ByElizabeth Hours Updated
Comments 247 Comments

Splurge Monday’s Workwear Report: Eliza Peplum Button-Front Shirt

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A woman wearing a brown button-front shirt and black pants

Our daily workwear reports suggest one piece of work-appropriate attire in a range of prices.

The slightly flared peplum on this button-up blouse from Burberry turns a classic piece into something just a little extra special. If the peplum isn’t your thing, obviously this could be tucked in, but I think it looks really pretty the way that Neiman Marcus has styled it here.

The “bark” color is gorgeous for autumn, but it also comes in classic white.

The top is $655 at Neiman Marcus and comes in sizes 0-16.

Sales of note for 4/17:

  • Nordstrom – Beauty savings event, up to 25% off – nice price on Black Honey
  • Ann Taylor – Cyber Spring! 50% off everything + free shipping
  • Boden – 25% off everything (thru Sun, then 15% off)
  • Brooklinen – 25% off sitewide — we have and love these sateen sheets
  • Evereve – 1000+ items on sale, including lots from Alex Mill, Michael Stars, Sanctuary, Rails, Xirena, and Z-Supply
  • Express – $29 dresses
  • J.Crew – 30% off all dresses
  • J.Crew Factory – Up to 60% off everything, and extra 50% off clearance
  • Lands' End – 50% off full price styles and 60% off all clearance and sale – lots of ponte dresses come down under $25, and this packable raincoat in gingham is too cute
  • Loft – Friends & Family event, 50% off entire purchase + free shipping
  • Macy's – 25% off already reduced prices + 15% off beauty & fragrance
  • M.M.LaFleur – Spring Sale Event – Buy More, save more! 10% off $250+, 15% off $500+, 20% off $750+, 25% off $1000+ (Try code CORPORETTE15 for 15% off if you find any exclusions.)
  • Sephora – Spring sale! 20%, 15%, or 10% off depending on your membership tier; ends 4/20. Here's everything I recommend in the sale!
  • Talbots – Spring sale! 40% off + extra 15% off all markdowns
  • TOCCIN – Use code CORPORETTE15 for 15% off!
  • Vivrelle – Looking to own less stuff but still try trends? Use code CORPORETTE for a free month, and borrow high-end designer clothes and bags!

247 Comments

  1. Best waterproof tall boot? Snowblowing, walking to football games in 6” of snow, standing in them for hours kind of boot. Color matters less than warmth. We also get ice and sleet, water proof is necessary and I am finding a lot of water resistant.

      1. Bog boots. I wore them standing in the water in Antarctica and my feet were fine. If that’s not testament to warm and waterproof, then I dont know what is!

    3. For not a fashion boot, Sorels. So comfy I can cook and stand in them and not have to change to walk the dog and deal with driving rain and muck in the damp cold.

      For more fashion, LaCannadienne.

    4. As someone who spends a lot of time outside in all kinds of weather, I think you need different boots for different purposes. If I’m walking or standing for hours, I can’t stand wearing tall boots. They’re too heavy and they move too much on my feet if they don’t have laces. I wear water proof winter hiking boots (I have some from Merrell) and if there’s a lot of snow, I can wear gaiters on top to keep snow out of the tops of my boots. If you truly need a waterproof tall boot, I agree with Bogs, but I wouldn’t wear them for everything you mention.

    5. I would look for two different pairs here. Cushy and fluffy for dry snow, and heavy and tall for rain and sleet. I just use my Hunters with fleece liners for rain and sleet, though not to be outside for hours, more like 15-30 mins of brisk city walking.

    7. I have a pair of insulated Columbia snow boots that lace up (no zipper) and are great for all of these activities. The base has rubber kind of like a duck boot and I’ve never gotten wet feet while wearing them.

      I’m not sure if they would bill themselves as fully waterproof, though, since that usually implies you can literally step in a deep puddle without water infiltrating the boot. They are definitely water resistant through all the winter slush tromping, snow shoveling, snow shoeing, etc., and are delightfully warm.

    9. I would recommend a different approach to meet all your needs: waterproof hiking boot used with gaiters for deep snow. Hiking boots are going to be meant to be worn comfortably and actively all day. I have an old pair of Merrell hiking boots that are fully waterproof, as in I have stood in water over the ankles in them for an hour and my feet were perfectly dry. What you would look for is a “bellows tongue”, where the tongue is not a separate piece. For example:
      https://www.merrell.com/US/en/thermo-kiruna-2-tall-waterproof/58385W.html?dwvar_58385W_color=J037466#cgid=women-footwear-boots&prefn1=isOnSale&prefv1=false&start=1

          1. I was so disappointed when I ordered a pair a few years ago. I found them to be stiff and they had no traction. If it’s raining, I’d rather wear actual rain boots. Why are they so popular?

          2. I have them as rainboots because they come in, or at least used to come in, narrow sizes so they don’t fall off my feet.

    11. As a Canadian, highly highly recommend the Ugg Adirondack snow boot. Warm, waterproof, good quality, comfortable I’ve been wearing mine for years and they’ve held up.

  2. I need new white winter weight pants, for a pear, 31” waist. Cords are OK. I struck out last year and lost a pair of tan pants recently to a laundry accident (prefer white as replacement). I cannot just wear black in the cold months :(

    2. Talbots has cords in an ivory or winter white color. They usually have them in both “regular” and “curvy” fits. They likely also have at least one dressier, non-corduroy style in winter white – I think it’s their Greenwich style.

      1. I bought five pairs of their “high rise straight leg” last year and absolutely love them. Work horses for me.

    4. Kut from the Kloth is great for a pear shape. I have Ivory cords and multiple pairs of jeans I love. slightly generously sized — I can wear a size down in wide legs, but my true size in straighter ones or white pants.

  3. Help me find a purse to wear to date nights or dinner out with friends. My style tends to be more cutesy/feminine than edgy/ cool, think polka dots not studs. Budget under $500, ideally closer to $200. I already have crossbody bags for wearing to errands/running after young kids, so probably don’t need a convertible/cross body.

  4. I’m finding myself increasingly disillusioned with the corporate world. I’m 39, make around $300k all in, manage a team, and have an MBA. At one point I wanted to be an executive but the last few years have sapped my motivation. I look around at all these companies bragging about layoffs and hear the dichotomy between what my companys leaders say and what they do, and having to sell that to my team.

    I’m on track to retire early but realistically have 15 years of work ahead of me, so I’ve started thinking of blue collar or blue collar adjacent careers that I could pivot into if needed. I could work in some sort of production/line role but think my management skills may be helpful in a different environment. What are some industries or roles I should start thinking about? If anything this exercise makes me a little less hopeless about my current role and the job market.

