Pajamas and email

While I normally do a great deal of email every single day, there are times of the day in which I prefer to be in my pajamas for the effort. Virtually every school day, I am in PJ's or my bathrobe for the first few mails of the morning.

I wonder if that is reflected in my answers?

Do they bring on a spell of yawning for the recipients (or is that a natural consequence of reading what I wrote)?

Then there are the times, like now, when I am not only completely dressed, but reasonably coherent. It's Sunday and we all have to be out of the house early for meetings before the meetings.

While I can't lay claim to the content of my messages being any less yawn inspiring, I can at least grab the brass ring and shout out that I am dressed and ready to go, including hair and makeup.

That in and of itself is a major accomplishment since I am not a 'girly girl' who really likes the hair and makeup gig.

But, having said that, I realize that there are times when certain dress and behaviors are expected for certain things.

So what is considered email dressing?

Suits and ties? Slacks and a nice silk blouse?

Pin striped pajamas?

Semi-clean bathrobe?

And, assuming there is a dress code secretly enforced in email sending and receiving, who gets to determine what is considered appropriate?

While I completely understand that pajamas are not considered workwear for the successful business person (unless they work for a pj making factory), I have to wonder what constitutes appropriate attire for various occassions.

I remember years ago receiving an invitation to a reception which indicated that the dress was black tie. Having been raised by a genteel Southern woman, I instinctively knew that wasn't referring to women wearing ties, but rather to formal wear.

We didn't attend the event.

Not because we didn't know the people or wouldn't have enjoyed an evening out, but rather, I don't OWN anything that formal.

Sometimes our opportunities in life are determined by our clothing.

I am glad, that at least for the time being, that we don't have some governmental department of clothing. I expect it any day now. Fashion police will not only be free to be snarky in magazines and on cable programs, but they will be free to actually impose penalties for improper wear for public and private functions.

Soon, I'll find that I am no longer able to stroll to my mailbox in my bathrobe for fear that I will find myself ambushed with cameras rolling in a fashion hostage crisis from the deep ditch in my own front yard.

Boldly broadcasting my fabric and color matching shortcomings during prime time, my lack of fashion sense will earn me some horrible penalty which I am unable to pay - like sewing individual sequins in a garish pattern on a prom dress.

Lacking both the sewing skills and the sequins required for the job, I will be confined to the forced labor of sweeping up after the rodeo horse parade on a hot summer day.

But for now, contentedly I eat my breakfast in my PJ's and read the mail both consequential and inconsequential that fills my e-box today. I am safe. For now.