It's a pretty common thing for people who don't know me really, really well to ask me what I do all summer. The question is the same, but the tone of voice varies. There's the "don't you get bored?" voice, the "I'm so so so sososososo jealous" voice (which is often combined with a tone of awe and wonder), and my personal favorite, the fortunately less common "teachers are lazy and overpaid, how dare you have time off when I don't?" voice.
The urge to argue with the latter is strong. I have a lot of good, solid facts about why this is nonsense. But experience has taught me that no reasonable argument is going to work with a person like this, and my best course of action is just to respond "It's pretty awesome. I bet you wish you'd gone into teaching, too." The jealous person usually gets my sympathy and a glass of wine. And the person who thinks it would be boring just makes me laugh, and laugh, and laugh.
There is nothing boring about the way I live my life, including but not limited to summers. I do not go to a traditional office/workplace during the summer, true. I spend part of most days in my back yard, also true. However, in addition to being a music teacher, I also teach part-time online for 2 separate BOCES and run an Etsy shop. If you've been following my blog at all, you know how much of my summer is dedicated to hunting out dresses, cleaning dresses, photographing dresses, selling dresses on Etsy, and writing about the whole process. And buying random instruments for my classroom. It's a lot of time, and it's joy.
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| I know some kids who are going to be very excited. |
While I don't teach my online courses over the summer, there tends to be a lot of prep work involved. I authored an AP Music Theory course a few summers ago, and while the theory content will never get outdated, the YouTube links/practice links/etc have a tendency to need updating. Online school #2 is moving my course over to a new platform, and some things don't translate well and didn't make the transition at all, so that needs editing as well. And every once in a while, my bosses like to meet face-to-face.
Since online school #1 is in a town which has a Salvo that I frequent whenever possible, I wisely set up my meeting time for 8 o'clock on a Wednesday. I met with my boss and had time to stop by to see my husband's new facilities before heading to the Salvo shortly after it opened.
Apparently my husband's new nursing-lab facilities were designed to terrify me almost as much as Lil Sebastian did last week.
I shook it off and headed over to the Salvo. Sometimes I do really well at this Salvo, and sometimes I find nothing. It keeps being just good enough to keep me from giving up on it entirely.
I paid way more for this than I usually do, but oh man. It's a 60s wiggle dress with a matching jacket with a RED LINING and I'm dying. It's got to be unworn because it's perfect. Well played, Newark. You've convince me to keep coming back again. (Coming soon to my Etsy shop!)
I saw the skirt of this sticking out when I was about a rack away and I knew just from the daisies on chiffon that it was going to be good. I was not disappointed. I HAD to see what that skirt was going to look like with a petticoat underneath so I put it on the dressform right away. Oh man. SO good. This will be in my Etsy shop soon too!
Wait till I take formal pictures and get some closeups of those daisies!!
This one almost had me because of the pockets and the buttons down the skirt. But I'm not crazy about smocked bodices, and the fact is that strapless dresses are a hazard in my back yard. There's this little pit bull, see, and she likes to sit on my lap. And when she jumps on to my lap, she sometimes pulls my dresses down. Straps are wise in my back yard.
Now this one is perfect for back yard purposes. A full enough skirt to protect my legs from little dogs who like to use my lap as a launch pad, a dark color to hide the muddy spots, the kind of jersey that feels like jammies, and one of my favorite necklines! YES!
Pockets, straps, and it's just the right color combo to go with my new lucite Sarah Coventry earrings. Maybe I'll wear this estate saling tomorrow so that Sarah can burn with envy over my earrings!
I actually passed up all of these purses. There were so many, and I'm trying to make myself list the ones I already have. I love buying these but have a hard time making myself want to photograph and list. Which means I have to be much more discerning.
I didn't buy this either, but how fun!
This beauty is glass. It's stretchy and will not bounce around much when I play piano. I'm in love!
There's another Salvo between Newark and home. It's another that's kind of hit-or-miss for me, but I gave it a go.
It's really hard to tell from this photo, but this is an open-backed 70s dress. I didn't try it on in the store because I heartily dislike Canandaigua's dressing rooms, and let's face it, I was going to buy it whether it fit me or not.
And it fit perfectly! It's like a mullet in dress form: Business in the front...
...and party in the back!
This is a stretchy 70s dress with a good label. It's too small for me but I got it for my Etsy shop anyway. The cashier was a big, burly man, who thought this dress was amazing and looked at the label and gazed admiringly at it. I had to smile at that.
And I found these for Sarah! Perfect for her love of 80s earrings.
And that was it! Not much, but still worth the stops. Especially because I got my work meeting out of the way. Win-win!
I only have a few weeks left, and I intend to enjoy them to the fullest. Come on warm weather, come on pretty dresses! I promise you, I won't be bored.
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