Thursday’s Workwear Report: Cross-Front Flutter-Sleeve Dress
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Our daily workwear reports suggest one piece of work-appropriate attire in a range of prices.
This dress from Eloquii is going to be a lot of look if it falls into the wrong hands, but I think it would look absolutely gorgeous on the right person. I would be thrilled to see it on someone with a warm-toned, deep complexion. (Hello, Deep Autumns!)
If you want to make it a bit more formal, I would add a charcoal gray or navy blue blazer, but I think this is something that probably looks best standing on its own.
The dress is on sale for $56.69 (marked down from $62.99) and comes in sizes 14W-28W.
Sales of note for 5/26:
- Nordstrom – The Half-Yearly Sale has started! See our roundup here. Good deals on Veronica Beard, Vince, Reiss (esp. coats), as well as Wit & Wisdom and NYDJ
- Ann Taylor – 25% off + 30% off sale items
- Aurate – 25% off with code (ends 5/26)
- Bare Necessities – Up to 40% off, including tons of bra-sized swimwear (also, 10 panties for $10)
- Boden – 15% off new women's wear styles with code
- Express – Mega Sale, 40% off everything!
- J.Crew – 40% off your purchase and 50% off swim
- J.Crew Factory – Extra 70% off clearance + 50-70% off everything else
- Loft – 50% off one item
- Mango – 30% off everything, and free shipping with $260+
- M.M.LaFleur – Memorial Day Sale, up to 70% off this weekend only! (Try code CORPORETTE15 for 15% off)
- M.Gemi – Memorial Day sale, prices up to 60% off
- Nordstrom Rack – Clear the Rack! Nice selection of Vince, Veronica Beard, Reiss and Rag & Bone, a ton of affordable work basics from Calvin Klein and dresses from Maggy London, Eliza J, and Donna Morgan
- Talbots – $29.50 sunny must-haves
- Theory – 25% off sitewide (see our notes here)
How much do location factors like weather and landscape play into your satisfaction with where you live? Did it influence your decision on where to live? Did anyone choose a beautiful location over everything else and regret it?
I live in a city with great food, arts, and culture, but it arguably has a real lack of natural beauty. Spent a long weekend in a beautiful, bucolic part of the country and I’m amazed at how restorative it felt. Of course now I’m seeing my city’s flaws in a more enhanced way.
I moved from the west coast to the east coast after college to get away from the smog and to live somewhere with real winter. After we married, my husband and I moved to Virginia partly because he was tired of the cold and snow. I despise the climate and scenery here–hot and muggy in the summer, mosquitoes everywhere for half of the year, winter is chilly and bleak with not enough snow for winter sports, no real mountains. But we aren’t leaving because of COL and other lifestyle reasons.
I read a great thread yesterday about how Faulkner etc would not exist in a climate of winter and reasonable humidity levels. People aren’t crazy like they are in humidity, pre-A/C at least.
Yes but this has changed over time. When I was in my late 20s, early 30s, I valued walkability, accessibility to jobs, restaurants, etc over access to nature. Now in my early 40s we moved because I wanted more green space for both me and my kids. I LOVE our location and the natural beauty and don’t regret it for a second but of course the trade off is a longer commute.
It’s a big factor for me. I couldn’t live somewhere that gets super muggy and hot and/or is also notably ugly. I live in the Bay Area and would live in Idaho if not for the politics and poor job scene. From the Bay Area, we can do day and weekend trips to Tahoe, Yosemite, Lassen, Carmel, and literally dozen of other famously beautiful places.
After 42 years in New England, planning on moving with my family to St. Petersburg, Florida. I’ve realized that about 90% of my moods is weather and can’t deal with only being happy from May-October. St. Pete is somewhat of a progressive/queer-friendly bubble in Florida and I’m excited to only see snow on my own terms from now on.
I look at a screen all week. What can I get to in 2-3 hours on a weekend or up to 8 on a long weekend?
My brother has a ton of sinus issues, my kid has severe grass allergies – I feel like moving could solve a lot of these problems. I think my kid is destined for a city when he’s older.
We live around a lot of national beauty (national park very close) and it’s meh to me although I enjoy driving past it on the way home from the store. We moved for family. I miss the city.