    1. I think you’re having a minor midlife crisis, and we’ve all been there. BUT! If you’re on track to retire early, this is worth thinking through. Every few years I do a service type job on evenings and weekends to remind myself that I still can.

    2. Girl. No. Take a vacation and recharge. You’re in fantasy land and have no idea what blue collar work really is.

      1. I come from a blue collar family and had family members serve in the military, so I’d suggest that I do know what it is. I’m not suggesting I’ll quit and become a plumber (though they seem to do really well!) but more leveraging my skills for something that has a clear output. Thinking more along the lines of becoming a leader at a plant or running the office of some sort of family business. Right now my job is negotiating for resources and the goalposts of success are constantly shifting, and am thinking about what I could do that would be less demoralizing day to day.

    3. So it’s not just me? I’m 45, probably should work until I’m 60, and have no idea how I’m going to do this for 15 more years. I’m in public service and do fine for a salary, but it’s not corporate money. I manage a small team, meaning I can’t just manage; I have to be a do-er, too, because there’s too much work to delegate everything. It has become such a grind. I fantasize about quitting and working at the local nursery and taking care of plants all day.

      1. 45 year old fellow public servant here and for years I’ve joked that my next job will be at the local nursery, tending to plants and setting up displays in the gift shop. Solidarity!

    4. My fantasy pre-retirement post-corporate job is teaching. I know it’s hard but I think it would use different skills and be meaningful in a different way and I don’t know, that’s my fantasy!

    5. Hey, are you interested in pivoting to a nonprofit job? Your skills might be valuable to an organization with a mission that you care about. You would definitely earn less, but could still make over 100K and have a white collar job. Depending on what you actually do right now, you might look at fundraising jobs (aka “Development”), finance, or marketing positions. I’m a fundraiser at a nonprofit performing arts organization, and my former supervisory pivoted from a career in finance/banking to a corporate-fundraising focused job, and eventually department head at my current org. It was incredibly valuable for us to have someone on staff who understood the corporate world and could interact with our major donors and board members more as a peer. I and many of my coworkers went to art school, have always worked at nonprofits, and really don’t get how the corporate world works. And many nonprofit leaders assume corporate executives know things that we don’t, so you can use that to your advantage in a career transition. Good luck to you!

      2. I wouldn’t recommend development if you want less stress. It is extremely stressful to me knowing that my coworkers’ jobs depend on whether or not I raise revenue.

        I’m making $160 in development, managing a team, raising $5M, all private $, and I am so.burnt.out. It’s not even the budget size. I led a team raising $19M before, about half grants, and we had a much larger donor base for individual donations as well. State and federal funding is being cut, private foundations are literally being investigated and pulling back, and individual donors are reducing their giving. I wouldn’t recommend anyone switch to this field right now, although it is better paid compared to direct service providers sadly.

    6. My engineer neighbor always talks up how great it was to work for the California Department of Transportation. Great benes and hours and interesting work.

    7. What kind of relevant industry experience do you have? (e.g. worked in the energy industry, water, food & ag) What about leadership at a small business with a strong foundation in an essential sector – one that isn’t necessarily buzzy or focused on rapid growth, but doing a quality job and getting customers coming back again and again?

    8. I work in the exact job you’re imagining in a blue collar field (COO at a manufacturing company) and it’s basically just corporate life still. You can either have a corporate job at a blue collar company or a hands-on, physically more demanding job.

      Blue collar companies are the same as white collar companies in that there are great workplaces and terrible workplaces. I think what you want is a good workplace with good culture, and you ought to see if that exists in your field before trying to jump ship entirely.

    9. God, to have the financial security to want to give up $300k for a pipe dream. I can only imagine.

      1. Right? And to be so naive to think a leadership job at a family business or in manufacturing when you have no existing relationship or industry experience will just be waiting?

        1. Manufacturing isn’t bliss either. How many cities across America have deteriorated when plants are closed and business shifts elsewhere? It’s a very commoditized industry with plenty of instability.

    10. Can you pivot to the manufacturing sector? I always think of the Pretty Woman scene where Richard Gere is excited that he is going to partner with the guy he was going to take over, and they’re going to build ships (or something-it’s been a while). I would think manufacturing something useful would be rewarding work. One of my adult kids is an engineer at a giant automotive-adjacent plant, and he is so excited to be part of making something. Their line workers are skilled labor and make $20+++/hour, and the professional staff has nothing but respect for them. It all sounds very wholesome.

  5. I just need a basic bootie to wear with pants to a business casual office. I prefer a rubber sole for wet weather (does not need to be a lug sole). And no more than a 1” heel. Everything now seems comically Arctic or too straight out of Yellowstone or way too casual. Pls send me some links!

      1. They are extremely comfortable, but they also have a lower heeled dress boot in case the heel is too much.

        1. looks too casual for a business office as the OP states

          OP – look at Aquitalia booties.

    1. Yes. I divide laundry by whites/darks/lighter colors and then wash everything together. Sheets are separate only because they take up the entire machine. I had a friend who washed underwear separately from everything else. I just can’t.

    4. Yes, kitchen/bathroom/mudroom towels all get washed in hot water with laundry booster. Sheets washed the same way but in a different load for space reasons. If my husband’s crossfit shirts are particularly gross that week they get thrown in with the bath towels to get washed on hot as well, and I’ll throw in some amonia for general de-funking.

    9. Yes. Honestly I’m not precious at all about my laundry. Sometimes kitchen and bath towels get thrown in with clothes if I need a full load. I was everything on cold.

      1. Yeah the whole point is that I’m cleaning it!

        I do consider it all contaminated until fully clean and dry (so I wash my hands after handling wet laundry, and it would weird me out if the whole load still smelled funky).

    10. No, because sometimes there is some kitchen funk that makes the whole load smell weird. So I wash my kitchen linens separately.

    11. Yes. I still think about the poster here who said she did 14 loads of laundry a week for a household of 2 and I strive to avoid that.

      1. Yikes.

        We do 3-5 loads every week as a family of 3 with school age kid.

        I like to keep kitchen towels separate from everything else, because they are white and all other hot wash laundry like bedsheets and body towels is not, and white sheets are getting their separate load (but not every week!).
        I do wash underwear and socks separately on warm, while T-shirts and pants are washed on a cold cycle, usually separated into dark/white/rainbow stuff. I don’t usually have a full load of the light or colorful clothes every week.

