here, there, everywhere

On Friday at 4 AM, I piled into my stuffed car with the dogs and drove the ten hours to my new home. The drive was fairly dull and uneventful, but went by fairly quickly thanks to the Mad Men episodes I listened to. We got here and within two hours, I managed to lock myself out of our house, and then I twisted my ankle while walking the dogs, so needless to say I was not in the greatest of moods. After a shower (without a shower curtain) and sleeping on the floor for the night, I drove a rented U-Haul two hours away to go buy furniture at Ikea. I never ever want to drive that big of a vehicle ever again! Horrifying. But I did manage to find all the furniture I wanted - a bed, desk, bookshelf, night stand, desk chair, reading chair, and a coffee table...but when I went to go pay, my card was declined, so with 7% left on my phone battery, I had to call the bank to verify that I, in fact, am not someone else trying to buy a bunch of furniture. So that was a really fun experience as well.

But since then, life has been really good. My roommate came on Saturday, and we've had a lot of fun putting our house together. My room is about 80% of the way there (as you can see by the remaining box and mess above). It all got a bit side tracked when I realized that a vital part of the bed frame was missing, so I had to drive back to Ikea on Monday to pick it up. I really didn't want to drive all the way back there, so I rewarded myself with meatballs at Ikea and a stop at the outlet mall. It was the biggest outlet mall I've ever been to - like I had to drive from one side to the other! I was hoping to find a few dress pants, but everything I tried on at the Banana Republic Factory store, and at the Ann Taylor factory store looked horrible on me. I eventually found and bought this skirt (in a bright blue) at the J.Crew Factory store - I think I may wear it to the first day of school on Friday! I also bought this necklace after admiring it for months on Laura - it'll be a staple for sure!

Yesterday we went to go get our ID badges, get fitted for our white coats, and then I bought a few of the books I need in the first weeks - it made it all feel so real! Last night we had our first get together - a wine and cheese (!) party at a classmate's apartment. The outfit above is what I wore - it's been the only time I've put on a real bra and more make up than mascara since I arrived. I was pretty nervous walking into a room of strangers who I knew I would have to spend a lot of time with the next four years, but everyone was honestly so great. Our school is very popular for out of state kids, so it was interesting to meet people from all over the country. I even found a kid who was in the OSU marching band, so we have seen each other perform even if we didn't know it at the time haha. 

Finally meeting people from my class, having my room set up, and getting to know the people around me has made me really excited about all of what is happening. I felt that in the last few weeks, all of my emotions were put towards the move and the thought of leaving everyone, but now that that is behind me, I can focus on the journey ahead. ahhhhh!!!!

medical school wardrobe: building a foundation

It's been several months since I last wrote about trying to build my wardrobe for medical school. As a refresher, my school has a dress code as follows:

A clean and well-cared-for appearance should be maintained. Women are required to wear 

appropriate dresses of reasonable length or slacks with appropriate blouses. Halter tops, midriff tops, strapless or backless tops or dresses; sundresses, crop pants, capri pants and miniskirts are not permitted. Revealing or tight, form-fitting clothing is unacceptable. Women’s hair must be neat and trimmed at all times, avoiding extreme styles or colors. Excessive body piercing is not acceptable. Women are required to wear shoes or sandals with socks or stockings. Shorts, jeans, T-shirts and sandals with bare feet are not permitted.

In order to have pieces in my closet that I can easily throw on and go to class for 8 hours a day, but still be comfortable and happy with my outfits, I'm dedicating my once "dream purse" fund to add the necessary pieces to my closet. First I'll tell you guys where I stand now, and then I'll discuss the last few pieces that are still needed.

Heels: Black closed toed pumps were going to be a necessity for me. I own very few pairs of heels, and the ones I do own can't be worn more than a short amount of time before I start walking around barefoot (the only time I really have worn heels has been for weddings so...barefooted dancing. Welcome to Wisconsin!). I've heard great things about both the Ann Taylor Perfect Pumps (as recommended by both Mix & Match Fashion and Professionally Petite)  and the J.Crew Miri heel (as reviewed here by Easy Petite Looks) but everyone said that nothing beats Cole Haan shoes. When Chris and I were in Minneapolis, we specifically went to Nordstrom so I could figure out sizing (we don't have a Nordstrom anywhere near Madison). I tried on this shoe, and really liked how they felt on my feet, but if you look at the price, you know that wasn't really in my budget. Knowing my preferred size, I started searching eBay and eventually got lucky when I found this style, brand new, for $90. I've worn them around the house a bit and they feel very nice. As comfortable as walking around barefoot? No, but they are a definite improvement over my plastic Target heels. I've already tried them on with a few skirts/pants in my closet and am happy how they improve my outfits - man, heels really do make everything look better, don't they?

Nude Flats: While I said that I would like a pair of nude flats for my school wardrobe, my current work wardrobe was missing out on them too so I was very excited when I found this Sam Edelman pair at Nordstrom Rack for 60% off of the retail price. They were paid for with the remaining budget money from April, but since I said in March that I would like them for school I figured I should mention them here. These are a great pair of shoes that have required absolutely no breaking in (as opposed to my Revas which took a painful amount of time to get to where they are now) and have extra padding which make them very comfortable. HIGHLY recommend them!

Skirts: I started from absolute scratch here. I own one that is about two sizes too large (but super cute!) and that's it. I thrifted this black A-lineish skirt a few months ago, and then purchased the Fran skirt in April. As much as I want to wear pencil skirts, I'm still unsure about them. Every single one I've tried on hasn't fit right at all - too tight in the rear/thighs and too loose in the waist. I know I could always size up to have it fit comfortably in the seat and then get the waist tailored to fit, but I'm unsure if I want to go through all of that trouble for a style of skirt I'm unsure I even like. I plan on really paying attention to the skirt section in Goodwill in the coming months to see if I can't add a few more cute skirts at a low cost. 