There’s certainly no guarantee that living next to something famously beautiful means that you will benefit from it. I had family who lived in an amazing ski town who spent every single powder day watching TV!
I live in Montana. Normal people are being priced out of most of the fun things to do. It sucks. I guess we’re all just there to serve the whims of rich tourists and landowners.
That sounds like an attitude problem, tbh. Hiking is free or close to free. Snowplay is free. Camping is way less crowded there than in most states and is affordable. Fishing, cross-country skiing, and lots of other Montana-friendly activities are affordable.
Hiking and snowplay are poor substitutes for skiing. Skiing has become incredibly overpriced and crowded.
So has a lot of hiking. “Affordable” is very relative and as public land continued to be blocked off or traded away, the remaining spots are further away and even more crowded.
9:47, that is super dismissive. Like it or not, these factors have an impact on the people who actually live in these places.
My closest skiing is Tahoe, so I understand overpriced and overcrowded, but I go anyway at less crowded times and look for deals. It’s worth it.
Call it dismissive, but it’s simply not true that “most” of the “fun things to do” are inaccessible to ordinary people in a state like Montana.
10:22, I only value your opinion on this if you also live there on a budget. This feels like the equivalent of “anyone can eat healthily because lentils are cheap!”
I’ve moved a lot and lived in multiple places people vacation in, as well as ugly cities and cities with a lot of easily accessible natural beauty. The only place that I moved solely for a job despite misgivings about the weather and the landscape was the one place I couldn’t stand and ended up leaving after a few years. Life is so much better when you live somewhere with natural beauty and at least tolerable weather, whatever that means for you (I currently live somewhere frigid for a good portion of the year, but that’s vastly preferable to heat and humidity for me).
I grew up on the east coast and lived in various cities on the east coast until age 30. Now i live in TX bc of DH’s job. I detest the weather 6 months of the year, but I like our life here (minus the politics), maybe bc we have 2 kids, but our life here is just so much easier than it would be any of the other places we could realistically live due to work. We commute 15-20 min to work, all of our kids extra curriculars, errands, etc is all like 5-10 minutes away and we are in a big city so still have access to good restaurants, museums (though I’m a self proclaimed snob who spent too much time living in nyc and dc to really be impressed by museums elsewhere), we are 25 min from the closest airport. But a terrible place to live for good day trips and it’s ugly. Places that are good to live are not necessarily great to visit and visa versa.
Northern Virginia here—I have only ever moved places for work. I can’t afford to live in a place for beauty and culture.
This. Would love to live in many lovely places and the math only works if I marry well or get a Dickens-type benefactor.
I live in a pretty part of the Bay Area with fantastic weather and have absolutely gorgeous nature within an hour’s drive. I really appreciate all that, but community factors like walkability, nice neighbors, institutions like the farmers’ market, and excellent libraries, are all more important to my day-to-day happiness.
There are some less-developed areas within a few hours’ drive that are even prettier, but I wouldn’t want to move there. I like being close to whatever healthcare my family or I might need, having quick access to a range of retail (at competitive prices!), especially grocery stores, lots of educational and extracurricular opportunities for my kids, and a bigger community so that I can find people whose company I enjoy.
In California, the fire risk is also higher in the less-developed areas I have in mind. I wouldn’t want to add to the difficulty in fighting fires by building a house/adding to housing demand in the wildland-urban interface without any real need to be there. I also have no desire to try to source and pay for insurance in higher fire risk areas.
We had a hell of a time getting fire insurance recently. The property is in a developed suburb near open space right on the border between high and moderate risk official zones. To us, the most important factors were layout-related for our own safety (multiple escape routes, wide streets) but there is certainly increased overall risk of a fire touching the property.
I live in Austin and find parts of it beautiful–for example, we live in the hills, and it’s situated on water–but I tend to forget about that in my day to day when all I’m doing is commuting over the bridge. I do not generally find central Texas landscape pretty – I think it’s rocky, brown, and has too many cedar trees. I appreciate our weather. I don’t actively want to live somewhere significantly colder, although I would if life took us there. I was a young law student when I found myself in Austin, so I was not thinking about life long-term when I chose to move here, but I do think I stay because I am, overall, content. As an adult with kids and a big job, at this point, I prioritize commute living as close to downtown as I can afford while still being in a pretty area with good schools. I would never in a million years buy a house outside town to have more natural beauty if it meant I was spending an hour+ driving when I could be with my family.