        1. We do 8 loads a week for two adults with a large HE washer and dryer:

          -White sheets on hot (1/2 load; I don’t like combining other things with sheets because smaller items get balled up in the sheets and nothing dries)
          -White towels and bathrobe on hot (3/4 load)
          -Light-colored clothing on warm (nearly full load)
          -Dark-colored clothing on cold (very full load)
          -Jeans and heavy fabrics on cold (nearly full load)
          -Performance fabrics on cold with Hex (load size varies depending on how much we worked out)
          -Delicates (load size varies depending on how many sweaters and dresses need washing)
          -Cleaning rags on hot (very small load but too gross to put in with bath and kitchen towels)

          I generate quite a bit of laundry because I sweat a lot and have a keen sense of smell so I can’t rewear things the way my husband does.

      2. I’m not the person you remember, but I’m team loads of loads. My clothes are worth taking care of, and they keep very well.

        I do hot and long (60 celcius) x2, mixed blues and darks x2 (40 c), microfiber/plastics x1, at least two wool washes (30 c wool) and however many lukewarm silks/sensitives I need (30 c low spin). Each week.

        I hand wash bras, but everything else goes in the machine. My blouses and tops are washed in mesh bags, 1-3 garments per load. All natural fibers, lots of silk and fine wool knits which do better in small loads.

        Dryer for sheets and towels, everything else is hang-dry or dry flat.

          1. Absolutely! Not all kinds of clothes, but silk blouses and fine wool, cashmere or silk knits, yes. All items other people might choose to dry clean.

    12. Heck, I do them all in the same cold water load, with my underwear in there to boot! Those are the whites.

    15. No. Bathroom white on hot with bleach. Bathroom colored/darks separately on hot. Kitchen towels separately on hot.

    16. I’m surprised at how many people still separate whites. It’s really not very necessary.

      1. It is if you want to wash your whites on hot or with bleach. Or if you want to dry white towels and sheets on a higher temperature than you’d use for clothing.

      2. not for color bleeding, but washing black tshirts with white bath towels is a recipe for linty tshirts. Plus I think fabrics hold up better when you wash heavy stuff (like fluffy bathrobes and towels) separately from more delicate material like no-show underwear, jersey, etc.

  7. Do you do personal stuff on your work laptop? Like checking your personal email, track personal finances, check s!tes like this one, etc?

    3. Yep. Especially when traveling for work. Nothing crazy but I definitely check personal email, online shop, and read the news. I sometimes do finances on my work laptop but its a pain because my personal password manager isnt installed on my work laptop

    4. Yes, but I know for a fact there’s no tracking software or similar on it (I’m the chief executive of a small charity so I see all the IT ordering and there’s no-one above me with the authority to install such things). Previously I worked in government and we were told it could be monitored so I kept it to light web surfing off the clock and occasionally logging into my streaming accounts when I travelled for work.

    5. When I worked in an office I did. When I shifted to work from home, I started just using my personal computer for work stuff instead. (My work stuff is pretty much just email and MS Office, not anything secure or specialized.)

    7. No, but I’m a government contractor. I always have a tablet with me to handle personal stuff at work.

    9. I used to at my old job, but now I don’t to anything personal on my work laptop. It helps that I work from home so I have easy access to my personal laptop.

    10. No. We are monitored and actually cannot even access Gmail from work computers. Also, doing so gives some permissions for the firm to see things that they don’t need to see. I just keep it all separate at this point.

    11. Never. Ever. I work in government, and I know that my computer usage (and that of my fellow agency employees) is monitored.

    12. Yes. I know we’re not monitored. I avoid downloading any sensitive personal information and use a separate browser.

  8. For those of you in VHCOL areas who took the plunge on buying an overpriced home, how did you manage it mentally? My husband is so stuck on “but this small house isn’t worth that” and while true, there is no other way to own here. I’m ready to move on past our inertia of complaining and doing nothing even though we (mostly me) hate our rental and desperately need more space. He’s more stuck on how our parents had it easier and how maybe we should move somewhere else (never with any concrete plans or suggestions of where, so I’m over that too – and my job is remote but his isn’t). I’m not criticizing him exactly – I played my part in the years of doing nothing. But now I’m ready to explore how we can make this work, including selling investments to come up with a big down payment, and I don’t think he’s going to get there easily. We already live in the “cheapest” part of our area (Bay Area East Bay) and we’d be looking for the most affordable place possible given the reality of living here – definitely not going all in on luxury visions here. We have a family of 3 and have never lived in more than 1.100 square feet.

    So, those who have been there – what helped you? Finagling a lower monthly payment? Waiting for better interest rates first? What, if anything, takes the edge off mentally?

    1. Do you need to own? Owning, especially in VHCOL areas IMO is overrated. There are so many hidden expenses and as an investment generally you’ll do better in the market.

      1. I’ll add- I did this and now 5 years on really wish I hadn’t. So many better uses for that money and I appreciate the flexibility that renting offers. I also appreciate that rent is more predictable. yes your mortgage is fixed, but there are soooo many random expenses for maintenance and repairs that ultimately I view rent escalating every year as easier to deal with, more predictable, and less expensive overall than owning in these conditions

      2. We originally thought we wouldn’t own but renting (going on 14 years now) has drawbacks too. There are no, and I mean no, rental units that would be even a small upgrade/suitable for a family from what we have now in our town. Our current one isn’t up to code, has popcorn ceilings, single pane windows, and a lot of issues. There are lots of luxury one-bedroom condos but that won’t work for us.

        2. I live in a similar rental market (albeit LCOL area) and know exactly what you mean. There just aren’t spacious rentals that work for a small family.

      3. This is generally my stance, too. I never felt a strong desire to own and knew that many times it’s not the financial investment people think it will be. Having said that, my husband and I eventually bought because there was nothing available to rent in our city that fully met our needs and buying was the only way to get a living space that really worked for us. It was incredibly difficult to get over the mental block regarding how insanely expensive real estate is where we live and unfortunately the years we spent saying, “I would never pay $x for that!!” while prices continued to go up and up meant that we ended up spending way more when we finally did buy. Eventually we just had to bite the bullet and acknowledge that it might not be the exact best financial decision – the timing was never going to be perfect unless we had bought 20 years ago – but we had to do it for our family and to get the right place to live for us even if it was never going to feel great.

        1. OP here and I should have clarified that we would be doing it for the same reasons – to get a place to live that meets our needs, even if we could possibly make more in the market by continuing to rent our sh1thole for years.

          1. Have you given him that argument? Concede that he is right but point out that doing this dumb thing is the only way to get a decent living situation?

