Erika S. teaching

Hi Kids, it’s me

Today marks the day my online teacher life has crashed into my real teacher life  That’s right, I’ve gone public. My students have been all over this blog today, looking at photos and probably not reading any of the text.   All of a sudden I have a jump in my stats — 200+ views! Woot woot, I’m feeling like the popular kid.

Twice a year, for a week, my school switches to “intensives”.  Kids and teachers alike take breaks from regularly scheduled programing to reorganize and regroup into intensives, where they spend all week learning about one thing.  These intensives are usually elective type courses that teachers find personally interesting.  For example, this year, there is a “Woman Warriors” intensive, where young ladies learn all about self esteem,  healthy relationships, self defense and feminine strength.  There is also the “Physixxxx Olympics” intensive where kids are learning by doing all the cool part of physics and engineering – egg drop contest, catapult assembly and rock climbing.  This year is my first year running an intensive and guess what I’ve chosen to teach?  BLOGGING, of course!

The first lesson of the day?  Your online presence and how the Interwebs is public and permanent.  I don’t think I have ever heard so many moans and groans, ever.  Some kids really know how to suck the happiness out of a room with their complaining.  This was, until they finally got in front of their computers with a task:  A Google scavenger hunt on their teachers.  They found this blog.  They found where I went to middle school, my middle name, my father’s name and an old Sea Scouts photo in Scouting magazine.   They also found themselves online, though not as much – I have a 17 year head start on them.

My kids today after googling my name:

I will be posting links to their blogs as they get them going.   On the radar for this coming week: an inspiration trip to Central Park, a tour of tumblr’s HQ and a couple expert speakers.

Erika S. outfits

Stay-cation

Sadly, my spring break is coming to an end.  It’s been a sweet week and a half.  I took a trip to visit Jojo, my good friend Aimee came out to visit, and B and I enjoyed a day-long stay-cation.  He took off work today and we went exploring in Manhattan.  We started at the very southern tip and wound our way north to Central Park, then headed back down south stopping at my favorite basics shop Uniqlo on the way.  I got B to buy some new pants in a snazzy preppy stripe.  He’ll probably never wear them unless I force him to – which will be often!  Today was all about warmth and comfort.  Spring has sprung, but it was still super windy and cold today.  Perfect for my new favorite sweatshirt from the men’s section of H&M- I’m all about men’s clothing lately.

I particularly loved all the memorials down in the south end, especially the Merchant Marines Memorial.  I also found a Schenck on the WWII memorial, an electrician from Kansas.
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staycation

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sunnies: ray-ban – scarf: topshop – sweatshirt: h&m – jeans: f21 – socks: uo – sneaks: converse – bag: frietag

Erika S. outfits, parties

to wed

B and I were lucky enough to attend a wedding of new friends Mandi and Keith at the Green Building the other night in Brooklyn.  It was gorgeous, fun and all around a fantastic time.  What a way to kick off spring break!

Of course, B and I had to snap a few pics prior to running out the door.  photo

weds

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I hadn’t worn this dress (Banana Republic) since 2007, for my friend Marissa’s wedding in Cali.  Good thing I kept it and brought it with me here to NY!  The shoes on the other hand were a last minute I-don’t-own-any-fancy-heels-for-black-tie freak out purchase from DSW’s clearance section.  So then there is B, cheekily copying my “blog posing” in his outfit.

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A little photobooth fun with animal masks.  Why the hell not, right?

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Erika S. fun stuffs, outfits

new addition/new edition

No news here, just some new additions:

New hair – free, through the Model Project at Bumble and Bumble University.  I don’t know when I started to get so cheap about my hair.  In my early 20’s I used to have a regular stylist whom I visited religiously every 6 weeks to get my hair cut/colored/touched etc.  I guess all that eventually gave me wallet fatigue, because I stopped doing much with my hair in my mid 20’s. It whittled down from $150 haircuts to $60 cuts to $12 Great Clips cuts to $0 sister with a pair to Friskars cuts.

BK rooftops

New hole – B was out of town last weekend and I was bored on Saturday night but also didn’t feel like going all the way to Williamsburg to meet a friend for drinks.  I’m no stranger to piercings (see here, here and here), so I headed to my friendly neighborhood shop, The End is Near.  Hello new anti-tragus hole.  It’s still swollen and the skin around it is flaking, but it’s healing nicely now.  For those who have to ask, no, getting it done didn’t hurt.  But the aftercare/healing hella hurts.

antitragus piercing

New stripey top – I went shopping yesterday and picked up a number of t-shirt type tops from Forever 21 and H&M. This one, from F21, is supposed to be a dress.  But with my freakishly long torso and 6’0″ frame, it’s a shirt, albeit a long shirt.  I like the stripes (like everyone else in the blogosphere/world, I love nautical stripes) and the little pocket on the boobie.  It will be good for a lazy, I don’t want to think in the morning item to throw on for the classroom.

stripes

On that note, I haven’t been posting lately.  I’ve been lazy and I haven’t bothered with being inventive with my wardrobe.  So what have I been wearing lately?  See this post and this post.  That’s basically it, along with about 4 layers of sweaters, coats, scarves and hat because it’s been damn cold here in NY.

I’ve been listening to New Edition lately.  I’m nostalgic for the days of classic R&B where they didn’t feel the need to include words like bitches, hoes, bootie, and ‘got your girl workin for me’.  So, here’s a little palate cleanser.