I left NJ for ME because I am happier living in northern New England (I’ve lived in VT, NH, and ME over the years). The scenery has a lot to do with that, but I also hate heat and humidity, so I’m much happier when I can be outside all year. I lived in the southern midwest for 8 years and could only handle being outside from Nov-May. It really did a number on my mental health.
The thing that’s most important to me is not needing a car. My city is ugly(ish), but I feel like I reap daily benefits from living in a “15-minute city.” I can’t afford pretty, good climate, and walkable so I picked which one mattered the most. If I want pretty I go on vacation, but talking to locals in various pretty places has also made me realize it’s not always all it’s cracked up to be.
I have always lived near the Great Lakes. Whenever we return from a vacation elsewhere, I am struck by how much natural beauty surrounds us in our home state. It is easily accessible. We have cities large enough to fulfill our needs nearby. We have four true seasons. We do not get hurricanes and are not in earthquake territory. Our geography means tornadoes tend to stay smaller. Blizzards are real but we are well equipped to ride them out. COL is manageable and our jobs are secure.
Travel is great and it is very satisfying to come home to a place that has so much going for it.
I live where people don’t think there is natural beauty but we all just stare at screens in gray offices in soul-less office parks. I took a walk on the greenway and just the nature available to me is so delightful now that it doesn’t get dark at 4.
Another Great Lakes person here, and I agree! I get to live in a medium sized city, in a walkable neighborhood with surprisingly good restaurants and arts nearby, less than a half mile from a beautiful shoreline. Also a 1-2 hour drive from forests with hiking and inland lakes. I love to travel to bigger cities and different nature, but I feel very lucky to live where I do.
Which city?
Milwaukee
Absolutely agree, and I’m one of the people who has also lived in coastal CA and beautiful small towns in New England. The Midwest does lack mountains and oceans, but there’s water everywhere, and I can live in a major city with decent COL and still have access to nature within minutes, which is a pretty reasonable balance.
The Porkies are in the Midwest! Beautiful mountains, even if they don’t have the fame that other ranges enjoy.
Not much? I used to live in the Bay Area which is one of the most objectively beautiful parts of the country but the culture there is so workaholic it felt like we had no time or energy to enjoy it. Now I live in an objectively blah part of the Midwest but have lots of time and money to travel and see beautiful places and am much happier. I do hope to retire to New England eventually for both the weather (I hate hot weather) and natural beauty, but also other factors like cost of living and politics.
I love to visit NYC because I get to enjoy what makes it great. When I was there, I was too poor or too busy to do any of that.
Yeah although the question was about nature, I feel like it applies to VHCOL cities too. I might like to live in Chicago if my husband’s job didn’t keep us in a smaller Midwest city. But I have less than zero desire to live in NYC or other expensive coastal cities. Happy to visit for museums, theatre and fine dining and then go home to my fully paid off house in a LCOL area.
When I visit NYC, I take the ferry, which was too expensive for prior me. Just being above ground and on the water feels like such luxury. The parks are stunning. There are beaches and marshes and all of the great things you find in brackish water. I would love to do the 5-borough bike ride some time.
It helps so much to embrace water. Most states have rivers and a lot have great whitewater rafting day trips that families can enjoy with no prior experience. There is nothing so satisfying as a great accessible adventure.
It plays a huge role for me, but also I am often surprised by other people’s opinions about which cities lack natural beauty (I don’t feel this way about any port city, for example; the ocean is right there!). I currently live in a city without a mountain, lake (besides the reservoir), or a coastline, but there are trees everywhere, and the parks system is fabulous. People travel to see some of the gardens and arboretums here. But I’m told it’s considered a city that lacks natural beauty by people who mostly mean vistas, and for sure it is not the same as living in the mountains or on a lake (both of which I’ve done before).
I will say I also actively enjoy the aesthetic of train tracks, telephone poles and lines, industry, warehouses, public transit, etc. and miss all this in the suburbs or the country.
i don’t know where you live of course but most cities have some natural beauty not too far out? like i’m in NYC, you can get plenty of hiking/ biking within an hour? Could you be more intentional about just getting out there? i know it’s easier said than done….
