I never did go through an "I will black and any other color that is black" phase in high school like my friend K., but I do remember shaking my head over the prissy little skirt-and-sweater-set combos some of the more wealthy girls had.

And now, that's what I'm buying, once I have a little more disposable income for clothes. And just last Christmas, I gave my mom a "no pastels" dictum if she was planning on buying clothes as gifts for me, and yet, that's what grabs me now that I see it in the store.

I do not know what that means, other than to say that it looks like the "belly baring" midriff look is on its way out, and none too soon for me. Now I just hope that sometime soon I'll be able to find slacks that sit on my natural waist again.

I will say I have a sinking suspicion that this new trend in dressing is less inspired by a desire of the clothes-buying female public for more modest and feminine clothing, and more inspired by that Stepford Wives remake, and Desperate Housewives. (I've never seen the show - I guess it's on at a time when I'm not actually watching television - but the still shots I've seen in magazines and stuff suggest a rather preppy, suburban PTA-ish style on the women). So, whatever.