Violin Store

My big task of today was going to the violin store for repairs.

Inside the violin store.

I figured they don't care what I wear in the violin store since they cater to musicians which means they probably get a whole bunch of interesting clients. So I wore a pink tutu skirt, sparkly black leg warmers, a black fishnet shirt with my "I don't sweat I sparkle" tank top over it, a fish skull necklace, and axe earrings. I'm also wearing black toenail polish, but you can't see my feet in these pictures.

Selfie.

Full body selfie.

Skirt Sunday

It's Sunday and the third day of Skirt Week for me. Today I had church and my Circus Class and I couldn't think of a single outfit that would work for all of these things. Church is the one place I go each week where I tone my outfits down a bit, because I feel like the focus should be on God and not me or my fashion choices. Since wearing a skirt to church is pretty much the opposite of this I felt like it was a no-go. Circus Class also has a dress code. I need to wear something stretchy but not baggy that covers my knees/armpits/waist and that doesn't have ties/zippers/hooks that might get caught on things, and I can't wear jewelry. What was my solution?

When I was in France last summer I noticed that lots of the African immigrants took large pieces of colorful fabric and wrapped them into skirts. Basically a fancy version of the towel-around-the-waist beach cover up technique. I've seen folks from India and Asia wear similar garments, and I've heard a bunch of words for them: sarong, kanga, kikoy, lungi, fouta. Here's what I'm talking about:

Three older asian men in sarongs.

Younger asian man in a blue sarong.

Five Indian men in sarongs.

Shirtless very fit black man in a pastel sarong.

Older arab man in a sarong and hat drinking tea.

My brilliant plan was to dress up for church in nice pants and shoes and to wear my crocheted tank top but throw a sweater over it. Then I came home, ditched the shoes and sweater, and swapped my church pants out for my gym pants. I threw a wrap on top so I'd have a mid-day outfit that worked for skirt week and didn't require an entire wardrobe change. Then for class I just took off the wrap and swapped the tank top for a t-shirt. I didn't take pictures of the church outfit. Here is my wrap skirt outfit:

Me with a crocheted white tank top and a silver colored necklace of mini skulls.
The mini skulls go with the skirt because the skirt has a warrior pattern on it. 

Bottom half of my outfit is orange wrap with blue and green and black warriors,
black leggings underneath the wrap, and black toenail polish.

For circus class, I put on a t-shirt, took off the jewelry, and threw a pair of shorts over the leggings. Today's lesson was aerial silks and it was SO FUN! I think I might take their Aerial Silks 101 class next. Here's a picture of me doing aerial silks:

Me hanging upside down from the aerial silks.

And here's one of Bone:

Bones doing tricks on the aerial silks.

Second Day of Skirt Week.

It's day two of skirt week! Today Cupcake and I disassembled my bookshelves and moved them into the new apartment. Then I dropped Cupcake back at home to pack because they're going on a cruise tomorrow and I hung out with Primo, Secondo, and Terzo for the day. Later that evening, my friend Bruno and I went out for Indian food.

I didn't manage to get my fashion act together until post bookshelf-moving so I only wore this outfit for part of the day. But I love it and I think it's fabulous. I borrowed Cupcake's gold sequin skirt and paired it with a black shirt, black sneakers, black earrings, black pinstripe hat, gold nail polish, and gold leaf pin used as a necklace. 

Full body shot.

Head shot showing off my nail polish.

Bottom half of the outfit.

Whole outfit using the timer mode on my cell phone.

International Skirt Day and Eddie Izzard

Today is International Skirt Day! I've decided to do an entire skirt week starting today. And to make things more exciting, today's Fierce Friday is dedicated to Eddie Izzard because he's amazing and he's my skirt-wearing role model. 

Let me illustrate why with my favorite Eddie Izzard quote ever. Someone asked Eddie Izzard why he wore women's clothes. His reply? "They're not women's clothes. They're my clothes. I bought them." Right on!

My other favorite Eddie Izzard quote, for the record, is this one:

"I'm an action transvestite really, so it's running, jumping, climbing trees,
putting on make-up when you're up there!" - Eddie Izzard

Anyway, today I've decided to take a page straight out of Eddie Izzard's book. Brace yourselves, because today I'm dressing like an executive transvestite. 