+1.
To me upstate NY is not natural beauty, just a pile of dilapidated buildings choked with overgrown vegetation. I am a westerner, though, and like wide open spaces and big craggy mountains.
To me the water upstate provides the open spaces. I think of paddling around the water lilies in water so clear I can see to the ground, with a wide open sky above. I do get that wooded mountains are not the same.
I currently live in humid wooded mountains and HATE it, but my husband loves it. I grew up on the ocean and miss it daily.
When I lived in NY I found getting to the camping/hiking/biking not easy at all. It took forever with traffic and bridges. I moved somewhere I can easily get to all that after work or an easy 1-2 hour drive on the weekends.
We split our time between San Francisco and Sonoma, two gorgeous places IMHO and we do it precisely because it’s a gorgeous place to live. I feel like I’m on vacation every day.
This is the perfect combo here. I’m in SF and love it, but the fog and cold is getting to me (my house is old and so cold most of the year, I’m wearing fleece top to toe). Having the benefit of all that SF offers, and being able to escape the fog to Sonoma sounds perfect. (Hmmm…maybe I should go check Zillow for a little Sonoma cottage. In my dreams.)
It’s more reasonable than you’d think! Check out the Russian River especially.
I live in Houston and by fall I joke that I have seasonal depression because I’m so sick of the endless, brutal summer. I hate the weather here and often lament on weekends that there’s nothing to do because of the weather or there’s nothing of interest in driving distance. However, I stay because life is easy here – it’s affordable, we have great restaurants, easy to fly out of, I’ve got a great group of friends, etc. I spent a handful of years in So Cal and then a couple of years in the Bay Area and while it was spectacularly beautiful, my life was harder due to traffic, the inconvenience of running errands, hard to meet people to do things with, etc. My compromise is that I try to take a lot of trips, especially in summer and fall. Last summer we did the Pacific Northwest and New England/Canada and then every fall I insist upon a trip somewhere to see leaves changing (New England, NC, Blue Ridge Mountains). I’d probably spend more time outside if I lived somewhere else, but it doesn’t mean my life would be better or that I’d be overall more happy.
We live in a burb. Blah place. But the more gorgeous places nearby are either getting uninsurable due to wildlife risk or won’t have enough water in a drought. So we do a lot of lot of local travel instead.
I live in Philly and I love our wonderful park system and how close we are to the beach and mountains. In the nice weather, I am outdoors all the time. I row out of a boathouse on the Schuylkill, I trail run in the Wissahickon, I bike on MLK/Kelly, and I spend most weekends down the shore.
However, I hate, hate, hate the cold. I hate dark winters. I hate pretty much everything outdoors from November – April. I think I’d really thrive in San Diego’s climate. I don’t think I’d miss 4 seasons for a second. Of course, I think I’d miss the cost of living lol!
Really, whats keeping me here is the fact that all my people are here. I’d rather deal with winter than move away from family and friends so here I am.
I live in a compromise location. I have lived in a few places that people visit for their natural beauty and… the jobs were long commutes that paid poorly, the housing was incredibly expensive for what you got, you had weird situations like ‘oh, the grocery truck didn’t show up with produce today so we have no lettuce or bananas’, I put 50k miles on a car in a single year, and the schools were sub par.
Instead, I live close to outdoor recreation and the beautiful places in a cute suburb of a midsized city. It works. I would love to move someplace sunnier but – compromises – husband is a big skier and we have good jobs here.
Do you all use self belts? Or add a more belty belt to dresses like this?
The ties are integral to the style of this dress–it would look off with a different belt, partly because the wrap element would be missing and partly because the belt would need to be worn so far above the natural waist.
i think this particular belt is attached to the dress but generally yes i think a real belt looks more expensive than the tie the dress comes from.
I actively avoid dresses that need belts. They look dumb on my shape.
I think a belty belt looks more expensive, but I also think self belts (especially if they’re wider) look better on me personally (they maintain one long visual line but add shape, where belty belts chop me up)
I have one dress that has an attached self belt and it is a royal pain to keep it looking tidy since it pulls oddly and likes to roll into a scrunched up rope instead of the wide obi-style tie like in the photo here. Separate leather belts are much less fuss for me.
Hard nope, they are far too fiddly whether attached to the dress or not.
