Korea Conference Wear

This post is on dress code, which is kind of an odd topic, but since it's my blog I can write as I choose - so here you go. As my dad says, it's good to be king.

During the conference I helped organize in Korea, the team wears a "uniform" of sorts. It's not an entire outift uniform, just some identifying piece of clothing. This is common practice every year, and the goal is to make it easier for the conference attendees to recognize the staffers, so they can ask questions, request help, or of course compliment us on the awesome job we're doing. :) 

Last year, we had blue ties for the men, and blue scarves for the women. But to be honest, the quality of the ties wasn't all that good, and the bright baby blue color was a bit loud (and so, looked a bit cheap). This year, we wanted to up the quality of the uniform.

So we had really nice ties designed, out of high-quality material, and with a subtle conference logo stiched in. I helped design them, and I was quite pleased with how they turned out. (As a side note - four engineers, sitting around a conference table, trying to converge on an aesthetically pleasing tie design? Hilarious.)

So the ties were no problem, but the issue was this - the minimum order of women's scarves was 150. And we only had five girls going. So, we girls could either a) wear a tie too, b) find a scarf in a similar color, or c) wear nothing. Well, not nothing, but no uniform at least...

I happen to think women in ties can look really professional - the woman in question just has to have the confidence to pull it off. (As another side note, I just googled for images of women in ties to find a picture to illustrate that point, and apparently a lot of men have women-in-suit fantasies. Definitely a NSFW search, who'd have guessed? Teach me to blog at work...)

Never having lacked in confidence (ahem, for better or worse), I opted to wear the tie. With, might I mention, all buttons buttoned on my shirt. Sheesh.

I had to get one of the guys to tie it for me the first day, though, because I didn't actually know how to tie a tie. I wore a suit, as shown above, and it didn't stand out too much.

The second day I chose a pencil skirt and no jacket, so the tie was more obvious. Still, nobody really did a double-take, so I think it still looked professional. I also learned how difficult it is to get a tie to hit right at the proper length at your waistband - you have to guess ahead of time, because you use up a lot of tie fabric while making the knot. I guess guys have a lot of practice at this, but for me it's a bit tricky.

Now, all the other girls on the team opted for the "no uniform" option. While I understand why they didn't want to wear a tie (have to have a collared shirt, it's an odd fashion statement, etc.), come on now, I think that's cheating!

Because hardly any of the conference attendees realized the other four girls were part of the hosting team - they had no identifier, and the rest of the guys and me all had the same ties. So none of the attendees asked the other women any questions, or bothered them about water bottles, or asked about getting a new nametag, or any other host-type questions. No fair! :)

Figure: Obligatory MySpace shot, dedicated to my sister who is the queen of  self-posing

In the end, nobody cared that I was wearing a tie, and in fact I got several compliments. What do you think - would you have gone for a scarf?

Girl's Night Out!

Last summer the girls in my group had a couple girl's outings - once to a club where they served three-course $9 dinners for girls on Wednesdays, and once just out for a bite to eat.

But now we are losing one of the girls to California (and a new job - congrats!), so we decided to take ourselves out for a last hurrah.

(Also, we were jealous of all the stories of the boys' nights out. Although we would never replicate what happens on the boy's nights - they get pretty wild, and we just don't drink that much...)

There are several options for ladies' deals around Boston, and we ended up going out to restaurant that offered free dinner (with $10 drink purchase, of course there is a catch...).

Figure: The ladies of my group

Of course, we picked a miserable day to go - rain and puddles everywhere. I discovered that the right foot of my rainboots is not actually waterproof anymore, but oh well - we all dried out eventually!

I have always felt so lucky to be surrounded by such fun and smart people in my group - and it's just a bonus that so many of them are girls! A good looking group we make, I think. :)

Style

I have been excited to decorate my room as an RA. It's a step up from my old dorm room in terms of size, and it's a semi-public space because all the girls on my floors are welcome to stop by whenever I am home and have my door open. I realized that I was missing an important thing - a clock! Every room needs a clock, right? So I did a bit of searching, and look how slick my new timekeeper is:




As I was picking out the clock, simple as it is, it got me thinking. My room is all I have as my home right now. And humble as it is, it's important to me that the girls be comfortable coming to my room to talk to me. It needs to be welcoming, with plenty of room to sit and chat.

I will post pictures eventually (when I have it all clean!). But I was reminded of something I read in an article recently. It said that as you get older and accumulate material objects, the things you buy and surround yourself with make a statement about you. And I want to make sure that my home and my life reflect who I am. I want to be surrounded by things I enjoy, not unnecessary knick-knacks. I want to have fewer things, and higher quality of what I do have. I want to be stylish, but warm and welcoming. I think these principles apply to my living space, my office space, and even the clothes and shoes I own.

So I smile when I look at the jewelry rack that I made myself (my own design in cherry wood, with all my favorite dangly earrings hanging on it). I look longingly at the top shelf of my bookshelf, filled with books I have yet to read - and with satisfaction at the bottom THREE shelves full of completed class notes, textbooks, and reference books. I know that the top cabinet above my closet has three bags of tools and supplies waiting for me to tackle a new project, and that the whole floor of my closet is covered in cute shoes waiting for a night on the town with friends. My favorite cotton PJs fresh from the wash are snuggled in the bottom dresser drawer. My neatly organized desk has a handful of the best liquid ink pens, and stacks of engineering paper for studying.

I feel better when my surroundings are in order. All seems right with the world.

So good night, from me (sitting here wrapped in a down comforter from my grandmother) to you (hopefully safe and happy in your own home, wherever that may be).

If You'll Indulge Me, a Bit of Vanity

I am not worried much about staying anonymous, and I am just so proud of my mother's photography.

And so, I give you Miss Outlier (courtesy of my mom at my graduation last Friday):






Life is good.

Booties

Today Miss Outlier pulled a Dr. Isis and helped herself to some shoe therapy.

Behold:



Oh, yes. This now makes Miss Outlier over six feet tall, but hey she can't help that she's built like a model.

Bring it on, weekend!