Coffee Break: Soft Faux Leather Tote

112 Comments

1. I can taste and smell, but everything seems – muted. The last few days, I often have a funny taste in my mouth – not quite metallic, but almost dry mouth/fuzzy/like I just woke up. I tested negative for covid on a home test, have not taken/used any new meds, vitamins, personal care products, or foods. I felt cruddy a couple weeks ago (tested negative at that time, too). Is this worth making time to go to my PCP or is this likely to go away?

   1. when I have a cold I often feel this way – mucus changes “flavor” for lack of a less disgusting description. you can have a cold without it being Covid!

   2. when I have a cold I often feel this way – mucus changes “flavor” for lack of a less disgusting description. you can have a cold without it being Covid!

   3. Go get a PCR covid test plz. They’re a ton more accurate than the home antibody tests.

   4. Have you eaten pine nuts recently? Look up pine mouth.

   5. YMMV but all of my friends who tested for omicron tested negative the first day of symtoms on a rapid, tested negative on an early PCR and then tested positive on a rapid at home after a few days so I’d definitely keep taking rapids daily.

      1. +1 same experience with my friends.

   6. Sounds like COVID. Get a real PCR test.

2. Brittany Matthews and Patrick Mahomes got married over the weekend. They look amazing together, but I thought her wedding dress was a little too “Oscar red-carpet” for a wedding. The side cutouts would look okay by themselves, but the front cutouts were a little weird and made the whole top look more like a bustier. Anyone else think that also? Am I just too old/not cool?

   1. I think it is hideous and tacky in the way Versace always is. It is made for people with money and not class. That is exactly who she is, right? (I know only what a friend said: Mahomes’ GF and brother exploit his fame to be influencers or something. I guess she calls herself a businessperson.)

      1. That is such a good description of Versace

      2. Really? Haven’t they been together for a long time, even before he was famous? How exactly is she exploiting him? While the dress wasn’t to my taste, it seems a bit ridiculous to label her as “having money but no class.” As the wife of an NFL star, I am sure they are just fine financially if she wants to be an influencer. Believe it or not, some of these influencers make $$ – more than the biglaw attorney’s looking down their noses from their ivory towers (where they live bc they work 100 hours a week).

         1. Really? Haven’t they been together for a long time, even before he was famous? How exactly is she exploiting him? While the dress wasn’t to my taste, it seems a bit ridiculous to label her as “having money but no class.” As the wife of an NFL star, I am sure they are just fine financially if she wants to be an influencer. Believe it or not, some of these influencers make $$ – more than the biglaw attorney’s looking down their noses from their ivory towers (where they live bc they work 100 hours a week).

         2. They started dating in high school.

         3. I agree. I didn’t much care for the top of the dress either, but overall they looked amazing and if the dress was to *her* taste then that’s all that really matters.
            She’s been his biggest fan since way before anyone outside of Whitehouse, TX had ever heard of him. I don’t think there’s any reason to suggest she has “money but no class” – Clearly he pays most all the bills but she does have a few different income streams of her own and she was a professional athlete herself for a short while.

      3. Yay, let’s judge women by what they choose to wear!!

         1. On a fashion blog!

            1. Yeah, there’s a difference between saying somebody lacks class and is an exploitative gold digger and just saying you don’t like their dress.

            2. I was judging the brand. I was asking a question about her since I have little information and do not care to research.

   2. Honestly, I was expecting something much worse! At least it’s not Pnina Tornai!

      1. Aww, Pnina!
         Honestly the top of the dress does give mild Pnina vibes

         1. True. And yet it is underwhelming, which I’d really be disappointed at if it costs what I suspect it costs. Also, not crazy about the tailoring on his suit.

