Erika S. outfits

Layers

I’m forever discussing the weather – It’s cold (40˚’s) now in New York.  Due to Hurricane Sandy, our school’s boiler is out, meaning no heat.  I can see my breath in my classroom in the mornings. Thanks to my trusty space heater,  the 4-5 layers start coming off by the afternoon.  Today is PD (professional development) day, no students.  Instead of classes, we talk about rigor, final products and incorporating reading, writing and speaking into math and science, in a way that may or may not leave time for the math and science itself.  I started the morning off with 5 layers and ended the day with just 2.

puffy coat: marmot – jacket (on sale now in stores): co by urban outfitters – cardigan and belt: j.crew – flannel shirt last seen here: uniqlo – jeans: madewell (same jeans, different wash) – scarf: unknown/crossroads – sneaks: converse

Erika S. outfits

Flushing Love

This sweater (on sale now at Urban Outfitters) has “non-utilitarian” pockets, which means I like it that much more.  No picture of the back, but there is a “non-utilitarian” zipper up the back also.  B and my other boyfriends laughed at the uselessness of them, so I had to prove them wrong by sticking my hand in them at least once.  The warm mustard yellow color makes this an automatic favorite sweater, but the scratchy and itchiness of this sweater puts it the “suffer for fashion” category.

sweater: urban outfitters – tank: target – belt: j.crew – jeans: madewell – bag: freitag – boots: boutique 9

Flushing is my favorite place in New York so far.  Amaze-balls asian foods from Taiwanese street stuff to western chinese lamb dishes, to tingly hot spicy everything.  I already think it’s awesome and I haven’t even begun to explore the Korean section.  The hour long train ride out there is worth it without a doubt.

Bonus points: my best friends Sandy and Nelson are in town!

P.S.  Frankenstorm is on its way in.  B, being the survivalist he is, has us well prepared.  NO SCHOOL tomorrow!!!! woot woot!

Erika S. outfits

Bad Dog!

Took Bambi on a walk today, and she immediately stated acting like a butthole – ie. growling, snarling and trying to attack other dogs.  She has serious small-dog-asshole syndrome, that I’ve never been able to break.  My newest tactic has been to try the Gentle Leader.  All it’s done so far is make her look even crazier when we pass other dogs, which in turn makes me look like the crappiest dog owner ever.  I’m not a bad dog owner, I swear!  She’s just a crazy mean old chihuahua.  See below, Butthole Bambi in action on a normal everyday walk.

Her being a butthole on our entire walk soured my mood, which then soured the mood of the aussie, B.  Not even my new scarf fixed things and I had a squeeze out a smile for this photo.  

hat: f21 – glasses – warby parker – scarf: madewell – jacket: urban outfitters – t-shirt: hanes – belt: gap – jeans: hella old j. brand – bag: marc by arc – shoes: adidas

PS.  I’ve had Bambi for about 6 years now, and she’s been this way the whole time.  I’ve tried everything under the sun to train her, from dog whisperer style to pack walks to muzzles to hired expensive trainers.  Nothing has worked, so I’ve resigned to just accept her for who she is – a mostly sweet cuddler who loves squeaky toys but hates all other dogs and children.  And before you pass judgment on me for naming my dog Bambi, she came from the rescue with a gag-reflex name: Barbie.

Erika S. outfits, teaching

surviving tuesdays

How to survive a hectic Tuesday at school after a 3 day weekend:  an easy no-iron shrunken boy shirt and black super stretchy jeans.  It will take you 5 min to get dressed and you’ll be physically comfy all day while your patience and sanity gets  shredded to bits.

This was one of those Tuesdays, where grades are due, you have “guests” possibly coming into your classroom to “observe” the next day and kids pretend the no-talking-during-a-quiz rule is new to the world.  So before I got down to planning and grading, after my last class of the day, I had some fun with my trusty Smart Board and camera.  Cool colors!  The refresh rate on the board is pretty low, and I really want to make this a teachable physics moment, but I’ll spare you guys the lecture.

The rumply leftovers of the day:

glasses: warby parker – button up: madewell – belt: gap – jeans: uniqlo – boots: steven

Shout out to class A for taking it like a champ today and making all the connections between photosynthesis and cellular respiration!  (none of them even knows this exists, this is just my mental high five.)  Go on with your bad selves.

Erika S. outfits

Hulk Out.

Some kid asked me during Living Environment (Bio) class today if the Hulk turns green because he has chloroplasts in his skin.

True story.  I think my faux-army jacket inspired him.

top: madewell – jacket: old h&m – jeans – f21 – flats: frye – necklaces: marc by marc jacobs and f21

I’ve been having a hard time with things to say lately.  Also, I haven’t been brave enough to ask my new coworkers to snap outfit photos for me.  You know, worries and all that they’ll think it’s stupid and vapid.  So thus there haven’t been many posts lately of my daily teaching armor.

But here’s a nugget of truth:  I work with some amazingly smart, deeply caring and empathetic people.  These fellow teachers (and teachers of the past but not forgotten) help keep you sane and they help quell the rage you feel when your day was mad crazy and a select few kids shit all over your lesson.  They help put things into perspective – my life is a cake walk compared to what our kids deal with at home.

