La Grande Bibliothèque

Second snow day in a row. I like my Me Time as much as anyone, but I'm starting to go a little bit crazy. (Crazier?) I might don my Uggs and attempt a trek to the gym later on today but for now, wishing I lived here.



I took this pic at the Château de Raray outside of Paris a few years ago. It happens to be the location where the 1946 film La Belle et la Bête was filmed. As a child, my very favorite movie was Beauty and the Beast, and my favorite scene is still when the Beast presents Belle with her very own library. I desperately wanted (ok, still want) my own libary. I also wanted one of the slide-y ladders Belle uses to perform her interpretative "I love books" dance at the beginning of the movie. However, that dream died a few weeks ago when I was forced to climb one to reach one of the higher shelves at Borders and it was terrifying. That thing MOVES!



Though many have hypothesized that Belle's favorite book is The Count of Monte Cristo (far off places, daring swordfights, magic spells, a prince in disguise...), this is incorrect. For one, there are no "magic spells" in The Count. Its actually Beauty and the Beast that she's holding when she makes that proclamation. And another brief aside: of course women have unrealistic notions of love when they've been raised on romantic nonsense like that. Personally, I don't need to be gifted a library, I'm just happy if I guy has ever set foot in one.

Gaston "How can you read this? There are no pictures!"
Belle (petulantly)"Well, some people use their imagination"

Snowpocalypse 2011

view from outside my apartment Wednesday morning

I just can't get enough of this buzzword. I can, however, get enough of this weather. Chicago is supposed to get up to two feet in the next 24 hours. The office closed early today, so I hightailed it to the grocery store, where instead of milk, bread, and eggs, I bought diet coke, twizzlers, macaroni and cheese (um, forgive my ignorance but when did Kraft discontinue the Rugrats variety) and an array of tabloids. My vices, however, pale in comparison to my elevator mate who shamelessly told me he was going to invest in frozen pizza and beer to get him through the next few days.

On my to-do list: drink lots of coffee, an SVU marathon with homemade chocolate chip cookies (can't get enough Elliot Stabler, especially when he tucks that tie), and making some headway in The Executioner's Song, Norman Mailer's 1056 page magnum opus that I can so far classify as brilliant. And heavy.

Avoidance Therapy

"Reading is sometimes an ingenious device for avoiding thought"

--Arthur Phelps

Currently on my nightstand (along with the requisite Vogue, Vogue Best Dressed, and W)

I just finished When Corruption Was King by Robert Cooley. An incredibly fast read (I devoured it in a weekend) and a great story. Cooley's ghostwriter (or perhaps Cooley himself, as he is almost certainly bored out of his mind in some undisclosed location) takes you right inside the messy world of Chicago politics and the notorious Outfit, often populated by the same cast of gnarly characters. The story follows Cooley's career, which took off after rigging the murder trial of hit man Harry "The Hook" Aleman and quickly spun into a thrilling, but often dangerous, life as the Outfit's go to fix-it guy. For reasons even he can't completely fathom, he then turned FBI informant as part of Operation Gambat (which stands for Gambling Attorney, a little bureaucratic dig at Cooley that I found hilarious) and testified against some of the most dangerous mobsters in the history of a city teeming with illustrious mobsters.

As a temporary resident of the Windy City and an aspiring lawyer, this book didn't inspire a whole lot of confidence in either my adoptive city or future career, but a definite must-read for Chicagoans (still can't get used to that word) or anyone interested in the history of the Mafia (and let's be honest, who isn't a little fascinated with by the world of gun-wielding guidos that inspired Tony Soprano?)

Up next-- Re-reading The Great Gatsby for the first time since high school in anticipation of the movie version starring the lovely Miss Carey Mulligan.

Master Cleanse

So this weekend I undertook my first organizational project of 2011. Yes, I'm a bit late, I've been busy lazy. But there is no time like the present, so I set out to tackle a project-- the elusive cosmetic purge. I generally enjoy a good winnowing, yet when it comes to makeup, I want to keep everything. I mean, you really never know when you're going to want to paint your nails yellow. I do know, however, that makeup has a shelf life (three months for mascara and anything applied directly to the eye and about a year for everything else) and some of my products had definitely seen better days.

BEFORE

Out went the old (dried out nail polish, crumbly eyeshadows), the duplicates (I can't remember why I thought I needed 4 bottles of topcoat), the samples of products I'll never use (a flowery fragrance from Givenchy, for example, though I always relish in racking up my 100 Beauty Insider points to earn them), and the hideous (green eyeliner anyone). Up went a new shelf that was not nearly as simple to install as the salesperson assured me. Though in her defense, the directions called for a power drill and I elected to use manpower, more specifically, my own power. But once it was up, I arranged my newly streamlined makeup by usage-- everyday stuff separate from special occasion looks. I also left out my favorite red nail polishes and Deborah Lippman topcoat as a reminder to reapply daily to extend my manicure (this will never happen, but its a nice thought). Brushes were cleaned and given a temporary homestay in a coffee mug, though I plan to invest in something less breakable very soon. After photo coming soon.

je voudrais...

Chanel mannequin in Amsterdam. I want one for my living room.

Photo: Profoundly Superficial

happy monday

necessary vanities

"i loathe narcissism but i approve of vanity"

-- diana vreeland

I haven't yet decided whether I think blogging is narcissistic or simply vain. I presume I've decided its merely vanity, hence, my blog. I don't think I'm terrifically interesting, merely outspoken, intelligent enough, certainly articulate, perhaps mildly sociopathic...whether people find my ramblings entertaining is yet to be seen. But in the interest of keeping my vanity from crossing the line into narcissism, let us hit the highlights of my existence.

-I love fashion. I've interned at Vogue, W, and Elle and had some truly unbelievable opportunities (working for Anna Wintour and Camilla Nickerson, fashion shoots with Naomi Campbell and Sarah Jessica Parker, Fashion Week in New York...) Fashion isn't my calling (I'm going law school) but I'll always treasure the experiences. It sounds campy, but its the truth.

-My guilty pleasures include but are not limited to a good martini, handbags, diet coke and gummy bear binges, puffing an occasional gauloise, Perry Mason-type crime shows (particularly when suspects break down in tears on the stand), crossword puzzles, existentialism (especially Sartre and Camus), New York pizza (which I never appreciated until I lived in Chicago and now crave on a daily basis), and fashion magazines.

-My dad used to read me Grimm's Fairy Tales as bedtime stories, which could perhaps explain my fascination with murder and my dislike for/fear of animals (exceptions--rabbits, monkeys, and anything stuffed)

-I consume copious amounts of coffee. Its an addiction I've tried without success to curb and have, quite frankly, given up on for more worthy pursuits. Like visiting all the coffee shops Chicago has to offer. (My fave: The Bourgeois Pig on Fullerton, for both the name and the homemade scones)

-My role models are, in no specific order, Hillary Clinton, Grace Coddington, Diana Vreeland, Anna Wintour, Sandra Day O'Connor, Coco Chanel, Madeleine Albright, Cleopatra (minus the whole fratricide business), and Jane Birkin. If we have to get a few xy chromosomes in there, George Kennan, Bill Clinton, and Ernest Hemingway. I suppose I'm a feminist, though I'm loathe to admit it, and I have never burned a bra.

-I love to learn. Lately, I'm into skeletons (working on memorizing the bones of the body), speed reading, and geography. I'm also learning to cook after 24 years developing expertise in the art of takeout. This is subject to flux at all times.

-I've been told I'm terrifying. This makes me laugh.