Sandals...on a Sunday...

Just this last week I shared with all of you my ardent love for Sunday and its myriad of sartorial selections one can indulge in. Last week it was HOT. Hurricane Earl, which turned out to be a minor prolonged period of late-evening drizzle, had yet to sweep away the unbearable heat and the city was the typical image of the American city in August...heat rising in waves off the pavement, snarling traffic, horns blaring, fans blowing, steam rising, and taxis swerving...it was like a bad establishing shot for Law & Order. Dun dun...

Yet still somehow people were adequately dressed for a Sunday. While Boston CERTAINLY isn't the most sartorial of cities, men were still in blazers, women in dresses...or both sexes at least in collared shirts. So why then? Did I just get back from a long-winded bicycle ride through Newton, Brookline, Back Bay, Beacon Hill, East Cambridge, Harvard, Porter, Davis, and greater Somerville...In full suiting mind you, and see such lack-luster effort. Clearly they're not reading my blog...which is abhorrently apprehensible...But in all honesty, I've never seen so many flip flops.

Flip. Flops. ... !....?....!!!! lets just unpack that word there. A pedial accoutrement device involving two straps of leather and usually a foam or leather sole, depending on how fancy-pants you feel. And they call them Flip. Flops. the very words conjure how you'd expect them to sound. Loud, obnoxious and throughly, thoroughly undignified.

Now that Earl has passed, and the weather's cooled to a perfect 72 degrees with nothing but whisps of clouds between you and a brilliantly blue sky...I'd expect a little more decorum. Perhaps its my insanely outdated puritanical sensibilities, or just that fact that ALL of college-dom has now officially moved into Boston, but I was honestly caught off guard being the ONLY blazer-clad bicyclist in all of Boston.

...photo from my new favorite bicycle blog...

I know I'm crazy...this is something I'm well aware of. I know that most people don't honestly rifle through their winter storage the FIRST day of mildly unseasonable cooler-weather to find scarves, wool blazers, and sweaters to wear, all the while thinking..."I could wear this Icelandic wool sweater if only I just stay in the shade and out of direct sunlight to keep me from overheating"...In fact some people detest the cooler weather and all the layering possibilities which go along with such a season. Take my friend and co-worker Samantha Chu for example, while certainly the LAST person to break out her winter wardrobe on such a sunny day as this...she also manages to be the best dressed person at ALL TIMES!!! She's the sort of style minded individual whom if you were to show up to her house on a Sunday you'll find her vacuuming carpets in high-heeled patent leather shoes, full jewelry regalia, and evening gown adorned. Its that sort of person who is so whole-heartedly swept up in their own "personal rules to live by" that thankfully make me feel like I'm not alone in the world.

...check out her blog! Its 100 ways of awesomeness!!!...

That being said, lets just you and me get one thing straight. As I'm writing this, and you...must be reading this...you must think me an absolute purist J.E.R.K. While I personally would never be caught dead in sandals; alot...and I mean ALOT of the people I know wear sandals and do so frequently. Do I hate them for doing so? NO. Do I secretly scorn their sense of style? N.O.!!! While I don't share their likes and dislikes I also make a point of it NOT to be a jerk about these things. We every one of us need a little variety, and there are days when I'm 20 minutes late for the bus I SHOULD have taken, but didn't, because I'm still pulling out my hair stressing over "not having anything to wear" and standing in front of the mountainous heap of clothing strewn about my room having just been wrenched furiously from the hangers in panicked grasping for a "coherent look". Its days like these that I wish I didn't mind so much, get caught up in my own rules-to-live-by, and just go with the flow. But thats just what I'm trying to get at.

Each and every person has their own set-of-rules that they live by. Its usually dictated by what they feel looks best on themselves, but we all share this in common. And while Sandals certainly may not be in my personal repertoire...er...or unless they're Chloe and fantasmagorically well-executed...(never say never), I certainly won't hold it against you if you find yourself wearing them in my presence...

Its ok, I promise. We can still be friends.