What is an executive transvestite? According to the internet, an executive transvestite is a man who enjoys dressing in woman's clothing when the mood strikes but who dresses more conservatively than other transvestites. In my mind, this is something akin to "transvestite in a woman's business suit."

For my executive transvestite look I'm wearing a maroon shirt, maroon combat boots, and maroon nail polish with a black skirt, black and silver pinstriped hat, black scarf with silver sparkles, fake diamond earrings, and sparkly silver flower bracelet. I think the look worked ok.

Me as an executive transvestite.

Body shot.

Whole body shot.

Today after work I went candlepin bowling with Fancy and some friends. I like bowling so I had fun even though I'm a terrible bowler. And because I feel like it, here's a picture showing you what my new neighborhood looks like this evening:

This is my new neighborhood. Pretty, right?

Skirt Week!

Friends, I read this rather old Buzzfeed post by Mathew Guiver and I feel inspired. Guiver, like me, enjoys wearing skirts and occasionally buys a skirt he likes while traveling. Also like me, Guiver lacks the confidence to wear skirts regularly so he'll wear them once or twice while he's out of town where nobody knows him and then they end up languishing in the back of his closet. Which means he wound up with a pile of skirts he never wears. So to fix this problem, he decided wear skirts every day for a week and to write about his experience.

Pictures of Mathew Guiver during his skirt week.

I'm following Guiver's lead and the date of international skirt day. I've declared this coming week skirt week! Starting tomorrow, I will wear a skirt every day this week and post a picture of my outfit. I told the housemates about my plan over dinner and I think skirt week may have some additional participants.

In case you need some more inspiration, here are some other men in skirts:

Jonathan Davis from KoRn. 

Jaden Smith.

Vin Diesel. 

Jared Leto.

Tomorrow is an important date because it's international skirt day! And I've decided to honor the occasion by turning an entire week into international skirt week! I'm going to celebrate by wearing a different skirt daily. Unfortunately this also means riding on my city's public transportation in a skirt every day for a week. Pray for me?

International Women's Day and Cake!

Today is International Women's Day so I wore red to show my support as an ally.

Me in a red shirt, denim jacket, and black cap. 

My red combat boots and grey pants.

I also discovered this neat mural that looks like a patchwork quilt under the overpass near my house:

Colorful mural.

Not too much else is new. I'm still unpacking. When I'm not unpacking or working I'm crashing on the couch. In an attempt to hang out despite my lack of energy, Cupcake and I have been binge watching The Great British Bake Off on Netflix.

Picture of a chocolate cake with raspberries on top.
The text "The Great British Bake Off" is overlaid on it in white.

All the TV baking got me craving cake, so I made some. It was kind of ridiculous because I'm not done unpacking and the kitchen is in disarray so I didn't have mixing bowls, measuring cups, measuring spoons, or a cake tin. I wound up mixing in a pot, eyeballing the measurements, and baking in disposable pie pans. But the resulting Chocolate Grand Marnier cakes were delicious! I made a big one to share and a tiny one for Cupcake because they were having a bad day.

Big cake.

Small cake.

Circus Class!

Today was the first day of Survey of Circus for Bone and me. The class was awesome! I was the fattest one and also the only man, but it was a very welcoming environment. They are also clearly GLBT friendly - the bathrooms are gender neutral and they asked everyone for their preferred pronouns at the start of class. Not bad!

Closeup of the feet of a tightrope walker.

For our first class, we did tightrope walking. We started walking along taped lines on the floor to learn the techniques, then graduated to a metal pole about the width of a shower curtain rod that was about a foot and a half above the ground, and then finally to the actual tightrope, which was also low to the ground. For the tightrope part we had to wear shoes that are basically glorified ballet flats because the tightrope isn't comfortable on your feet. I was probably the least coordinated one there, but I had a blast and I'm so glad I went!

Tightrope walking gorilla.

Also because it's on theme, here's a link to Grand Corps Malade's Funambule (means "Tightrope Walker" in English).