Updates of All Kinds

Hello from my Tortured Poets Department listening party! I'm still untangling the songs from one another to determine my favorites, but so far, I just like listening to all 31(!) on repeat while I go about my day.

Recovery update: I feel 100%. I know that I'm not really, because when I do things like take a slow 2.5 mile walk (my watch is so confused; I'm getting messages like: "your pace has changed" "who are you? blink twice if you need help") and make one trip outside the house I then sleep like a rock for 11 straight hours that night, but I really do feel good. My biggest struggle is remembering that I had major surgery only 7-9 days ago and I'm still not supposed to lift heavy things or push myself too hard (like by using this time at home to reorganize every closet, which I'm totally doing anyway, but you know, carefully, and making James do any lifting).

Cora ended up sick all of last week, so my snuggle in at home and watch grown-up garbage TV time was severely curtailed, but I did learn more than I ever wanted to know about the ruthless world of wild cats through all of her documentaries. They are so sad you guys. Cora told me I'm too sensitive for the real world. This is 100% true and probably explains my fictional reading preferences. I finally made her watch Incredibles 1 and 2 with me, plus the two newee Jumanjis, and she was like, ok this was fun, but can we get back to educational viewing now?

Luckily she went back to school on Friday so I could watch all of season 1 of Hollywood Houselift with Jeff Lewis from my couch as my recovery plan intended. I love a house show and the clients and results are fun. I'm obsessed with Ashley Simpson-Ross and Evan Ross's new bedroom in season 1. Moose even subbed in for Milo's nursing duties and reluctantly watched an episode with me. As you can tell, he was really excited about it.

I'm also caught up on the new season of Top Chef (love! it's in Wisconsin and Kristin is doing a great job as host; my mom came over for the day on Monday and we watched every episode out so far and then craved pretzels and cheese afterward), Loot Season 2 (also LOVE; hate that they're making me wait a week between episodes; don't they know my real life is looming and this is my narrow opportunity for binging?), Ghosts (so fun; finished every season), and a re-watch of Seasons 1-4 of the West Wing because it's my comfort show and I slept through 90% of the watch party in my early days of recovery.

I also organized and edited my photos from August-present and uploaded them into Shutterfly so I can start on the next year's photobook at my convenience. And ordered a few large prints for some new frames in the house. We had an appointment with a local AV company and they'll be here next week to install speakers, wifi access points, and a new TV upstairs. We've met with a landscaper twice to go through our plan for the front yard: new drainage/irrigation system, a parking spot for Landon that doesn't require me to call him everytime I pull up to yell "move your car so I can get in the garage!", a sidewalk, some raised planters, and plants we cannot kill. These are the two final projects for the house and I'm excited to get them going. We were supposed to do the front yard project last year, but I spent that budget item on Taylor Swift tickets (#noregrets), and now I'm glad we waited because having a third driver (and knowing a fourth isn't far behind) has really changed our needs for the front of the house and this new plan is going to be so functional and great.

Speaking of functional and great, I've decided to finish organizing our master closet- the front part is perfect but the back is just plastic bins and the two feet I gave James for all his clothes. He's recently re-discovered that he likes looking nice when he goes out into the world, so I'm re-working the closet to allow for the non-workout-wear I'm hoping he'll buy. Two dressers and two shoe racks have now been purchased and are in-route to our house. He doesn't yet know the new closet plan involves assembling two IKEA dressers, but I'm sure he'll be so excited when he finds out.

On Wednesday I took advantage of my reclusive recovery life and got a photofacial with medium depth chemical peel. As I've written before, I LOVE an IPL/photofacial. I think they are by far the most effective way to improve skin: the procedure is short, there's little downtime, it's non-invasive, and my skin truly glows for a good year after. I had been missing the place I used to go in Fort Worth and was delighted to get a recommendation for a woman in Dallas. She was aggressive but incredibly knowledgeable and clinical. She recommended adding the chemical peel, which I've never done, and it was definitely an intense experience. I'm currently in my shedding stage (like a snake, I told my confused children who wondered why my face was falling off) and I'm excited to see results in a few more days.

Today I'm off to the salon to get a haircut (I scheduled this appointment at my last appointment, like a real grown-up who is now getting her hair cut more than once a year) and my first ever hair dye! We're experimenting with covering my grays that appeared out of nowhere and have multiplied since. I will never keep up with a true hair dye routine and don't really want to; I love the color of my hair and get compliments from strangers all the time, but I'd like to start figuring out a good way to basically keep the color I have. I think today involves a glaze? Or icing? It was something dessert-adjacent. We shall see.

