Alive in the Superunknown

Details: Dress/Tunic(?)-Free People, Shoes-Nordstrom Rack, Black Lace Shorts-Urban Outfitters

So, it's been a while since my last post, and for that I am quite sad. I've just been super busy getting settled into my new apartment and preparing for the start of school. I'm so in love with my apartment and the wonderful people I am sharing it with. I will probably post pictures soon, but it's honestly kinda in a state of horrible mess that we've been too busy/lazy to deal with yet. But hopefully, for all of our sakes, we will tidy up soon and I'll be able to take some pictures of it. 

It seems odd having been in Berkeley for so long and just now posting these pictures that Jack took just before I left Dallas. Regardless, Jack is amazing and I miss him so much already (and also missin his photography skills), so I had to put these up! We headed to Kyle Warren park downtown to shoot these, so I really had to buck up and face my fear of awkwardly shooting in public. It's a really beautiful park full of all sorts of fun little areas though, so it was definitely worth it!

Since coming out here, I've spent quite a bit of time in San Fran (definitely more than I did last semester). I went and did some more touristy things with my mom right after arriving here, and then I went to the 20th street block party in the Mission District with some friends and saw this really cool band Cayucas a few days later. Then, a few days ago, I went to the Mission again for some serious food tourism (no really, we literally went there to hit up a bunch of restaurants). Overall, it's been awesome getting readjusted to Berekely life. There truly is no place else I would rather be, and I'm looking forward to an amazing year in this city and at this school!

After seeing Soundgarden a little over a week ago, I've really been jamming out to them. Superunknown in particular is a song I've really identified with because I'm living pretty much on my own for the first time in my life. There's so much to look forward to, and I am very much alive in the superunknown.

Karis the baybonnet

The City Sees us All Like Babes

Details: Dress-Reformed by the Reformation, Necklace-Forever 21, Shoes-LF, Sunglasses-Cotton On, Purse-Urban Outfitters

What a beautiful day it was today in downtown Dallas! It was my mom's birthday so I took her to the Zodiac Restaurant at the flagship Neiman's. It was really nice to spend some one-on-one time with her before I jet off to Berkeley on Thursday. I can't believe it's happening so soon! All summer I thought "wow this couldn't be going by any slower, I'm so ready to get back!" but now that it's happening, I'm frantically spending my last moments with my friends here and also frantically packing because I've completely neglected to do that up until this moment. Anyways, I was really happy to finally have an occasion to wear this dress! I had my eyes on it for a while and finally bought it during a 50% of sale sale when I worked at Urban last summer (I got a good deal, no big). I had literally worn it once to work and then just kinda had it in my closet waiting for the perfect outing to wear it to, and I finally found one! 

My last days of summer have been pretty great though. I saw Soundgarden and Nine Inch Nails with my step-dad on Sunday night and that was awesome! I'm pretty sure I was one of maybe 10 females under 27 (all the others were in father-daughter pairs too), and needless to say people watching was great (die-hard NIN fans...wow).  Soundgarden was amazing and Chris Cornell's voice is still actual perfection. I really don't know how he does it, but I'm not going to question it and just keep enjoying it's existence on this earth. 

Despite recent grunge and industrial metal happenings, Interpol released their second single off El Pintor TODAY, so naturally that has to be the song of the day. It's called Ancient Ways and it's pretty great if I do say so myself. I'm so excited for El Pintor to come out on September 9th AND for me to go see them on September 20th! So many things happening in September, its sure to be a great month! 

Karis the baybonnet

On Why I Cut My Hair

Details: Shorts-Urban Outfitters, Shirt-Madewell, Bra-Free People, Shoes (not pictured)-Converse

Let me preface this by saying that the second picture of me is just the worst. But, it's the only good one that my mom got of my whole outfit (even though this post is obvi about my hair). I'm literally about to move from cute smile to talking-my mom has a really special talent of snapping pictures of me the exact moment that I make a weird transition face because I THINK she's already taken the picture. But hey, isn't that what moms are for? (Thanks mom for taking these awkward pictures of me because Jack is on vacation-love ya)

I digress. MY HAIR!! While pretty much everyone and their grandma was swooning over my short locks today at the office, I feel like a lot of people that I know personally want to know "WHY?!". My long hair kinda became a part of my identity throughout high school. After I chopped off all my hair right before freshman year, I vowed to never cut it again. I mean, it was bad. It was at this weird length and kicked out at the end and oh I had these horrid bangs the covered my whole face. Not cute. So, I let it grow and grow until it became a security blanket to me. I would tell myself "well at least my hair looks pretty" whenever I was feeling down about myself. "At least I don't look like the loser I was when I was 15" I would think. But, no more! I find that a lot of people I know are actually lobbing their hair off right now, and I think I know why. I've just finished my freshman year of college; I've survived a lot of self-discovery and I've learned that I don't need a security blanket of hair to make me feel confident about who I am. I'm at a really exciting point in my life where I have my whole life ahead of me and I know that many exciting and potentially difficult changes are ahead of me, but at the same time, I've been through a lot and I have learned A TON about who I am, what I like, what I dislike, how I deal with emotions, and how I can make myself feel confident about who I am no matter the situation or setting that I'm in. So, what better time to make a huge change to a part of me that's defined who I am for the past three years of my life? And I am SO excited about my hair and the exciting year it has ahead of it.

Anyways, here's my favorite song of the moment, Cardiac Arrest by Bad Suns. It's kinda become the Sweater Weather of this summer in that I can't go a day without listening to it (don't get me wrong though-this fact still applies to Sweater Weather)

Karis the Baybonnet

That's How it Starts

Details: Dress-ASOS, Bra-Urban Outfitters, Belt-Buffalo Exchange, Shoes-Doc Martens

Hello Interwebs! I can't believe that summer is almost over for me! It's finally starting to feel like the end; I have just over a week left at my job, band camp for the little high school kiddos has started up, it's hot as the seventh circle of Dante's Inferno outside...anyways, I digress. Not a whole lot to say about my outfit other than it's incredibly typical for me. I think I wear this dress more than anything else in my closet. However, I only recently realized that I could wear it backwards and make it into a (kinda) new dress! Since the front neckline is cut higher than the back, simply flipping it around gives more room to accessorize my décolletage (wow that sounds fancy). I just cut the tag off so it wouldn't pop up and make people think I'm a crazy lady who puts her clothes on backwards (even though they would be 100% right).

It took me a while to decide what my song should be today. I have an extensive summer playlist I've just been adding to all summer and it's kinda getting to the point where I want to post like 10 songs at once because I love them all so much, but I like trying to find ones that somewhat emulate the mood I'm feeling/wearing. I've always felt an emotional connection to the music I listen to- not in a cheesy "ah yes this reminds me of the time I did that thing and it makes me sad/happy/whatever" way, but in what is probably, upon further reflection, an even weirder way. Bear with me here, but whenever I hear a song, I imagine a little scene with it as if I were making a movie and deciding what part of the movie to put the song in.  So each song invokes some kind of emotion, but not necessarily an emotion that I can relate to personally. I don't know if this makes sense to anyone nor do I know why I am going on about it, but anyways, here is "all my friends" by LCD Soundsystem- an oldie but a goodie. I feel like this song, along with pretty much any song by LCD Soundsystem, belongs in some long montage that builds up to an important thing. It makes me hopeful and nostalgic at the same time, which is exactly how I'm feeling as the summer wraps up and I reflect on my first year of college as I head into my second. I also realize that is maybe the cheesiest thing I have ever put into writing and I now feel like I should say something actually insightful to even everything out, but I have nothing.

til the next time,

Karis the baybonnet