Now Channeling: Jennifer Garner

A couple of nights ago, I went to my closet to suit myself up for what has become one of my somewhat regular post-dinner trips to my neighborhood Tasti-D-Lite. I was wearing sweatpants and a sweatshirt with RUN DMC sprawled across the front, an article of clothing that has been the subject much ridicule from my friends who know that my iTunes is strictly stocked with stale Top 40 hits. I would've kept my sweatsuit on, but the sweatpants had given me a serious case of dumpy butt and my sweatshirt was stained with toothpaste.

I changed out of my lounge clothes into a horribly unflattering outfit. I had on a pair of loose green chinos that I bought at Zara when I was studying in Paris and participating in/winning a self-imposed challenge to eat a pastry a day. Given that my current personal dessert menu is comprised of artificially sweetened and flavored yogurt, the pants are huge now. On top, I wore a J.Crew men's sweater that I found in a classroom in college and snatched up after watching it sit unclaimed for two weeks. I also wore Birkenstocks and a Patagonia down vest. If I were a boy, I would've looked awesome.

I decided that my outfit wouldn't be so bad if I pretended to channeling someone. But who? Annette Bening in The Kids Are Alright? Nah. My fantasy boyfriend? Nope.

Aha!

Jennifer Garner, going on errands.

A click-thru of People.com's archives reveals that Jennifer Garner, when she isn't on the red carpet wearing c-c-c-couture, is running errands around Los Angeles wearing kinda basic, kinda non-matching, kinda ugly, but still designer, outfits. Even if her outfits (as evidenced above) don't seem to be put together with any thought (and not in an effortless French kind of way), she rocks it. She makes me want to be a suburban mom in Southern California, especially one who's also the star of my No. 7 favorite romcom, the wife of Ben Affleck, and the ex-wife of Scott Foley (um, Noel).

So, as I walked out the door of Tasti-D-Lite, I tricked myself into thinking that I too was Jennifer Garner, and instead of going home to my parents, I was going home to Ben Affleck. #no.

All images via People.com