summer wardrobe technical difficulties

Yes, it is that time again. Time for pool parties, trips to the beach, and weather so hot it demands a general sloughing off of everything possible ... stopping just before becoming indecent. In Southern California, unfortunately, that line is faintly drawn somewhere just before total nakedness. This can make summer a trying time.

There are some decisions that are easy. For instance: What shoes do I wear? Flip flops. What about with a fancy dress? Flip flops with sequins. What about for an evening on the town? Flip flops in a funky color. I love flip flops. They go with everything, especially in casual So Cal. I have flip flops in every color, and tend increase my collection every summer.

Another easy decision ... What do I do with my hair? Pony tail. At the beach? Maybe pig tails ... or back to the pony tail. In drastic times, I chop my hair off in the summer. Why bother with having to even put it up when I can just cut it off? This option scares my husband, so I've assured him I will instead suffer through the 20 seconds it takes to put my hair up in a rubber band ... but still. You have to envy the girls who can carry off the super short hair cut (Dori, you are the envy of us all).

But the difficult decisions tend to come when dressing oneself between neck and feet. There is a wide gammut of options. A VERY wide gammut. What complicates it all is the desire, and even the pressure, to wear the latest cutest styles. Why is this complicated? Beyond the obvious financial impact of constantly updating your wardrobe, it can often be hard to find the latest cutest styles that match the modest conservative values some of us attempt to cling to. Finding stores, prices, and styles where these two apparently oxymoronic ideas lie usually requires some sort of magic trick (or my friend Kimberly, who is a master at sniffing out exactly the right things in every store ... but alas, she lives in Florida, so we're on our own).

Lately I've been shopping for bathing suits, and have hit a wall. This is one area the shopping fairies seem to avoid like the plague. Stylish and yet conservative bathing suits, ones fit for church pool parties, are nearly impossible to find ... anywhere. And when I DO find suits that fit the bill, they're usually between $99 and $150 ... and still a bit dowdy. I don't spend that much on jeans! I just bought a bridesmaid's dress for less than half of that! Its ridiculous.

I do love that longer shorts are in style. I can easily converge my desire for stylish with my need for coverage. (My other fashion faux pas of Southern California summers is the innate inability to tan, so in an effort not to blind the general public with my snow white skin, I try to keep my shorts long.)

I am actually very much looking forward to summer. Warmer weather means not having to put shoes on that require tying laces, not having to grab several layers of clothing or a warm jacket. It means cute hats to block the sun. It means lots of cotton clothing, fun skirts and tank tops (after we've scoured the malls and stores for long enough skirts and tank tops with bigger than spaghetti straps). The shopping for summer clothes might be a hassle, but the season itself is a lovely time of year. Now, if I can just find that perfect bathing suit, with the perfect board shorts of course, I'll even make it through those 3-4 weeks of intense heat somewhere in August. (Kimberly, care for a trip to LA to go shopping??)

Happy Summer all!