   3. I don’t get why people who don’t get married before they have a child together get married after. Like you can just get married legally and have the party later when you look hot again, but when you have a kid with someone and are likely to get married, getting married pre-baby gives the baby’s father next-of-kin status in the hospital for each should something go wrong (vs mom’s parents). It’s like if you are married, the husband is presumed to be the baby’s father and if you aren’t, there is a bit of paperwork to go through. My friend went in the hospital to have a baby and was in the ICU herself, so not able to consent to things for her or the baby b/c she was pretty out of it post-surgery on her.

      I get never getting married. I just don’t get “we’ll get married but waiting” when you aren’t strapped for cash or waiting for a divorce to go through or anything that would legally stall things.

      1. But then you have people who won’t attend the ceremony because it is not a wedding and they have to take a moral stand on that because it is their feelings that matter.

         1. I get that, but I don’t think that this crowd really cares. It’s not like they have to please the parents or they won’t foot the bill. It’s like a wedding when you’re pregnant seems less insta-grammable (maybe you can’t get wasted and I get that some pregnant people feel lousy)? But if you’re young and in fantastic shape, if you look good, you will look good pregnant, even as a pregnant bride. Rihanna isnt’ getting married (that I know of), but she is not letting being pregnant stop her from doing her thing or wearing various outfits.

            1. I don’t know why you’re assuming that they got married later so their wedding would be more IG-able. Unless they said something to that effect, I feel like that assumption says a lot more about you than about these people that you do not know personally in any way.

      2. I don’t think a lot of people realize the father doesn’t automatically have parental rights in many states. As a non-attorney this is not something I even realized until recently. I always assumed unless paternity was contested they pretty much took your word for it if both parties agreed.

         1. They do take your word for it if both parties agree. It only becomes an issue if the parties disagree, because that’s when you’re in the realm of having to care about who has parental rights.

            (I had my son out of wedlock and married his dad about a year later.)

            1. Also I think that if you’re legally the dad you can put the kid on your insurance (assuming mom is already there). With women, it’s easy — you know who comes out of you and no one fights you on being the mom when you’ve done the pushing. The paperwork is such a buzz-kill, especially if you aren’t married or have different last names.

            2. I had to show my son’s birth certificate to put him on my insurance, and I’m the mom. The process is no different at most insurers whether you’re the mom or the dad – if you’re on the birth certificate, you can put the kid on your insurance. (And note, being on the birth certificate does not legally mean you have parental rights – you don’t have to prove that to insure your child.) Honestly, in my son’s entire life (we married a year after he was born, and my son/husband and I have different last names), the only time that my unmarried parenthood was an issue was when we were getting his birth certificate issue and literally the only thing extra we had to do was fill out an extra form and drop it off with the hospital registrar on our way home. That’s it.

      3. I’m giving people some grace during COVID, and I suggest you do the same.

         In fact, COVID or not, extend the grace. You don’t know anyone’s personal situation better than they do.

         1. Like the wedding dress lost material b/c of supply chain issues or Suez Canal or COVID? It’s a dress with cut-outs. Like edgy kids wear for homecoming dances. It is what it is.

            1. My comment was about sneering at people who get married after a baby together. I agree the dress is ugly.

      4. So I’m not sure if you’re married or not, but if you are: has anyone ever asked you, in the context of providing medical care to you, to prove that you and your husband were legally married? Probably not, right? And I suspect no one asked your friend’s husband for their marriage license before allowing him to make decisions while she was in ICU, right?

         I didn’t marry my husband until after our child was born. Nobody at the hospital asked for proof that he was my husband – they all assumed he was and treated him as such (and we didn’t correct them because honestly the L&D nurse doesn’t care about the details of your relationship). We had a medical power of attorney, but never needed to show it. It might have been an issue if I were long-term incapacitated AND a decision about lifesaving care needed to be made AND my parents and my then-fiancee disagreed, but even in “normal” emergencies, it’s not typically going to be an issue.

