Dressing the Part

Because I have transitioned from taking care of patients to taking care of clients (please click link at the top of this page to check out my company’s website, if this is news to you), I no longer wear a white coat.  I generally wear standard business attire when I give talks and when I meet with clients or business associates.  On days when I have no meetings and I’m focusing on writing, I dress pretty casually – current outfit of choice is jeans and a sweater.

On writing days, I’m frequently the only one home.  And when I am the only one home, I will not, as a matter of principle, turn up the heat.  Today is such a day.  And it’s cold in my house.

The only clean pair of jeans this morning was the black pair.  So I put on the black jeans and a grey and black striped cowl neck sweater.  I worked on my book (happily near completion) for a bit, and got tired of shivering, so I threw on my black cardigan, which was near the front of my closet and easily reachable.  I made a second cup of coffee.  I wrote some more.  And I was still cold.

So I walked to the front hall closet to see what I could find to help the situation.  I wanted to put on a hat, but didn’t want to end up with “hat head,” so I put on a loose, floppy beret that I’ve had since high school, which rests comfortably on top of my head, keeping in the heat and leaving my hair only minimally squished.  And I grabbed a scarf, since my neck was feeling a bit of a draft.

A bit more typing at my computer, and then a quick trip to “return” some of that coffee.  I glanced in the mirror as I walked into the bathroom – there I was, in layers of black and grey, wearing a beret and scarf, looking like I was about to audition for a character role as a writer in a movie.  So apparently there’s reason behind the stereotypical writer’s outfit – a slow laundry system, a chilly climate, and a stubborn unwillingness to turn up the heat.  Who knew?

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