I clicked on a bad link from an email on my phone. I closed the browser window quickly and didn’t enter any information. It did seem to log me out of all my various accounts used in the browser (newspapers, shopping sites, etc.).
I’ve deleted the browser history, cleared the cache, looked for any unusual apps, connected devices, etc. My iOS is up to date. I’ve done all the things the internet recommends but I still feel paranoid.
How do I know I don’t have vulnerabilities? Is it safe to log back into sites on my phone via browser? Has this happened to anyone and what steps should I take? Is a malware service useful?
This happened to me once with a fake American Express email. I don’t know, but I didn’t log into anything on my phone for a few weeks and just used my laptop for mail. I don’t keep many apps on my phone so most of my stuff is web-browser based.
Thanks for the input. You felt comfortable logging back in after a few weeks?
Not really, but I did, and as far as I can tell 8 months later, things seem fine.
Kat, there is a Choice Hotels auto-play add with audio overriding my mute setting.
Same with a Microsoft Copilot ad on the moms’ site.
I feel like this is a torts law issue spotting exercise, but my neighbors big teen sons have a moving company (but it’s just those two and a friend, no company). They are too young to rent a truck, so IDK which parent owns or leases it. I would bet that no one that’s thought through workmen’s comp insurance or self-employment taxes or anything. It will probably be fine. But OMG as a person who got a lot of extra insurance and did everything on the books when we had a very PT driving nanny, I feel like this could go very wrong. Like fall on stairs or crash on the interstate wrong, wrong with two commas wrong.
yup. people keep posting on my local moms and dads group offering their high school students up to drive kids this summer. I want to call them and tell them this is not a good idea… have they updated their insurance policy?
I have the hugest umbrella policy I could get. I have a teen driver who next year will just drive herself (no car full of teens) after driving with me for a year. So much can go wrong. Often not the teen’s fault (people who give e-motorcycles to middle schoolers: looking at you), but there can be a long tail even still.
OTOH a family member was killed by a judgement proof guy with a borrowed car by someone with the state minimum $50K. Had he not died at the scene, that would have barely scratched the surface of the likely medical bills and other losses.
getting paid to use your car is a whole different policy than your own use. similarly if your kid gives swim lessons in your pool that’s not the same as having friends over if something happens.
I worry about this with AirBNBs that are lakehouses or where there are crazy roads and lots of trees. Too many stairs with issues, trees that look like they could fall at any moment, and boathouse roofs and decks with spongy rotting wood. Like I can sue Marriott and I’m pretty sure that they don’t have hidden cameras in the bedrooms.
Not your circus, and I think it’s nice to see kids working and being entrepreneurial. Also, how do you know any of this? I don’t share my insurance situation with neighbors.
I have a neighbor who is very Daisy Buchanan. Cute but breaks things and doesn’t care (IDK how many 3-series BMWs her kids have gone though over the years, but our kids don’t ride with them). Some parents want to let their kids be entrepreneurs for their college applications but in the most superficial way. Adults barely think of things like same-profession disability coverage so I doubt teens do.
I wouldn’t hire a teen to drive my own elementary schooler around (I pay more for an adult!), but at least in my area, Buchanan-ish rich people are very much not the same ones whose kids are doing physical jobs for cash. Those tend to come from more blue collar families.
In my area, the responsible wealthy people often have kids who babysit or do physical jobs over the summer; it teaches responsibility and they don’t want the kids resting in their laurels. The Daisy Buchanans are… not like that. (There are also responsible wealthy people whose kids spend the summer at fancy camps, so that’s also a thing.)
Right. They probably own the truck and updated their insurance policy with their carrier.
Agree. Mind your business. But I consider it more of a problem that all these barriers exist at all. Stuff happens and we all have to pay for the mistakes of others at some point or other. Insisting that every eventuality be mitigated keeps people from doing anything at all.
Better universal safety nets would open up a lot of possibilities in life for sure.
You are responding to me and I completely agree.
And this impacts you precisely how? Get a hobby
I’m starting to put wheels in motion to redo the kids’ bathroom. It’s a pretty basic rectangular bathroom. Vanity is closest to the door on the left, with the toilet just beyond it. Across from vanity/toilet ont he opposite wall is the tub/shower. Far wall, opposite the door, is a decent sized window. While we will be updating cosmetics (tile, paint, fixtures) throughout, the primary reason for doing this is to replace the existing pedestal sink with a proper vanity with storage.