         W/r/t paperwork, the only additional thing he had to do was complete an affidavit of paternity, which was the back side of the birth certificate application, and we had to go down one floor on our way to the car and hand it to the clerk’s office. It was not hard. (It is more of a PITA if you leave the hospital without doing it, but if you’re in the hospital, they make it very easy.)

         As to why we didn’t get married before I gave birth: it was during the first wave of COVID, very few courthouses in our area were legally performing weddings, and bc we are fairly religious, we really strongly preferred to have a single ceremony that served as both our religious and legal wedding and that our immediate families would be able to (and would feel safe) attending.

         1. Same. I have been married three times and had a child with my first husband, during the marriage. Not once, even when I had a different last name than my son during Marriage No. 2, have I ever been asked to prove I was his mother, nor have I ever been asked to prove I was legally married to any of my husbands for purposes of medical care (except when I substituted No. 3 for No. 2 on my insurance after divorce and remarriage). But when my husband was in the ICU everybody took my word for it that we were married.

         2. I’ve also been married twice, never had to prove I was my husband’s legal wife, never had to prove I was my children’s mother, despite having kept my own name, which is another thing people who haven’t done either try to make up outlandish stories about.

      5. This is the kind of opinion that of course you’re entitled to have and to post about anonymously, but man is it mean. It just kind of seems like you want to judge this couple for *something* so this is what you picked.

3. Anyone have a secret to share? It’s been a while!

   1. My promotion was finally processed by HR!

      1. Congratulations!! That’s huge!

   2. I think I’m going to quit my job.

      1. Why?

   3. I quit my job today!

   4. DH is depressed…he told me everything he had going on and spoke to me about the pain he’s in on Saturday. Some of it was about his warped view of our relationship reality, which hurt to hear.

      Yesterday we had really, crazy good seggs after a few weeks of nada. It felt really good.

      1. Ugh – same. DH has been going through ups and downs and I feel like pins some of his moods (not always fairly) on our marriage. I’m tired of constantly anticipating his emotional reactions to things or dealing with periodic sulking. Is your husband receptive to reframing his view of the relationship?

         Congrats on the seggs!! Always a win :)

         1. Solidarity. Same re being tired of dealing…but I’m also getting better about not trying to anticipate or make it about me and be aware of my truth and all that I put on the table. It ebbs and flows. But reaffirming my value to myself has made me more bold and less of an eggshell walker, with less need for him to reframe. He needs to get levels checked (bloodwork) and potentially be open to a SSRI, IMHO.

            DH did say “I don’t want to feel like this” – which is a start that I’ll take for now.

   5. I suspect I have Covid but am hoping it’s just the time change.

   6. I have had a long and very successful career and have consistently felt like I’m faking it about 50% of the time. I made a major move two years ago, and yep, still faking it.

      1. Are you me?!

   7. I need to change my job by next February because I’m using old job’s COBRA insurance since new job’s insurance sucks and I didn’t realize just how bad until after I took the job. The marketplace’s equivalent coverage was $2200 a month–that’s $600 more per month than COBRA and there’s no 401K.

   8. I can’t really share this with my similarly aged friends who are still experiencing major menopause symptoms, but I seem to have rolled right from continuous birth control pills to post-menopausal at age 48. Stopped the pills last year, period never returned, FSH is crazy high, and had a couple of months of two hot flashes a night. Now nothing, zip, nada.

      And I know it doesn’t work this way but I basically feel I’ve earned this by dealing with constant chronic pain and other health issues for my entire adulthood – now, finally, I’ve lucked out!

      1. Girl, be careful, you may not have actually gone through menopause yet. It can take a while for your period to come back when you’ve been on the pill a long time. This is how people get late in life surprise babies . . .

         1. Yeah, I think the whole no sex thing will take care of that.

            But also it’s been over a year and my doc declared me post-menopausal. Just let me have my joy!

            1. Lol! I am here for that and am on the same plan to slide into post memo on the pill, but my doc has just warned me about getting toooo excited. Hope it’s true for you!

