Funny!

I know it's been a long time. Again.

But this is really funny: Camel Toads

Published!

This morning a nice, big package was waiting for me beside my mailbox. "Haworth Press" it said. "I didn't order anything from Haworth," I thought. But as I picked it up, I remembered, "My article!" They sent me three copies of the journal. I'm too afraid to read it--the editing process was a nightmare. But I did look at my name in print.

Knox, Emily. "How One Part-Time Library Staff Member Can Provide Interlibrary Loan Service" Journal of Interlibrary Loan, Document Delivery & Electronic Reserve 17:4 (2007): 87-94.

Boo-yah!

A keeper

I got sick on my last night in Paris and came home sick yesterday. I walked into my apartment and promptly went to sleep. So, I didn't go to the grocery store. Or get my hair cut. Or do my laundry.

But, my boyfriend brought me my groceries. From Astoria. This might not seem like a big deal but Astoria is about an hour and a half away from where I live. He brought the groceries, made sure I had everything I needed, and then went home. An hour and a half back.

Paris, je ne t'aime pas...

I was wrong when I wrote that Paris was multicultural. It's multiracial but not multicultural. People from all over the world live there but they are all...French. No group seems to have made any sort of mark on Parisian culture. Yes, there are Asian and Middle Eastern restaurants but that's about it.

I found this most readily displayed in clothing. Everyone dressed tastefully but boringly. Lots of black and neutral colors. I sat at a cafe and watched the people go by for about an hour and a half and nothing was all that interesting.

Paris seems to be missing sub-cultures. There were no skateboarders or kids from the hood or anything. I did see three semi-Goth kids but other than that it was just a bunch of French people in different races. There also wasn't much of a night life.

This lack of multiculuturalism also showed up in advertising. Although France is full of brown people there are non in ads anywhere. Everyone is white including all the mannequins.

I can see how the hijab issue became so volatile in France. The country, or at least Paris, is a melting pot of fondue rather than a salad bowl.

Paris was beautiful. Everywhere you go there is some magnificent statue or building. I can see why people love it there. It must be nice to wake up every day and be surrounded by beauty. But there was no undercurrent of excitement rising from the street and, for me, that's what makes a city.

Favorite things:

1. Musee de Quai Branly--I didn't actually go in (8 euro entrance fee!) but the building itself is amazing.

2. Les Deux Abeilles--A little cafe with EXCELLENT food.

3. French wine. Especially sancerre.

4. The Louvre--too many beautiful paintings but awesome nonetheless.

5. Le Metropolitan--it is ridiculously clean and easy to get around.

And here are pictures. I haven't labelled all of them but they are in reverse chron order with pictures of my friend Nathan's wedding at the end.

French Keyboqds

So, did you know that the French keyboard is completely different from the English one?
The A, M, and W are in a completely different place.

I finally found an internet cafe near my hotel but i cant type too much because of the crazy keyboard.

France has been pretty great. After visiting the Louvre (which has a starbucks btw) I ate lunch at the cafe Marly and had the best croque monseiur ever. I'm not a huge fan of french food in general but the sandwich was great. it was also 12 euros. 18 dollars. Have i mentioned that France is expensive? After lunch I walked to La Place de la Concorde and then back to my hotel.

Yesterday I went to Notre Dame and I happened to be there during Mass. It was strange to be a tourist during the service.

I also walked up all the steps to Sacre Ceour. All of them. I wandered around Monmartre and had an excellent Italian Lunch.

I'm sorry this is so short and unspecific but the keyboard is driving me crazy. Ill have to right more after I return.

Ah France

One of my favorite historical concepts is An Embarrasement of Riches. It is sometimes used to describe the Dutch during the 16th and 17th century when they were ridiculously rich and drove up the price of tulips. The Dutch have nothing on the Louvre though. Every chambre, hallway, courtyard or whatever is filled with magnificent art. Your eyes start swimming.

France is quite lovely and much more muliticultural than I expected. I didn't see much of Nice but I had a lovely time at my friend Nathan's wedding. Unfortunaely, while I was waiting for the train to Paris, I receivd horrible news--my father had a heart attack. He's okay but they had to put in a stent and do an angioplasty. I didn't sleep much last night.

Now I'm off to eat and wander around.

Au revoir!