          2. Would it help to think of two separate questions:
            a) should we buy or rent?
            b) how much do we want to spend on housing, given that *everything* is going to feel like bad “value for money”

            so if you were going to rent a nicer place (which might mean moving neighborhoods?), how much would that cost?

        2. 20 years ago it was expensive too by the cost of living of the time. I promise you everyone spent over 50% of their take home pay on housing in the Bay Area then too. Today we are sitting in a better situation because we bit the bullet back then. But don’t kid yourself that it was easy then either.

      4. I agree with this. It sounds to me like the core issue is that your husband is fine continuing to rent, and that position isn’t fundamentally “wrong,” it’s just not something you see eye to eye on.
        We left the Bay Area in our early 30s in large part because we wanted to buy a house and couldn’t afford to do so there. I don’t regret moving, we have a much better quality of life here even on a much lower salary than we had there, but I do kind of regret home ownership. It’s so much work!
        My parents rent a 3 bedroom townhouse and it seems glorious. They have tons of space, including a garage and basement, but zero responsibility for their home or yard. Maybe they’ve been lucky but the walls seem thick and none of us have ever heard their neighbors.

        1. Then there are those among us who see the “no responsibility for yard” as a huge downside. My HOA just cut down a 40+ year old willow outside my apartment that kept our patio nice and shady in the summer because “it’s messy and the upkeep is expensive.” Now there’s nothing between our back door and the sidewalk 15 feet away. I was already planning on moving when the lease was up for work reasons, but now I’m extra happy to go!

    2. Meticulously budgeting projected expenses and spending against our income to confirm we really can afford it.

    3. You shouldn’t have to “manage it mentally.” You are going through all sorts of mental gymnastics to try to make what you are proposing seem reasonable. Your husband is still thinking clearly. He needs to get a new job somewhere with reasonable housing prices.

    4. Your husband is right of course, but that doesn’t change your need to live somewhere you feel comfortable and don’t hate. Unfortunately, you live in the worst possible place for this conundrum. The Bay Area is famous for its housing affordability crisis– both buying and renting. Moving may in fact be the best option! Your question is geared toward helping your husband get over his hesitation to buy in this market, but that question presupposes that buying is the answer. It sounds like you need to seriously consider (together, both of you) what you actually want to do, whether buying or renting or moving or something else. You can’t go into this with a foregone conclusion that you’re going to buy and the problem is your husband getting over it. The problem is that you hate your living situation now and need to change it. The solution is for you to come to together.

      1. But what am I supposed to do if he hems and haws for years over what to do? I get it, I was there too, but I’m no longer willing to let the conversation stop at “omg Boomers had it sooo easy” and “I wonder where else we could move? Idk?” While he has many amazing qualities, he’s a bad planner and there’s just no world in which he comes to me with a great idea and a plan for executing it.

        1. He doesn’t have to plan it, but he does need to be involved in the decision making. Unless he’s ceding that part to you (is he?) you can’t just ask him to get over it and get on board, you have to come to the decision together. Practically speaking, I think that means an honest conversation with your DH about how you feel and then coming up with real options together. It sounds like you feel more strongly about this than he does, so it makes sense that you will take the lead, but you also have to be open to other possibilities of how to resolve it. Your answer is not necessarily the only way and if you cut him out of it, you run the real risk of breeding resentment and setting yourself up to take the blame when things inevitably get sticky.

          1. The problem is that he says he wants to explore it, agrees it’s time to take steps, agrees that we need to look seriously before we rule out based on cost, etc, but the mental hurdle of what it costs to buy a small SFH is just too huge. But there is nothing suitable to rent so we are so stuck! His job is ultra niche/Bay Area and it would be challenging to pivot, although not 100% impossible, and mine is remote. Our family is here and we love the natural beauty and outdoor opportunities of CA.

            I guess it’s just that we’re so, so stuck mentally. The government shutdown isn’t helping matters.

          2. This is where we were stuck for a long time too, though the difference is that our jobs are remote and our families far from CA. So we ultimately decided we just couldn’t stomach the housing situation and moved to be closer to family. We picked the one which is also in a major city, though a much cheaper one.

        2. If he’s such a bad planner why are you looking to him to help you plan? Sounds like you’re the planner in the relationship.

          1. Not OP, but I am married to a man who hates to plan but loves to veto all the options. Sounds like OP and her husband are stuck in the same place.

          2. Same boat here. My husband is overwhelmed by the idea of spending money or making change or enduring any inconvenience, so all decisions get deferred indefinitely.

          3. Because she can’t job-hunt for him. Her plan is to buy a house. He is vetoing that plan, but he won’t present the alternative plan that only he has the power to create and execute.

    5. So, this was my husband – mostly influenced by my in laws who were like “well we bought a house for 200k in the 90s so you should too”, meanwhile any sort of SFH in a semi-decent area is $1M+ where we live. What I did is sat down and made a monthly budget – how much could we reasonably afford to spend on a home without sacrificing too much elsewhere? My rule was that one of us should be able to pay the mortgage alone in a pinch (and I was thankful for this when DH was in the hospital with no pay for several months – to be clear I can pay the mortgage and basic bills, but that means no savings and no fun money, not ideal but it works in a pinch). Then we calculated what we could afford, and bought in a slightly “less desirable “area. I actually really love my area, it’s diverse and a great community. I know people say you should rent, but my house and small back yard give me tremendous joy and peace. We also have kids and not worrying about whether the neighbors can hear them screaming is a great comfort. YMMV but it was worth it to me. We bought when interest rates were a bit lower so I know we also got lucky. Good luck to you!

    6. You just do it. It never gets cheaper. My insanely expensive SF house is a bargain today. The area appreciates dramatically over time. There’s nothing to wait for. It’s also where jobs are.

        1. I mean, yes, there are, but I live in one of those “less expensive” but popular places for CA refugees to move, and I can tell you, it’s not that much cheaper at this point and the infrastructure can’t keep up. People keep moving here and then complaining that we don’t have the healthcare they had, the service workers they had, the amenities. Well no crap. You moved to a MCOL place along with everyone else, drove up costs, and we weren’t equipped for you all to be here.

          1. I don’t see how pay is an issue. If you’re moving from SF to someplace like Chicago housing is at least 5 times cheaper (probably more like 7-10x) and you might have to take a 50% pay cut at the very most, more likely 20-30% so you’ll come out way ahead even on a lower salary. (yes there’s more to life than housing, but it’s the biggest expense for most people, and things like childcare can also be much cheaper.)

          2. Lower cost places are not actually that low cost. I’m always struck by housing being maybe 20-30% less than the Bay Area but everything else is roughly equivalent. Pay matters.