      2. I’m five days late into this but I had the same thing happen – I’m now 9 months no period after taking BC pills continuously.

         The only difference is I quit taking the pill after I had my tubes removed so now worries about pregnancy!

   9. $25,000 bonus today.

4. Anyone have tips on buying a used Peloton? I found some in my area on marketplace but can’t seem to figure out which generation they are, whether they are currently for sale on the P website, etc. The website has the bike+ and the regular bike, which maybe is the first or second generation? I can’t tell, but I don’t want to buy a used bike for almost the same price I could buy it new, just because it was more expensive when the seller bought it!

   (Also, I swear P makes this difficult to harm the resale market . . . .)

   1. You’ll get the best bikes if you join a Peloton FB group for your area. I’m in the Atlanta Peloton group and regularly see bikes posted that have only been rode a handful of times.

   2. So the regular bike is more like a lower-end/lower-featured model versus a gen 1 and gen 2 given that they’re both still being made new. If they only have photos on their posting, you can tell which one it is by the size of the screen and whether the “Peloton” logo on the bike frame is silver or white (check the Peloton site to see this). You can also explore the differences between the 2 on the official site. I would also pay attention to when the bike was originally purchased. As a pretty heavy user (4-6 times a week) who’s purchased both the Bike than traded it in for a Bike+, I found that they start having small issues after about a year. Probably not things that are super expensive or anything to fix but something to consider. You should also switch out the pedals if it’s over a year old. Old pedals can break and cause serious injuries.

      1. This is helpful. I was able generally to figure out what generation the used ones were, but not how that compared to the regular bike currently for sale. So I think your answer explains it. Sooooo it sounds like you would lean toward buying the new lower end one rather than a used one regardless?

         1. Hmm…difficult call, but I’d say yes, I’d get the new lower-end one that comes with the warranty. Unless you REALLY love some of the features of the Bike+. The biggest differences for me are that you can swivel the screen to do non-bike things next to the bike – super useful for stretching and yoga, but I also just used to pull up my iPad for this and that was fine. And there’s a function on the Bike+ that changes the resistance for you during the rid – this one is sort of “meh” for me. It’s kind of useful on some rides, but I do a lot of Power Zone where there is no set resistance range, and also something like 10% of the time, the metrics shown are inaccurate from what the instructor says and so the auto-changing is also wrong. Other than that, the Bike+ is a bit smoother and changes resistance faster, but not really an appreciable difference.

      2. I should also add that I do feel like Peloton is probably going the way of getting rid of offering the Bike version sold new at some point. Don’t know when, but given that there’s not a huge amount of difference between the 2 versions, I don’t know why they’d keep both forever. In that sense, it is sort of a gen 1, but I think it’s still got some serious traction/staying power (watch Peloton announce they’re getting rid of the Bike tomorrow just to prove me wrong! :P )

   3. Peloton monitors are marked with a designation indicating the generation, which you can check via Google. If you decide to buy used, check thoroughly for rust and wear. The warranty does not transfer with the bike. There are good Reddit threads and advice at r/pelotoncycle.

5. Happy Pi Day! Does anyone have a super easy pie recipe to share, possibly involving a Pilsbury crust and lots of frozen berries?

   1. Make a galette. Let the crust come to room temp or close to it, roll it out on parchment paper on a sheet pan. Make it thinner and bigger with your hands, but not a lot. Toss the berries with 1/4 cup or more of sugar and a couple tablespoons of flour and mound in the middle of the crust. Fold the sides of the crust over the berries leaving an exposed circle in the middle. Brush with beaten egg, sprinkle with sugar and bake until golden.

      Try to keep the crust all the way intact or it will leak, but leaky galettes taste just as delicious.

