Wear, Watch, Want #210: The Hooded, Tatted, Burnout Edition

Wear: Marmot Ithaca Vest

I love my long Columbia vest (mentioned here). Once I was in Costco and a woman came up to me and said, “I love your vest!” and I replied, “Thanks! It’s like a sleeping bag you can run errands in!” Related: Once at the dog food store someone said I had beautiful eyes and I said, “Thanks, I grew them myself!” and another time someone said they were about to go to school for ophthalmology and I said, “Cool! I was at the opthamologist on 9/11.” What I’m saying is, when I’m confronted with surprise casual conversation, I have no control over what happens next.

But back to the vest. The Columbia Heavenly Long Vest IS heavenly, but it has one fatal flaw: No hood. I live in the Pacific Northwest, and the odds of needing a hood on any given fall/winter/spring day are HIGH. I spent a lot of time looking for hooded vests that were also long enough to cover my arthritic hips (I talk about this in the post about the Heavenly Vest), and none seemed as good at the Marmot Ithaca. But the Marmot Ithaca vest costs $220 AND it wasn’t available in my size and prefered color anywhere. I kept checking on this vest periodically for the better part of a year, and finally, my waiting paid off. Thanksgiving week the vest was restocked all over the place, and it was 30% off. I bought mine from Zappos, because I didn’t know if it would work and I wanted the easiest return possible, but it is PERFECT and I have been wearing it every time I leave the house.

Watch: Audiobooks and Coloring

I have been in a real funk lately. I’m just burnt out on everything, even fun things, and I can’t find the motivation to so much as catch up on Succession. Any activity I attempt, my brain says, “No.” I need multiple distractions at once, and THEN I can kind of accomplish leisure.

My current favorite burnout activity is using the Happy Color app while listening to an audiobook or podcast. It’s just the right amount of thinking and passivity for me to handle. I wrote about Happy Color here (the app has gotten MUCH nicer since I wrote that post, and you can even color famous artworks), and how to get Audiobooks for free from the library here (that post is old and it’s MUCH easier now. So much easier I debated linking to the ancient post at all).

Want: Eyebrow Microblading

This site could have a drinking game where you drink any time I write about how I used to wear a lot of makeup and now, most days, I wear none. Could is the operative word here, because if anyone actually attempted this they would die. I had a flash of inspiration the other day when I realized that I could achieve a more polished look, while still never wearing makeup, if I just got my lashes and brows done. The lashes intimidate me, so those are on the back burner indefinitely, but microblading is still very much on the table. I’m still in the very early stages of researching this, but I’m convinced it would change my whole life for the better.