Monday, January 17, 2011

The Clothes Make the Man...or Woman.



I was going through my old blog posts from my Wordpress account and came across this one. It's a couple of years old. My twins are now in seventh and eighth grade. It's relevant though. I still work in the same uniform:  

Work Clothes

My husband wears a suit and tie in court every day. My kids carefully select what they wear to convey who they are when they go to work--which for them is school.  We wear clothes that set the right image and enable us to do our job best.

461497568_36f89065d6So, I work in pajamas.

On days I write, I get the kids off to school, shower and put on a clean pair of pajamas.  The reason is two-fold: 1) I am comfortable 2) It keeps me at the keyboard and prevents me from shopping or leaving the house.

Except for last Friday. Yep. My work uniform choice backfired.

One of my 12 year-old twins had an after school party at a pool near my house. This isn't a neighborhood club, mind you; it's a high-dollar exclusive private country club to which my family belonged when I was a child, so complete ignorance isn't an excuse on my part.  I knew the setting.

I've had kids at this school for 9 years, and I thought I had the party routine down. Not.

The kids were taken to the country club after school by parent volunteers--great; more time to write.  I pound out the words until 4:30, which is when I leave so I can be one of the first in line to pick up my son. I assume the teachers and chaperones would have the kids ready to go and would be placing them in cars like they had at other functions. Wrong.

I arrive  and there is no line. I watch from the safety of my car while parents (dressed to the nines) park their cars and stride into the country club.

Heart sinks. A twinge of nausea. Crap, I'm wearing pajamas.

Remaining calm, I decide to keep my eye out for someone that I know so I can flag her over to beg her to retrieve my progeny. No luck. You'd think out of over 100 kids, I'd recognize someone's parent.

By the time I concede defeat and accept the fact I am going to have to go public in my pajamas, every parent has arrived and is hanging out at the pool.  I should have gone in right when I got there, grabbed the kid and beat it out. Now, I had to join a social melee of epic proportions.

So, I'm not fully-fluffed and in makeup. Nope. I'm au natural sporting a ponytail, a blue T shirt, and black pajama pants--my work clothes. In all fairness, they are lounge pants, not true pajama pants, so there are not little sheep or sleepy teddy bears on them, but still.

Hoping for the best, I launch mission "Get In Quick and Get the Hell Out." The mission fails.

It takes almost 30 minutes to find my son and get him out of the club. I am seen by and chat with almost everyone there. I must have heard, "You look so cute," two dozen times. "You look so cute" translates to "WTF?" in social speak.

My family thought it was hilarious. I do too, now that I'm comfortably cute in my own home again.

What do you wear to work?  Any "you look so cute" moments of your own?

11 comments:

Heather Anastasiu said...

lol, that's hilarious! I write too (my agent just sent my book out on submimssion to editors this week, actually, biting nails, biting nails), but most the time, I don't like writing from home. It helps to make a little event of it, go to my favorite coffee shop in comfortable jeans or cargo pants, and a cardigan, always a cardigan! I get funny looks when I go to pick my son up from school too, but that's just because I have pink and blue hair :)

Also, I was trying to find a way to 'follow' your site, other than the subscribe button. Usually with blogspot blogs there's a 'follow' button so I can subscribe from within blogspot. I'd love to keep up with your blog as you near publication!

Mary Lindsey / Marissa Clarke said...

Hi, Heather! It's so exciting you are out on submission! Wishing you all the best.

Thanks for the comment. And as for the follow button, I recently switched from Wordpress. I did not put up that widget because it has a popularity contest feel for me. People seem obsessed with the number of followers they have, so I'm sparing myself that angst, just like I will try not to read reviews of my book when that time comes. I think if you select the rss subscribe above the email subscription, it is the same result as following via rss. I'm a technotard, but that's my understanding.

Thanks again! Fingers crossed for a quick sale of your book. Keep me posted.

Heather Anastasiu said...

:) yeah, that makes sense. Sometimes I think life is still so much like high school, popularity contests exist in sneaky forms, and all I want is for the cool kid (translation: editor at awesome imprint) to like me!

Michelle said...

LOL! I have had similar things happen to me. I too work in my PJs (voice actor by day, book reviewer/writer by night). I was wearing purple ones though with pandas on them. Ahh! So embarrassing.

Mary Lindsey / Marissa Clarke said...

Ah, Michelle, purple with pandas sounds amazing!

Michelle said...

What can I say.. I'm a class act! ;)

Alyssa Kirk said...

LOL!

I'm a pj girl too. Flannel of course!

Jack LaBloom said...

If you are going to wear pajamas to the country club, I hope you at least wear designer pumps and a decent purse with that outfit.

Eric said...

LOL, that is hilarious. Of course, I'm such a non-snazzy dresser that I'd have just strode in there in PJs with a grin on my face, imagining everyone else cringing at my supposed lack of proper attire.

Anonymous said...

LOL! I feel like a fashion victim every day...my office tends toward ICE COLD so I wear a fleece over my work clothes...yeah, powder blue Howe Caverns fleece does NOT go with a lot of outfits. Just sayin'.

On another note, I've been likened to Mona Lisa by a worker at the state mental hospital. Several times. In fact, every time he sees me.

I'm not sure how to take that. ???

TheBookAddictedGirl said...

That's a classic! But, hey, at least you had the confidence to go out in your PJs! :)
"You look so cute" moments? Uh, yeah, I've had a few of those. When I was a little girl I was tiny. Even when I was in year 6 I was the one who got picked up and spun around. When I decided to stop my classmates doing this (I'm not confrontational, so I'd never done that before), this looked at me with all my bunches, freckled, big eyes fury and said "Aww, you're so cute!" :]
Thanks for this post: it really made me smile! I've added the countdown to your book to my blog! :D