I've also pretty much gotten back to work. Still from home, but I pulled down my out of office message yesterday because it felt more annoying than helpful. I'm very glad for my complete abdication of my email inbox for week 1 after my surgery- I've looked back at text messages I sent that week and I have NO memory of receiving or responding to them, so I'm thankful I had temporarily deleted my work email app from my phone completely. Last week I eased my way in to my inbox. I'm on a new matter I'm genuinely excited about that may have me heading to Houston next week, but it's by choice. And I'm taking the cushy Vonlane bus instead of a plane to be more gentle with myself.

But all in all, things are very good. The humans are good and the pets are perfect. I leave you with this convo I had with a good friend (who I originally met through this blog! 15-ish years ago?) on Monday:

Don't worry little organs, I plan for the rest of you to stay put.

Putting all the T in the TMI

Reporting in post-surgery, down one uterus and a cervix, up a few more holes in my abdomen, and post-good IV drugs and a million hours of sleep.

It's Day 3. My pain is very low and managed with the extra-strength ibuprofen. My middle is a little swollen and generally just feels weird/off. I've taken two short walks, one yesterday and one today, and slept for 2-3 hours after each. I've taken two showers, one yesterday and one today, and slept for at least an hour after those too. Sleeping is kind of my thing right now. Sleeping, healing, and not tracking the few email conversations I read enough to trust myself to respond to any of them.

This hysterectomy was a long damn time coming. In a world without health insurance approvals and doctors who like to start with the non-most-invasive option possible I would have done this about 8 years ago when I reconciled myself to the fact that Cora was our last baby. I'm going into the whole story here because I think women's stories are important and not talked about or studied nearly enough, but this is your warning if the title wasn't enough.

My periods got worse after each pregnancy. After Landon, an IUD kept them in check. After Claire it was an IUD + continuous birth control. After Cora it was an IUD + stronger continuous birth control. I'd been on some form of birth control since I was 18 and never had an issue, so using two kinds at once to keep periods away didn't bother me as long as it worked. And it did work and it didn't bother me for a pretty long time.

And then, about 2.5 years ago I started getting yeast infections. I'd get them treated and a few days later they'd come back. Then my skin, which in the last few years has become highly reactive, decided to develop a contact allergy to yeast, which means the cycle of yeast infection + contact dermatitis + yeast infection was unending and deeply, deeply awful. My pelvic floor decided to get involved and became WAY overactive, basically trying to shut down anything that might try to ever touch me. Sex, which is my very favorite thing, became painful and nearly impossible. I developed vulvar eczema in reaction to the creams and medicines, so basically my entire pelvic area was flipping the fuck out.

I saw my gynecologist many times, a dermatologist, a vulvar dermatologist, and a pelvic floor physical therapist (amazing; that therapy should be covered for all women, I can't believe I hadn't been to one before). After 2 years of trying to figure out why everything that had been working fine for fifteen years suddenly went haywire and the vulvar dermatologist (who I loved and was amazing, but is the only one in Dallas and it took nearly a year to get in to her) suggested it could be a long term reaction to hormonal birth control.

I went off it and the skin conditions improved tremendously but the periods were out of control and I simply refuse to have that level of monthly carnage in my life. So we did an ablation. We combined it with removing both of my fallopian tubes because once they've scraped and burned out your uterine lining you absolutely cannot get pregnant. So I did that in November. It was an outpatient procedure, I took off a couple days of work, didn't really tell anyone, and all was fine.

Except the periods didn't change. AT ALL. Turns out, in rare cases (OF COURSE), an ablation will "fail" due to adenomyosis, where the uterine lining has at some point decided to grow into the muscular wall of the uterus, and so I finally just got to take the whole thing out. The doctor was able to do it laparoscopically and my ovaries remain with me, so I don't have to worry about HRT or early menopause. I no longer have a cervix, so I no longer have to do pap smears or worry about cervical cancer. I can't get uterine cancer any more either and my risk of ovarian cancer goes way down, so that's nice.

