Rebecca A. Foster

Fishnets have a saucy and minxy reputation, and they do make the wearer feel a bit more sass in the pants just by slipping them on, but here is the dirty little secret about fishnets: really, really comfortable. Regular pantyhose are nylon (silk if you're lucky and/or living in 1927) but fishnets are cotton and lycra, the same material used to make baby doll t-shirts and you know how comfy those are. Plus, the webbing pattern massages your legs when you move, making them relaxing and therapeutic to boot. In the heat of summer, if your legs must be dressed up at all, this is the only bearable alternative. (I've paired them here with my favorite black sandals. I'm 5' 10" in these shoes. I heart them.) A couple of things about fishnet stockings: 1. They come in more colors than just black. I recommend beige with Stila Sun Shimmer Dry Oil for a dressier but still nearly invisible summery look. I recommend chocolate brown for a cozy winter look. Red is for when you real...

I first tasted a Nestle Aero Bar in Canada. Very light and fluffy inside and the chocolate, being non-American, is exceptionally smooth and of good flavor. Not terribly rich, and the bubbles give it an interesting texture. I buy mine locally at the British import store for double the price. Totally worth it. In Canada they also sell Aero Singles, which I cannot find here. Same thing, just smaller. I brought home a dozen or so from my last trip to Canada.

One good thing about getting older: if you keep in touch with your peeps, gradually you all thin out across the country/globe, which means you have friends (sometimes with spare beds/couches) all over the place. Awesome! It also means you get e-mails and text messages that contain such random comments as to make you stop and marvel that THIS SENTENCE is how your lives are still converging. A sampling from the past week (from memory, I am too lazy to go look them up): 1. Florida friend: "Just got back from Hemingway's house. I heart Jim!" This friend and I often send each other random "I heart Jim"* texts because it sets off a volly of "I know! He is so cute! Funny! Charming! Awww" blah blah blah. Then we go back to our regularly scheduled lives. But throwing Hemingway into the mix? She wins. 2. Traveling friend: " Your sweet nature, darling, was too hard to swallow, my heart goes bang bang bang bang. FYI I'm in NYC, heading out in a few...

(I originally wrote this last year. I was recently reminded, it's still relevant.) 1. Star Gazing Because a sky full of stars reminds me how little I really know and understand about my world and there is something really appealing about being with someone and realizing how much more there is out there than just the two of you and therefore how cool and almost miraculous it is that of all the billions of stars and billions of people, you are here together, just the two of you, sharing this moment. 2. Tolling Bells I have no idea why I find this appealing. It's weird. Maybe because deeply tolling bells are like a heartbeat, they mimic the natural rhythms of the body and you feel them as much as hear them. And when you hear them with someone else you share that intrinsic rhythm together, unexpectedly, for just a few moments. Kinda cool. 3. A Man Loosening His Tie He's a little bit formal wearing a tie, but when you're alone again he reaches a hand up and unbuttons the to...

I admit to being a sucker for animals of all kinds. I even love bats. Looking at these pics, meerkats and I have something in common: we both sit and watch others with a suspicious gaze when we're not busy soaking up the rays. And sometimes when we are. Plus, I sometimes lean a bit to the side, too. (And if these pics don't make you do a little bit of "awww" deep down, I'm sorry to inform you, you are dead inside.)

These are the white boots I currently own: These are the white boots I wish I owned: On the plus side, that's 1,000 fewer miles I have to run to have the legs to pull off these boots.

I have a geeky fascination with urban landscapes. I love exploring new cities and the unique flavor that results when a large number of people have congregated to build on a commonality of work, recreation, love, family, or whatever it is people are looking for when they choose a place to live. Natural landscapes are beautiful, but what interests me about urban landscapes is the very fact they are unnatural. As in, here's what we did to try to make our living space beautiful, or interesting, or functionally livable. I especially love cities where these various ideologies overlap, and sometimes, clash. For example, Montreal is a Catholic settlement trying to be a world-class center of finance, business and artistic expression. The tensions tethering these different functionalities are expressed beautifully in the dichotomy of their architecture. It was a pleasure trying to capture the reflection of a centuries-old church spire in the sanitized glass of a modern business tower. I ge...

Will I be putting my name into the lottery for Spice Girls reunion tour tickets? Oh hell yes . SpiceWorld was a staple of my undergrad days. So bad it's good? No. So GOOD it's good. (Just kidding, it's the first one.) But in the midst of Derrida, Barthes and assorted 18th Century poets, platform boots and mini-skirts are a really fun diversion. And yes, sometimes, if you're lucky, I am in fact a vamp. Spice Girls songs are never wrong. Ooooh can't wait to put together an outfit for this one!

The term 'Cafe Diem': Caffeinate the Day. Usage: "We need to Cafe Diem, let's go get a cold Diet Coke." (Disclaimer: I like caffeine so much I think it should be sold as a spice and you can just sprinkle it on your food. Because quite frankly, sometimes I don't want to drink (i.e. pee) any more that day. Think: car and plane trips. The current delivery system leaves a lot to be desired.)

There a lot of things I don't splurge on. TVs, cars, and lightbulbs to name a few. But I am a make-up junkie. Because here's the thing: it's your face. Everyone sees it. If you look really made up all the time, you're probably using the wrong products. Makeup, in most cases, should enhance your looks, not change them. (Exceptions? Body painting in Tahiti; M.A.C. body art.) And 'change' is usually cheaper. Because it doesn't have to look good. I went to Sephora and tried on approximately 15 different eye shadow brands in shades of gold and lavendar. (It should be called Sephora: The Make-up Porn Palace.) This is what I ended up buying: Christian Dior 5 Eyeshadow #790 Night Dust. It has shades of lavendar PLUS a brown shade. Combining brown and lavendar was the kicker for me. (I have dark brown eyes.) And it has super-fine pigments, so the colors stay true, blend like a cream and don't crease. If I look AMAZING the next time you see me, now you know why. :...