      1. Here’s a recipe if you prefer that to my vague instructions (the older I get the more I bake like my grandma, whose only measurements were done with an old teacup and the palm of her hand)

         https://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-how-to-make-any-fruit-galette-244707

   2. My favorite pie recipe involves $7.99 and a trip to the grocery store.

   3. I made a key lime pie this morning with things I already had around and needed to use up. The crust was graham crackers, sugar and butter and the filling was a can of sweetened condensed milk, 4 egg yolks, and 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons key lime juice. I’ll whip some cream later to top it- we had extra from something my husband made over the weekend, so it’s ended up as a pretty effective cleaning out the fridge/pantry recipe (I have a coconut macaroon recipe I’ll make later that uses the egg whites, otherwise I get really annoyed at recipes that only use whites or yolks). Zest and fresh juice from key limes makes a better pie than bottled juice, but not enough better to justify the effort, in my opinion!

6. Any lawyers ever worked for a firm that paid non-partner lawyers on a pure commission basis? I’d never heard of this before and am trying to decide if this is a total dealbreaker for me; I’m leaning towards yes but would appreciate any thoughts!

   1. My firm pays contract attorneys 43% of what they collect. Period. No benefits (they can pay the full amount for our employee benefits) and at our firm, contract attorneys get that cut from both “their client” work and the work contract attorneys do on partner files. We pay for assistant and para support (salaries and benefits for them) plus all tech, office space, etc.

      I know of plaintiff firms in my area that pay associates $40k starting/base and then 15-20% of the collections or a percent of recovery based on the hours on the case – defined in different ways, but think of it like,

      Jane Doe gets $1MM award. Firm gets 33% cut. John Doe attorney worked 50 hours on the case. Billed at $1k/hour. John Doe gets up to 50 hours * 1,000 * .15 = $7,500. John’s cut decreases if the firm had more than the fee in hours on the case, in which case I think that firm does a pro rata reduction. Hope that helps.

   2. I am a non-equity “partner” at a small firm. I get paid based on hours performed on cases generated by other partners and commission on cases generated by me. It is a very tough road and while I can see a possibility of success this year or next, the last two years have been terrible. It is a very hard road unless you are bringing a book of reliably paying clients.

      1. I wanted to add that you should really consider whether you want to have your paycheck be contingent upon whether other peoples’ clients pay. I am really hurting because I worked a lot of hours for a client who did not pay. I had no control over the amount of retainer we took or the amount of work we did for free and I also have no control over collections from this client.

7. There’s been a recent spate of crime in our neighbourhood – mainly car crime (not an issue for us, as we have a garage and don’t park on the street), but it’s made me feel a bit unsafe and I’m looking into home security options. We bought our house six months ago and it came with an old Paradox burglar alarm, with a wired in set-up from the look of it. We got no codes or anything like that (previous owners didn’t use it) and it seems unresponsive. Is it possible to resurrect something like that, either myself or by getting in an electrician? Or are old alarms not really worth it and it’s better to get a modern system that works with a smartphone?

   1. People have strong opinions about this but my monitored alarm as worked beautifully and as far as I can tell has saved us from two burglaries (the alarm company called me, the police were here when I got home, and in both cases the back door was open.) My neighbors houses on either side have both been burgled and now at least one neighbor has installed an alarm. I think the door and window stickers are a good deterrent too.

      We started with a National company (ADT) but moved the monitoring to a local company based on their great reputation and we’ve been happy with them.

      Since you already have the wiring installed, you can probably get an alarm company to come out and check it out to see if they can provide the monitoring. ADT will 100% try to up-sell so be skeptical. My local alarm company did not do that.

   2. You can have an alarm company (preferably a local, well regarded company rather than a chain) come and look at it. It’s possible they can reuse some of the old wiring, but I would wager that you need a new system. An electrician isn’t going to help. Tbh, if I were going to get a wireless system, I would still have it set up by professionals.

   3. Get a modern system. They do much more and allow you to see what is happening at your house remotely. And get exterior cameras and 0lace them high up in places people can see them. I believe my cameras are a big deterrent to shenanigans on my property.