          3. It’s a LOT more than 20% cheaper. Median home price in Chicago is ~$350k vs $1.2M for SF. So it’s more like a factor of 3-4. There’s no way you’d feel more comfortable in SF on a $300k or even $400k salary vs Chicago on a $200k salary, unless someone gave you a free house.

            But the biggest difference imo, which isn’t fully captured in median home prices, is that most American cities have affordable suburbs with good schools in reasonable commuting distance. The Bay Area is so densely populated that there’s not really such a thing as a suburb. Even NYC is better than SF for this reason.

          4. Housing is not 5 times cheaper in Chicago, at least not in area that are comparable and that you would want to live in.

          5. We have a house worth ~$600k in Chicago near burbs that would definitely cost >$2.5M in any safe and livable part of the Bay Area even if you shrunk the lot size (which I don’t care about, yards are a pain to maintain). And that’s before you look at the quality of the public schools, although if OP doesn’t want kids that not an issue for her.

          6. I moved from SF to Chicago. In my field, my income went up. Chicago is doing well right now. And yes your housing dollar goes a long way, although prices are rising quickly. But it’s still a bargain relatively.

    7. There are three options: long term renting, buying for $$$, or moving to another part of the country.

      I grew up in Southern California. I chose moving to the Midwest and I’m very happy with my choice. Out of my friends who stayed in California, the ones who own all had family help to purchase.

      I think you both need to be more open-minded about all three options, and have serious discussions. Each choice has drawbacks. There is no wrong answer, just different tradeoffs. If he brings up moving, tell him he needs to start coming up with specifics. If you want to buy, think about the cost of ownership not just the purchase.

      1. FWIW, I’ve watched a lot of people leave the Bay Area for cheaper housing elsewhere and end up on a downward spiral. They end up in housing markets where they get stuck because it’s nothing like the Bay Area, laid off from jobs without great options because it’s a one company town, trying to move to another LCOL area and repeating the cycle. Be careful what path you choose.

        1. I don’t think anyone is suggesting she move to bumblef*ck, Kansas. There are dozens of major US cities that have plenty of job options and housing prices that are least 3 times cheaper than SF.

          1. Not even what I’m talking about. People in the Bay Area have rose colored glasses about life elsewhere and keep making decisions like they’re still here when they aren’t.

          2. Hmm, as someone who left, I don’t agree. I don’t know anyone who left a VHCOL and regrets it; in fact I think it’s the other way around and people living in these areas are bending over backwards to justify the absolutely bonkers cost of living there, without appreciating how much easier life would be when your money isn’t all tied up in your house. Obviously you can’t move to the middle of nowhere just because it’s cheap, but characterizing major US cities like Houston and Chicago and Philly as “one company towns” with no job options if you get laid off is pretty absurd.

            We felt like we were barely getting by in the Bay Area, took a 40% pay cut when we moved to a LCOL city and feel almost absurdly wealthy here. We have a beautiful single family home in a great neighborhood that cost $400k when we bought it and easily would have cost $2M in any decent part of the Bay area at the time. We paid off our mortgage in our mid-30s and have had tons of disposable income since then. The friends who stayed and bought homes in SF are almost all seven figure annual household earners (many multiples more than us in income) and they do nothing except work and pay their mortgage and constantly worry about money and how they will pay the mortgage if one of them is laid off. Will they have a higher net worth at the end of their lives due to the appreciation of their insanely expensive houses, yeah, but is it worth it to live your whole life with no disposable income? I think the answer is probably no, for a lot of people.

        2. Agree— have seen so many people leave and regret it, but then can’t afford to come back.

          2. I feel like that’s the easy excuse people give for why they don’t move back, instead of going into their standard of living being so much better in their new MCOL area.

            We could technically afford to move back, but our standard of living would take a huge hit. Our house would be less than half the size, commute would be way worse, and our kids would be at worst schools.

            Are there things I miss? Sure, but I think they had a lot more to do with the fact that I was in my 20s and early 30s then. My life is just vastly different in my late 30s, and it would be if I had stayed too.

          3. Yeah I’ve seen this too. I grew up in SoCal and knew this was where I’d live forever so I accepted the high cost of living as the price of admission. But if I wasn’t so attached I’d have moved by now for sure.

        3. I agree with this. Be very careful about leaving a VHCOL area. It’s very difficult to buy back in. If you need to move I suggest renting it out.

          I’m in NyC. Purchased a 2 family home and lived in one half, rented the other. Mortgage is fixed. 15 years later I am surviving because my housing is now 25% of my take home pay. I still rent out the other half.

          It’s is absolutely terrifying to spend $1.7m on a home. Today that home is $2.5m and there is absolutely no way I’d qualify for that home today with mortgage rates being where they are.

    8. I just did it. Mentally, I look at how my equity has grown. Was at the end of my rope in my rental and got a crazy good interest rate. The biggest surprise was that I wasted a lot of time thinking I could never own in the Bay Area. Also, I was approved for more and could’ve gotten a slight larger place for a higher price that would’ve been a big stretch. I went with the less expensive option and have never regretted that decision. In general, the more you wait, the more things will cost and that’s how people never get into the market—this is a know your market thing though, and the East Bay is generally the softest market in the Bay Area.

      Pros: equity builds fast, don’t have to deal with the crazy rental market, taxes, it’s fun having your own space to do whatever you want with
      Cons: the market is softening even in the Bay Area, you’re fairly tied to one place (although you could rent or sell), costs for everything have increased every year (insurance, home warranty, energy, maintenance, HOA fees have nearly doubled mainly due to insurance increases), and it takes up so much of your money

      Good Iuck OP!

    9. The real issue seems to be his inability to make a choice. Maybe you need a third party, maybe you need to impose a deadline, but you both need to get on the same page that a choice must be made and work toward implementing that choice. He has to decide would he be open to looking for jobs elsewhere and where specifically would those jobs be available? I too could live many places in theory, but there are more jobs of my type in certain places so I would have more choice in those places. Also, does it matter to you long term to be near family? Answer those questions first before you answer the housing one.

      The major deciding factor for me in owning is that it is cheaper than rent. That’s not the case everywhere. I don’t see the point in comparing housing costs now to housing costs 10 years ago. Realistically, if you’re not moving, housing isn’t going to really get cheaper unless the market turns or they build so much housing that supply exceeds demand (or I guess a policy choice regarding rent stabilization). I would focus on the circumstances available to you now and figure out what you can actually afford to do to fit your life and family.

