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For busy working women, the suit is often the easiest outfit to throw on in the morning. In general, this feature is not about interview suits for women, which should be as classic and basic as you get — instead, this feature is about the slightly different suit that is fashionable, yet professional.
Let's start the year with a bang, shall we — this Akris suiting certainly fits that bill. I'm very intrigued by the suit, but have the usual questions with extremely loud, expensive suits — who is the market for this suit? I'm guessing a very bold woman who has lots of money and desire to spend on suits. I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like this one.
As I went hunting for the matching pants, I realized it could actually be kind of versatile when paired with a solid color, since there are so many to pick from. Pair it with black pants and a white blouse! Pair it with a dark gray sheath dress! Go even bolder and pair it with a lavender blouse and dark orange pants! They are all bold looks, to be sure — but the overall effect could be very different. Lots of options — I think Akris is even offering some solid cobalt-colored pants if you prefer that.
The blazer is $3,990, and the matching pants are $1,390. It is apparently a collaboration between Akris and Reinhard Voigt (a German artist and ceramist) — and there's a matching dress and blouse. Wow.
Psst: not at all similar, but this is a nice sale on a mint plus-sized suit from Lafayette 148 New York.
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Sales of note for 10.10.24
- Nordstrom – Extra 25% off clearance (through 10/14); there's a lot from reader favorites like Boss, FARM Rio, Marc Fisher LTD, AGL, and more. Plus: free 2-day shipping, and cardmembers earn 6x points per dollar (3X the points on beauty).
- Ann Taylor – Extra 50% off sale (ends 10/12)
- Banana Republic Factory – Up to 50% off everything plus extra 25% off your $125+ purchase
- Boden – 10% off new styles with code; free shipping over $75
- Eloquii – Extra 50% off a lot of sale items, with code
- J.Crew – 40% off sitewide
- J.Crew Factory – 50% off entire site, plus extra 25% off orders $150+
- Lo & Sons – Fall Sale, up to 35% off
- M.M.LaFleur – Save 25% sitewide
- Neiman Marcus – Sale on sale, up to 85% off
- Spanx – Lots of workwear on sale, some up to 70% off
- Talbots – 50% off 2+ markdowns
- Target – Circle week, deals on 1000s of items
- White House Black Market – Buy one, get one – 50% off full price styles
Love!
I probably would never wear the jacket and pants together, but separately I would totally wear it! That jacket with jeans or solid pants would be amazing! And now I’m really tempted…maybe I’ll keep an eye on it in case it goes on sale!
Anon
I would totally wear this suit. together.
oddly enough the pants are nearly sold out!
Anon
As with most of these types of picks, I absolutely love it. Of course, I don’t have $5,000 to spend on a suit, but if I owned this, I would wear it to work events or when I was speaking at something.
Anon
Agreed — I would wear this all the time. All of the pieces. Sparks much joy.
No Face
I love this too.
Lisa Rinna wears wacky suits on RHOBH sometimes. It is basically the only thing I like about her on the show.
Anon
I dislike her so much I’m completely turned off by her fashion at this point, which I probably wouldn’t be on anyone else.
Senior Attorney
SPARKING ALL THE JOY
Curious
But can you fold it into a tiny rectangle?
Senior Attorney
Haha I can try!!
Anon
I love! Quality construction and tailoring and happy Minecraft memories. Bring it (and this week’s Powerball numbers, as this is wildly out of budget). I know that basic suits no longer exist in quality fabrics, so it’s time to go home and feel around the couch cushions for my new suit fund.
Anon
Let me just add this suit to cart….
I’m here to recommend this cashmere sweater:
https://www.landsend.com/products/womens-cashmere-mitered-v-neck-pullover-sweater/id_369085
It’s really nice and an incredible value. It’s a relatively thick sweater, not one of those very lightweight ones, and made of 100% cashmere. It’s not the kind of thing I’d wear under a jacket, it’s more like the top layer kind of thing. I bought it in the beige color and when it got here, I was so impressed that I went back and bought the navy.
flights
How’s the itch factor?
