It's August, so I must be panicking about fashion again

Oh this poor, neglected blog. There are always more pressing duties to attend to. I am entering my fourth year as an adjunct professor. The past few years, I've been very depressed and so busy I can hardly keep my head above water. I love teaching, but there's nothing about being an adjunct that is great. Yesterday the community college where I work published the list of expenditures (including salaries) for the last year. While I made less than $10,000, my boss made over $100,000, yet he likes to pretend he feels compassion, and wishes he could pay me more, but wherever would it come from?

I also had a pretty bad injury that put me in a leg brace, which seriously affected my wardrobe options. There was literally only one pair of shoes I could find to fit over the brace, and they were hideous. I ended up wearing basic grey pants and sweaters every day. Nothing exciting, nothing blog-worthy. I was shooting for whatever was professional and covered my body.

I have a new job now. I am still teaching at the community college an hour away, and now also working as an adjunct at a school in my town 8 minutes from my house. It's a fantastic school, and I'm hoping it turns into something more. They have a history of hiring adjuncts as full-timers, so I'm optimistic. It's a small, private, Catholic university, so there is a bit more of a dress code, and being excited for my job again has made me actually want to dress up.

My current dilemma: finding a cute, professional backpack to use to haul all my teaching supplies from place to place. The wear and tear on my shoulder and back from my messenger bag is sinking in. Also, trying to find a modesty layer I can don under dresses that display too much cleavage. I have a lot of really cute dresses, mostly from eshakti, but unfortunately they always tend to be far too low-cut. I tend toward modesty anyway, and it's a requirement at this new school. So. Pile on the leggings and cardigans and whatever I can find to cover up.

It's still such a struggle to find the right balance between professional and remaining true to my identity. As a professor, even an adjunct professor, I feel less free to wear the kooky outfits I wore in the past. I won't wear skirts as short or dresses as tight, and I want to cover my cleavage. I do, however, have a new haircut; I have the left side of my head shaved, so I typically wear all my hair parted to the right, showing off the shaved side. It's very easy to cover up if I need to, and I always do for job interviews, but I don't know if I will when I teach this year.

Other perhaps-interesting tidbits: I've never worn makeup for a variety of reasons, but I've recently become pretty obsessed with my 10-step Korean skin care regimen. I had a really bad reaction to some expired fancy American product and the Korean products calmed that down and I love taking the time twice a day to taking care of myself. And I've actually gotten compliments on how good my skin looks, which never happened before.

I might write about stuff here again, is what I'm saying. And all of these issues are things I might talk about. I have no idea if anyone is reading this, but ::waves:: hi. I'm still here.