Finally, a day off

You guys, I got promoted!!! 

Two months ago. Yes, I'm ashamed for not telling you sooner.

But I did! I'm now the assistant manager at New York and Company, a job that comes with 40 hours per week, a $4.50 per hour raise from what I was making before, paid time off and the added option of health benefits (if I ever decide I want off my parents' health plan or turn 26, whichever comes first). 

But those 40 hours per week mean that between work and school, I don't have a day off. Ever. Unless I ask for one two weeks in advance.

Which I did two weeks ago. So on Wednesday, I had my first day off in two months, and celebrated by going to a spring training game for the San Francisco giants (the first one of the pre-season, and against the Oakland Athletics).

Josh humored me and went to a SF Giants game, but insisted on wearing
a Phillies jersey. Now that's dedication! Image via Instagram.

Josh, though he cares nothing for either of the teams that played, was a trooper and went with me so I could watch my boys in orange. But just to make sure no one mistook him as a lover of the west coast, he wore his Phillies jersey. 

I told him I thought he was a dork for wearing it, but secretly I wouldn't have it any other way. His passion for everything Philadelphia is part of what I love so much about him.

We ended up leaving the game early—it was kind of a boring game with the A's so far ahead of us the entire way, and I, used to being cooped up inside 24/7, was starting to burn in the blazing February sun. I guess spring training is in Arizona for a good reason. 

As a side note, I just realize both pictures of Josh I've posted here have been of us at baseball games. The funny thing is that we've only been to two.

My time-travel destination

Say you woke up tomorrow morning and there was a DeLorean in your driveway. Where would you go?

For me, it's England, for a 10-year span from 1526 to 1536. You guessed it, I'm still obsessed with the Tudor dynasty.

Image via Wikipedia.org

It's gotten a little bit out of hand. I re-read The Other Boleyn Girl last semester, then watched the movie for the first time. This semester I'm taking Professor Retha Warnicke's class on the Stuart Monarchy—the family who ruled England after the Tudors—and next semester I'm taking her class on the Tudors (jammed schedules call for a non-chronological sequence of history classes). And lately I've spent way too much spare time glued to streamed episodes of The Tudors.

Sure, it would be awful to go back in time that far and for that long. We're talking leeches and bloodletting instead of ibuprofen, giant fireplaces and tiny windows instead of central heat and air, and lice, rats and B.O. like you wouldn't believe.

But to see that whole sequence of events in person would be absolutely incredible.

Especially if the DeLorean brought me safely back to 2014 afterward.

The Other Boleyn Girl

Since moving to Phoenix and starting college, I've had little to no time for recreational reading. And that vexes my bookworm soul. I've always been a voracious reader — think weekly trips to the library to exchange a dozen books that were on loan for two weeks. Now, unfortunately, required reading for classes and keeping up with the news takes up most of my reading time, and reading 500-word articles and 140-character tweets has made it difficult to focus on 800-page novels.

Unless that 800-page novel is Philippa Gregory's The Other Boleyn Girl.

Image via Wikipedia.org

To be perfectly honest, this one was a re-read for me. I read it back in high school along with a bunch of other historical fiction about the Tudor monarchy and loved it. History has always been a thing for me—I'm actually finishing up a minor in it—and the Tudors have always been a family I was interested in. I have no idea how long it took me to read it the first time, but this time I was through it in two weeks flat.

If you know your history, you already know the basic premise: Henry VIII, dissatisfied with Katherine of Aragon's childbearing abilities, sees Anne Boleyn and decides she will make a better broodmare. She's young, flirtatious, and has a witty mouth on her unlike submissive Queen Katherine, and Henry falls for her like a toddler for a shiny new toy. His divorce from Katherine and marriage to Anne mark the beginning of the split of the church of England from the Catholic church, but Anne has the same problems with conception and gestation as Katherine did before her. By now, Henry, father to two daughters from two mothers, is even more impatient for a son, so he plots to have her beheaded.