My poor abdomen has three new incisions and hopefully been cut into for the last time. My insides feel swollen and a little confused. I'm home for the rest of April, exclusively resting for this week, and then likely increasingly working from home over the next few. It's amazing what surgery takes out of you. My pain is well managed and I feel pretty good, but I sleep a lot and it is clear it's the only thing my body really wants to do. I'm not supposed to lift anything over 3 pounds, and I can't do cardio for at least 6 weeks or have sex for 12, but I'm just glad to be at the end of what has been a very long journey involving way too many tests and scrapes and stirrups.

And now, back to sleep.

Total Eclipse of the Heart

You guys. My week of travel was great and terrible and so fucking long.

(Picture from Landon on Easter morning, giving up on ever finding his Easter basket. Also me, last week.)

I flew to DC Monday morning. Flight was fine. I was on calls up until boarding, answered emails through the flight, and had a Zoom as I was in the Uber. I did get to have dinner with a good friend and client in DC. The friend label meant I could exercise the friend-exception to my "no drinking mid-week or at work events" rule, but only with one glass (a lovely rose) because I had a few more hours of work to do at the hotel. It was a lovely little respite though. Meeting up with friends, clients, and other contacts on work travel helps personalize the travel, which can sometimes be lonely.

Sadly, Monday was the last day I got to utilize the walkability of any city I was in (though I did walk 2+ miles to the dinner, which always makes me very happy) as it poured rain for much of Tuesday.

I worked out of our DC office, hosted a women's initiative lunch, had a 4 hour video call, and then raced off to the SEC alumni happy hour that ASECA always hosts after the PLI SEC Speaks program. As always, it was really wonderful to see friends, new and old, and lots of former colleagues.

I was supposed to attend the dinner, but talked to so many people during the happy hour that I skipped the dinner to grab a meal with a different good friend and attendee and then went straight to the airport to fly to NYC. That flight took off at 10 pm, landed at 11 pm, and I was at my midtown hotel at 11:30. Sleep was elusive, so I worked for a bit, prepping for the presentation I had the next morning.

Wednesday woke up RAINY. My hotel was only 3 blocks from our office, which is just ridiculous to cab, so I broke out my trench coat, travel umbrella, and sneakers, and lightly jogged through the sidewalks with my suitcase to the office. Prepped a little more, headed to the NY SEC office for my presentation, getting absolutely SOAKED (still carrying my suitcase) with two false drop-offs at wrong addresses along the way, and put myself back together in a bathroom.

The weather was getting increasingly worse. My 7 pm flight was delayed. It took 90 minutes to crawl to LaGuardia airport where my flight was delayed more. Ran into a fellow Dallas partner in the airport and shared a glass of wine (at this point, I no longer cared about any of my mid-week health rules; also, she's a friend). Found out my flight was canceled. Got rebooked on a different flight, that was promptly delayed. Then delayed more. And every direct flight from NY to Dallas the next day was now booked (and overbooked). Also, my watch was being mean to me.

At 12:30 a.m. my flight was reset for 1:27 a.m. and I was damn grateful for it. I will also note that I have never sent so many emails as I did between 1-3 a.m. There's really someting to trying to do work when everyone else you know is fast asleep...

I landed at 3 a.m. and got home just before 4. I had video calls starting at 8 and I looked so pale, even for me, but I was HOME and I could attend Landon's high school swim banquet and I was so happy.

Also shocked, genuinely shocked, that pictures continue to reveal that he is MULTIPLE inches taller than me.

On Friday morning I headed BACK to the airport, this time with James, so we could head to Savannah for one of my associate's weddings. It was our first trip to Savannah, maybe our 4th trip ever alone together, and also maybe the 4th wedding we've ever gotten to attend together. And it was SO FUN.

Sure, it might have been nice to be home and my suitcase was very tired, but the weather was perfection and our historic B&B was gorgeous and luxe (thank you credit card points).

Also, Savannah has very liberal open container laws. Mimosas to go for the win!

Our B&B host told us that Savannah is for "eating, drinking, and walking" and she would help us with the first two. And with incredible breakfasts at 9 a.m., wine and apps at 5 pm, and cookies and port at 8 pm, she definitely did. Also the walls in the parlor are hand-painted and this is now a dream of mine for my study.

We ate great food, stopped for biscuits every 90 minutes, and I wore two of my Dirty Dillards dresses including my very favorite one for a dinner date Friday night!

