Back to work, back to blogging, back to regular life. Do I look tan, though?

Wrap dress - Express, Black cami - ...somewhere...no label, Black heels - Target

After getting back yesterday evening, I didn't feel like doing a whole heck of a lot except planning out my outfits for the 30 for 30 challenge. It starts on Monday, so what you're seeing the rest of this week are non-30 for 30 outfits.

I adored this wrap dress when I first saw it at Express, but I'm so glad I bought it on sale for $15 because it's pretty poor quality. Thin material that really wants to start pilling at the bottom. But it works well enough for a summer work outfit.

My hair looked super blah, so I threw it up in this kicky ponytail, and somehow managed to do that whole "pick up some strands, wind it around the hair band, and pin it so it looks like your hair is magically holding up your hair!" look. Do not ask me why I could never manage this. Either I picked up too much hair, too little hair, not the right length hair, it wouldn't pin right, the hair holding the hair would start to slide down, etc.

So now I am a tan outfit-planner and have managed to work out some hair issues. What I am not is a good reader, as I did not finish, did not even come close to finishing books while at the beach. I did finish before leaving The Elephant Keeper by Christopher Nicholson.

I think we can all agree that elephants are charming creatures and should be featured in books more. And the first half of this book was charming. A young man in 18th century England, taking care of two elephants, on a manor. Then you start to realize, Wow, Tom (the main character) has really given up a lot for these elephants (which becomes just one elephant about a third of the way through). But you feel okay about it--it's a valid life and career choice. But then, you know, Tom doesn't stop a girl from being raped (after the manor owner's son takes the girl for a ride on the elephant), briefly considers taking advantage of this girl too (after they all ride back on the elephant), has a sexual dream about the elephant, and takes up with a whore (not so much related to the elephant, but still, disturbing), and becomes a little to possessive of the elephant and you start to feel like, Ahhhhhhhhh, wtf, this is out of character, and you just generally wonder if the author got bored with the charming elephant story. Yes, I do understand that this was all a result of our main character losing himself and losing touch with the world and what's right and wrong because of his life role as the elephant keeper. But it still felt like, Ahhhhhhhhh, wtf, this is out of character, etc.

I did like the ending (it's not a story about the elephant written by Tom, but a story written about Tom by the elephant!...kind of, as Tom perceives the elephant to perceive him), but not what followed, which was to throw in some possibilities of what might have happened with Tom and the elephant. For example, maybe Jenny (that's the elephant) died of pneumonia in London. Or maybe Tom and Jenny ran away together, delighting children across the land. Or maybe, heck, they even got away to India to live happily ever after together. Christopher Nicholson, I can imagine these scenarios on my own and don't need you to feed them to me, thank you. So, overall, 2 out of 5 stars.