What makes this story different from other Tudor-Boleyn stories is that it is told entirely from the point of view of Mary Boleyn, Anne's sister who (according to Gregory) was actually the first Boleyn girl to catch Henry's eye. The story follows first Mary's rise and fall, then Anne's, ending with Anne's (rigged) trial for and conviction of witchcraft, adultery and incest. Anne's fall coincides with the rise of Jane Seymour, who would become Henry's third wife and the only wife to bear a son that survived infancy.

It is interesting to me that in the novel, Gregory has Anne darkly wishing that Jane might die upon the birthing bed for stealing her spotlight. If you know your history, you know that this is nearly what happened, as Jane died from postnatal complications less than two weeks after giving birth to Prince Edward.

You know how people say they can't seem to put a book down? That was true for this book both times I read it. It's completely engrossing. Gregory's writing is the perfect mix of modern syntax and middle English vocabulary so that you get a sense of the time period without feeling lost in the language. The plot moves very quickly—the book is divided by seasons, not chapters—and covers 10+ years without feeling as though you're reading two decades of history.

Getting back in the swing of things

"Woah there," you probably said as you clicked the link to this post, "is it just me or has it been a super long time since Chloe wrote anything?"

No, lovelies, it's not you. It's definitely me. But I am happy to announce that my semester is now over and I once again have time to write.

Which is not to say that the past few months have been completely unproductive. I've done so many projects over the past few weeks that I can barely keep them straight. Let's start with my new portfolio site. This was an assignment for my Advanced Online Media class this semester. I designed it (and coded it) in Adobe Edge Animate, which turned out to be one of the most entertaining programs I've ever used once I got the hang of it. It still has a few kinks to work out — the huge photos make the pages ridiculously slow to load and I still need to design the photo and blogs portfolio pages — but all are issues that should be resolved by the start of the new semester.

And yes, it's hosted on my very own domain! I'm now the proud new owner of chloerbrooks.com.

Next up: I've solidified a proposal for my honors thesis. The topic? "Caffeineix: Community from the Grounds Up." Which translates to Chloe is examining the role that locally owned coffee shops play in community growth and development. I'm taking this blog that was a group project for a class last spring and completely revamping it in Edge. The home page will include this video and an introduction to the project. Other pages will include a bit about me and why I'm interested in the project, a map of locally owned coffee houses in central Phoenix, feature stories on coffee houses and their owners, reviews of each coffee house, and the written paper itself. I start formal research for the project in January.

Caffeineix: Community from the Grounds Up from Chloe R. Brooks on Vimeo.

I would like to point out that with the exception of the last shot, this entire video was shot by yours truly on my DSLR. I shoot with a Canon T2i and the 18-55mm kit lens it came with. (The last shot is courtesy of Jayson Chesler, who is also featured in the video as eating a Jobot burrito. This was also the first video I have ever shot...and also the first one I have edited and exported. Not bad for a first piece, right?

I may also have put up a Christmas tree in my cozy little house. I made the trek home for Thanksgiving this year, but am choosing to stay in Phoenix for Christmas and New Years. That stems partly from my financial situation (let's not forget that I'm still in college and that holiday flights add up quickly) and partly because I'd like to save my days off work for when/if my mom has surgery. So instead, my friend Nick and I are planning our own Christmas Eve celebration.

I think that pretty much brings you up to speed. What have I missed with you?

I wear socks with slippers

Lately I've discovered a new obsession. Feet, meet slipper socks.

They look goofy by themselves, I know. But with shoes they don't show at all.

Well OK, they show a little bit.

You can wear flats without them, of course. And up until a few weeks ago, I did. For flats with smooth vinyl insoles, I still do. But for shoes with cloth or real leather foot beds, it's socks all the way. My reasoning is as follows:

I once had a pair of TOMS shoes that I loved. They were red, lightweight, insanely comfortable and went with everything. I wore them constantly.

But TOMS have a short shelf life if you wear them as much as I wore them. If the canvas doesn't wear out on the back of the heel, the leather foot bed will crack and feel nasty (mine did both).

You see, feet sweat in enclosed spaces. They just do. And sweaty feet make leather insoles damp. Damp leather shrinks when it dries. And shrunken leather cracks, pulls away from seams and makes sharp broken edges against the bottom of your foot.