I usually have a pretty good eye for design but I’m struggling with what will look both current and timeless in terms of design elements. I’ll do a new white toilet and tub, and I’ve decided on smaller hexagon white tiles for the floor (maybe 2” tiles.. idk). But wall tile color and shape in the shower/tub and the vanity countertop/color and hardware has me in analysis paralysis. Where do you get inspiration for this? Pinterest is cesspool of AI generated images, even when I seemingly filter those out. Does anyone have strong opinions?
We have black door knobs throughout the house, including on this bathroom door, in case that matters. The master bath is the only other updated bathroom (on a different floor) with brass fixtures, though I don’t think they have to necessarily coordinate across the bathrooms. Thoughts? Someone just pick for me? I’m not afraid of color but just don’t know where to start with this decision paralysis. Help
Houzz. It’s like Pinterest for houses but with real photos. Use natural stone (not quartz) and avoid black hardware. I’m of the opinion that white subway tile is timeless in the sense that it’s always ugly and uninspired. Have some fun with the shower walls.
Co-signing. And read Maria Killam’s website re colors and materials. Avoid regrettable choices in the things hardest to change (floors, cabinets). If you take risks, let it be with framed art or towels.
Maria Killam has a very specific taste and viewpoint, but I did find her information on undertones to be VERY useful when we were picking finishes for our new house 14 years ago. In general, I think this is good advice. Go timeless on the expensive stuff and inject personality in other ways.
I would start paying close attention to other bathrooms you see, in hotels, restaurants, etc. I did a very similar reno recently, and my phone ended up filled with snapshots I took at places like that that happened to have bathrooms I liked. My tile combination was inspired by the one at a cafe I like, and it looks great in my house, too.
What did you choose??
I like instagram for interior designers posting their work.
My bathroom formula is white penny tile floors and subway tile walls (both very reasonable so you can spend in other places), classic vanity (I like converting a real cabinet and using marble for the sink and countertops). With that as a neutral base, I do whatever fixtures I’m liking at the moment, they can easily be changed later except for the shower setup. And I do a fun wallpaper and window treatment.
20 years ago, I did my small bathroom with a penny tile floor and subway tile shower all in white, and I still like it. I can change the colors of my rugs or towels if I want something different.
Even though it’s a kid’s bathroom, don’t make the vanity short. Make it adult height. Kids grow. They can use step stools when they’re little but bending over for the rest of your life after you’ve hit 5’0″ is annoying.
You need to go in person to hardware, paint, and countertop suppliers and look at options/ask for samples if available. Then you can play with options yourself. Looking at images of options online won’t help because the colors don’t render realistically and may change based on the light in the room itself.
We just built a house and did a white quartz countertop in the kid bathroom (cheap and indestructible) with chrome hardware (we did polished nickel everywhere else but chrome is cheaper) and a large format porcelain tile on the floor that’s patterned to look like natural stone (again cheap and hard to damage). On the tub walls we did a subway tile, which I think is timeless. We have a two-sink custom built-in vanity that was done by a cabinet maker in a pretty french blue. Then we did cream wallpaper with a leaf green pattern on the non-tiled walls.
I have had a minivan since I had two in diapers. The moving kids to school years start in August (for at least the next 6 years). The van is 16YO. If you’ve been here, what is your next vehicle. A newer van (huge utility win for the family — we car camped with it a ton during COVID)? Something more luxe but still large? I’ve had a bunch of rental cars while touring colleges and nothing is really making me swoon. The last time I looked at cars, it took forever to actually get this one once I had picked out what I want, so I feel that the time to start looking is now before the Odyssey gives up the ghost.
If you will be driving the kids to college and back with all their stuff annually, keep the minivan.
If you love it, I would just get a new Odyssey. Otherwise you’re looking at 3 row SUVS like the Ford Explorer (which my in-laws love). On the luxury side there’s Lincoln Aviator, Cadillac Vistiq (but that’s a BEV), Buick Enclave. Or even bigger you’ve got the Escalade and Navigator. Lots of options but IMO too expensive.