Trapped in the closet

Of course, you knew he was a Republican before you heard the entire story. But still--how cliche can you be? A freakin' men's room!!?! At the airport?

Let's get creative closet cases!

Tattoo

So, it's about three inches in diameter and it's the Rebel Alliance symbol from Star Wars. It's also a lot darker than it looks in the picture which was taken without a flash.

Flowers and Questions

I have a single red rose on my desk at work.

People keep asking about it in non-direct ways: "A rose?" " You must be in love." One person asked if I have a suitor.

All I tell them is that I didn't buy it myself and I didn't want to take it home on the train.

It is beautiful, though, and it makes me happy. I haven't gotten flowers in a very long time.

People are awfully nosy...

Colors

My school is going through hard times at the moment. Money is tight and none of the staff (except for union employees) were given standard of living raises. We have not received SOL increases for four out of the past five years.

To make us and themselves feel better we are having Thursday Ice Cream Socials. They're a little silly but it's nice to get a break from work and see everyone. Each week we honor a different department. This week it was the Children's Garden, the preschool on campus.

All the kids were at the social. One little girl was wearing a pink SpongeBob
SquarePants shirt. When she saw my shirt she shouted "Pink! Look, I'm wearing a pink shirt too.!" And we started to play the color game.

"What other colors are in my skirt?" "Green, Black." "What color is SpongeBob?" "Yellow."

Then she pointed straight to my face and said, "Brown!"

"Yes," I said, "I am brown." And then we just kept playing. I couldn't stop laughing though. She sounded so innocent when she said it. To her it's just another color in the rainbow.

Soul Mates

(I'm feeling sentimental lately. Sentimental and a little sad.)

Do you believe in soul mates?

I never know how to answer this question. Do I believe that there is someone out there that is perfect for me? Yes, and I've met them but it hasn't worked out. What if they live on the other side of the world?

I think that I believe in electricity. That feeling of pure lust that you sometimes get on the subway, or in the library, or in a restaurant on the other side of the world. All you can think is "Yes, right here, right now, just ask."

But then there's that other type of electricity. You meet someone (say...at a library conference) and they say something and you say something and then they say something back. And you keep talking and talking. Then you think "I know this person...I've known this person forever."

And, of course, he's getting married.

Maybe should not get involved with your soul mate. If things don't work out you may be destroyed.

Maybe the slow build is better.

Celebs in New York

I'm still working on my library conference posts. It's taking awhile. That's definitely something you should do the day you go...I'll remember in the future.

Re: the last post. Hopefully God will stop laughing soon.

But, in other news, I saw Taye Diggs and Idina Menzel at the ballet on Thursday. I'm not usually a celeb nut (although I once screamed when I saw Malcolm Gladwell on the street) but it was awesome to see them. Mr. Diggs is HAWT and I wanted to tell Idina that I cried (actually sobbed) during "Defying Gravity."

I didn't.

I just kept my cool and walked out the door.

Library Conference?!? Sounds exciting! Part 1

(This post has been driving me crazy so I'm just going to finish it and post it...sorry that it's not polished.)

I feel like I've spent the last month at library conventions. When I tell people how much fun they are I get funny looks. "Uh, yeah Emily, hanging out with a bunch of librarians. That sounds great..."

Y'all just don't know what you're missing.

American Theological Library Association Philadelphia, PA
ATLA is an organization in transition. When people hear "theological" they think "Christian," but the Association of Christian Librarians is a different organization. There are a lot of evangelical Christian libraries in ATLA but so is Jewish Theological Seminary and secular institutions like Yale and Harvard.

The ATLA conference is wonderful. It's tiny (about 350 librarians) and everyone is really nice. The programs at Annual offer a lot of good (and relevant) information.

I arrived in Philly on Wednesday after a lovely train trip. The conference was at the Doubletree on Broad Street. One of the best things about the conference is that I have my own room. Pure bliss!

The actual program part starts Thursday morning. I slept through the plenary so my first meeting was "Professional Ethics for Theological Librarians." Most librarians subscribe to the American Library Association Code of Ethics, but ATLA has discussed having its own code for several years. This is difficult since ATLA is full of people on opposite sides of the political spectrum. The guy who ran the program is starting a wiki to which I will contribute.

I went to the Reading Market for lunch and then wandered around the city. That night we had a diversity dinner at one of the best restaurants I've ever been to--Alma de Cuba. (ATLA isn't very ethnically diverse so there were only about 15 of us.) If you are ever in Philly...you must eat there.