Dresses: Over the years I've accumulated a bunch of cheap dresses from Target and the like. I've sold or donated almost all of them because they just didn't fit me correctly, and now have about 4 dresses left in my closet. I bought this Gap dress a few months ago - I think the color is fun but still in the professional realm, and the fit is very flattering. I got it during a 40% of sale so the price was right over $40. I also bought a light grey faux wrap dress at the Banana Republic Outlet on clearance for just over $20, but it will need to be taken in at the waist. I know both of these dresses will be major staples when I just want to throw something on quick.

Tops: My current tops collection will transition seamlessly from my work wardrobe to my school wardrobe as I'm pretty conservative to begin with. I did purchase two tops with my budget money - a black geometric top which will be an easy way to add interest to an other wise boring outfit, and an oxford popover. The geometric top was around $20 at the Banana Republic outlet, and the popover was around $40 final sale from J.Crew. 

Tights: Because we are required to wear tights when we were skirts or dresses, tights were obviously necessary. I was lucky enough to receive about 6 pairs from Hanes during a recent collaboration so I'm set there! They are comfortable, have held up so far, and best of all, were free ;)  I will need fleece lined and/or sweater tights for the winter but no real need to buy those in May.

I have around $250 remaining in my budget for school clothes. Here is the plan for the rest of that money!

Pants: I needed to wait until I found at least my first pair of heels so I could figure out the length of pants to buy. I would love to find dress pants while thrifting, but I'm 5'9" so most pants off the rack, and especially a thrift store rack, will be too short. I'm hoping that around the Memorial Day sales will be a good time to look for pants at either The Limited (like this pair), Express (this pair), or Banana Republic (this pair) as I don't plan on paying any where near full listed price for them. I have a pair of black pants that are the length to wear with flats, so I need a pair to wear with heels. I would also like a dark grey pair of dress pants.

White Blouse: The perfect white button up is on list of holes in my closet, and I feel it would be beneficial for my school wardrobe especially. I'd love to try the silk version from Everlane or maybe track down the Equipment version on eBay.

Cardigans: I really don't own as many cardigans as I thought, so a few solid colored ones would be nice to have. I plan on buying these mostly thrifted. 

Shoes: a black pair of wedges would be nice to mix up shoes, and would probably be more comfortable than heels. If I find some in the coming weeks I might actually use my monthly budget money to buy these as I think I could probably get away with wearing them at work - I like this Franco Sarto pair. I'd also love to have a pair of maryjane heels. I think they are just so cute (I love them on Future Lint). This Frye pair and this Fitzwell pair are both adorable, and within a reasonable price range.

slip & slide

First of all, thank you SO MUCH for all of your kind words yesterday - I am so excited!! To answer a few questions, I do intend to continue blogging as long as it still is fun for me. Medical school is a crazy time, and I always regret not documenting college better (other than lots of facebook albums haha) so I'm hoping to document this new chapter. There are many ladies out there blogging through med school/residency (find some here under Dr. Blogger) that have really inspired me so I hope to follow their lead.There will be lots of changes, of course - I'll need a somewhat different wardrobe (more skirts, less ripped jeans), I probably won't blog daily, I'll be wearing a white coat instead of a lab coat (just kidding, that'll pretty much be the same). I'll take it all one day at a time, but there are several more months until anything really changes.

Second of all, don't let what looks like a clear road here fool you. While there isn't any snow, the road was covered in some fun black ice. Which I didn't realize until I started sliding all over the place, which included accidently taking this:

Feel free to laugh because I laughed for about 5 minutes when I saw it on my camera.

Blazer: J. Crew  {exact}
Tee: Forever 21*  {exact}
Gingham: J. Crew Factory  {very similar}
Jeans: Gap  {similar}
Boots: Frye  {exact}
Watch: gift from my Oma {similar}
Earrings: Tiffany & Co. {exact}



* Thank you to Audrey for finding this gem. It's actually a t-shirt but it worked so well for layering as long as I kept the blazer on - otherwise it looks kind of funny

ok so not the most innovative take one pass it on...but I loved it so much the first time I wanted to wear something similar!

accepted

^ See that beautifully put together outfit? Expect to see heaps more of it because...

I've been accepted to medical school!!

It's something I haven't really talked about on my blog because the process is so uncertain and with some setbacks a few months ago I didn't know if it would ever happen....but today I received the acceptance letter in the mail. Everything in my life is going to change come the middle of the summer when I move 10 hours away from here and start the long journey to becoming a doctor. All I know is that I'm so excited that I stuck it out after taking general chemistry when I wasn't sure if science was for me. It's been a long and trying road to get here, and it's not going to get easier but I'm excited that I've been given the opportunity to become a doctor.

Polka Dots and Medical School

This outfit is from work on Thursday - it may not be the most creative outfit in the world, but I just can't get enough of polka dots!

Cardigan: Forever 21
Blouse: Espirit
Bracelets: Forever 21 + vacation find
Watch: Boccia

On Thursday we drove up to Minneapolis for Chris's brother Kurt's graduation from medical school. It was great to get out of Madison (and work!) for a few days.  We enjoyed some amazing meals, and spent some time at the MoA, which was overwhelming as always. We're so excited for Dr. Kurt, and also for Chris since he'll be there in 2 years (and with any luck, I'll be there in a few years too!)