    10. We are in NYC and bought a coop apartment about 8 years ago, so interest rates were low, which I’m sure helped a lot. We were living in a rent-stabilized apartment at the time, but it was about to come out of stabilization, and we knew it would never get any nicer. We bought a coop that left our monthly cost about the same, allowed us to stay in the same neighborhood/school zone, and gave us the opportunity to renovate an apartment to our preferences. Buying an actual home was never on the table; they are just too expensive in our area, and living in an apartment is the norm here. We don’t want to move to the suburbs, and we knew buying here would be a good investment; non-luxury housing in NYC has been a great investment for many decades. Comparison to our families was never really an issue for us; neither of us is from NYC, and we wanted very different things than our parents/siblings. And I like having less space to keep clean, and no exterior/yard to maintain.

    11. We wanted to put down roots and are big DIYers, so it made a ton of sense for us to buy (also in the east bay) That said, we knew what we were looking for and looked for a long time before finding our house. There’s a great is it better to buy or rent calculator from NYT- it’s worth it to run the numbers and see if there’s any reason buying would be better.

      But it sounds like your question isn’t really about real estate- its about how to get in gear and either make a decision to move to a lower cost of living area or to buy or to be happy with renting long term. How do you and your spouse usually make decisions? I mean, this feels like a thing where a neutral mediator could be useful if you can’t come to a decision together.

    12. I live in the Bay Area and love where I live so much that the very small house I bought for a lot of money is totally worth it.

      It’s ok if that tradeoff doesn’t make sense to you and/or spouse. I wouldn’t stay and grumble about houses being overpriced, though. That sounds like a recipe for unhappiness.

    13. What’s your budget and where are you looking at buying? I am house hunting in the Bay Area and there are still areas where you can get your money’s worth. Let me know your budget and target regions and I can recommend some cities/neighborhoods to look at.

      1. Just off the top of my head: Napa, Sonoma, Petaluma, Livermore, Antioch, some parts of Oakland, Fairfield, Vacaville, Vallejo all have reasonably sized houses under 1 million. I would personally choose Napa or Sonoma if the commute is feasible. Vacaville, Vallejo, Fairfield, Antioch etc are super cheap for Bay Area standards but cost of living isn’t there and you’re far out. Fairfax (Marin) has some cute places that are not crazy expensive. Oakland has quite a few neighborhoods that are lushly woodsy but still reasonable.

        1. Commuting from Napa to SF is insane. That’s like commuting from Milwaukee to Chicago. This is what makes the Bay Area so uniquely unaffordable. Every other major US city, even NYC, has semi-affordable suburbs with reasonable commutes but in SF the only way to get even halfway affordable housing is to go 1.5-2 hours out.

          1. OP didn’t say she has to commute to SF? Commuting from Napa to East Bay is 50 minutes if you time it right.

            And no, commuting from Napa to SF is not commuting from Milwaukee to Chicago. It’s 50 miles from Napa to SF, and Milwaukee to Chicago is over 90 miles (so almost double). You can time your commute so you don’t hit rush hour.

          2. OP here and we’re commuting to Berkeley (him) and occasionally SF but mostly remote (me).

    14. Thanks all, I appreciate the food for thought. We’re definitely encountering two issues: homes are genuinely wildly expensive and that’s going to give most people pause, even if there is some way to possibly come up with the money, and then we’re also prone to decision paralysis. Now that we have a toddler, I’ve snapped out of that somewhat – I can’t imagine living in our POS apartment much longer. My husband could probably last longer here but he says he does want to move – it’s just when we look at numbers that he reverts back to “maybe we should move somewhere else” and then can express no ideas, preferences, or plans for where. We need a kick in the pants of sorts.

      For those who asked, we’re looking in the East Bay – Concord/Walnut Creek border area is as far out as we can reasonably go from work. I’d love to live in Marin (the outdoors!) but it’s not feasible to even dream. We’d be open to a townhouse or condo if the HOA weren’t too absurd (another tough ask around here).

      1. Concord and Richmond are all super doable on a budget. Have you guys looked pretty extensively on Zillow to get a sense of the market? Your husband may have looked at a few houses in expensive parts Berkeley or Oakland and said “what a bad deal” but I think he’d be surprised by how much variation in pricing there is city to city.

        1. As a quick add on, you can easily find a 3-4 bedroom, 1,600-2,100 sq foot house for $600,000-800,000 in Concord. I know it’s not Omaha pricing, but it’s within the range of what you’d be able to get in most major cities or their suburbs in the U.S.

          2. The neighborhoods I was looking at are all safe. Schools are debatable – I typically think the rankings are just a reflection of how resourced and wealthy the student body is. I went to a poorly ranked school with amazing teachers – the low ranking was just because we had a 30% ESL population and more than half the students on free and reduced lunch.

            Lot of classism and racial bias goes into how we perceive certain neighborhoods to be ‘bad’ when they are safe but just less white and wealthy.

      2. Something that’s helped me with decision paralysis is to set a limit on how many options I’m able/willing to look at. So maybe you say: ok, we’re going to buy within the next year – which means if we get to month 9+ and we haven’t made an offer on something, we start making an offer any time we see a house that’s better than the 50th percentile one we saw in the first 9 months. Or, we are going to look at 30 houses, and if we haven’t bought one of them, make an offer on the next best one we see. But put some actual numbers/cost/limits on the amount of waiting (this is to re-orient your brain away from the FOMO/wait and see if something better comes up mode; and into the “waiting is costly; get out of the waiting period” mode)

  9. I’ve found that the best looks on me are fairly straight/slim cuts. Like cigarette pants and a fitted t-shirt. This feels a little counter intuitive since I’m overweight and a pear shape, but with good (skimming not clingy) materials this definitely looks by far the best.

    It doesn’t seem like this look is at all in style right now. For example wide leg pants are a disaster on me. I do think looking good is more important than being trendy. But what is the most close fitting silhouette that is in style now?

    3. 90s looks (fitted, longer, lean) are trending. Go for one of the mockneck or shortsleeve turtleneck, with bootcuts or flares, or a (very) long pencil skirt.

    4. What about flares and a tucked in top with a belt, or flares and a ‘cropped’ (still to your natural waist) top?

      1. This would definitely work. The main thing is finding medium waist pants not high waist. Medium waist now is probably 90s high waist.

    5. I’m a tall, overweight pear who looks like a Lego person in wide-leg pants. It is tragic. Bootcuts and flares are my friends. That said, what you’re describing probably looks great! It may not be the trendiest cut, but that doesn’t mean you don’t look good.

      1. Cigar3tt3 pants are timeless. As long as they aren’t skintight all the way down the leg like skinny jeans, your look will not be outdated.