I have trouble with most wool, and now most cashmere, unfortunately…
Anon
I don’t have that issue with cashmere and merino generally (can’t wear Shetland wool tho) so it feels very soft to me. I got a J Crew cashmere for Christmas and the Lands End is softer
Anon
Also I should add, since this is a thicker, roomier sweater, you can easily wear something under it. I wear a 32 degrees base layer under most of my cashmere, to keep it clean.
Favorite sub reddits?
Hi, This has been asked before, but any recommendations for sub reddits?
BB
I know I’m not the only one on here…I read AITA and BORU (best of Redditor updates) if you’re into rubbernecking trainwrecks (the human relationship/behavior kind).
Anon
I also mostly like relationship advice and legal advice.
Skincare addiction is good too.
Anon
For cute pet stuff:
r/dadswhodidnotwantpets
r/whatswrongwithyourdog
r/thecattrapisworking
r/animalsbeingderps
r/longboyes
r/eyesofthevoid
Interesting and sometimes thoughtful:
r/AskHistorians
r/Whatisthisthing
Vicky Austin
I like r/suggestmeabook
r/blogsnark
r/IDidntHaveEggs
Anon
I love blogsnark!
Paralyzed by travel planning!
TIA for your thoughts!
(Fully recognizing this is a privileged position to be in) I am experiencing what I can only describe as paralysis related to making travel plans. Some backstory: I am married with two young kids (who will be approx. 2 and 4.5 this coming spring/summer/fall). Prior to having kids, I traveled a good amount (both as a child, with my single mom, as well as during my school years, college, and post-college). Nothing crazy but I am decently well traveled in Europe, Latin America, Canada, and South Asia. For a few years while dating/engaged, my husband and I did a good amount of travel, but much of it was domestic because for a while we were attending like 8-10 weddings a year, and I was a big law associate for 7 years and therefore never wanted to take more than a long weekend of vacation time. We did do two 1-2 week trips in Europe over the course of those 7 years, plus a couple of 3 or 4 day Caribbean trips. Then we got married, had kids, and COVID hit. I am desperate to start traveling again but I feel totally unable to commit to a location or start booking plane tix/hotels, despite the fact that (a) we have plenty of money to travel and (b) I now have an in-house job with 4 weeks vacation that I can actually take and not have to work during. I have also been told that these years before kindergarten start are a good time to travel because we don’t have to travel during peak season or pull kids out of school.
As an example, last fall we decided to do a Jan/Feb/March (flexible) Caribbean trip this year but never got around to actually planning it, and now it feels too late. I think part of the reason is that I have felt “travel starved” (again, I recognize how privileged and entitled that sounds, believe me!) and so I’m putting a lot of pressure on myself for the trip to be perfect. The other reason is that this will be the first time I am undertaking significant, international travel with two kids (or any kids at all) and I’m worried it won’t be anything like what travel used to be. Ok, I KNOW it won’t. But I can’t seem to get over this. I’m worried we’ll spend a boatload of money and have a miserable time, even though I intellectually know that we are likely going to spend a lot of money, and have some very good memories and some annoying times, but overall will not regret going.
My mom’s 70th bday is coming up (I actually posted about this here a few weeks back) and she wants to go to Spain, so we’ve settled on that. I do like Spain, but again there’s this nagging thing in my brain going “but you love France! And Italy!” and “what will you and the kids [all vegetarian] eat in Spain!” even though I know it’ll all work out.
Any tips for getting over myself?
And, now that we’ve decided on Spain as a destination, please recommend your best itinerary for 7 full days (9 including travel) for 3 adults and 2 young kids, aiming for 2 cities (maaaybe 3 if one of the cities/towns is within a short train/drive from other city). Budget up to $1k per night (not including flights but must include accommodations that will allow my mom to have her own bed, and at least one twin bed for the kids) but would be delighted to spend less. My mom and I have been to Madrid, Barcelona, Alicante and Valencia, but more than open to revisiting one of Madrid or Barcelona. My mom is intrigued by Basque country but it seems hard to get to – I don’t want to spend a ton of time schlepping kids around on connecting flights, long train rides, etc. Travel month is flexible but March, June, or September/October would be ideal.