I worked a bit more the next day. Missed the plenary again (whoops...but I did work out instead) so my first program was the diversity roundtable title "Present and Future racial Diversity Issues of Theological Librarians." As mentioned above, ATLA is not very diverse. Of course, neither is librarianship in general. This year the group discussed cultural, religious and racial diversity in our collections (Which books on liberation theology must your library have) and talked about doing annotated biographies. I think I also volunteered for the committee to turn us into an Interest Group. Can't remember though...I'm sure someone will let me know.

Next I went to "Collection Development of the controversial Issues in World Christianity -- Maintaining Balance in Light of the Religious or Academic Tradition We Serve." There's not much that's controversial in my library. I had a book called Sex Priest on display for awhile and no one said anything. I was really there to hear how other people deal with controversial books. Apparently some prolific Catholic theologian is now on the wrong side of the Vatican and some requests were made to remove all of his writings from Catholic seminary libraries. None of the librarians at the meeting complied. Awesome...

Then we had denominational meetings (went to Anglican/Episcopal) and I walked around the city in the evening. Found two used bookstores and bought books I don't need but felt compelled to own.

Saturday was at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary just outside Philadelphia. First session was "Dealing with Challenging Patrons" presented by the Public Services Interest Group (I'm a member of the PSIG Board). A large part of a public service librarian's job concerns customer service. You never want a patron to leave the library unhappy. My notes say the folowing
1. When the patron leaves ask "Did you find what you need?"
2. Challenging patrons --> Can you make that person your friend?
3. Your goals as a librarian don't match the patrons goals (this is the familiar 'librarians like to search; patrons like to find')
4.The patron is not always right but they can be wrong with dignity.

This stuff sounds pretty basic but it's difficult when your dealing with actual human beings who have a paper due in 3 hours and they just started writing. Trust me.

Next I went to "Building the New Community" about Web/Library 2.0. I hoping to do a short training on it for NYATLA sometime in Spring 2008.

Then an introduction to a new peer reviewed journal, developed by ATLA, called Theological Librarianship. Finally the conference ended with a reception and banquet.

I know that this is a rather lame writeup but I've been working on this post for weeks and just wanted to finish it. Now I have to do the one for ALA...

Adonai Tzhak

I found what I want but he belongs to someone else.

Pretend

When I was in high school, I had a huge crush on the guy who sat in front of me in most of my classes. (Our names went in order alphabetically.) Over those four years I tried many different tactics to get him to like me. He was not amenable to any of them. Finally, sometime in 12th grade I said something to him along the lines of "How do I have to change to get you to like me?"

I can't remember what his response was. I'm sure it wasn't positive. What really surprised me was the responses of my female friends. I was told that I should "never, ever change for a boy."

I have never forgotten that incident and over the years I have tried to follow my friends' advice.

I can't say it has worked all that well.

Over the past year, I have dated (sorry, hung out with) a bunch of different people. The last misadventure ended with me being called the following things:
1. Difficult
2. Complicated
3. Intense
and my favorite number 4: aware of what I want.

I am definitely all of those things and I'm not of the opinion that they are necessarily bad. However, my main issue is that I have difficulty hiding them. When I am...hanging out with someone, I'm not the best at hiding the less attractive aspects of my personality.

I don't play the game.

If I like you, I call you. And if you like me, I want you to call me. Not wait 3 days (or whatever.) I'll let you know that I want to see you. I'll answer your emails right away.

Apparently--this is all wrong. I'm not supposed to call. I'm not supposed to answer emails. I'm supposed to be doing something else when you suggest we go to dinner.

I am supposed to pretend I am someone else. Someone who doesn't like you and is sort of rude.

Perhaps my friends were wrong in high school. What they really meant was "change until you get the boy."

Reading

For some reason, I haven't been able to read books recently. I pick them up, get about half-way through, and put them down. I've tried everything from The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai to Dan Brown's Digital Fortress. Yes, really. They are both on my bedside table at the moment. But I just don't feel...it. That irresistible pull that drives you to finish a novel.

It's probably back to Ursula Le Guin and Tamora Pierce for me.