I also shopped for fun things, like an awesome romper and these adorable shoes. I also picked up a pair for my mom.

The wedding was beautiful and I loved getting to dance with my favorite forever date.

We flew home Sunday, took my dad out for an early birthday dinner and a big thank you to both parents for watching the kids. My mom wore her new shoes, and so did I, and my romper!

Then on Monday we had the TOTAL ECLIPSE!

Of course my astronomy-loving-dad and former-science-teacher-mom stayed the extra night to witness this miracle. I worked from home and then at 12 pm, we had our glasses ready and were grabbing salads to go.

I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting magic. I've seen a couple partial eclipses and thought they were kind of neat, but also nothing I'd travel for.

But this. This was really extraordinary. The sun got smaller and smaller and then totality hit and the world went dark like someone had flipped off the lights. The winds died down. The birds went silent. It was extraordinary. We could hear the kids yelling in excitement over from the elementary school where Cora was observing the eclipse with her classmates.

The world is so big and I am so small and the universe is so amazing and I will never, ever forget it. I feel so lucky I got to sit on lounge chairs in my backyard with my parents and my James and watch this incredible event. (picture below from a friend with a fancy camera)

Claire texted from her event at the Cotton Bowl exclaiming "that was amazing! so gorgeous!" and even Landon who had been skeptical about the whole thing texted, "that was actually pretty cool." And Cora wrote in her scientific conclusion that "This was the most special day of my life. I will always remember when I saw the total solar eclipse." And same.

Today I went into the office for the first time in April (how has this month already been so long? I guess the 6 cities in 6 days thing?). I gave a virtual presentation on the new SEC Climate Disclosure Rules, sent about a million emails, and wrapped up as many things as possible because tomorrow I'm actually out again for the rest of April.

I have a hysterectomy at 7:15 a.m. and frankly, I could not be looking forward to it more. This should decisively end 2+ years of medical issues, doctors appointments (so. many. appointments.), and general distress. I will be in the hospital tomorrow and possibly Thursday, not working the rest of the week completely, and then lightly working from home until May l. So, it's already been quite a month, but let's bring on the scalpel. I'm ready.

Recapping last week before the 5 cities in 5 days week ahead

The week ahead of me is kind of a lot, so rather than getting all the work done I need to to make it go as smoothly as possible, I am of course taking a blog break. Because that's what you do when you know you're going to need some pick-me-up comments scattered throughout your days.

We went to Houston for Easter to see my parents and brother and his family. It was super fun to see everyone, especially the kids with their twin 2-year-old cousins, and I'm so glad we were able to make the trip. We got back about 2 pm and I promptly unpacked, fell asleep, woke up, and then packed for my trip tomorrow. My week ahead looks like this:

Sunday: Houston → Dallas 
Monday: Dallas → DC
Tuesday: DC → NYC (via a 10 pm last flight out)
Wednesday: NYC → Dallas (also a last flight out)
Thursday: Dallas (Landon's swim banquet is that night)
Friday: Dallas → Savannah (for the weekend for a coworker's wedding)

So, my suitcase will get a greater than usual workout, while my body probably gets less. I'm actually having a pretty major surgery on the Wednesday after we get back from Savannah, and while I wouldn't say I'm excited about it, I am not sad that I will be grounded for 4 weeks afterward. But more on that later, for now we'll move to fun random things and pictures before I get back to drafting actual legal work.

Last week Cora took a star turn in her class play about The Oregon Trail. Each 4th grade class was given the general subject matter and wrote their own play, to be performed for the parents. They were so cute and so earnest and good and I thought it was such a great project. Cora was a mother of three and practiced her lines and cues SO MANY TIMES she was able to whisper directions to anyone else throughout the play's run.

She now has to be some sort of pioneer woman for Halloween since I bought that costume, but at least she already knows her backstory.

We made Claire's school decision and after some bumps, are really truly excited for her next chapter in high school (!!) this fall. It's been a rough fucking year, but we're looking forward to brighter days ahead on many fronts.

Speaking of the girls, they are currently on the same swim team (Claire is officially going to swim in high school next year! I'm so glad for her, I think it will be a wonderful experience) and even faced off on the breaststroke legs of the medley relays at a meet last weekend! Claire won, but not by much!

Claire has been practicing her volleyball with Landon and Cora each night now that the sun sets later and I love hearing them in the backyard.

