Half Ideas Vol. 2

Annnnd we're back.

I don’t know about you but I feel like I’ve been barreling toward this upcoming long weekend at 90mph. Life is moving relentlessly forward in this season and in the last month I’ve felt more like the roadkill dragging behind the car than the driver behind the wheel. But there’s a little glimmer on the road ahead—summer! Warm evenings, lasting light, juicy watermelon with al fresco dinners, sparkly cocktails, pool time, travel, and vitamin D a-plenty.

I found myself daydreaming of all the sweetness summer brings this past week (after a very not sweet debacle with our landscaping). I stood outside in the 80-degree heat hosing off our outdoor furniture while the babies had a water fight. Suddenly I felt that sense of lightness that warmer months bring shake itself loose—namely the promise of more freedom, more unstructured time, more warmth. I can’t wait. It all starts this weekend with a family gathering a few states away. I hope you enjoy the extra day and unofficial start to summer. But before we drive off into the sunset I’m back with some half-thoughts for the road.

What’s the best way to get to know you?

This past weekend I got to be with some sweet friends who read this newsletter and a few of them commented that my writing has helped them get to know me better. It was surprising to hear given I’ve known most of these ladies for north of 13 years now. One might imagine they know alllll about me at this point. But as it turns out, there’s room for discovery over a decade in.

It got me thinking that perhaps the way we’ve gotten to know someone over time isn’t necessarily the only way or even the best way. Writing is an intimate and vulnerable thing and I’ve no doubt that there are sides of me that are revealed with blank space to fill and no one looking over my shoulder that perhaps make fewer appearances face-to-face. Sitting with that has made me want to ask everyone I know and love what they think the best way to get to know them is. Is it talking late into the night? Through their art? Through the music they love? Through humor? In companionable quiet with few but powerful words? It’s fun to ponder.

Fashion magazines, reincarnated.

I’ve mentioned my deep love for early aughts magazine culture before. I used to hoard fashion-in-print like it was well, going out of style. Turns out it was, it did. There are so few magazines left and of those, only a couple that are consistently worth reading and none that maintain their former heft. Pages are scarce, ads are many.

Now, instead of subscriptions in the mailbox I get about 5-7 emails from Substack every day. It’s a source of both joy and suffering as I am pretty much never caught up and always wishing I could read more. Of those daily inbox treats, over half are fashion newsletters. I am simply obsessed. Everything fun and niche in the fashion world seems to be born again in newsletter form. There are newsletters for shopping, for styling, for brand deep dives, for hot takes on trends, there are even super niche newsletters like this one which is literally only about jeans—it is excellent. All this previously lost energy from writers and fashion experts is finding new footing and I’m loving every second. There’s an intimacy on offer that isn’t available through any of the big publishers. You can’t get this stuff in print or on big websites these days. Newsletters are where it’s at. It’s like all the best of early aughts magazines with the easily digestible formatting of early aughts blogs in one addictive package. This, this, this, and this are some of my favorites if you’re curious.

Do you get your hopes up?

Recently I was exchanging voice notes with a friend and I told her I wish I were someone who could get my hopes up. People who are consistently hopeful are like unicorns to me—mythical. I’m certainly not a pessimist but I take a decidedly realistic approach to most of the unknown (yes, I realize “realistic” is likely just a euphemism here but let me live!). There are so many friends in my life going through big transitions…hoping for new babies, hoping for a new home, a new job, a good diagnosis….it just feels like the ability to keep one’s hopes up would be a superpower at a lot of critical junctures in life.

At brunch last Sunday a friend and I bonded over our cynicism when it comes to manifestation, rosy outlooks, and the like. But as I told her, I’m trying to lean on something my therapist said when I mentioned all this to her. Paraphrasing here—she said that even if you don’t believe in manifestation or the like, and even if you have trouble keeping your hopes up, the energy you put into believing good things will happen may at least drive you to make better decisions. And those decisions are more likely to be ones that will stack happy feelings instead of doubtful ones. So, think good thoughts. It’s worth a try, here’s hoping.

Still thinking about…..

Love this fun article about the surging fandom around TJMaxx. I actually scored some pretty great stuff myself a couple weeks ago.

The Memorial Day Weekend sales are in FULL swing. I already snagged some stuff here during their early access sale and I’m planning to stock up on summer stuff for the littles. Here’s a huge list of other MDW sales.

BEYOND excited to be seeing this musical in June based on one of my favorite albums ever.

Feeling like my hunt for a new concealer is over because this stuff is AMAZING.