New Uniform (Or Where I Really Want to Talk About Something Else)

So now that my daughter wears a school uniform everyday and is settled in her new routine in her new school I feel that I need a new uniform too to ease my mornings. She needs to be at school by 8.10 which means that we have to be out of the door at 7.45. That's early in my book, even when I worked in an office I rarely left home before 8.30. I am not a morning person and on the top of that I am intrinsically disorganized and never learned to prepare my clothes the day before. However, now the hesitation in front of my closet/mirror in the morning (what to wear, what to wear) will cost my daughter a late pass, so I need to take the thinking out of the equation and have something immediately ready every morning that will do. I guess that if I had workout clothes it would be easier to get dressed but my workout clothes are very old or not appropriate.
On the positive side I don't need to go work after dropping her off (at least not yet). In fact I have literally nowhere to go but come back home and attend to domestic chores or write this blog and organize the rest of our day. So I just need clothes to walk her down to school and back. Easy, right?

Well, not as easy as you would think. First, drop-off is quite the scene. A lot of "It" bags and car services and moms in designer clothes. Not everybody but enough to make me not want to be the mom who looks like she has just be thrown out of bed (which I am).
Second, you never know who you'll bump into on Madison Avenue. A couple of weeks ago, when I hadn't thought through this new uniform thing yet and I was wearing my old workout pants, my old sneakers and my hair not brushed and vaguely up in a ponytail, my daughter had a pee-pee emergency while we were walking to school. Knowing her I knew that we didn't have much time before a catastrophe and that she wouldn't make it to school, so we raced to the restrooms of the Italian cafe on Madison where I usually have a cappuccino later in the morning. Once mission accomplished we were getting out and I literally bumped into Andrew McCarthy who was also racing his kid (in private school uniform) to the restrooms. That was quite the encounter. By the way, his inquisitive glance? He is not faking it, he looked at my daughter like she was coming from Mars and that's because she was speaking in French. Then he looked alarmed at me like I was coming from Mars too. OK, I am exaggerating, the whole thing lasted a few seconds but my point is that one should always look at her best in this neighborhood because exciting things can happen, no matter the time of the day.

So back to my new uniform, the first thing that would make my life easier in the morning is a pair of leggings. The advantage of leggings over other jeans or other pants is that I can easily wear them with rainboots if it's raining (or regular boots for that matter). I don't want to struggle with shoes in the morning and have to change clothes at the last-minute to accommodate boots.
I have only one pair of leggings and they are very thin, more suited for the transitional end of summer weather than fall. I hate to shop for leggings as they are usually too long on me and not flattering and I hate that shine that the thicker ones generally have and I never found a pair that I really liked. Also, it is one of those things I don't want to spend a lot of money on, you know the kind of basic that you end up deleting from your cart because even if you need them there is always something more appealing to buy and if you have to save money somewhere you are going to pass on them because it is easy to do so.
Well, I have finally found a pair that I like, the Loft Ponte leggings. As their name tells, they are in a thicker ponte fabric than your regular leggings but unlike the JCrew pixie pants they don't have any seams or exposed zippers in the back (the back seam of the Pixie has always been a dealbreaker for me as it tends to accentuate my muscular calves), they are just like regular leggings. Not to mention that they are much less expensive and you can always get a deal at the Loft. In fact I bought these last week when they were having a "flash" sale in store where everything was 50% off.
As far as sizes go, I went with a small and they fit perfectly and they are just the right length on me. I will probably buy another pair with the next promo, too bad they don't come in navy because I would buy thoe too.

So this is half a uniform already, now I only have to throw on a top and that's going to be easier especially now that the weather has cooled down and I don't need something as long as a tunic to cover my butt since I am going to wear a coat. So far I wore mostly sweatshirts (and we know that JCrew excels in the "sweatshirts that don't look like you are going to hit the gym" category) but soon it will be cold enough to wear a cashmere sweater, like the Collection cashmere bateau in stripes</>:

I also ordered my first Isabel cashmere sweatshirt in tawny brown and it just shipped, so I hope that it will be slouchy enough for the leggings look but not too much (in any case it is returnable).
I am not saying that I am going to wear this uniform everyday but it is my backup for the days when I am too late to think and I just have to run out of the door. It is reassuring in some way to know that you have at least one outfit that you can put on almost while doing other things, without thinking about it.

The funny thing about my encounter with Andrew McCarthy is that a few days later I stumbled upon this awesome (but very chaste) teaser for the theatrical version of "50 Shades of Grey" and now I can't think of any other actor for the role of Jack:

Just to be clear, the video is fake and has been made by a fan with footage from other movies or TV shows involving these actors. I think that the actors in the secondary roles are especially well chosen. As for Mr. Grey, I am not very familiar with Matt Bomer since I don't watch "White Collar" but I am warming up to the idea of him being Mr. Grey in the future movie (that has no cast so far). While reading the books, I wasn't really picturing him with the looks of any particular actor (except for a vague resemblance with Armie Hammer, but in more tormented) but I can see why many think he would be the perfect Grey (on the other side I would be very disappointed if Ian Somerhalder got the role, I don't think he has the intensity of a Grey, and as much as I love Ryan Gosling I don't think he has the all-american classic beauty required for the role, even if he surely has the intensity). I am less interested in the choice of Miss Steele but I have to say that I pictured her from the start of the book as Anna Kendrick, who is not too beautiful and always looks intimidated.

Any other "Grey" fan out there? I can't be the only one here who has succombed to the spell of Mr. Grey. Don't be shy, I want to know who read it and if you enjoyed it. If you aren't interested in the books and you didn't read them I totally respect it but pleeeease don't judge those who admit it here to reading it.