Even if at some point someone either hits a ball in someone's face or is deemed to be insufficiently kind/supportive/good to continue playing.

On Saturday I decided to partially redecorate our house by moving around furniture we already had to new places. I created a sitting area in our entryway and love it so much I actually ended up buying a new bench for that spot and moving the bench from upstairs back to the landing because everyone missed it there. Turns out everyone really likes having a bench nearby. And now you can better see the beautiful elephant end table of my grandparents' that I love so much.

I also took out a dear client and friend for dinner to celebrate a promotion and wore this faux leather and knit dress that I got from Ann Taylor for $20 at the end of last year and shoes I got from Dirty Dillards with my mom years before. Love a red lip dressy moment, great conversation, and fabulous food.

I spent a couple days last week in Houston to make two big presentations. I felt the hot pink blazer really rose to the occasion.

Also last week, I filled out my March Madness bracket.

As you can see, I worked really hard on it. And it paid off- I was in the Top 20 for a while in my 500+ person firm competition! Now I'm 80-something, but still! It's made all the basketball watching extra fun. Even if I have to keep asking Landon who he I picked to win any particular game.

I also wore some good outfits, largely pulled from Bonnie's album.

Good clothes make me happy. Other things that make me happy- the Bridgerton Official Playlist on Spotify. The instrumental take on pop songs is the perfect background for doing work I have to focus on, especially writing or reading SEC documents. Unlike urban fantasy novels, I can't say I find 10-Ks inherently fascinating, so I need music without words. This is perfect.

Also, I am SO excited about Bridgerton Season 3. I loved Seasons 1 and 2, and while Colin-on-TV does not at all match how I pictured Colin-in-the-books such that he was kind of my least favorite adult Bridgerton, I am still here for another season of beautiful scenery, music, and romance. I also LOVED Queen Charlotte to a degree I did not anticipate. And the previews for Season 3 look very promising.

In other audio visual observations, The Taylor Swift Eras Tour movie is so great. I love that it is just a well-done production that I enjoyed watching from my couch AND that I didn't see one thing in the movie that I wasn't able to see and feel in person, even from our seats far away, and that is really amazing. Amazing job, all around, and that concert remains one of my very top moments of 2023 and possibly forever.

We watched The Boys in the Boat as a family movie last weekend and everyone loved it. Landon has read the book at least a dozen times and was still on the edge of his seat for the end. The girls were super into it and it didn't give Cora ANY nightmares (unlike Zootopia and other thrillers), so it was the rare full family win. Highly recommend it if you haven't seen it.

Speaking of TV, a small thing that has made my life happier recently: watching TV while I do workouts in my room. As I've written before, I work out almost every day in my room using the Down Dog HIIT app. I love all the ways I can change up my workouts each day and I alternate between using increasingly heavier handweights and resistance bands. Last winter, after nearly 19 years of marriage, we finally got a TV in our bedroom just so I can cast my workout onto a bigger screen. (This TV has actually not yet been used for anything except my workouts, but I still feel like it was worth it.) When the new Love is Blind season dropped it a couple weeks ago, it occurred to me that I could go back to putting the workout on my phone while I play a silly show on the TV and I could get self-indulgent-feeling TV time in WHILE I do something good for me. And I now workout every day no problem and I look forward to it. When I travel I bring my resistance bands in my suitcase and switch to that option on the app, sign into Netflix on my hotel room TV, and keep going.

After months of feeling better but not really looking any different, which is fine, but also not quite as inspiring, I finally noticed some leaner lines and definitely stronger muscles. Then when we were at the beach two weeks ago I saw that I had abs again! Right there! While increased health and strength are the honest goals of my exercise, I will not lie about the thrill of just feeling damn good in a bikini again.

On that note, what other shows should I watch while I work out? They need to be pretty light, able for me to look away for certain intervals, not something James cares about seeing, and most of all FUN. Recently I've re-done the last season of Top Chef, Loot (LOVED that show; Season 2 is out soon!), a couple seasons of Parks & Rec, Girls5eva (hilarious and HIGHLY recommend), Schitt's Creek, and am currently binging Brooklyn 99. I missed almost all TV from about 2001-2010 and love old shows as much as new ones. I also watch shows on my phone while I do my hair in the mornings. Help me entertain me!