Erika S. basics, outfits

Beans and the Met

B and I took a trip to the Met yesterday for the first time since we’ve moved here.  The place is huge.  After 2 hours, we saw maybe only a third.  The exhibits are pretty amazing and I love how there is a mix of both modern art and archeology.  Next week, we’re hitting up the MOMA.

met

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I broke in my Bean boots yesterday and they’re pretty awesome.    Also, check out this post by Kim France of the blog Girls of a Certain Age.  It pretty much describes my wardrobe mentality, a philosophy that I adopted a year ago and am getting more and more extreme with.  I wear the same stuff (or variations of the stuff) over and over.  Which begs the question, how can I write a fashion-oriented blog when there is no variety? I’m still thinking about that one.

bean boots

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beans

scarf: arrived in a care package from B’s mum in oz – coat: uniqlo – bag: h&m – t-shirt: threads for humanity – jeans: bdg – boots: ll bean – necklaces: f21, my mom – wrists: my popo (g-ma), j.crew, mainsai (holiday prez from B)

Erika S. outfits

sack it to me

Last night B and I went out on a ‘date’, meaning we went out to a nice dinner, and a nightcap.  For me it’s an excuse to throw on some tights and indulge in my love for roomy sack dresses.  Anything that accommodates cocktails, apps, a main and dessert without making you feel like your clothes are on the verge of exploding.  We went to the Library, at Public.  On the Schenck scale of goodness (more on that some other day), it was pretty good.  Poor picture quality – the hallway lights in our building have that ever present yellow tone and I didn’t want to bother fiddling with the white balance.  Also not shown, the 2 other layers, hat and scarf worn on top of the dress to shield me from the freezing weather outside.
United Bamboo for Madewell crepe dress

United Bamboo for Madewell crepe dress

United Bamboo for Madewell crepe dress

dress: united bamboo for madewell (purchased right before christmas at an extra 50% off sale, making it a killer deal for a well made silk dress) – tights: uniqlo heattech (very necessary for the cold front that’s been coming through NY) – booties: zara (on sale now) – clutch: f21 (old)

Erika S. outfits

No really, what is this?

What the hell.  Seriously.  I knew I was in for winter weather, and I’ve been in winter weather –> snowboarding in Tahoe for the past decade-plus.  I’ve been in slush conditions so wet that boarding down the mountain it felt like the snow was grabbing onto my snowboard, sucking it down.  None of this has prepared me for my first nor’easter storm, hot on the heels of Hurricane Sandy.  What is up with this rain snow sleet wet-gloppy-masses-of-half-frozen-snow pelting me on my 20 min walk to the subway (thanks to Sandy cutting the D train short).  I swear, there was no direction you could head in where the snow-rain-slush was not coming at you head-on, sticking to every surface, drenching you underneath the new mounds of snow collecting on your half frozen body.  When I finally got in the door of the apartment, B ushered me to the bathroom to stand and drip while I peeled the layers off.  

Before all this I was at school, hugging my space heater, cozy as heck in my super warm sweater dress, wearing my “wtf” face.

jacket and boots: last year’s h&m – sweater dress: 3 years ago’s gap – tights: uniqlo – rain/snow/sleet/slush boots: hunter, on sale from nordstrom rack – rain coat: last year’s anthropologie, also here and here

Erika S. outfits, trips

Cold Weather Frolicking

New York is finally cooling down to weather I know and am comfortable with:  mid 50s and drizzly.  San Francisco weather!!!!!  It’s an insane switch – within 24 hours, it cooled down by about 20 degrees.  I never talked this much about the weather in SF –there was nothing to say.  Now I can’t help it but turn into a small talk machine and discuss the weather with everyone.

thermal and jeans: f21 – raincoat: anthropologie (seen here) – boots: boutique 9 (the cooper boot, also seen on this blog, a new favorite/SF girl blog!)- bag: freitag – mom’s coat: h&m – kris’s coat: urban outfitters (seen here)

My mom and sister Kris are in town for the long weekend, so I dressed them in my winter coats, dug out from storage underneath the bed.  My mom braided my hair like the old days of being a kid and we toured the rich nice parts of Manhattan.  We walked up 5th Ave, ogled the ridiculously reasonably expensive clothes at Barneys and admired the incredibly creative and mechanical visual displays.  After a stroll through Central Park, we played with Kris’s new iPhone 5 panorama feature and tricked it into including us 3 times within the same photo.  There was a lot of running in circles around the photog and curious stares from other tourists.  By the way, that’s my future niece in that uterus.  I’m going to be “cool auntie Erika”.  Yup.

Swimming shoes!!

Erika S. outfits

Go wan us

B has a walking plan for us.  We’re walking the grid in our area of Park Slope.  Eventually, by the time we’ve snaked up and down every street, we’ll have covered every single block north/south between 8th – 3rd ave, and east/west between Union st – 16th st. The idea is to cover everything and make note of interesting spots and places we like, a full-scale exploration of our hood.  Today we covered 3 miles of the walking plan.  There’s cool stuff out there!


glasses: warby parker – tee: mnkr – jeans: h&m – bag: freitag – sneakers: converse – belt: gap

These ‘boyfriend’ jeans were a $7 find at H&M.  I love them, but I seem to be the only one. My sister says they give me a flat butt (they do), my mom says they highlight my long torso/short leg proportions (it does – my height is all in my freakishly long torso) and B says they “don’t look like any kind of fashion, they just look like big old jeans” (the point exactly. duh).

Erika S. outfits

Copper Door

My sister is in town for the long weekend, so I took her to the Warby Parker showroom to pick out glasses and finally redeem the gift certificate I gave her last christmas.  I love their office/showroom/space.  It’s not a store by any means, so it’s really confusing to find at first.  Head in through the main door of the Puck building (on Lafayette, to the right of the entrance to REI), sign in at the security desk and head to the 5th floor.  I recommend stopping by the copper door for a picture on your way out.

sunnies and necklace: f21 – tshirt: stolen from b (purchased somewhere in australia) – bag: freitag – shorts: uo (last seen here) – shoes: worishofer