TIA again for reading this self-absorbed novel!
test run
I think the only way out is through with this – the longer you put off traveling, the more you’re going to stress about it. Just rip the band-aid off (and Spain is not a bad place to do that as I considering a fairly forgiving place, travel-wise, in that it’s really easy to have a great time there). Just tell yourself that this is your first time getting back into it (and your first time with kids) and that it’s guaranteed to be a bit rocky but it will be worth it. If you were just getting back into running you wouldn’t expect to run your absolute fastest race, right? This is the same thing.
Having said all that, I LOVE traveling in Spain – the last time I was in Barcelona, I stayed in a DestinationBCN Apartment that was lovely and I think their properties are generally good for families. I also think it’s work getting to Basque country if you’ve never been since it sounds like you’ve otherwise extensively traveled in Spain. Flying into Bilbao did not require an additional stop for us vs. flying into Barcelona and Bilbao and San Sebastian would both be great for kids. The Guggenheim in Bilbao is great and kid friendly, San Sebastian has a great beach, the adults can drink amazing wine, etc. etc.
Anon
Why not engage a travel agent and tell him or her what you just wrote out, and let them do the leg work?
NYCer
Would you consider Mallorca? It is beautiful and kid friendly IMO. If it were me, I would do 3 days in Barcelona and 4 days in Mallorca. Mallorca is an easy ~1 hour flight from Barcelona to Mallorca, and there are tons of flights on Vueling. The island is easy to get around (I recommend renting a car) and there are a range of accommodations.
NYCer
Ps- I would even consider pushing Mallorca to 5 days, and do two full days plus the travel days in Barcelona. I probably wouldn’t go to Mallorca in March, but June, September or early October would be great.
Anon
+1 We loved Mallorca when we visited last summer with a 4 year old.
Generally with kids that age, I prefer small cities and rural areas to big cities. Our spring break trip this year is Seville and southern Portugal. I can see Barcelona being fun with kids. I wouldn’t take kids that age to Madrid but I also don’t love Madrid in general. YMMV.
Anon
So, three people I know IRL have chucked their corporate careers and become independent travel agents, so that is still a thing. And I say this because I think you need a travel agent. It’s honestly a lot of work to plan a multi-day itinerary for a big international trip with kids and an elderly parent involved – I actually have had some pointed discussions with my spouse about how much emotional labor is placed on me to do all of our trip planning, because it is time-consuming and I don’t enjoy trip planning the way I used to. And so I am considering just hiring a travel agent for our next vacation because I’m tired of all of the detail planning being on me and then if something doesn’t go smoothly, all eyes are on me because I’m the one who booked everything. It would be nice to have someone else to point the finger at (I’m joking. Kind of).
I think part of what’s happening here is you’re going into analysis paralysis, followed by detail paralysis about getting everything done. And so, if you have plenty of money to travel, I think it’s a good idea to throw some money at the problem and have someone else set up the trip for you and all you have to do is pay the bills and enjoy it. I am sure some folks here will have recommendations for travel agents; I don’t want to recommend the people I know because I haven’t used them to plan travel.
anon
I agree with all of this. I enjoy travel, once I get there. But unlike many, figuring out the details really, really stresses me out and detracts from my enjoyment. Get an agent.
wet.ink.sigs
What $ amounts have people seen for travel agent fees for international trips? Realize this depends on the destination and a host of other factors, but I’m considering using a travel agent for the first time ever for our honeymoon (and possibly other trips in the future) and am curious about prices others have paid and what that got them.
Anon
Varies from $0 to a few hundred dollars, normally.
Anonymous
Post over on the moms page tomorrow for more responses. There are a few European posters I think and plenty of people who have travelled to Spain with kids of various ages. I always try to do at least a week as a location as I find it takes kids a bit to adjust to sleeping in a new space. We’ve had better luck with long day trips (think leaving on 8am train, back on 6pm train, and 10am – 4pm in city that is a couple hours away). Train is great because you can walk kids around if they get bored.
