36: Redefining Business Casual

We all know what business casual is supposed to look like, if not see a few female examples above. However, in my experience “business casual” is taking on a new meaning – and I rather like it.

You see, the new business casual is a style combining pieces from both “business” and “casual” attire. It sounds like an odd mix, but if done right can actually be quite adorable.

For instance, on my way to work I had on black pants with a plain collared shirt. However, instead of my suit jacket, I had on a zip up hoodie with a fun design on it. I also had on my Chuck Taylors to dress it down a bit more.

I also attended a family party this weekend, and was stumped of what to wear since I hadn’t done laundry in a while. I threw on a denim skirt and my Green Day graphic tee, with (of course) my Chuck Taylors. It was chilly out, so I threw on my suit jacket as an extra layer. I got so many compliments at the party about the cute outfit, and I adored it myself!

I am not the only one “redefining” this style, I have seen others out and about in such hybrid outfits. Has anyone else noticed? Has anyone else attempted one of these hybrid outfits? Let me know in the comments.

21: No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted. – Aesop

I just want to preface this by saying I am not writing this post to say what an awesome person I am or whatever, it’s more just a random thought (which is kind of what I’m known for) mixed with a hope to inspire others.

I try to commit an act of random kindness everyday. Some days the opportunity doesn’t present itself, but when it does I try to seize it. I’m not talking about running into traffic to save a helpless kitten or anything – let’s be sensible here! I just mean small acts that can put a smile on someone else’s face. I find that such acts are very rare in modern society which is why I consider it even more important that I do them. The funny part is that it really doesn’t take much effort to make someone’s day so I have no idea why these random acts are so uncommon. Here are my “kind acts” for the past few days:

Saturday: On my way home from work a lady slipped and fell on a slippery patch on the sidewalk. Despite the fact that the sidewalk was busy, I was the only person to turn around to help her up and gather her belongings. I made sure she was not hurt and that she was going to be ok. This woman was so grateful and so amazed that anyone had stopped to help her – especially someone my age.

Monday: I was walking home from shopping with my sister when I noticed an old man having trouble crossing a somewhat busy street (where I’m from, cars don’t stop). I asked him if he was alright and where he was trying to get, and he confirmed my belief. I waited until I was able to walk into the street and stood in the middle until he was completely across. Again, he was very thankful.

Tuesday: I was waiting for a bus to my parents house when I noticed a guy in the station seemed to be having a bad night. He had a kind of cute face and was rather heavy set – not a guy I would normally look at twice. We ended up being in the same compartment of the train and I intentionally sat a few seats down on the opposite side so we were sort of facing each other. I waited until I had his attention and gave him the “one over” – you know that look when you’re checking someone out. When I made eye contact with him, I winked and he just smiled. He ended up getting off at the next stop, but when he was leaving I saw that he had that “I totally just got checked out look” on his face.

Maybe these little acts did nothing in the grand scheme of things, but I like to think they at least brightened those people’s days. So now I set forth a challenge to anybody reading this: I challenge you to do one random act of kindness in the next week. When you do, leave me a comment about what you did. I can’t wait to see what you do! See you next week tabbers!

18: The Death of Honesty

I know I told you that I was going to do the second-half of the travel blog… but, I lied.  I’ve already written that blog, and I thought, since I’m not very busy this week, that I would do a “real time” blog and save the RyanAir story for another time.

Alright, so let me preface this post by giving you a little history – first of all, my girlfriend is an awesome person!  Her name is Pam and she’s a veterinarian who works at a clinic near my house, which is actually how we met; she was working on one of my dogs who bit his tail off a while back (it’s a long story, I’ll tell it another time), and we started talking, hit it off and decided to start dating.  We’ve been together for about five years now, and during the course of our relationship we’ve never been short on brutal honesty.  I think the reason for this honesty is not so much about “trust” as it is about “lack of filtration between brain and mouth” – we usually just say what is on our minds with absolutely no forethought.  Neither of us can really be accused of being self-conscious, so we usually don’t care what each other say as long as words don’t turn into actions… and they never have.

It’s worked out pretty good for us thus far – she tells me when I’m being a douche (which is quite often), and I tell her when she’s being a snotty bitch (decidedly less often).  And then we reassess ourselves and move on.  Works like a charm!

Occasionally, though, we take it a step too far and offer a little too much information on our thoughts to each other… and, I did just that a short while ago.

You see, one thing the veterinary field does not have, is a lack of smoking hot, twenty-something women – and the staff at her clinic is Exhibit A!  Every last one of the docs there looks as though they might have paid for their schooling via soft-core porn.  I’d give most of them about an 8 on ye ole 10-point system… my girlfriend, however is on the lower end of that Bell Curve.  This is not to say that she’s not attractive, she’s highly attractive in my opinion; it’s just that when compared to the women she works with, her shimmer dulls a bit.  One girl – we’ll call her “Wendy” (names have been removed to protect the guilty) – is particularly noteworthy!

She’s tall-ish, slender (but not overly slender), has curves in all the right places, and always has this “quiet-but-confident” attitude about her.  She doesn’t say much, but you can tell that she probably loses her inhibitions when she drops the lab coat.  And to top it all off, she’s always smiling, which makes her hard to miss when you walk in there.

