I do what I want

I'm entering a contest on Chictopia where I'm supposed to describe my casual city-inspired look, so I thought I might as well share ruminations here as well!

Pacific Northwest style is utility and versatility. It's wearing a knit hat in the rain because natives don't use umbrellas. It's walking in the snow because none of the streets are plowed. It's a heavy coat and old J. Crew scarf with bare legs cause the sun came out. It's mini skirts and sundresses at the first hint of sixty degree weather. It's writing on your Macbook in a Starbucks that shares a parking lot with a grocery store which also has a Starbucks in it. It's stepping out your front door and ending up at the beach. It's beaches that are nothing but trees and rocks right up to the cusp of the ocean. It's having one poetry professor who wears tweed and quotes Napoleon Dynamite, and another who lets you come late because you have aerobics across campus, and tells all her friends about your kitten heels with tiny embroidered flowers. It's five-dollar leather bracelets from Pike Place Market. It's the girl with a giant carrot tattoo on her forearm talking to you about jazz.

Here, we are the home of REI and grunge. We wear North Face pullovers with sandals, because it's cold and wet but we're kind of stubborn. We keep it together, but we don't try too hard. We wear Burt's Bees chapstick instead of lipgloss. We carry aluminum water bottles around. Our girls wear scarves. Our boys wear scarves. Even our men wear scarves.  We watch documentaries from the independent video store and go out to eat hummus plates or wood-fired pizza. We're more loyal to our favorite consignment store than department store. Our Farmer's Market goes straight into December. We mix innovation with sustainability. We do want we want. Here, in the Northwest, we always do what we want.