FWIW I’ve traveled to Europe with kids every year since 2011 (though not specifically Spain), it’s pretty easy and Europe is mostly kid friendly as long as you’re not in like fancy restaurants or something. 8 year old even informed the Lufthansa steward as we were deplaning last time that he prefers the toy puzzles on Swiss but they are a close second.
My car might be 10 years old but I can’t give up travel (barring a pandemic obv), Europe is a great way to get back into travel with kids. Pro tip – there’s an Ikea and H&M basically everywhere in Europe if you forget kids clothing or eating items. And Amazon Europe has two day shipping as well.
Anon
Agree with all this.
I don’t think you need a travel agent. Europe is easy to navigate. We generally don’t book much in advance except flights and hotels when traveling with little kids. A slow pace of travel and lots of time for parks and playgrounds is best with kids this age.
Paralyzed by travel planning!
I have no idea why I never considered a travel agent! I have vivid memories of sitting in a travel agent’s office with my mom as a kid but it didn’t even occur to me that this was much of a thing anymore (aside from Disney travel agents, which I suppose we will also have to look into soon…)
Any recs for specific travel agents you’ve worked with? Will they typically work with airbnbs or only hotels? Because I stayed in airbnbs (and hostels before that, oy) a lot while traveling as a young adult, I’m partial to the little luxuries/amenities of a hotel, but am open to the idea that having a kitchen would be really helpful when traveling with young kids (plus would make it easier to find multiple bedrooms and enough room for kids to spread out).
Re: Mallorca, I did offer up the option of Barcelona/Mallorca to my mom! It sounds like a really nice trip. Only hesitation is going when it’s warm enough to be on the beach or swimming but sounds like June would work for that.
Senior Attorney
I use Fatima Reep at First Ticket Travel — she’s in So Cal but I’ve only ever communicated with her over email or text or phone so I don’t imagine your location matters. freep@firsttickettravel.com
Paralyzed by travel planning!
Thanks!!
Senior Attorney
Also check out my friend Claire for tours in Italy and environs: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100088689580766 or http://www.claireintheworld.net
Anon
It will be plenty warm in June for swimming in pools in Mallorca. The ocean takes a while to warm up and may still be kind of chilly in June.
This may be an unpopular opinion, but I’d be inclined to just base yourselves in one place, with some day trips from there perhaps. My rule of thumb for travel with toddlers and preschoolers is that it takes twice as long to see everything you’d want to see. So if you’d want to spend 3 days in a city with your DH, you’d want 6 days to see it well with little kids. I definitely wouldn’t do more than two stops. Moving around a lot with young kids is stressful and not relaxing.
Chl
Agree with agent. Also, write down on a piece of paper the amount of money you want to spend on travel per year, and make a list of 25 places you would be interested in going. Also think of the windows that you have (spring break, 1 week in July, week after Christmas, long weekend in October and February, whatever). Then do some madlibs fill the blank planning – you have two week slots and 2 long weekends and one of those is international. Break it down a lot and then just book it! You will not regret not picking the perfect thing in favor of the good!
Anon
Yep this is basically how I travel plan. I have a running list of places I want to go (with input from husband and kid), and we have certain times we always travel and certain places we go. Like we always like to go somewhere warm-ish for spring break, we pretty much always go to Europe in the early summer (between Memorial Day and Fourth of July), we have a week at a family home in New England in late July or early August, and so on. It gets easier when you have school age kids with set breaks.
Anon
The train system in Spain is incredibly easy – I would stick to places you could do with trains instead of flights. If you’re not doing July/August, I’d recommend southern Spain, like a Seville/Granada/Malaga itinerary, which gets you a ton of beautiful buildings, lovely cities to wander through, and beach access in Malaga if you want it. You could fly to Malaga or Seville (most flights look like you’d need to stop over in Lisbon or Madrid) or fly to Madrid and train south. The train would be less than three hours. I think you could easily fill a day or two in Madrid with kids with the Retiro, getting churros, going to the Templo de Debod, maybe splitting up and having the kids run around a square while some adults see museums especially if they’re interested in art, and then the Alcazar in Sevilla and the Alhambra in Granada I think would entertain the whole family. It’s not the greatest place in the world for vegetarians but totally doable – everywhere has tortilla espanola, patatas bravas, pimientos de padron, excellent cheese, and non-Spanish restaurants are becoming way more common. I wouldn’t necessarily get a travel agent for this but that’s because I love to plan – if you don’t, you can definitely have someone take care of the details! Sometimes you can get access to them through your credit card.