Books

I am a big fan of books. This probably isn't surprising since I'm a librarian. However, the job of a most librarians these days has less to do with books and more to do with information. I also think the codex is one of the most perfect inventions ever. It hasn't been much imporoved upon in the past few hundred years.

The whole idea of a "book" is one I thought was pretty stable until last Saturday when I read the Invention of Hugo Cabret. Brian Selznick has exploded the entire notion of how one reads a book. The book is almost entirely made up of pictures. Yes, there are children's books like that but this is a book for young adults and the story is quite complicated. It's like reading a movie.

Watch the opening slide show to see. And then get the book.

Star Wars

I am Star Wars Chick. I have been a Star Wars fan for as long as I can remember. I was only one when the first one came out in 1977 so my brother must have introduced me to it becuase I do remember seeing Return of the Jedi in 1983.

I'm not one of those people who discusses SW minutia. In fact, if you ask me about SW I will probably say that I love it and leave it at that. To really know how I feel about the movies, you have to watch them with me. I go into a whole other dimension and all of my problems fall away.

Since people always ask, I like the movies in this order:

Empire Strikes Back
Revenge of the Sith
A New Hope
Return of the Jedi
Attack of the Clones
Phantom Menance

And EVERYONE should see Clone Wars. They explain what's going on between II and III.

So, I'm bringing up SW becuase I think I have finally proven my true devotion. On Friday I got a Star Wars tattoo. No, it doesn't say "Star Wars." I had been thinking about it for over a year and just decided to go do it.

It hurt. A lot. It took forever and I had the shakes afterwards.

I'm sort of shocked at myself. It was a totally non-Emily thing to do.

I'll post pictures when I have them and yes, I am super excited about the new stamps.

Administration

On Thursday of this week, I truly became and administrator. The previous day I had two meetings in one day. The meetings were not overly long, but I had to focus on them and they detracted from my reference work.

But it was on Thursday when everything came crashing down. I was exhausted and running around all day and I hit true administratorness: I wasn't able to get any work done until after business hours. I was planning to work late into the evening anyway but I would have had to stay even if I hadn't planned to do so.

When I got up from my desk (to go to an 8:00 class) I knew something was different.

I think I've finally earned my title: Associate Director.

Annoying Questions

< rant >
One of my least favorite reference questions are the geneological digging types: "My uncle graduated from your school, do you have any info on him?"

I HATE them. The answer I want to give is "No, I don't have any information on your uncle who graduate in 1853. Does your college have your papers? Of course not. Only if you're famous or something."

I generally say something like "Unfortunately, we do not keep any former students papers unless they specifically deposit them here at the time of their death."

But then there's always a comeback. "Well, how about a yearbook? Pictures of his class?"

This stuff sounds simple but it is REALLY time consuming and involves a lot of flipping and digging and snooping in the archives because you often trying to prove a negative: No, we DON'T have a picture of your uncle.

Voting

I have no idea who I'm voting for in the Democratic primary and I'm very excited about it.

I like Obama and Clinton and Edwards. They all have different strengths and weaknesses. I kind of wish they could all be on the same ticket.

I find Obama's meteoric rise intriguing. When I lived in Hyde Park, I used to see him every Sunday at the Co-op pushing his little girl around in a cart buying groceries. Mostly I remember that he was really hot and the buying food and the little girl just made him hotter.

But he wasn't very exciting. Being a Harvard grad, law school professor etc., etc., is not that interesting in Hyde Park. It's kind of like saying you have a Nobel Prize and have connections to the UofC. A dime a dozen.

I was living in Bobby Rush's district when Obama ran against him. I voted for Rush becuase his official Congressional bio states: Founder- Illinois Black Panther Party. That is awesome.

And now that guy who I used to see in the grocery store is a contender for President. A black man (yes, I know there's controversy about this but it's stupid...you only know Obama is biracial b/c when he tells you) is running for president.

On the other hand Clinton has pretty good positions on the issues. I'm secretly hoping that if she DOES become president she'll ram through a single-payer health care plan. I can dream. But, her vote on the Iraq war and her refusal to say she was wrong bothers me.

I also agree with Edwards on the issues. But somehow, I think he'd be better at a cabinet position (AG or Heath and Human Services) than as president.

I keep coming back to Obama. He's just something different. Maybe what we really need right now is, in fact, a president whose middle name is Hussein (boy, does that describe Barack) and spent some time at a madrassa.