   4. We installed Simplisafe after a break-in about 7 years ago. We know for certain it deterred another break-in (they broke a pane of glass but fled when the alarm went off) and I think it deterred another one (weird item on the back porch). It connects to an app and we can arm/disarm remotely. The sensors go through batteries pretty fast but otherwise we have no complaints.

8. Has anyone had luck working with a virtual personal stylist? There are a few that pop up on search but there aren’t many reviews. I’m in a small city in the midwest with no local stylists (not even a Nordstrom in our state) that I can work with. I’m early 30s, recently promoted and need to level up/define my actual style.

   I tried Trunk Club a few years ago and wasn’t thrilled with what I was sent — same with StitchFix (quality was an issue more than taste though).

   Any recs or ideas are appreciated!

   1. I am a partner in a law firm. I would define my style as bus cas with an edge. A few years ago I started working with a Nordstrom stylist every 6 months or so, with the goal of buying fewer, better. ALL of the pieces I bought are workhorses I wear time and time again. My stylist has since gone out on her own (and I moved away from Austin), but I am sure she would work virtually with you. You can find her on instagram – Charmed by Carmen. She has a great insta personality, but what I love about her is (1) she picks GREAT stuff that works for me (I don’t have the same style as her, so she can cross over to match her clients); and (2) she shows me how to make multiple outfits with each piece. Everything works together.

   2. To look more authoritative, I recommend structured jackets, tailoring (ill-fitting clothes never project authority) and a refresh of jewelry and shoes so you look current but not too trendy. You may be able to accomplish this yourself. IME, flattering colors, fewer prints, and well-structured garments telegraph that you are to be trusted/have your stuff together. YMMV depending on how formal your workplace is.

      No specific stylist recs, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Nordstrom could do a virtual session.

   3. I’ve done both stitch fix and trunk club like you. I had one great trunk club stylist and one who wasn’t so great. Stitch fix was not really good at all. I’m sorry there just aren’t a lot of great options. I think some of the bloggers do this service for a fee. But I don’t really know which ones.

   4. One of my friends started a styling business (she was a former theatre costumer looking to branch out during the pandemic) and she does virtual appointments. I haven’t used her myself, but many of my colleagues have.
      You can google her if interested:
      Tailor Point Styling.

9. Hoping we can do this without spoilers.

   My husband and I have been watching Love is Blind based on the recommendations here. I’m several episodes into season 2 (they just got back from the trip) and are we just narrowed down to the people who went on this trip and we never see all the other candidates again? I didn’t really understand how we just ended up focusing on these people and don’t understand how the others got eliminated. Do we circle back to them at some point?

   1. Nope. They are gone for good.

      I was surprised, too. But rest assured you are in for a wild ride…

   2. You’ll see a few of them in a later episode, but you won’t learn anything about them.

   3. There’s one episode where you can glimpse some of the people who didn’t go to Mexico (they don’t speak into the camera), but otherwise, it’s just the people who went to Mexico for the rest of the season. It was wonderful brain candy and just what my soul needed last weekend.

   4. Why would you see them again? The vast majority don’t match with anyone, it isn’t that they were eliminated. I think there are a few other couples that did match, but more than 5-6 couples is just too much for a show of this length. If they don’t match…there’s nothing to see.

      1. Mainly because they told part of their story when they introduced them, then never explained that they were gone or why.

   5. Gone for good. The show didn’t have the budget to follow everyone.

   6. Yes. You only focus on the 5 or so couples who got engaged. You don’t circle back to the other people ever.

      And apparently there were two additional couples who got engaged who weren’t even shown hardly in the pods and didn’t have their reveals shown either. It would suck to be part of those couples.

      1. I have the opposite view. I would totally go on the show if my story wasn’t going to be shown. Those are the lucky couples!