Anon
I have similar paralysis when it comes to planning family trips. The best way I’ve found to tackle this is to book the flight. Just book it and don’t second guess yourself. Then move on to the next big item, usually lodging, rental car, or hard to get tickets to an event you want to do on your trip. The rest will work itself out. And make sure to delegate. “DH, find us a hotel in Paris.”
flights
What website(s) are you guys using these days to buy airline tickets ?
I need to fly from Chicago to San Francisco later this month. Flexible. I rarely travel, haven’t flown in many years, not a points person. So mostly looking for a good price, and probably direct flights preferred. I’m a little worried I waited too long to get a ticket…
Also, any pointers for flying these days? Is it true that we aren’t limited in volumes of liquids you can carry anymore? A relative at Xmas told me he forgot about his big bottle of contacts solution in his carry-on, but they just ?scanned it somehow and let him keep it.
Anon
I never purchase from anyone except the airline. You’ll get screwed over if something goes wrong. It can also affect airline status/points earning if you care about that.
Anon
Google flights to peruse, but I just buy directly from the website. You should just buy the tickets now.
The liquids rule hasn’t changed, but I think TSA is a little more lax than they used to be. But they might not be, so it depends on the screener.
Try to just bring a carry-on.
BB
+1 to this. There’s something about the G-Flights interface I find very simple and intuitive to use. But I always book direct. Sometimes it saves a couple of $ since the aggregation is off, but mostly because I’ve had bad experiences booking indirectly and then having a flight cancel or change and no one takes accountability.
Curious
I accidentally left my water bottle full and they just tested that, too. it was fascinating.
Anon
I would never count on TSA being lax, though. It’s not an actual policy change, it’s just some individual employees.
Anon
The 100 ml rule still applies, but I believe that contact lens solution has always been a exception if you declare it medically necessary and get it manually inspected. It’s just a hassle and they don’t want everyone to do it as it slows things down.
Anon
Yeah, there is a medical liquids exception but the better move is to keep your liquids under 3oz. No one has cared how many of those I have at all in years.
Anon
No one cares if it’s over 3 oz either, if you tell them it’s medicine. TSA just glances at it and says ok. I fly carry-on pretty much exclusively but almost always have some kind of medicine over 3 oz for my kids. Prescription not necessary, I’ve had no issues bringing over the counter children’s Tylenol in bottles over 3 oz.
(Caveat: this is for the US. Different countries have varying degrees of strictness about it, and I’ve been to countries that made me toss non-prescription meds.)
Anon
I search on Kayak, just to get a sense of what’s out there – airlines, times, etc – then I buy directly from the airline.
Anon
Book directly with the airlines. 3rd party booking sites were useful in the late 90’s/early 00’s when the internet was in its infancy but now only add risk (you prepay and generally sign away what few rights you have for cancellation/reschedule) for minimal to no savings.
Anon
Contacts solution is a medical necessity and so it’s not subject to the liquids limit. They do still limit other liquids to 4 oz or less and I have seen people trashing full bottles of expensive shampoo in the security line, fairly recently. TSA dot gov is a good read for you so you’re familiar with the rules. They have great videos and lists to help you get ready to travel.
As for buying your ticket – buy through the airline only, not through a third-party service. As someone else said, if something goes wrong – like what just happened with Southwest last week – and you’ve bought through a third party, you will be reliant on them to interface with the airline to get the problem solved, and the airline likely won’t help you because you booked through a third party.