More on Trip...with Pictures

On Wednesday we had a late start and went to the old city. This is a picture of me by the Damascus Gate which leads to Arab East Jerusalem. The old city has 8 gates and I think Dana and I saw all of them.

This is the view of Old Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives. You can see the Golden Gate which will open when the Messiah comes (or comes back depending on your point of veiw.)

On Thursday my cousin and I went to Akko. I already talked about the ridiculously long trip to get there. It was really quite beautiful. The middle picture is of one of the aqueducts. The one to the right shows the citadel walls and the Mediterranean Sea.

-----------------------------------------------
So posting with pictures is proving much more difficult than I realized.  All of my pictures are on my Flickr page.  I'll tag them so you know what you're looking at.

I had a wonderful time on my trip.  Since I love lists here are some things I discovered:

1. Israel is still a crazy country.  It's hard to describe how many different types of people live in Israel.  There are Jews from all over the world, Arab Israelis who are both Christian and Muslim, as well as a whole bunch of people who are basically imported cheap labor.  It was really surprising how Asians there were in Tel Aviv.  When I was on my way home the guy after me in the line was Asian and he spoke Hebrew to all the guards. We saw a bunch of kids at McDonald's running around and a woman told them to go sit back down...in Hebrew.  Those kids are growing up as religious minority in a Jewish state.  This is something that has never been true before.

2. The security there is ridculously tight.  There are guards outside of cafes, restaurants, grocery stores and you have to go through a metal detactor and have your bags x-rayed to get into the bus station.  I spoke in Hebrew as much as possible to every security person I saw. Particularly at the border between the West Bank and Jerusalem. It's scary to have someone come up to the car with an M-16 and peer inside at you then seem a little confused.  I always had my passport at the ready.

3.  The best hummus in Jerusalem is at Lina's on the Via Dolorosa in the Old City.  EVERYBODY eats there Palestinians and Israelis.  Everybody.  My last day I saw two guys there, one was Israeli and the other was Arab, discussing how they could get their kids to meet each other.  It was like a 
little peace summit with excellent hummus.

4.  You can not get falafel in West Jerusalem on Friday night.  Don't even bother trying.
As the Arab-Israeli kid we ran into said (in Hebrew) "everything is closed for the Jews."  (Then he said "what's your name? where are you from? how do you know Hebrew?" It was an interesting encounter. He didn't know English and was quite pleased that I spoke to him in Hebrew.

5. Never ask for directions in a foreign language unless you're prepared to understand a quick answer.

6. Windows on trains work like mirrors so you can't take seruptitious pictures of cute guys.  They will see you.

7.  There is a lot of good, cheap wine and it tastes even better with "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hookah">nargillah.

As you can see from below, I spent most of my time talking to my cousin and getting to know her better.  That was the best part of the trip.

Even more hanging around

Yesterday we got lost several times in the Old City. The city isn't all that big but it twists and turns and some places have LOTS of tourists while others have almost none. It's also strange becuase you can feel the tension in the air in some places. In the middle of the Muslim Quarter you find Israeli flags. There are NO Muslims in the Jewish Quarter. But pretty much everyone walks throught the Christian and Armenian Quarter.

My cousin kept asking me how I could tell the difference between Palestinians, Arab Israelis and Israelis. I couldn't really explain it to her. The Palestinian men dress and style their hair a little differently (the women tend to wear hijab.) I think she found the fact that many of the Jewish Israelis are, in fact, Arabs kind of strange. "How do you know who the enemy is?" she asked. You don't always.

I am currently sitting in a Christian Arab internet cafe and they are playing the Boriqua song. Crazy.

Today I'm going to shop and then head home.

More sights...

We've been taking it easy the last few days. Yesterday we walked went to East Jerusalem and visited the Cathedral of St. George which is the Anglican church in Jerusalem. After that, we went to the Garden Tomb which Protestants tend to accept as Jesus' last resting place rather than the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. We went to two crusader church ruins and then had a wonderful lunch in the Aremenian Quarter.

Last night was Shabbat so we there wasn't too much to do. We just kind of wandered around. Then we went to Tmol Shlsholm possibly one of the best cafes anywhere in the world.

I can't believe how relaxing this trip has been. I certainly wasn't expecting it.

Takin' it easy....

