will work for spaghetti

Merona buttondown, hand-me-down via E  

Grass linen capris, hand-me-down via R

Banana Republic necklace, gift

      It was one of those days when I put on my pants (multiple pairs, mind you!) and wondered why they felt so tight. Urgh. I'm betting/hoping it was just a post-lunchtime food baby ... 
      The neat thing about this outfit is that it's almost entirely comprised of hand-me-downs and gifts (except for the brown sandals I wore).
       I wore this to attend/help out at a showcase at a school I've worked at. (I'm a sucker for a free spaghetti dinner ...)  I wasn't sure exactly what I'd end up helping with -- ikebana? slinging spaghetti?-- and I didn't want to look too casual. I was shooting for a "teacher off-duty" look - practical, comfortable, but still a little put-together.
       After walking around and taking photos of the various activities, I ended up helping with the ikebana. Sadly, I wasn't the most helpful, given that I've only done ikebana once and wasn't even sure which branch is the subject and which one is the object, but the teacher was gracious and handled the crowd with aplomb and patience. At the end of the evening I ended up scrubbing spaghetti off the cafeteria tables before enjoying an ice-cold soda. 
     I was feeling a little down after my job interviews, so it was nice to attend and be warmly welcomed by one of the teachers I collaborated with when I was there. She even went so far as to mention a possible job opening, for which I'm grateful. It's nice to have a much more experienced teacher express faith in my abilities. :)
      Random story: These pants are not from R, but to be precise, R's aunt. R was at her aunt's house one day and with great amazement fished a brand-new bra - tags still on! - out of a rubbish can. R asked her aunt why the bra was in there, and her aunt replied that it didn't fit ... so rather than return it, she decided to toss it. Mind-boggling, huh?