dress to impress

The continuing saga of my fashion sense:

Earlier today, my friend, UT cohort, and next-office neighbor Bob told me that he's seem me dress professionally entirely too much. He was actually complaining somewhat. But then again, he's only seen one season of Mike Fashion.

The strange thing is that I've only been wearing Dickies work pants and collared shirts. It's not exactly what I'd call formal (aren't Dickies sort of punky? Or at least working class), but I suppose it's a step away from the Hawaiian shirts. So I guess I have been stepping up.

This new-found respectability (at least in terms of appearance) has, however, yielded positive benefits. All of my classes are under their course limit, and students are dropping as we speak...which is only a good thing in that it (a) limits my grading and (b) maybe gets people out of the class who might think I'm a pushover because I dress weird. And most of the students will actually call me "Doctor" now, where last semester, with the Hawaiians, they wouldn't.

I don't quite know if I'm doing the professional thing consciously or not. It's still quite an adjustment being a full-time faculty as opposed to a lowly adjunct. I have book representatives wanting to talk to me. Other faculty know who I am. Someone told me that they felt good knowing I was on the committee to choose a new Comp I textbook...this respectability is just plain strange. After all, how did I ever grow to inspire confidence?

It's getting to be a strange world, indeed.