Until your foot sweats again, and the broken, torn leather becomes a soggy, rolled-up mess.

It's just not fun. But nifty footie socks are. And they prevent all that from happening.

I got these at Payless in black and red, but I've also seen them at Target and in nude tones.

So what do you think? Does wearing socks with flats weird you out, or does it make perfect sense? Would you ever try it, or have you already? I want to hear your thoughts, so let me know in the comments below.

Panic Mode

Josh's parents are coming to visit in two weeks. And they're staying for four days.

I have never met these people. And naturally I'm scared stiff. 

It's my boyfriend's parents, guys. And he's constantly telling me they're super excited to meet me and they're going to love me and it's just terrifying. Because anyone who raised Josh to be as fantastic as he is is going to expect a lot. And what if they don't love me as much as Josh thinks they will?

Me and Josh at a Diamondbacks game. He's such a Phillies fan that he
refused to take his gear off, even for a different team.

Josh has already met my parents via video chat. In fact, he's met my whole crazy family. While Rachel was home in August we had a very complicated three-way Google hangout that included Mama, Daddy, Rachel and Molly in Livermore, Emma in Reno, and me and Josh in Phoenix. Mama was sure we'd scare him away, but the guy grew up with three brothers and a sister and a million cousins. My three sisters aren't going to scare him off. 

We've only been dating for four months or so. But already it feels pretty serious. He has this way of looking at me that's not like other boyfriends have done. I tried to explain it to my friend the other day and wasn't doing a very good job, so he said, "You mean like you're the best thing that ever happened to him?" And that's exactly it. 

Which is part of why I'm so terrified of meeting his parents. Because I do not want to mess this up. 

Midterm Assessment

Dear readers,

By now perhaps you are wondering where I disappeared to. Don't worry; I'm still here. But it has been a super busy couple of months. Allow me to explain. 

First, there's school. As academics go, this semester is much easier than others have been. I'm only taking 14 credits, and that includes my internship two days per week. But the internship lasted only until last week. Almost all of my classes are journalism classes — a Borderlands of the Southwest seminar (formerly called Latino and Transnational issues), Graphic Design for Print and Web, and Advanced Online Media. There's also a Small Business Operations and Planning course online that started last week. 

Fourteen credits doesn't sound like a lot. But the internship with Virgo Publishing required 15 hours per week. There was also a lot of stress involved. It was a lot more busy work than I expected and up until the last week, I had nothing with my name as a byline. Thankfully I came away with two clips for my portfolio. You can read one of them, a story about Starbucks and Evolution Fresh opening a new production plant, here. The other, a profile of a gastroenterologist who uses humor to ease her patients' fears, has yet to be published. Highlights of the internship were a giant orange coffee mug and using a cassette recorder to tape interviews ... except for the part where I ran out of tape in the middle of an interview and spent five minutes awkwardly apologizing for having to rewind.

Me with the giant orange coffee mug. And that polka-dot shirt? Yeah, that's from NY&Co.

But school isn't the only reason I've been busy. Up until last week I was working about 23 hours each week at New York and Company. At the end of this month I'll have been there for 90 days, which means I'm eligible for a promotion from sales associate to keyholder ... which is just a step down from assistant manager. My store manager has already talked to me a few times about the new position and has encouraged me to leave room in my schedule next semester for the job. That would require 30 hours a week minimum, but would come with a pay raise as well. Apparently I've been doing well in the position I'm in. Last week I had the highest average dollars per sale (ADS) and units per transaction (UPT), all of which employees are tracked on individually. And the previous week I scored the third most credit applications. 

I've also been shopping there a lot. Too much, actually. I have so many new outfits to show you. But more on that later. Right now my bedroom is in no shape to take mirror selfies, although my full-length mirror is finally hung!

How have your semesters been? Let me know in the comments section below!

The long and short of it

Everyone has that one haircut they look back on and regret. Maybe you rocked a mullet too far into the Nineties or maybe you went for the side-swept, overly straightened layers in the mid-00s. No judgement here if either of those is the case. I have an embarrassing hair story as well.