   7. Yes. The others didn’t match with anyone in the pods so the show doesn’t follow them from that point on.

   8. Let me blow your mind even further: there two couples who get engaged in the pods and never get featured on the rest of the show. It’s like they don’t exist. I guess their story arcs were too boring, or something.

10. For those who have put pause on a job, undergone chemo, and returned to a desk job: When, if ever, did you feel you were ready to go back? I need to start planning for return to work for financial and childcare reasons. I’m torn between “max out disability” (go back to work 3.5 months after chemo ends) and “it would be nice to get back in the swing of things” (2.5 months after chemo ends). Not a huge difference, in the end. If I do the former, I’ll have been gone for 11 months between parental leave and cancer. Either way I have the option of 2 months of ramp back at 50-75%.

    1. Take all the disability. A month’s difference is nothing in the long term. I’d also choose the ramp back.

       1. +1 to all of this.

       2. +2. I have not undergone chemo, but I would enjoy that extra month off work with your baby since you’ll (hopefully) be feeling well. I would also do the 50% ramp back.

       3. +3

    2. How are you most comfortable? This is financial/health/child & family time. Take stock of your leave, and consider the annual cycle of work for rejoining, there may be timing that could synch with you. Figure out your kids’ schedule too – school or age can sometimes make a difference.

       If you can swing maxing out away time, and be comfortable, go for it!

       If being home during the pandemic was hard, think on how you are most comfortable. In my exact work, we also have people who enjoy their profession, use some leave, and sometimes adapt things by having chemo on a Friday, and recovering with family over the weekend – who also don’t have to take off. Some ask for a custom schedule – however mileage/abilities/limitations vary wildly between people, so know what works best for you, and leave the rest. Best wishes and no guilt as you take care of yourself!

    3. I’d take the month if you can swing it, so your body is as strong as it can be, and do a ramp up. I had cancer surgery but thankfully no chemo (just circulating DNA monitoring) and it’s been almost 5 months now, and I’m surprised still at how tired I get. My doctor told me to expect another couple of months of getting back to speed. Your body has been through something major.

       1. Yay no chemo!!! But boo lengthy surgery recovery.

    4. For me it was entirely a question about my physical health. Are you still mid chemo to are you done? In general, the effects are cumulative so you may feel worse as you go along which may impact your decision. I will note that I had a ton of new side effects pop up after I was done with chemo (chronic pain; early menopause; etc.) but I took a chemo that is notorious even among chemos as being hard on your body.

       I went back in a reduced schedule at 2 months after chemo and was back on a full schedule at 4 months. Many people say it takes a year to feel physically normal again but for me it took 2 years. I am only now feeling like I did precancer.

       Good luck!

       1. If you see this — which chemo did you have? Red Devil/ doxyrubicin?

    5. No exact experience, but based on my experience coming back from medical leave: Max the time and use the ramp up. You’ve been through it. I would not be shocked if you emotionally have a tough time once the immediate health risk is out of the way. Give yourself the space in case that happens. If it doesn’t, wonderful!

    6. Thank you all. I am persuaded and will use this as my baseline when I call the leave helpline tomorrow to get extension paperwork.

11. I have this tote in 2 colors–it’s an absolute workhorse for the price point and looks more expensive than it is. It also comes with a cute little patterned scarf to tie on one of the straps if it suits you. It’s only good for about a year or two of heavy use, though–the pleather starts to peel at the corners.

    1. I’d much rather buy the real thing that’s going to last more than a year than disposable plastic. I have a Cuyana tote that I’ve used as my every day bag for 4 years now and it’s still going strong.

       1. The straps on my leather bags usually peel before 4 years, so I’ll have to check out Cuyana.

       2. I’m sorry you have such a problem letting people enjoy things! There’s absolutely a way to make a product recommendation without being snide about someone else’s product review.

       3. +1 – my only issue with cuyana is that it does last forever so I never get to buy something new

12. Yay no chemo!!! But boo lengthy surgery recovery.

    1. Thread fail.

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