How I wore it: faux first day of school

I haven't really been very exciting on the outfits front. My husband is out of town for ten days on a business trip and I've been working and/or hanging out with friends in a low-key way. My parents came to town today for a three-day stay, so I decided to dress up for them:

How exciting, right? You've seen almost all the elements of this outfit a hundred times before, as I wore this skirt often for work last spring. I actually visualized the outfit differently today, with neutral accents - sedate shoes, understated jewelry - very clean lines... but as the weather was much warmer than I anticipated, I decided to take advantage of what will probably be one of my last opportunities to wear sandals. Once the turquoise sandals became part of the outfit, I had to go all OCD and match my jewelry. I also wore my new watch...

With the exception of just throwing on a dress, this is the first time I've ever worn an actual work outfit for a casual day [of course, at my job last year, sandals were verboten]. I used to always style this skirt with a black tank top or tube top or halter top and black sandals. Despite many of the bad things about my former job's dress code, it did definitely give me the impetus to push my own comfort zone a little. I used to hate wearing anything white, but once this job rolled around, I went right out and bought a couple of white t-shirts. Between that and tucking in and a bright shoe, hey - I learned something along the way! [How very Doogie Howser of me, no?]

In other news, this is my first non-first-day-of-school since...wow...ever, maybe. After thirteen years of schooling, I went on to four years of college and five years of graduate school (although I wasn't doing anything but being ABD during my fifth year, I still went onto campus enough to qualify it counting as an academic year); I then started working at a school in New York - although I quit that job mid-year, I definitely was there for the first day of school. Then came last year. Wow. It really is my first year of not having a "first day of school." I have to admit, seeing the first-day conference sponsored by the Fashionable Academics, I was a little envious about not dazzling people with my post-summer sartorial choices. Oh, well. Maybe I'll get to do so next year, with my Ph.D. in hand!!

White t-shirt: H&M, remixed
Striped skirt: Gap, remixed
Turquoise sandals - Athens Nine West, remixed
Turquoise pendant: Macy's, remixed
Turquoise earrings: Banana Republic, remixed
White watch: Esprit