Getting up early on a Saturday morning, before the sun rises. Running five miles through my neighborhood, watching my neighborhood slowly come awake. (Especially in Texas, when the early morning humidity clings to the trees and lightposts and everything glows in the rising sunlight.) Finishing just as the heat of the day starts building. Coming home, taking a shower, crawling back under the covers for a couple of hours of sleep. Ahhhh...

I have very few vices. Diet Coke is always at the top of the list. (Current #2? Ambien. Current #3? Jim/Pam videos on YouTube.) Six things I believe about Diet Coke: 1. From the fountain tastes better than in the can, which tastes better than in the bottle. 2. Best tasting fountain: Holiday Oil on Highland Drive and 39th (SLC), Valero on San Pedro and Basse (San Antonio). 3. The flavored versions lose their fizz too quickly. Weak. And the Cherry tastes like cough syrup. 4. There is no point to Caffeine Free, except that my little niece Meg loves it. An early adopter. 5. Winger's makes an excellent Vanilla Diet Coke. They get the ratio just right. 6. Diet Coke (Coke Light in Mexico) is sweeter everywhere else in the world I've been. And extremely plentiful in Thailand; not so much in Quebec (where Pepsi is the drink of choice). Amount of Diet Coke I can drink before I get caffeine shakes: About 144 oz. Top Four Memorable Diet Coke Experiences: 1. Seth walking me to the bathtroom...

Probably third in line behind my video iPod and YouTube for technology that makes me happy: WiFi. I rarely go anywhere anymore that I can't connect to WiFi. Next stop, a more portable PC. Mine is an IBM ThinkPad. Not huge, but still a little bulky to be hauling around. At Will's house we can watch YouTube on his TV through Wii. And when people took turns playing Wii, I chatted with some friends and updated my flickr pic descriptions with his WiFi connection during my rotation out. YouTube, Wii, and WiFi. Pretty much my technology trifecta. I'm not addicted to the Internet, but I am now accustomed to having the ability to access information on the spot. And to keep in touch with friends, no matter where I am.

I'm a tool junkie. I think I get this from my grandfather, who was a railroad mechanic and had a separate shed to house his many and diverse tools. When we visited, I loved going out to the workshop with grandpa and having him show me the tools and how to use them. He passed them down to my dad, who has now passed them down to us. My third favorite tool is the rock cutter, because I went through a geode phase and while out with my grandpa on walks I would pick up rocks I thought had crystals inside. My grandpa cut open a lot of plain old river rocks for me. He was a good grandpa. My second favorite tool is the ratcheting socket wrench, any size. I like the sound it makes and how practical it is for getting in small spaces. It suits me. My favorite tool is the halligan, pictured here. It is a firefighting tool use to break through doors and windows and whatever else needs busting into. (I am simplifying because I am not a firefighter so I can only say what I have been told.) I lo...

A guy who shows up for a date wearing this ensemble? Is sooo getting some.

Love shaking my money-maker to these songs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifcMIz4_iho http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuLf9meEbqU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVSa96G_niA P.S. these aren't good videos, but the songs are fun

Faux Beau: a guy who does boyfriend stuff for you/with you, but is not actually your boyfriend. (Origin: Candache pandepornium; comes from the niponirish descent meaning "every man in my life who doesn't give it up")* Obviously the phrase 'faux beau' is awesome because: 1. Both words are non-English acquisitions to English 2. It highlights the complexities of English by showcasing two non-English words that became standard English but kept their native spelling and produce the same vowel sound, thus confusing little kids and ESL learners alike 3. It's very Southern 4. It rhymes *My friend Candace added to this post. She's right.

I bought a flexible tripod like the one pictured here and took it to Vegas with me last weekend. Love it. Three great things about it: 1. You can almost fold it into a ball, and it's small enough to fit in my daily bag. 2. You can wrap it around railings, posts, tree branches, arms etc. In Vegas there are railings lining Las Vegas Blvd to keep the drunks from being run over. I hooked the camera on those by wrapping the legs around the bars. They stayed tightly in position with no slipping. 3. You can use awkwardly shaped flat surfaces and balance the camera in very awkward positions by bending the legs to shift the center of weight of the camera. I set it on a few narrow fountain edges as well with no problem. I bought mine at my local camera store, but you can find them on Amazon or similar. Mine was $15.00. I anticipate having a lot of fun with this one.

This is Chris Cornell in the 1990's. When I was doing my undergrad I had a roommate from Seattle and we were very into the whole flannel shirt, wearing PJs to class, 'big clunky black shoes with sassy tights and short skirts for everyday wear' scene. Chris was pretty hot to us back then. I think we even had a pic of him taped to our living room 'Wall of Fame' (the low-tech incarnation of Stuff I Love). This is Chris Cornell today. Now I mostly wear high-heeled strappy sandals, cotton baby doll Ts, and although I do still wear sassy socks and clunky shoes on occasion, definitely not to work. The Wall of Fame is long gone, but Chris is even BETTER looking today than he was back then. Women say it's not fair men get hotter with age, but as long as I have eyes, who cares?? I'm just happy I still get to look at him! And the best thing about Chris? Not only does he look like that, he sounds like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4fJqz7Tn-4 Check out those lon...