Now, I have no misconceptions about my own looks… I will never be confused for George Clooney or Leo Di Caprio, and I’m fully aware of this!  So, I know for a fact that even if I was single, these women would still be out of my league.  Hell… as long as we’re using baseball clichés:  I’m in Little League and they’re warming up for the MLB All-Star Game!  But, let’s be honest, what Little Leaguer doesn’t have dreams of violating playing with the All-Pros?  Wait… did I… I don’t think I phrased that correctly.

Anywho…

One day, my girlfriend was telling me a work-related story about Wendy…  I was only half-listening, so I can’t remember what the story was about, but I know that it had absolutely nothing to do with Wendy’s sex appeal.  When she finished her story, I knew from the dead air that I was expected to come up with some witty commentary on the subject now…

So, my dumb ass decides that now would be a great time to tell Pam that I’ve always thought Wendy was sexy as fuck!

As you can imagine, this didn’t go over very well!  The Conversation went a little something like this:

Me: Yeah, you know… I’ve always thought Wendy was a pretty attractive girl.

Pam: Huh?  What does that have to do with spaying a cat?  And why’d you feel the need to tell me that?

Me: I don’t know… it’s just… we were talking about her, and it just sorta popped into my head.  I mean, I’m not saying that I’d ever choose her over you… I’m just saying that I wouldn’t kick her out of bed, you know?  And while we’re on the topic – how the fuck did she end up married to such a douche bag?  He’s unemployed, and all he does is sit at home and spend the money SHE makes… and it’s not even like he’s anything to write home about in the looks department.

Pam: Yeah, he is a douche bag… but, I still fail to see what this has to do with spaying a cat.

Me: I don’t know… forget it.

And this was where I realized that I had said too much, and an “I fucked up” gift was in order.

She wasn’t really angry at me, per say, she was just sort of “perturbed” at my audacity.  She’s always known subconsciously that the girls she works with are on the higher-end of the female sexuality spectrum; but I guess since she only deals with them in a professional respect, she is able to “tune out” their sexuality and focus on their work-related abilities.  I, as a Y-Chromosome bearing male, am not… and thank GAWD for that!  I don’t think I’d be able to live in this world if I wasn’t able to gawk at boobies.

“AMAZING!” OBSERVATION OF THE DAY: So, I was watching “Criminal Minds” today and they show a scene where the two detectives are standing over a dead guy.  They start noticing defensive wounds on his arms, and the one detective (who is surely a descendant of Sherlock Holmes) says, “I think at some point things got out of control for this guy and he wanted out”……..  NO FUKIN’ WAY!  How can you be sure??  I mean, it’s not like he’s sitting dead in front of you with bite marks on his hands, or anything!

Now, THAT is some A+ writing folks!  The crack staff at Fox deserve a Pulitzer for this fine piece of work!  Way to go, Hemmingway!

~Roy “weekendkeyboardwarrior”

13: My eyes are up here!!!

Today, we’re gonna talk about boobs. That’s right, boobs, tits, hooters, knockers, rack, etc. Whatever you want to call them. Now, I’m not one of those girls who freaks out whenever I catch guys staring at my boobs. If I’m wearing a low cut shirt and have some cleavage showing, it’s pretty normal for guys to stare. I once had a (drunk) gay man tell me my cleavage looked so amazing that he wanted to go spelunking in there, which just made me laugh. All I ask is that you’re subtle about it. Sneaking a peek is one thing, but having an entire conversation where you’re staring at my boobs is really pushing it.

However, I have this one coworker that whenever I look over at him, he’s staring at my boobs. Every time without fail! Like I would understand every once in a while, but seriously? This is constant! And the weird part is, it’s not like I’m even putting them out there! I dress very conservatively for work, not like turtlenecks or anything, but decent necklines that don’t show off anything at all. So why does he keep staring? We have a slutty coworker that shows off almost everything she’s got, so why is he constantly staring at mine? And is there a polite way to get him to stop? *sigh*

07: What do you mean it’s not Wednesday?

Hey guys! Sorry for the late post. I know I’m supposed to post on Wednesdays, but I will also be posting on Monday util further notice. (I hope you don’t get sick of me…)

As I mentioned in my bio (see the “About Us” page) I intend on tracking my new life in the “real world” and the start of my career on this blog. This just the point I’m at in my life and I feel like sharing 🙂

So today marked my fourth day at the bank, and I am still in the early stages of training. They do their best to make me feel needed and have assigned me a few daily responsibilities, which is exciting and nerve racking at the same time. I mean the assignments are simple enough, but if I mess it up it could potentially mess up the branch for the entire day tomorrow.

I do a lot of online training and take vigorous notes while I’m reading, and I write any questions I have on the last page of the notebook so I don’t forget them and so they’re easy to find. It gets really boring at times, but I manage to suffer through. I highly prefer being able to observe my coworkers, and feel I retain more information that way.

I am very excited because at the end of the day today, my boss pulled me aside and said “I just wanted to let you know you have made a great first impression on this branch. You ask good questions, and I’m impressed that you actually take notes. We have high hopes for you.” *jaw drop* I could not believe it! I had just been my pseudo-neurotic self with the note taking and the strange questions and yet it had impressed my managers?! That totally made my day – and that is why today was awesome. 😉