Isorhythm

Dress: Nine West via TJ Maxx; Shirt: Everlane; Belt: Target   I honestly forgot about shoes since I have nowhere to be for the day. It's been kind of a rough adjustment, but things are starting to fall back into place. I miss my old picture spot, though. I'm on day four of going no poo. The next few weeks will be tough, but I think in the end I'll like it. Besides, what better time to try out personal improvement experiments than when you're unemployed?

Dress: Alternative Apparel; Jacket: Old Navy (old); Belt: Target; Flips: Ocean Minded via Piperlime   Top: American Eagle; Skirt: Ann Taylor Loft; Flats: Steve Madden via DSW; Headband: H&M  I need to find a better way to take pictures. Here's one to prove I'm not as washed out as Photobooth claims: Earrings: World Market I'll miss my backyard so much when we move, though. It's so pretty and green. Sometimes deer will come right up to the railroad ties and snack. P. S. I'm selling a few things on eBay.  Check it out.

Silk blouse: Everlane; Skirt and belt: H&M; Boots: Steve Madden via eBay This Everlane blouse was kind of a splurge, but easily the most comfortable and versatile item I've purchased all year. It's actually been too hot lately to warrant this kind of wardrobe, but the tropical storm has been pushing through a lot of wind and rain.

Clockwise from top left:   Pankaj & Nidhi Lalina Dress , Floreat Varanasi Maxi Dress , Cloth & Stone Belted Chambray Shirt Dress , Indigo by Clarks Purity Snow Wedge in Tan , Everlane Canvas Tote in Tangerine , Everlane Leather Sandal (Released next week), Edme & Esyllte Freya Dress in Navy I'm hoping for a sale at Anthropologie soon.

Now that I've entered the working world, "summer vacation" no longer means two-point-five months of leisure and adventure the way it did when I was in school. Even when I attended summer classes or worked part-time, choice was still very much a part of my decisions. I could pile English class on top of English class, fill the empty space with library work, and still feel like summer was mine to design and control. And even now that I'm securely settled into full-time work -- albeit, still a temp -- I feel the need to section off my summer from sun-warmed June to humid August and fill it with summer things. I crave travel writing and novels set in faraway places, bossa nova on my living-room stereo, and meals crafted from farmers' market finds. And, like Vachel Lindsay one hundred years before me, I feel the need to go west. Outside Atchison, Kansas; Birthplace of Amelia Earhart; May 2010

The concept of "summer" as an autonomous era, ungoverned, removed from the rest of the year, has lost some of its power since I've entered the working world. How does one decide its beginning when the calendar from January through December becomes a long string of 5 + 2 + 5 + 2? The divisions -- month, season -- seem increasingly arbitrary.