Sandy Hook & Social Media

As a human being, I have no words for what happened on friday. Words have proved amazingly inadequate in the past four days.

All I can say is that the shooting in Connecticut left me with a sense of horror and loss I haven't felt since 9/11. I have no answers and I won't try.

What's been unavoidable and intriguing to me is noting the obvious differences in our society between 2001 and now.

I found out about Sandy Hook on facebook. After asking around, I know a number of people who did too. My job has grown to include social media promotion in the past three months and its created in me a deeper awareness of the machine. Even in my personal browsing and sharing I can't help but analyze what gets a reaction, what makes people tick, what "motive" exists behind each photo, comment or link.

For a brief moment on friday morning, there was a raw, poignant pause in which shock and devastation overwhelmed my newsfeed.

There was unity spanning a network of about 600 totally un-related people whose only common denominator is me.

It didn't last long. Not half an hour later, I watched "told-ya-so" gun control comments emerge from my so-termed "left-leaning" friends, and self-righteous abortion comparisons pop up from the right.

My question is this. Are we, in 2012, so de-sensitized to violence, death and tragedy that we can only fully enter into it and experience it for a brief moment before the shock subsides and we reconcile it with what we already know to be true?

Or: Is our focus turned so irrevocably inward that we filter every happening through the lens of ourselves, and how it supports or harms our personal agendas.  Can we truly experience anything for what it is anymore? Or has the need to feed our personal brand overwhelmed authentic reactions like  joy or grief.

Its a question that's been gnawing at me for a while. I made it through the entire bloodbath that was the 2012 election season without uttering so much as a syllable. But I couldn't let this pass without commenting.

And now. Excuse me, while I post this link to facebook....

Dressember Week 2

I've been so busy! Confession time- No dress on Saturday. I got specific instructions to wear grubby jeans and sweatshirt as a part of Christmas tree chopping and hauling with my friend Katie.  There, blame passed off. 

I'm realizing that my wardrobe is basically the product of a serious thrift store problem combined with latent hoarder tendencies. I get rid of nothing. I have dresses hanging in my closet that I claimed from my freshman year roommate's "giveaway" pile. I may actually wear one of them tomorrow....

I promise there IS a dress under all of these...buried SOMEWHERE among the layers!

Day 11

dress- Target (again!!)  | sweater- Banana Republic via Goodwill | scarf- GAP | mocs- moccasin stand in Arkansas

Day 12- Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe! I dressed like a Mexican flag to celebrate.

dress- Urban Outfitters via Goodwill  | shirt- Goodwill | boots- some shoe store in Arkansas | earrings- Charlotte Russe

Day 13

dress- Forever 21 | shirt- Fred Meyer | belt- handed down from my freshman roommate Molly!  | scarf- TJ MAXX | tights- Forever 21 shoes- TJ MAXX

Day 14

dress- TJMAXX | shirt- also TJ! | shoes you can't see- probably thrifted. probably. 

Fashion show at LUNCH!

Me at work every single day:

BIG thank you to my coworkers Jen & Karissa for aiding and abetting my dressember hijinks.

Catching up! Ten days, no repeats! BUT trust me, repeats are coming soon. 

If you're curious, here's some of my friends' Dressember adventures:

http://instagram.com/clairealamode

http://instagram.com/leahcote/

http://instagram.com/p/SykwC_jwEN/

http://blythehill.blogspot.com/2012/12/dressember-week-1.html

(Aside #1: Blythe, the founder of Dressember, is taking the same black dress and restyling it every single day for a month. Gulp.)

(Aside #2: I don't know the ins and outs of instagram, so if you can't see those pictures?? Well....sorry.)

It got colder! We seem to be entering the phase I knew we would ultimately reach; the "I-swear-there's a-dress-somewhere-amongst-all-those-layers" phase.

Day 6

dress- Roxy, via TJMaxx | sweater- Target via Goodwill | leggings- Charlotte Russe | keds- Gap

Day 7

dress- Target | shirt- H&M | leggings- Charlotte Russe | boots- Rack Room Shoes | headband- Forever 21

All Target all the time! I have a weakness for clearance rack Target dresses, as evidenced by days 8-10. I selected today's look around a pair of hand-me-off yellow shoes my friend Danielle gave to me yesterday!

Day 8

dress- Target | shirt- Gap | leggings- Charlotte Russe | shoes- Gabes in Steubenville! | headband- handmade by Nate!

Day 9

dress- Target | cardigan- thrifted | shoes- thrifted | necklace- modcloth 

Day 10

dress- Target | peter pan blouse- Charlotte Russe | cardigan- Forever 21 |  leggings- Charlotte Russe | shoes- gifted to me from Danielle!

Dressember Days 3- 5

Dressember 3rd- 5th!

Thanks everybody for the dressember love so far, I appreciate all the kudos! And the looks of disbelief.  I'm appreciating those too, haha. 

Five days in, and I'm not gonna go so far as to say wearing dresses every day is making me a better person, buuuut...... it IS having a strangely positive affect on my attitude.

Maybe its just the contrast of being so intentional about SOMETHING when I first wake up, rather then rolling out of bed and right into the closest sweatshirt. "Intentionality" is something I've been trying to increase in my life for a couple months now- coming into work with a take-no-prisoners attitude rather than rolling in sloppy and half asleep like its some happy accident I showed up. Enough psychologizing and on to the clothes!

Day 3! sweater dress: BCBG via TJMAXX scarf: Land's End tights: (two pairs!) Forever 21 shoes: thrifted

Day 4! blouse: Details (I think?) dress- Target skirt- H&M nylons- fred meyer shoes- thrifted 
elephant necklace- Forever 21

Day 5! dress- Forever 21 tights- Target shoes- thrifted earrings- Forever 21

I think the REAL psychological issue here is why I refuse to buy shoes that cost more then 7 dollars... Mull THAT one over for me.

Happy Dressember!

Happy Dressember!

Credit for Dressember goes to supercool Southern California fashion blogger Blythe Hill, who I aspire to someday meet / go shopping with. It's exactly what it sounds like : all dresses, all the time, for the month of December.

I've wanted to do this for a couple years but this year just seemed especially ideal. Reasons being I've always loved a good fashion challenge, I own way too many dresses as it is, and I needed a push to break my workday style rut of jeans and oversized sweaters. Without any further ado, here's Dressember days 1 & 2!

As a rule, all my clothes are insanely old, thrifted or some combination of the two, BUT a breakdown is fun to do anyway, right? 

dress- H&M (but thrifted!) tights- Target  shoes- Minnetonka mocs from Pickles Gap, AR ;) earrings- Forever 21 

bracelet- H&M

dress- Target sweater- TJ Maxx tights- Urban Outfitters shoes- thrifted necklace- Urban Outfitters