One of my coworkers was thrilled to go from a minivan to a Navigator, and I’m like … but why? It’s still a giant, hulking vehicle.
OP, you may find this an amusing story: I have an aunt and uncle who are now in their early 70s and still drive a minivan! They started with one of the OG Dodge Caravans when my cousins were little in the 1980s and have never given them up even though they definitely could at this point. They’ve always enjoyed road trips, and the practicality can’t be beat. No faux woodgrain paneling anymore, though, lol. I’m sure their Pacifica drives better, too.
I am team station wagon forever. The ones on the market now are a LOT of fun to drive (good weight to HP ratio, good suspension, luxe interior). They are remarkably spacious, especially if you fold down all or part of the rear seats. You can put a roof rack and Thule on them for moving more stuff.
What do you want your next vehicle to accommodate? If you don’t need to fit 4 adults, luggage, camping gear, and dorm stuff regularly, do you envision needing all the hauling space a minivan provides? Is fuel economy important?
We downsized from a Suburban to a Camry once the kids flew the coop and have no regrets. The Suburban was great when we had sports equipment to haul and summar road trips to pack for, but if the college kids need to haul a sofa and minifridge we can borrow or rent something for that.
OP here: I’ve got to deal with a parental storage unit and a MIL who is a hoarder. The possibilities are endless once you can fit a queen mattress in the back and have sliding doors. It’s a mobile ADU!
I wish that the Odyssey was available as an AWD hybrid (like the Sienna, but they are in such high demand that I couldn’t even test drive one). I hate to just put money down on what is a 60K minivan without driving one, but this is a weird world.
Reading with interest. My oldest is 16, and I am itching for a smaller vehicle. But this dang Odyssey is still perfect for roadtrips, and college is just around the corner. This is our second van, and the mileage is still relatively low. I’m just sick of minivan mom life, lol. So I don’t know.
How old was the first van when you replaced it? If I were smart, I should have gotten an newer one around the time of COVID, so that is likely why I have such an old car. And it’s hard to beat free, but at some point, I think maybe it will get hard or $$$ to fix the next thing that breaks on it.
So this will be an unpopular opinion but I think you need to pick your vehicle based on 95% of your usage and not try to consider outliers. I have a zippy lil hatchback because most of my driving is like Costco and boring life stuff. On the rare occasion I need to buy wood at the hardware store or move furniture I just spend $50 and rent a van. I still come out way ahead by having a small car which meets my needs and renting for exceptions.
If it were me, I’d just rent a van when you need to move and downsize to something actually fun to drive. I’m a big fan of my mini cooper.
As someone who is in the middle of the moving kids to college phase, I really miss having a larger vehicle. We don’t have anything that works for moving kids to and from college, so we have to borrow or rent for that. We rented a Jeep Wagoneer recently to move our oldest several hours away and it was fantastic, but I wouldn’t want to drive something that large every day. We have managed all of our college moves with either a Mazda CX-9 or a minivan and both have worked fine, although I think the minivan has more flexible/usable space overall.
had my roots done last night so have a professional blow out today. love it, feels so good…
Has anyone had a mammogram come back funny? And while it may have would up being nothing, how did a blip alter what happened in the next years with screenings and doctor follow-up, if any. I feel that life >50 seems like a choose-your-own adventure game as parts go out of warranty. I like it better when my doctors were older than me, but increasingly they are younger by at least a decade.
I’ve got dense breasts, and Jewish heritage so all of my mamograms require a follow up ultrasound. The scheduling is a hassle and I swapped to a practice that has their own equipment so I can do both on the same day. As an added bonus, my current Gyn is primarily focused on endocrine disorders/menopause/fertility issues so even though the doctors are younger I feel like they are so much more informed on issues women face past 35. It’s been shocking to me how much better I feel with pelvic floor PT, estrogen cream, and new medications.
I ended up having a biopsy and I was diagnosed with LCIS. Basically, the conditions are conducive for cancer. I now meet with one doctor 4 times a year for checkups.
The way I look at it, this is the upside of preventative care. I am taking care of my body, and information is power.
I had one come back funny a couple years ago and they sent me for a repeat with an ultrasound added on. Those were both fine, so they haven’t otherwise changed anything and I continue to go for an annual mammogram. Everything since then has been clear.