I hope you all have a great week ahead! May you are brave and bold and ready, like Milo on a carride out into the unknown. (Or just cozy and content, like Milo at almost all other times.) Happy Easter and end of March, which always feels like the longest month of the year. On to April we go.

Books! Please.

I have another post I'll get to publish later, but yesterday I woke up in Houston, worked a few hours out of our Houston office, flew to Dallas, worked more hours at my desk here, drove home, took Claire to an admitted students night for a new school she might go to only for that to be something of an anxiety-filled disaster, drove back home, unpacked my suitcase, and sat back down to work until 11 pm only to crawl into bed at 11:30 pm, open up my little Kindle app on its dark screen setting so James doesn't wake up and tell me to go to sleep and I had... nothing to read. 

 Nothing. 

In the last 6 months I have re-read almost all of my favorite books, read a few new series that were fine-to-good, and now I either have to dig deeper into my archives (interesting note, now that my anxiety is properly recognized and controlled, I don't re-read books nearly as much, though I do still enjoy diving back into true favorites) or spend hours I don't have trying to find new authors and series. Please help.  I read 2-3 books a week, use the Dallas public library to borrow and download them to my Kindle app, and I really only like to read things that are completely beyond our current reality. 

An unranked and unorganized list of things I've read lately:

• From Blood and Ash, by Jennifer Armentrout. Enjoyed the first few books, grew less interested by book 4. Haven't even checked if there's a 5. 
• Fourth Wing, by Rebecca Yarros. Delightful, loved it, look forward to the rest of the series. 
• House of Flame and Shadow (Crescent City Book 3), by Sarah J. Maas. Loved Crescent City 1 and 2; enjoyed having this one to read, but ultimately didn't think it was nearly as good. Some parts were too long, others far too quick, and Bryce felt like a different character at times. Still love the world and other characters and will immediately read anything published by the author. 
• A Court of Thorns and Roses series: Didn't love the first two books, but enjoyed them enough to keep reading. Interestingly the most recent one, A Court of Silver Flames (about Nesta) was my favorite. Hoping for more in this world.
• Throne of Glass series: Really loved this. All of it. My favorite of her series. Would like more please even though I know this arc is done.
• Divine Rivals, by Rebecca Ross. Fun. Not perfect, but enjoyed it. Haven't downloaded book 2, which probably says something, but I'm sure I'll read it. 
• The Serpent and the Wings of Night, by Carissa Broadbent. Enjoyed this and #2 (The Ashes and The Star Cursed King). I think there will be more books in this world (?) and I will read them. Like From Blood and Ash and Divine Rivals, these are good, but they are definitely not Tier 1 Ilona Andrews or Sarah J Maas series.  
• From the Grave, by Kresley Cole. SHE FINALLY FINISHED THE ARCANA CHRONICLES. For as highly anticipated as this book was for me, I knew before I started it couldn't possibly end in a way that was truly satisfying. And it didn't. I really enjoyed this series and all the characters we met along the way and I felt like the world was too narrow by the end. Still enjoyed it, and would still recommend it, but feels like it had potential that didn't fully get realized.
• Immortals After Dark series, by Kresley Cole. Cole is finally releasing a new book in this series (March 26!) so I went back and read some favorites. It's still great and I was surprised how much I liked her last two Sweet Ruin and Wicked Abyss. 
• Blood Heir, by Ilona Andrews. I really loved this book. Also Iron and Magic. And Magic Claims and Magic Tides. And not just because I love Kate Daniels, she's actually become a more settled less interesting character (which is good, she deserve it), but because Ilona Andrews are doing a great job giving other characters a chance to shine in this great world they've made. Eagerly anticipating all new books from them forever. 
• Hidden Legacy series: Loved this series so much. Hoping there's more here too. I re-read these often.
• Innkeeper series: Also love this one. Same and same. 
• Psy/Changling Series, by Nalini Sing. I enjoy this series and continue to enjoy it as she puts out new books. 
• Archangel Guild series. I don't like this one as much, but usually catch up on it when new books are made available for free through my library downloads.
• Rock Kiss and Hard Play series. These are light, but fun non-fantasy more modern day romance series. Not my usual thing, but I liked them. 
• Mercy Thompson series, by Patricia Briggs. I've enjoyed this, though I feel like it's gone a little long? I'll still read anything new once I can borrow it though. 

Please share your recommendations! 