You should buy your ticket now, the price is likely to just go up from this point. Stay off of Southwest, they’re still sorting out their systems. And make sure you watch the weather in the week leading up to your departure date so you’ll be aware if there are going to be problems – remembering that air travel is a huge, interconnected system and so an isolated bad storm in a major hub can cause negative ripple effects throughout the whole system. Apparently there were people who went to the airport in Arizona and California last week and had no idea airports back East had cancelled all flights, or were closed, due to the massive storm.
flights
Wow – I’m so glad I asked. Thank you so much everyone. It would not have occurred to me to buy directly from the airline.
Will do. Thanks again.
Cat
Booking direct with the airline, but using Google flights to play around with itineraries and dates. Third party booking is not worth whatever supposed savings they promise.
pugsnbourbon
+1
Anon
I agree with by the airline directly, but I also book via Chase Rewards. If you have one of their cards with travel rewards it’s a great option (and different from airline points).
Anon
Oh, thank you so much for this reminder. I do have a Chase credit card, so I should check which card I should use for purchasing the ticket.
Anon
Besides SFO also check flights to OAK – from Chicago there’s usually a lot of options there too and it’s a quick ride into SF whether by BART, taxi or Uber.
OOO
DH’s family thinks it’s funny that our 12 and 13 year old niece and nephew are taller than me (I’m short). They have always been tall for their ages, and for years as they were approaching my height, then at my height, then taller than me etc MIL and SIL made them stand next to me to compare heights. I used to laugh it off, now I try to ignore them or quickly change the subject when they do the height comparison, but they are not getting the hint and it is getting annoying. Is there a nice way to tell MIL and SIL that this bothers me and to knock it off?
Anon
I’d retort “are we doing a weight comparison too?” They’ll be taken aback by how inappropriate that is…which leads to how dumb the height comparison is too.
Anonymous
I disagree with this approach. Sure, if your MIL and SIL are insensitive jerks generally, but measuring/being excited about kid height is very different from weight comparison. I’m NOT saying it’s okay to continue to compare, and I do recognize that it’s not cool to be so focused on anyone’s body– but I would chalk this up to obliviousness rather than maliciousness. I could be the oblivious SIL here– it would never occur to me that my SIL would be upset by the comparison (note: I would never do the same comparison between kids) — so I wouldn’t pick up on someone not responding or changing the subject. I’d appreciate a joke-y but direct reminder like the next commenter’s suggestion.
Anon
I agree, as a 5’11” woman with a 99th percentile height kid, so we get a LOT of comments about our height. I don’t think commenting on height is at all the same as commenting on weight. The only context in which the height discussion bothers me is when it also involves weight (my kid is not at all overweight, but simply by virtue of her height she weighs more than the vast majority of kids her age, and some of my friends have made “Can’t believe she’s already X pounds!” comments that I don’t like).
Anonymous
Seeing how tall kids are getting isn’t the same though. Literally is like commenting on how your dog has grown into his paws. It’s marveling over passage of time. It’s also likely to stop as they hit teen years. I don’t think it’s mean intent in any way–I’d frankly just brush it off like the others recommend or stand up for the stupid 3 seconds while rolling your eyes and move on with life. Unless you truly think they are actively trying to hurt your feelings.
There are enough instances of actual malice in the world. I try to save my strength and build up long-term goodwill for when I’m battling the active jerks and narcissists and evil doers.
Anonymous
As someone who was taller than her mom from age 11, it might be bugging your kids too.
You know your ILs the best but with my MIL, it would just be easiest to shrug and ignore, basically grey rock the issue a bit. Get DH onside with that. Think: ‘Oh, we don’t need to stand up – I’m X height and Susie is Y height. I’m below average height/their Dad is tall so it would be surprising if she wasn’t taller. I meant to ask you for the dessert recipe – I really liked how you used almonds instead of walnuts – did you use salted or unsalted’
get over yourself
Oh good grief, this is not something to get in a twist over. Just ignore it.
anon
“Oh, we’ve done this already, no need to compare heights again! Good things come in small packages, hahaha!”
Anonymous
I would just be straight ‘please stop the height comparisons, height is a sensitive topic’.