        OP, I don’t think it’s at all counterintuitive that you prefer fitted silhouettes even at a larger size. Most people of all sizes look their best in well-tailored clothing. The giant blazers only look good on women who are six feet tall; the rest of us look like little kids playing dress-up. And what makes wide-leg pants work seems to have more to do with a person’s ratio of torso to leg than with height or weight.

  10. Boston area ladies:

    I recently moved to NE Connecticut and this morning was my first time driving in to Logan. We drove in on 90, and our drive was mostly deserted until around Grafton when it got heavy – around 6:15 am! – and stayed stop and go all the way to the airport for the remaining hour+. No accidents or other cause for delays. It was so early for that kind of serious rush hour traffic! Should I expect it to be like that every weekday? Say, 6-10 am? I’ll plan accordingly in the future!

      1. We used Google Maps and Waze. Neither foresaw the buildup of traffic and both kept adding delays. My question is whether it’s typical to have rush-hour traffic that far away from the city that early in the morning and if it’s something I should regularly plan for.

        1. Play around with setting the “depart at” different weekdays and times of day and see what it says.

    2. Yes. Welcome to New England, there are too many people for our roads. Afternoon rush hour often starts at 2pm with teachers/school kids and gets heavier until ~7. I’ll often fly out of Bradley or Westchester to avoid Logan/JFK/LGA but in general flying from CT is hard. The Acela/regional train is often an easier option.

      1. When we lived outside of Boston we flew out of Providence whenever possible to avoid the Boston traffic and the chaos that is Logan Airport.

    3. Yes, the morning commute starts at 6 something for those who live two hours away and want to start work at 8 am.

      Fly out of Bradley instead for a better experience.

    5. It’s unfortunately very typical. I would fly out of Hartford even if it adds a layover.

  11. Homeowner basics question: how do you wash your outside windows on your upper floors if you cannot use a ladder? Is there some secret? Are people hiring window washers like my office building? Do the magnet options work where you move it on the other side of the window?

    1. What kind of windows do you have? Ours (double hung) tip down into the house – you just have to know what to squeeze to unlatch the mechanism.

    2. If you’ve got decent water pressure, there are window washing products available at the big box home stores where the container attaches to the hose, and you just spray the windows thoroughly.

    3. I reach my hand out of the window on the windows that don’t tilt. You can also get windex cleaner that attaches to your hose and just spray it down from the ground.

      1. They come off with clips on the inside – hold carefully while unclipping and you can pull them through the window into the house.

    5. My old windows don’t tilt in, so I put a squeegee on a long pole. It’s kind of awkward but it works. Where the reach is longest I stand on a stepladder to get a bit of additional height and use the pole.

    6. Window washers are commonly hired in my suburb. $250 to do a whole house, inside and out (2 stories + basement + large furnished attic). For good quality and no hassle, it seems like an affordable thing to do.

      1. Yesssss this. There is almost certainly a Groupon or whatever right now… or your subdivision may go in on a discounted rate. We pay like $125 once a year, we have to take out screens but we’ve just decided we never open those windows anyway.

      2. Window vacuum (basically, a roomba for windows) to the rescue. Practice on inside windows before you start on the outside windows. There is a tether cord to tie to something heavy and I consider the electric cord as a second tether cord. Don’t wet the windows or the pads too much when cleaning outside windows. I’ve been using mine for 6 years and love it. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DGLFZMWH/ref=sspa_dk_detail_3?pd_rd_i=B0DHH7HVK6&pd_rd_w=LpcR1&content-id=amzn1.sym.386c274b-4bfe-4421-9052-a1a56db557ab&pf_rd_p=386c274b-4bfe-4421-9052-a1a56db557ab&pf_rd_r=TBSA3ZX22M3CRSKYYF9S&pd_rd_wg=LW0D2&pd_rd_r=ca9432ca-b489-4bd6-b811-a98daca555e3&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9kZXRhaWxfdGhlbWF0aWM&th=1
        https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D9Y8ZTJV?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_1

  12. Do you wear shiny/satin blouses to work? My husband seems to think they are not appropriate (claimed it is nighttime attire!). He doesn’t really have any business giving fashion advice, so I’m wearing my satin blouse today anyways with very little concern, but I thought I’d run this one by folks with more knowledge. Assume the blouse is otherwise an appropriate work cut and style…it’s just shiny. Is this an old rule gone by the wayside, or just something silly he made up?

    1. Silk, yes, but matte silk. I don’t really see shiny silk or satin at the office and was taught that it’s an evening fabric. Like what you’d wear with a dramatic ball skirt, or velvet pants, or something.

      1. Same. I used to wear satin blouses on the regular when I was just starting out and didn’t really get the difference between formal/fancy and formal/serious, and that was back when work was more formal. To be fair, I was also wearing it under a suit jacket, so much less of it was visible, but it just was a B- of a look. I also am guilty of wearing silk skirt suits (but where you don’t wear a blouse under the jacket, which is always closed); now I realize that that is what you’d wear to a wedding because while it was a suit, it was in a shiny fabric. I just didn’t know.

    2. Oh one of my default conference shirts is a slightly shiny blouse. I don’t think it’s evening at all but its not like mylar ballon shiny.

    3. Half right, half wrong, depends on the blouse, your gravitas and the rest of the outfit.

    5. For work can mean a lot of things. For a big presentation to the board? No. For a regular day where I feel like something fun or have plans after work and no big meetings, why not.

    6. I got some washable silk quince shirts for work, and they never quite seemed right – it did just kind of feel pajama-ey — not so much that I felt like I couldn’t wear them to work, but they never made me feel 100% confident in my outfit either. I think it’s possible to have excellent, modern silk work blouses, but just harder to get exactly right than more traditional work fabrics maybe?

    8. Your husband’s not wrong: satin is traditionally an evening/formal fabric…but satin blouses for the workplace have existed for decades now, so he is outdated. Still, you want to make sure cut and style are appropriate, as you said you did.

    10. Silk in a classic cut can be stylish and work appropriate.
      Satin is more bedroom. But then I have an aversion to anything polyester so take it with a pinch of salt.

    11. Late but – satin has been popular lately but only in more matte, textured versions, literally rumpled. A shiny shirt wouldn’t be good.

  13. I am pretty sure I have burn out even though I like my job. My husband said I seem like a shell of my former self and I agree. During the week I work, do a couple of household tasks, and then sit on the couch like a zombie until I fall asleep. By the time the weekend gets here I’m too exhausted to do anything. I’m only working about 50 hours a week which I think should be manageable, but there is so much packed into that time that I’m just fried at the end of each day. How do I fix this?