Erika S. outfits, teaching

striper, not stripper

I bought this dress a while ago, and decided the weather was just cool enough today to wear it again.  The material is cheap polyester that doesn’t breathe, so if it’s too hot out, it sticks.   Can’t ask for too much though, it’s from Forever 21 and it was ridiculously cheap at $15 or something.  I got loads of compliments on it today, so I figured I needed to take the time to put it on here…and I don’t have to lesson plan for tomorrow.  yay!!!! It’s like a free night!  I still have an albeit smallish stack of grading/giving feedback though so it’s not entirely free–it’s just discounted.  The did-you-catch-that-bio-joke-I-just-made face, and the you-better-check-yourself face.  I’m covering organic compounds in class right now, and I made a joke about carbon being the elemental popular kid.  I think I was the only one who chuckled at the joke.   I also had 3 almost blow ups in class today.  I was able to diffuse 2 of them, but I’m pretty sure I now have at least one teacher-student relationship to mend.  One thing’s for sure though, that mending is going to start with this kid actually doing some work in class.


glasses: bonlook – necklace: unicorn crafts (btw, how cute is this?  seriously!!) – dress with belt: f21 – shoes: madewell

Erika S. outfits, teaching

a first day for everything

There is a first for everything.  Today was the first day of school, the first day of many to come as the leader of room 267 at Leader’s High School in Brooklyn.  I met my Crew (our version of a hardcore homeroom, meant for character building, teaching of social and literacy skills) for the first time, 15 timid little 9th graders who will blossom into grown men and women in 4 short years with me.  I already love them.

I also met my 80-odd Living Environment (New York’s name for Biology) students, freaking them all out as the crazy ass science teacher who eats dirt on the first day of school.  It was a quick run through on observations and inferences, a common lesson done by science teachers around the world on the first day of school.  Kids were buzzing about it in the hallways and to other teachers, an indication of success!  The real measure of success is if they start making inferences on their own without me resorting to tricks. 

First day of school outfit, taken at the end of the night.  It’s 9:30 right now and I’ve yet to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner.  I’m running on stress and coffee fumes.  Everything but the goofy grin is meant to convey the sense that I know exactly what I’m doing at all times and that I am to be taken seriously.  Until I eat dirt.

Erika S. outfits, parties

I Love College

Many of my former students are starting their first years of college in the next few weeks, and I’m super excited for them.  This excitement (fueled by their updates on FB) is often mixed with fear that I didn’t help prepare them enough… lots of should haves and could haves.  Are they going to be screwed in freshman Bio because I didn’t make them memorize all the steps and intermediate molecules involved in the Kreb’s cycle?  Oh my god I ran out of time and never covered phylogenetic trees/cladograms!!!  Will they remember that hypo=under/below, iso=equal and hyper=over?  Are they going to maintain the self control needed to keep from partying themselves into hungover dropouts?!?!?  Will they remember my lesson on the benefits of delaying gratification?  O.M.G!

My fears for the impressionable young minds of my students were revisited the other evening when B and I went on a booze cruise down the East River hosted by coed.com (probably/most likely NSFW).  Coed.com is hosted on WordPress.com VIP (B is a developer at Automattic) and thus our invite and our free swag – blue sunglasses.  For the record, B and I held it together, there was no vomiting over the side, all staggering was due to the choppy waves on the river and we exercised self control and moderation.

I bought this dress (called the Shore House Shift dress) from Anthropologie over a year ago on sale.  It was a great buy because of the massive markdown, the high quality silk material and the cute little anchor buttons at the shoulder.  It’s held up pretty well too, but I’ve only worn it about 3 times.  This last time may be the last though, as I managed to get ketchup, pickle juice and just about every other condiment all over the front of it that night.  I’m not known as the family klutz for nothing, here’s hoping that I don’t ruin it totally trying to get the stains out.

dress and bag: anthropologie – shoes: madewell also seen here – mustache necklace: purchased the renegade craft fair

I had to throw in this shot of B, because he’s cute and the glasses matched the lining of my bag.

Erika S. outfits

Willoughby

Dip dye stuff has been a huge trend this past year, and I’m jumping on the bandwagon.  I dig the dip dye, and I’m starting to come around to the dip bleach, as long as it’s not so severe.  I really liked this¹ look and even this² one (though I would lump it in the severe category).  I definitely plan on trying out this³ DIY dip dye and this one too eventually.  And just for reference here is a dip bleach.

¹ I love this look (and this blog) and I’m seriously going to recreate it one day.  ² Amazing blog and I want to steal her design sensibilities. ³ I love Wit & Whistle paper goods and now I love the blog.  I bought B this card for Valentines day this past year, and I really love this one also.  Super cheeky and “awww” inducing stuff.

This dip dye tank is by a label called Willoughby.  As in John Willoughby (Maybe not, but who cares) from Sense and Sensibility, one of my favorite book to movie adaptations of all time.  When I tried this on at Anthropiologie, all I could think about was this scene:

tank: anthropologie (on sale now) – skirt: hella old DKNY – tote: freitag – sandals: worishofer (I swear they were just on sale, but not anymore)