No trims for a year and this is the result...this, and an embarrassing amount
of split ends. I'm reluctant to snip yet because I've missed my long hair!

I've had super long hair for most of my life. My dad always preferred it, so that is how I wore it until the end of last summer. But last summer was a trying time for my family. In July my mom was suddenly and quite unexpectedly diagnosed with a type of colon cancer and underwent an emergency surgery to remove part of her large intestine and spleen. She spent the next three weeks in the hospital recovering.

We were told she would nave to undergo chemotherapy and radiation treatments for good measure. Hair loss was a possibility.

I'd had my hair long for years and I was bored. It was a hot summer in NorCal, and I was about to head back to school in an even hotter Phoenix. And the guy I was seeing at the time had been urging me to try a pixie cut (partly because he liked pixie cuts, and partly because he couldn't stand my hair touching him). So when the doctors said it might be a good idea to look into wigs for my other, that was it. I chopped. I donated a ponytail of snipped hair to my mother's hairdresser—who just so happened to specialize in treating cancer patients and had a thriving wig business!

Thankfully, my mother didn't lose her hair. The heartbreaker is that I got rid of this:

Sure, it had split ends a foot deep,
but was the chop really necessary?

Now my hair finally hits a good six inches below my collar bone. And now that it's safely back into the "long" range, I think I've learned my lesson. It's still kind of annoying when my hair catches on earrings or sunglasses or my boyfriend's stubble, but it's worth it to finally feel like I look like myself again.

Which do you prefer, long or short? Have you ever regretted a haircut? Tell me about it in the comments below!

Confessions of a cheapskate

Let me share a secret with you: Thirty dollars does not go far when it comes to buying furniture. Shocking, I know. But such is the lesson I rather unpleasantly learned today.

I'm a cheapskate. I freely admit it. I think a sandwich should cost no more than three dollars, and you should be able to buy a decent couch for twenty. I switch browsers when I reach my monthly online reading limit for The New York Times just so I don't have to buy a subscription, and my favorite coffee place is my favorite mostly because their regular coffee is fifty cents all day. I'm not a picky eater and I frequently buy clothing from Goodwill. But when it comes to furniture, I have fairly expensive tastes. And because I'm a cheapskate, I don't want to pay for what expensive tastes demand.

I blame Pinterest in part for my tastes. Populated in large part by successful interior designers, my Pinterest feed is constantly piping West Elm and Joss and Main into my inbox. The products are beautiful: glossy white parsons desks that seem to show up in every. home. office. photo; slim, taut, sofas that are a complete 180 from the slouchy, overstuffed microsuede affairs of man caves and frat houses; and cool, ropy "poufs" that would be perfect as an ottoman, seat or side table.

Is it too much to ask that my office look like this?
Image via Live Creating Yourself.

My problem is that I want SixThreeNine to look like a page out of The Everygirl, and the best I can do right now is one worn Target futon and two Walmart bookshelves. No yellow chevron area rug, no burlap throw pillows, and no industrial pipe and reclaimed wood dining table. 

Even my beloved thrift stores can't help me with this one. Today I spent two hours at Ultimate Consignment only to discover that the only thing I could afford there today was this beautiful carved purple armchair — which I WILL own eventually — and that even the cheapest desks were going to be about twenty dollars more than I could afford. Forget finding a dresser or a kitchen table for under one-fifty, and don't even think about bargaining for anything with the word "vintage" on its label. College students furnishing their first house don't buy vintage.

O, beautiful square white sofa, I pine for thee.
Image via The Everygirl.

So for now it's back to daily scouring of Craigslist for anything with even the slightest of DIY potential. Ikea desks, dressers from the Seventies and mattresses still in their original plastic are all fair game at this point.

New House Tour

Behold, the much-anticipated photos of the inside of the new house! This week starts the whole packing and moving process for me. So far the only major furniture I have to move are a couple bookshelves and my college futon ... which will be my bed until I can buy a mattress set! The poor bare living room has no sofa and the dining room has no table or chairs. But things will start to come together here and there, little pieces at a time. It's going to be so exciting to watch this home take shape!