Follow The White Rabbit

 

photo credit: Joshua Franzos

I'm always on the hunt for the elusive, white rabbit and it all started with Walt Disney's animated adaptation of Lewis Carroll's novel, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I watched it so much as a child, I wore out the VHS tape. When I was older, my parents introduced me to Jefferson Airplane's song, Go Ask Alice. When I was older still, the literature reference popped up again in The Matrix. The white rabbit is the inciting event for Alice or Neo. In story-telling terms, the inciting event is the thing that sparks their curiosity and sets their stories, officially in motion.

My story officially started years ago, but for the sake of this post, we're going to flash forward, to a point in my life where I had some serious problems with the way it was playing out. I won't bore you with my Dickensian story of woe, but just know that we're talking full-on, existential crisis mode. And then, 

a white rabbit appeared.

and.

I followed him.

I'm talking symbolically, of course. I didn't *actually* see a white rabbit at the darkest point of my life. But I did see a chance and I pursued it. I went head-first, down the rabbit hole (so to speak) and came out the other side, stronger and happier than I've ever known. 

A changed person. A grateful woman.

photo credit: Joshua Franzos

But then, something weird started happening. I actually started seeing the white rabbit. It started when I began writing during my lunch hours everyday. I'd run over to the library, find my window seat in the quiet WWII section, and pour my heart out onto the pages of my moleskine notebook. One day, many weeks later, I looked up from a nearly full notebook and saw the white rabbit right on the library bookshelf (it was a book titled, The White Rabbit). I knew right then and there, that it was a sign that I was on the right path. 

photo credit: Joshua Franzos

 

photo credit: Joshua Franzos

 

My grandfather's initials. photo credit: Joshua Franzos

My mother's watch. photo credit: Joshua Franzos

 

photo credit: Joshua Franzos

 

photo credit: Joshua Franzos

photo credit: Joshua Franzos

I see the white rabbit everywhere now and I try to document most of it on my Instagram account. I know it sounds positively crazy, but I don't care. He's a personal totem for me--a weird symbol of the unknown. A sign that I'm where I should be, doing exactly what I'm doing. I trust that he'll always send me on a merry journey where I will see cool things, meet interesting people, and have great stories to tell afterward. Do you have any personal totems, symbols, or signs that encourage you? I want to hear about them in the comments below.

Your Bosom Friend From Pittsburgh,

What I wore:

Blouse: Oasap

Pants: My grandfather's Navy bell bottoms.

Watch: Vintage, Omega.

Jewelry: Vintage.

Bag: Vivienne Westwood

Shoes: Louis Vuitton

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Winter Whites

 

photo credit: Joshua Franzos

I was born and largely raised in California. I didn't see my first snow until I was five years old and vacationing in Lake Tahoe. It was magical and beautiful, until it wasn't. A boy threw an icy snow ball at my face and it hurt. I cried. Snow wasn't anything like the cartoons, especially when I tried to make my own return-fire snowball. It numbed my little fingers and my aim sucked. I whiffed it. Big time. The stupid boy laughed at my pathetic snowball, so I shuffled over to him in my two-tone nylon speed suit, took off my vinyl mittens, and punched him in the nose. This time, my aim was true. His nose bled and I was put in a time out. How was I supposed to know that icy snowballs were permissible, but fisticuffs were not? As far as I was concerned, Lake Tahoe could keep their stupid snow. 
 

photo credit: Joshua Franzos

photo credit: Joshua Franzos

Flash forward 29 years and I don't live in California anymore. I live in Pittsburgh and get four seasons, one of which is winter. Snow is still magical and beautiful, until it isn't. The first snow fall of every year,  I get all squishy and obnoxious about looking at the individual snow flakes. "Aren't they so beautiful?" "Each one is unique!" I have about a 24 hour, honeymoon period with snow every year. Then, the next morning, when I'm up at 4:45am, shoveling the driveway and scraping the beautiful and unique devils off my car so I can get to the gym, I'm soooooooooo over it.

photo credit: Joshua Franzos

photo credit: Joshua Franzos

photo credit: Joshua Franzos

 Snow, you wretched pain in my neck. GO AWAY. Or at least have the decency to fall hard enough so that I can get an adult snow day. DEAR GOD. I hold out hope every year for the possibility of an ADULT SNOW DAY. It might be what actually gets me through to spring. Help me adult snow day, you're my only hope! 

photo credit: Joshua Franzos

photo credit: Joshua Franzos

photo credit: Joshua Franzos

In the meantime, I'm trying to make winter time dressing a little more fun. A little less rutty. A lot more epic. Are delusions of grandeur a symptom of cabin fever? I went to the planet of Hoth for inspiration and I am of course, talking about the fictional planet from the epic space opera known as Star Wars. Hoth is a desolate world, covered with ice and snow and located in the Anoat Sector, a rarely traveled portion of the Outer Rim. The indigenous creatures are the tauntaun and the wampa and it's really, really cold there. The rebel alliance (you know, Luke, Han, Leia, etc) was re-established there in Echo Base in The Empire Strikes Back and I gotta say, I love the rebel alliance in their winter whites.

 

photo credit: Unknown

Mr. Franzos, Lando and I, (meet my dog! named after Lando Calrissian) got out for a little, winter walk at a neighborhood sculpture park. Instead of going complete white monochromatic like the rebel alliance, I mixed it up with black, because, that's what I have in my closet. I wore my favorite rabbit fur hat, a cream OASAP shearling jacket, an Ann Taylor Loft vest, a black Los Angeles t-shirt, cream Free People stretch pants, a Kelsi Dagger shoulder bag, Hunter wellington boots and my favorite vintage French sunglasses. 
 

photo credit: Joshua Franzos

I think I'm ready to punch snow in the nose.  How do you keep warm and stay stylish? Tell me in the comments below! I'd love to hear it.

Your Bosom Friend From Pittsburgh,

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