Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Put me in, Coach

Dress: Connected Apparel;
Hat: Scala Pronto;
Belt: vintage, Highland & Ponce 
(Calivintage giveaway);
Shoes: gift, from Philippines;
Bag: Fossil, thrifted.
I was never a team sports kind of girl growing up. I was incredibly shy and more of the academic, bookworm type. My two-year stint in rec cheerleading ended in eighth grade when I realized that high school cheering involved acrobatics that I knew my limbs would never be able to perform, and that, because of my size at the time, I would always be cajoled into being at the top of the pyramid, which was always a terrifying prospect. I got dropped once and refused to let my teammates hold my legs up again. It's hard to trust your weight (and life) in the teeny arms of 13-year-olds.
Mostly though, I spent my adolescent free time on the sidelines. My younger brother and sister did many team sports through soccer and baseball, so I was the older sibling who tagged along whenever she had nothing better to do on a weeknight. I'd usually bring a book or a notebook and sketch or write Harriet-the-Spy-esque observations down ("Gosh, these coaches are soooo loud. Who cares if Bobby hits the ball off the tee? Big freakin' whoop.") I thought my jots were so deep at the time. One time I spied on a player's mom in the same stands and looked over her shoulder at her own notebook. She was writing a poem about how disconnected she felt to the team mom experience and how absurd it all was sometimes. I felt a kinship to her, even if I never said so at the time.

But those afternoons were always great, because sometimes I could convince my mom and dad to buy me sunflower seeds or Sour Punch candy straws from the concession stand. And when I got bored of writing and reading, I had to find other ways to amuse myself at the park, which generally consisted of writing my name in the dust on empty fields or hanging upside down on the monkey bars. I sometimes played in the small woods nearby until it was time to leave the glow of the stadium lights.

So I guess when I saw this empty field, I just couldn't resist taking my outfit photos there. I grew up in this sport, even if I didn't play it.

signature1 by you.

10 comments:

  1. This dress is lovely on you! And what a cute, CUTE belt.

    I love hearing about your childhood. You have a knack for writing that makes it feel like we're your best friend experiencing it with you.

    My brother played baseball (I once got hit in the back with a fly ball - that was not fun) and soccer and bowling and was on swim team...and I'm more like you. I went to all the events and read books or wrote in my journal. :)

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  2. cute outfit and post. so sweet.

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  3. I was not a sports player, either. In high school, I was the captain of mock trial and college bowl-- I called them "mental sports." But I think what I meant was "I am a nerd. And not as ashamed as I once was."

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  4. I love this belt! I was never any good at ball sports either, and they weren't a big thing where I grew up (luxembourg) so i never went either.

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  5. Team sports used to stress me out as a child. I would definitely have taken the opportunity to shoot in a location like this though. Great pics. Oh, and the kissing frog belt! Amazing.

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  6. Love, love, LOVE this belt. How fun and original. - Katy http://modlychic.blogspot.com/

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  7. That belt is so awesome, I love it!

    I'm totally on board with you re: how silly those things we were thinking we were being way back in the day were. But I also kind of miss the mental freedom we all had in our youth that I think goes away after high school, college, work.

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  8. I love how you are still hanging out at the baseball field for anything other than baseball ;)

    And yeah the belt, I'm assuming, is what they give you when you graduate from the Cool Club into something more exclusive that the rest of us don't even know exists.

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  9. I myself am a laughable far cry from being athletic. I mean, I can do the occasional cartwheel or crabwalk, but I'm that type of scrawny nerd who never really got the swing of stuff like kickball or football. Sometimes they're fun to watch, though!

    And that belt is so darling, it's the perfect accent to the outfit. :)

    Toast with Charmalade

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