I am a bit of a sentimental clothing hoarder. I still have the dress I wore on my first date with Christian, even though it's now pilled and scratchy. I have my graduation dresses. I even have most of my high school formals. 

Friday marked six months to the day since Christian proposed to me on a windy sailboat in Honolulu, and I knew I wanted to celebrate the occasion. Though we did have plans together in the evening, I wanted to keep the festive feeling alive all day. (Also, it was Friday and I needed something to propel me to the weekend!) Being the sentimentalist that I am, I wore the polka dot skirt I was wearing when he proposed!

If you're the chronological type, check out my blog post about our engagement and our trip to Hawaii before we jump into this lab. You can find that here.

Ok, let's go!

THE EVENT: Our six-month engagiversary.

THE BROKEN RULE: In line with our engagement trip, I didn't really break rules. I could really scrape the bottom of the barrel and come up with something, but that seems silly.

THE OUTFIT: This day actually had two looks - a day look and an "evening" look. I didn't get photos of the day look (you'll understand why when we get to the experience section...) but it was almost identical to the outfit in my last post. I wore the same brown faux leather jacket, black racerback tank and mules, but instead of the denim and the polka dot cardigan I wore the polka dot skirt. 

For our dinner date, I wanted something a little warmer and a little softer. I opted for a green sweater and my green lace-up booties in combination with the blue skirt. (I'd been meaning to test out this green/blue combo!) I also added a bolder lip color. 

THE EXPERIENCE: I woke up in an excellent mood. The sun was shining! It was Friday! And, on top of that, it was a special day! Like Leslie Knope, I really love finding anniversaries to celebrate. 

My workdays are either largely out of the house running errands in my car, or at my desk at home. This Friday was an errands day. When I reached my first stop, the lot I normally park in was full so I found street parking. As I was balancing my phone and wallet and debit card attempting to negotiate with the parking meter, I was slammed into. Surprised, I looked up and realized that this was no accident. I'd been run into purposefully by a man who after knocking me off balance smugly looked me in the eyes, smirked, and then walked away with the air of someone who had just won a game of wack-a-mole by pushing a child out of the way and stealing all of their tickets.

There's a lot I could say about this. I'm pretty damn positive that if I were a man, another man wouldn't feel the need to smash his body into mine. As most of my readership on this blog is female, I know I don't have to explain how it felt to have my space invaded like that. Suffice to say, I was pissed. I should be able to exist in the world without strange men rubbing up against me. 

I finished my business at my first stop, and knew that the creepy men portion of my day wasn't over. To pick up the items I'd chosen at stop #1, I'd have to drive out the store's warehouse and the man who works at said warehouse has taken a shine to me. I don't worry about him body-slamming me, but I'd prefer to go about my workday without a man who's my dad's age telling me how special his day is now because he saw me, making prolonged, unnecessary eye contact, and asking personal questions about my life. Of course, all of those things happened, and OF COURSE all of the items I had to pick up wouldn't fit into my car so I had to come back for a second trip. 

Finally, after everything was delivered and I'd sat in traffic for a considerable amount of time, I got back home. I cuddled the dog, ate a very late lunch, and attempted to retrieve that morning's good mood. 

That evening, Christian and I went to a Hawaiian restaurant to celebrate. We loved the food we ate in Hawaii, and it seemed like a perfect way to commemorate the day. Again, the world didn't seem to be on my side. As a vegetarian, my diet is pretty catered to in Seattle. (There are many of us here!) But, when we got to the restaurant, I was told that all of the vegetarian-looking dishes on the menu weren't in fact, vegetarian. I ended up eating very dry, very plain "fried rice." 

But, it wasn't all bad. I got some pie after our dinner. That was tasty (and also Hawaiian-themed!). We wandered around a fun pet store. It didn't rain, which is always a milestone in Seattle. And I was wearing the skirt! It felt like a shield from the day's nonsense, and a friendly reminder that, no matter what happens out in the world, I'll always get to come home to Christian and that's certainly worth celebrating.  

THE CONCLUSION:  Though a fair amount of my Friday wasn't that great, wearing the proposal skirt really did make me feel a bit better. Are you a sentimental clothing hoarder, too? Do you have items that always make you feel safer, or sassier, or stronger because you wore them when something really wonderful happened? I'd really love to know what those items are for you. 

On the contrary, are you anti-clothing-sentimentality? Are your clothes free from emotional baggage? Let's chat in the comments below!

And, as always, I'm experimenting 7 days a week on Instagram, if you'd like to say hello! 

Until Wednesday!

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