Doin' the twist

There's a strange move that's taken over my gym. Rarely a visit goes by without me noticing ladies in the changeroom fastening their bras in the front then swiveling them around to their proper position. It's done quickly and awkwardly. I wonder if stretching helps.

You can count on me

During long stretches of gloomy, dreary weather, nothing says comfort quite like a black cardigan sweater. Easy, dependable and always appealing, you could say it's the mac n' cheese of the clothing world.

Picture perfect

Being camera-shy really isn't an option these days. It seems everywhere you turn there's a camera-phone or digital camera snapping away, capturing life's every little moment and then some. Personally, I've never liked having my photo taken. The worst being ID photos. I always felt there was something a bit phony about them. A stiff pose. A faked smile. Picture day in grade school was a torturous ordeal. I would practice the night before, looking in the mirror and posing: smiling not too much to scrunch my eyes, not too little to look uncomfortable; chin down; face angled to the "good" side; shoulders down; clothing adjusted; hair just so; breathe in. Oh, and look natural.

So last week, when I found out I could have my work ID re-taken, I was torn. As much as I disliked being photographed, I was also partly thrilled. The photo I had for the past year was so objectively terrible--I had biked to work in on a high-heat-alert day and didn't know I was having my picture taken--that it outweighed the overall dread.

Oddly enough, it was the thought of Victoria Beckham that eased my usual photo anxiety. On picture day, a colleague reminded me of the TV special where Posh goes to the DMV. She gets all posy-posy as if being photographed for a magazine shoot. She looked ridiculous to me at the time--I mean, it was just her driver's license photo. But perhaps she (and it pains me to admit it, but Paris Hilton with her trademark red-carpet pose as well) are onto something: If there's a camera around, might as well work it. Right.