Suit Up

"What ever happened to believing in 'the clothes make the man'?"














In life, I have learned, as I am sure many have learned, that dressing appropriately for a job interview can be crucial. This usually means wearing suit of some sort with a plain colored button down shirt underneath and some nice shoes that one would not wear to play sports in.

For my first job out of college, I carried that look over in to my every day job. Now, I realized quickly that I tended to be a bit more dressed up than my co workers, but not so much that it made me feel out of place in a suit. After awhile I felt more OK coming in some days to the office wearing the suit without the suit coat. But, when it came to meetings and such, I would suit up appropriately, as I learned to do in interviews. And, for the most part, I felt I was met equally with appropriate business attire.

Now, I do not know if it is a regional thing, or the city I live in, or if in the nine months I was out of the corporate world companies just lost all taste for 'business professional', but coming upon someone in a suit has become a scarcity.

In my three months of interviewing, riding the bus, walking around the financial district, being interviewed in offices, I saw almost no one sporting a suit. Companies seem to be promoting 'casual attire' more and more these days. They use it as a selling point in interviews. Being a jeans and tshirt company is like a badge of honor to these companies and it is spreading like a plague.

I just accepted a job where the dress code demands you be casual, but really in this day and age, do I have much of a choice? It seems you have to be a lawyer to be expected to go to work everyday dressed in a suit.

Maybe I am strange, but I like getting up in the morning and putting on some black lined pants with a nicely ironed button down tshirt topped with a nice suit coat and heading out to work. I really do believe that the clothes make the man, and that the more formal you are dressed, the more formal you tend to act, and in the end the more work you tend to get done. It is hard to slack off in a suit.

I think the world needs more business professional attire required professions. Or, maybe I should just go to law school.

Fear and Free Rides

"Can you really still tell me it is irrational when my worst fear comes true?"
















Last Sunday, a part of the Bay Bridge collapsed when a truck below it exploded. This served as a giant leap backward for my fear of bridges.

Bridges scare me beyond description. Just like cruise ships. I have a sickening fear of them just collapsing or crashing or sinking. But, A few weeks ago I actually took steps toward getting over my fears and walked across the Golden Gate Bridge with P.J. Of course I had my handy life jacket with me the whole time, but I still did it. After this whole bridge collapsing mess, I do not think I will ever do it again.

The good thing about the bridge blowing up was the following day, Monday, all public transportation around San Francisco was free. This was a good day for my friend Liz to be in from Chicago. Where we probably would have dropped $20 each for the fun we had on public transit, we dropped $0. The trains, the buses, even the cable cars were free.















So Liz and I spent the day trouncing around San Francisco's downtown going everywhere we could using all the public transportation our little bodies could handle.

I had not ridden a cable car before this, and I have to say, it is a fun and frightening experience. If the cable car is too full, which it was the first time we got on, you stand on the sides and hang on to whatever pole you can reach. This becomes somewhat scary when the cable car going the opposite way passes and you have less than a body width between you and the people hanging off the passing cable car.

Fear not, there were no limbs lost and we actually chose to stand off the sides for the rest of the trips because while it was a little scary, it was also a lot of fun. And, though it may seem a little touristy and somewhat expensive ($5 a trip, no transfers), I definately recommend riding these little cars. The drivers are usually very entertaining and will point out many things of interest.

It is definitely one of the more exhilerating ways to ride down the steep hills of San Francisco.