      1. I work from home so there is no commute which helps. I used to work 40 hours a week in an office with a commute so it’s similar time wise and I had no issues then. That job was a lot less demanding mentally and a lot less responsibility, though.

        1. There’s your answer – it’s mentally demanding and lots of responsibility. Unfortunately it’s no great mystery. 50 hours/week of work that is more mentally demanding and more responsibility is going to me much more draining than 40 hours a week. Two additional hours each day of demanding work is also taking away two hours that your brain used to have available to restore and recover.

          Anecdata’s advice is really good – even though it is difficult, when you’re working this much, it’s important to prioritize actually restorative things.

        2. Is it possible your commute was acting as mental buffer/reset time, so it’s a combo of “you’re working 10 hrs more in a more demanding role” *and* you’re trying to switch immediately to home mode, without the 1hr of podcasts-and-driving or subway-phone-scrolling in between?

    2. You find a job that is only 40 hours a week. At 50 hours, you are either working 10 hours a day (which doesn’t leave you time to relax after you factor in commuting, eating, showing, etc) or never having a weekend. No wonder you are burned out.

    3. 3 thoughts
      – even if you’re pretty sure the exhaustion started with the new job, it’s worth asking your doctor about this. Lots and lots of treatable things can cause exhaustion, both physical and mental
      – Are there things that are restorative to you – like if you get home from work and immediately go out on a nice gentle-pace walk, do you feel more exhausted afterwards or more energized? For me, sometimes I’m in a rut where I feel too tired to do restorative things, but if I can lower the activation energy (put on my walking shoes when I leave the office; or decide a walk is okay instead of wasting time trying to psych myself up for a run; or schedule the walk with a friend so I “have” to do it, I can get out of that rut). If your normally-restorative things are leaving you *more* exhausted, that’s a pretty good sign that you need to change something somewhere else in your life, like a new job or that there’s a medical issue in play.
      – how long have you been at the new job? do you feel like you have a good sense of whether it’s intrinsically a lot more mentally demanding, or are you partly still in the everything-is-new adjustment phase?

  14. Semi update/question. I posted a while ago about sharing an office suite with someone who maybe smells musty. At the time I wasn’t sure if it was him or the office itself. I am still confused about how this is happening because he never smells like anything outside of the office but I am now pretty sure it is coming from him because if I get there before him on a Monday morning, the office generally smells OK. I don’t know if it’s his backpack or him in a smaller space but at this point I don’t even care. It bothers me and I hate it and no amount of unscented febreeze or odor absorber canisters in our shared space has done a thing. I don’t think I can say something because I can’t even pinpoint what it is that I have an issue with but I also can’t take it being a thing anymore. I hate the smell and I find it super distracting. How bad would it be to put out a scented something – I know people have migraines and an aversion to scent but others do this on our floor with seemingly no objection and this is largely just our office space so wouldn’t be noticeable outside of our suite. Obviously if the person I share with says it bothers him I would stop it. For reference, we have a suite of sorts so he has his own space and I have mine, with a joint vestibule of sorts. I would put the scent in my office only. Thoughts? Another solution?

    2. What about a humidifer to which you can add a scented oil? Or just a candle warmer for decor on your desk?

    3. Can you just be direct with him? IME air fresheners and scents don’t overwhelm the stink, they just add a chemical overlay. “Hey Bob, something in your office seems to have a strange smell. I don’t think it’s you because you smell totally fine out here. Is it possible something spilled on your backpack or something?”

    4. As a person with allergies to scent, a lot of people don’t say anything about the scent just like you aren’t saying anything about this situation. I wouldn’t read that as acceptance. An air purifier with a carbon filter might help here. They help absorb odors and you can set them to constantly run.

      If he doesn’t smell outside his office, then I would point to either his bag or something in his office. Unless it’s just terrible cologne that wears off, in which case, talk with management about a no fragrance policy.

      1. +1 on the air purifier with the carbon filter over any kind of scented item. Scented items will only mask, an air purifier might rid the smell and will help in cold and flu season

        Does he wear a certain coat regularly and perhaps it has not been washed/dry cleaned? or is a food odor? Like his lunch in his work bag?

  15. I’m looking for velvet pants to wear to holiday events. My problem is that many are cut so slim through the legs, and I do not have slim legs. They are muscular, plus I have very curvy lower hips. Any ideas for where to look? I’m in my mid-40s, size 14.

      1. I bought two pairs of the “High rise straight leg” velvet trousers last year and love the fit. Just posted above about the cords. I am very bottom heavy and they are super flattering.

    6. Anthropologie has the Colette full-length in velvet. I have muscular thighs as well, and the Colette skims right over them.

    7. similar fit issues with most pants over here, and I’ve recently had good luck with Boden pants. They have several velvet options; Belgravia looks most similar to my recent successes.

    8. I have and love the black velvet Deja pants from Tuckernuck. They are wide-legged but fitted at the top and very flattering on my short, muscular legs.

  16. In today’s edition of “Bodies are stupid”, I just had to go to the ophthalmologist for a swollen, red and painful eye. I thought I had caught some sort of infection, but turns out a tiny, thin and light colored lash had irritated my eye ball since yesterday morning, to the point where I could have competed in the zombie category of a Halloween costume contest this morning. Cue my astonishment when the provider expertly removed and presented the offending object to me.
    $125 and some change poorer for this spontaneous doctor visit, because of an eyelash…
    Jeez, happy Monday, everyone.

    2. When I was a teenager, I went to the ophthalmologist thinking I had pink eye. Turned out I had gotten a hair in my eye while I slept that ended up actually scratching my cornea! I had to use ointment and wear an eye patch for a few days to heal it. Hope your eye is feeling better, OP!

      1. That makes me feel better. I felt so supremely stupid and a bit embarrassed but the doctor assured me that they see such thing somewhat regularly (at least that’s what he said, lol).

        Now, an eye patch I would want, it would make me the coolest mom at the bus stop I’m sure.

        1. Don’t feel stupid or embarrassed! I’m sure your eye doctor would much rather see you for something easy to fix and not concerning than if someone who didn’t bother to treat an issue or assumed it was no big deal and was not dealing with a bigger problem. Our eyes are so important and it’s better to be safe than sorry!

    2. I think this is one of those items that only work on specific people (i.e. not me). I think with my long torso the peplum would hit extremely weird, as my hips would only start like a foot below where the peplum ends. Lampshade vibes for sure.

      I think the styling is off on the website, too. Maybe with a straight pant instead of bootcut it could work?
      (But not skinny pants, as that would veer into 2010s territory – just need a coral statement bauble necklace, turquoise skinny pants and make the peplum top white with black stripes, lol.)

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