Yesterday we went to the Israel Museum. I had forgotten how beautiful the Shrine of the Book is. It was nice to see the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Aleppo Codex. Unfortunately, the archaeology wing was CLOSED. i really wanted to see the pomegranate from Solomon's time but no dice.

Then my cousin and I wandered around one of the parks and talked about life.

We went to the old city and had the best hummus in the whole world at Lena's in the Christian Quarter. Then back to the new city to city at an outdoor bar to drink wine and smoke nargila for about 3 hours.

A very nice, relaxing day.

Running Around Israel and a Quick Jaunt to the West Bank

My late start day ended up being pretty great. After going to the internet cafe in Jerusalem, Dana and I walked through the Arab suq to the Damascus Gate and caught a taxi up the Mount of Olives. A few of the churches were closed but we did make it to one of my favorites--Pater Noster. It's a modern Franciscan church with a beautiful view of the Dome of the Rock.

Then our real adventure began. At the bottom of the mountain (really a hill) we decided to take a taxi back to the hill. We got in and our taxi drive (an Arab-Israeli) offered to take us to Bethlehem. This is, of course, a good way to make easy money. $70 was a little expensive but he offered us a ride there and back AND a tour guide. I really wanted to see how Palestinean Territories (West Bank) had changed since I went there.

We ran into a lot of traffic. Tons. But we finally made it. I didn't see the controversial wall although I'm sure it was nearby. You only have to go through security to get into Israel. Not to get out.

Construction was so bad that we had to go through Beit Jalla (a West Bank city of mostly Arab Christians) and we only had ten minutes to spare when we got to Manger Square in Bethelehem.
We ran to the the church and then sped through the sites. Our tour guide kept saying "Please hurry." But we made it to all the little chapels. Just in time since the Franciscan monk closed the doors right after us.

Then, as usually, we enjoyed the hospitality of one of the storekeepers that our driver new. Yummy tea and (ridiculously strong) wine. Of course I bought something...you just can't help it.

Yesterday we went to Akko. That sounds simple, but it invovled a shared taxi, a bus, a train and then another taxi. Then the same on the way back. We traveled for about 4 hours each way. Akko still has its crusader walls intact and is right on the Mediterranean. It was actually quite lovely. We were wiped out at the end of the day and stumbled to our hotel.

One thing hat really surprised me was Tel Aviv. There are way more Asians than I remembered from a year. It has really become a multi-cultural city.

In Jerusalem

I'm currently in an internet cafe in the old city in Jerusalem. My flight was uneventful but much to long. After six hours I was ready to come down.

It's weird being here. The city hasn't changed that much but being here as a tourist is a lot different from living here. There's so much to pack in. Yesterday we made it to the Western Wall and the church of the Holy Sepulchre. Today our jet lag kicked in and we didn't make it out until...let's just say it was late.

My cousin and I have gotten into about 3 "discussions" on culture, the Israeli state, the place of women, etc. These often involve yelling but end well.

Today we're going to try to make it to the mount of olives.

I'll try to post when I can.

A Word on the Title

The title of the blog is from my friend Simon.
One day he said something along the lines of "Books. Star Wars. Skirts. Emily in a nutshell."

I'll start from the end--Skirts.

I grew up wearing skirts and dresses and other girly stuff. My favorite outfit all through high school was a maroon suede skirt that I thought I looked particularly hot in. I wore it to church a lot.

Then I went to Smith. There's not a lot of skirt wearing there and I slowly adopted a soft butch look. I already had short hair and I just supplemented it with guys jeans, combat boots, and flannel shirts.

When I went to Israel for my Junior year I had one long skirt for going to religious places and a short one for partying. But I was not a skirt wearer. Not until I met MMOG guy sometime in 2000.

I hadn't dated in a really long time. REALLY LONG. I met MMOG online and we went on a date. He mentioned that he, like most guys, liked girls in skirts. I decided to conduct an experiment. I bought a skirt and wore it. I got a lot of attention on the next date.

I also realized that skirts are perfect for pear-shaped girls. And they're pretty.

So now, I have this full blown skirt fetish. I particularly love all the (overpriced) ones at Anthropologie.
I almost always wear a skirt to work. Sometimes I get a shocked "You're wearing pants!" when I don't wear one.

Of course, I still have friends who have never seen me in a skirt b/c I don't wear them much on weekends. This post will not make much sense to them. They just have to trust me.