Shopping and Style File: Early Spring

While I'm settling back in at my desk very much not at the beach, let's take a quick jump way back to when my mom and I did my traditional shopping trip in February and then Bonnie came over to do my Spring styling a week later. I've written about this many times before, but particularly now that my life is so busy and when I do have free time all I want to do is sit at home, I really don't shop at all unless it's the random online purchase Bonnie has recommended or when my mom comes to visit. My annual birthday trip is one of my very favorites and it's the only time we set aside several hours, fuel up and hydrate, and venture out to the clearance Dillards in Irving.

(For the uninitiated, Dillards has a few clearance centers in Texas, and presumably other states, and all items are at least 70% off the ticket price and some are way more. It's a challenge and a delight and I can only tackle it once a year with my mom by my side.)

This year we went after Landon's Regional swim prelims and I joked as we drove out at 1 pm that we needed to be sure we left by 5 pm so we didn't get stuck in horrible traffic on the way back.

Reader, we left at 5:15 and absolutely got stuck in horrible traffic on the way back.

But we had a great time and I managed to check off every dress I had on my "buy" list for the Spring. Like something to wear to my coworker's black-tie April wedding in Savannah, Georgia. I really wanted dark + floral + regular bra + feels pretty. And that I already had shoes and earrings to match. And bam, $45:

The fabric looks really beautiful in person and I love it.

Next up I have a partners' retreat in South Carolina the first week of May so I needed a dress to wear to the first night dinner. "Resort chic" + not something I'd wear to work but still something I want to wear around the people I work with + regular bra. And this! Perfect!

It looks so so fun in person. The sleeves and long part of the skirt are sheer and the skirt blows behind me as I walk and it's super flattering. Also $30, by Guess.

I wanted something for our Mexico trip that I'd also just wear around on weekends. This is so comfy, is a nicer fabric than you'd think, drapes beautifully, and hot pink is my favorite. And it was $12.

My mom was surprisingly restrained in her purchases, though not for lack of trying. For whatever reason the shopping gods were just smiling upon me that day. Maybe because they knew it was almost my birthday and I really needed a dress for that wedding. My mom still provided plenty of entertainment. There was so much more, but this is what I remembered enough to write down after:

Mom: “Did we walk in a different door than usual?” [No.] “Well, I’m completely overwhelmed.”

Mom, in dresses: “I’m not buying ANYTHING with spaghetti straps. . . . Except this. . . And oooh look at this!”

Mom, in shoes: “I was being so strong but the rows just keep on going.”
Mom, still in shoes: “Some of these I can’t even pretend I could tell your dad I need.”
Me: “Well that’s growth! You acknowledged that and passed them by!”
Mom: “No, I’m talking about all the ones I’m holding.”

And then, because it was my birthday trip, I wanted to find one new dress that was just fun. Something I would never look for online, that I could wear out on a Spring date night at a fancy Dallas restaurant where everyone is in designer everything and some creative skin showing is the norm. Something to reward myself for all those "it's just a Tuesday" moments of denial and health and practicality.

And I found this.

Not something I'd normally even try on and yet.

I die.

I love it so much. I am confident I will find somewhere to wear it and until then I will smile every time I see it in my closet.

It was a good time. Landon also did great at Regionals, so I feel like my mom was just bringing luck to everyone that day. The next weekend, Bonnie was here to style me for early Spring!

Milo helped, lining himself up with the shoe options she pulled from my closet. Normally Maggie is first assistant, but she was so sleepy that Milo volunteered as tribute.

Bonnie does about a 3:1 work:casual mix, making outfits for the next couple months of late Winter/early Spring.

More casual:

And some actual outfits I wore the week before Spring Break. Some directly from this album, others because I'm better at putting separates together after two years of following her lead.

I have a ton of work travel coming up- in one interesting week in April I will be sleeping in 4 different cities over 4 days. Tomorrow I go to Houston to see a client, but while I'm there I'm giving an Introduction to SEC Investigations presentation to all the litigation associates (I was supposed to do it in Dallas, but when you're headquartered in Houston it's pretty easy to just pop over there). Because I'm the only female partner in the group, and I happened to be paired with a female associate, we went all in on a Barbie theme that is FABULOUS. I'm wearing the hot pink blazer outfit Bonnie made above and I cannot wait. You can't believe how many screenshots from the movie lend themselves to an SEC overview.

Happy Monday everyone!