gyaru togata

I’ve been trying to stick to a quota when it comes to outfit posts: no more than three, maaaaybe four, per week. I tend to get so caught up in trying to blog as often as possible that I pressure myself to design a new outfit every single day. I have an easily-addicted personality and I’m a diagnosed obsessive-compulsive, so waaaay too often I suck all the fun out of things by regimenting the ever-living fuck out of them. It’s nice to lie low, blog-wise, for a few days and wear favorite outfits you’ve already seen a dozen times. Long story short – I might not be blogging quite as frequently, but I can guarantee the outfits I do post will be even stronger, for sheer novelty if nothing else.

Yesterday I helped out at the 34th annual UVM Latin Day, “a bacchanal of skits, displays, recitations, and … competitions in Latin grammar and syntax”. I competed every year when I was in high school (and won the grammar competition twice, I can’t resist pointing out). Now, as a Latin minor at UVM, I’m on the administrative end, and I get a huge kick out of shepherding kids who were my peers two years ago. (High-schoolers look so small to me now. They all think they look like adults. They’re all wrong.)

This is how much I love Latin Day: I got up at SEVEN. That’s a pretty big honking deal where I come from. And where I come from is my bed, which I rarely vacate before 10 am. I love me some afternoon classes.

UVM student volunteers are supposed to dress up, a task I embrace wholeheartedly. This year’s theme was the Aeneid. I dressed as the soothsayer Cassandra. Legend has it that she began hearing the future when snakes licked her ears clean, so I got some snake ear cuffs. They kept falling off, though, so I strung them on the arms of my glasses. Here they are perched on my fingertips.

I know women didn’t wear togas, but they’re by far the most recognizably Roman clothing item we’ve got.

The UVM Latin student volunteers in all our geeky glory.

After Latin Day, I spent the evening with my friend Cleopatra, who is one of the most photogenic people on this earth (or at least in my corner of it). She does things with makeup I and my trusty tube of lipstick can only dream of. She specializes in a style called gyaru, which I might post at a later date. I’m so hooked. (She also has some damn fine wigs.)

Photos courtesy of Cleo’s webcam.