As someone who was once the tall niece I find this amusing though, I’m wildly average in height but my mom and her whole Italian family are very short and I surpassed them all in height by age 11.
Lily
Tell your DH to tell his mom and sister (in private, and in a serious tone) to knock it off. Passive aggressive, maybe, but probably effective and doesn’t put the onus on you to make things awkward.
Liza
If you’re taking it seriously and really want it to stop, DH should have a private, serious conversation with his mom and sister and tell them it’s rude and inappropriate and needs to stop. This is not for you to manage.
If you’re more looking for a light response in the moment, I think something like, “Um, I feel like we do this every time we see each other, and it’s getting kind of awkward…” in sort of an, “Is it just me….?” tone feels right.
Anon
“I don’t think my height is going to change any time soon, so we can call it – you’ve officially got me beat!” And then don’t get up.
Anon
There is no “nice” way to tell rude people to stop being rude. Your DH needs to tell them in advance of the next visit “Emma and Hudson will not be standing next to Emily to compare heights.” Leave it at that, no explanations needed.
Anon
I am a formerly astonishingly tall child (but who stopped growing at 11, so the world caught up) who is the parent of very, very tall girls (at least until puberty hits). This is about 80% of the conversations I have with people as a parent (yes, they are tall; yes, they get it from me). I take it as a mark of people who think they are too cool to talk about the weather and use it as a mark of dullness.
dear reader
+1 I distinctly remember being 4-5 inches taller than the next other tallest kid when I was in 4th grade. By the end of middle school I was average, and now am an average 5’6″. My 10 year old niece is now following suite and everyone is like “oh she’s going to be so tall!” and I’m just like, yeah we’ll see.
OP, I do think that this is a teasing conversation that will age out in 1-2 years. I personally would just let it age out, and also refuse to engage in any organized orchestrated height comparisons – that is weird. When MIL and SIL suggest it I would just be like, “nah we’ve done this” and move on.
Anon
I’m a pick your battles kind of person. Is this annoying? I guess, it’s not my style of humor. But is it worth making a thing? Not in my book, especially when you’re talking in-law relationships. I’d let it go and laugh with the kids later about how stupid it is.
Horse Crazy
I’d just refuse to get up and stand next to your niece and nephew.
anonshmanon
you could refuse to do it while saying “I’m sure I haven’t grown since we did this last time, so there is nothing to be learned from this!”
Anonymous
If it bothers you to the point that you are looking for ways to nicely tell them you’ve had enough, then just refuse to participate.
“No. We do this every time, and it’s gotten old. I’m done”
Anonymous
Just say ‘No’ or walk away or ignore it. Not dificult.
Business Class?
What’s the most you have spent or will spend on plane tickets?
I am planning a trip that’ll involve double-digit hours on a plane. I am not generally able to sleep at all sitting up (trust me I’ve tried) and will usually end up with a migraine when I arrive due to lack of sleep. The last few vacations I went on precovid, I was able to use points to fly business class and it was amazing. Sadly there don’t seem to be seats at the times I need/want to go. But looking at how much a business class ticket would be….that’s like 2-3 months of my mortgage! I absolutely have the money, plenty of savings and fully funded 401k, no kids, but thinking about what else I could do with that money it seems bananas.
Anon
Can you do two shorter flights with a layover in the middle that gives you time to properly sleep?
Anonymous
I have done this on a trip to Africa that involved 3 legs and 24 hours of travel-overnight layover in Amsterdam with enough time to leave the airport and get a hotel for an actual night’s sleep.
Anon
Yeah, we did this going to the Maldives. Spent an overnight in Qatar just to sleep, which made the travel manageable even in economy.
Anon
Will you be miserable in the middle of the flight wishing you had spent the money? That’s my litmus test.
anon
If I had the money, I would absolutely fly business class on long haul flights.
Anon
Book business class.
Senior Attorney
This Christmas was the tipping point when my husband and I realized that although Booking Day Us often wanted to save money and fly coach, Travel Day Us always wanted to fly business class. So… no more coach for us. We love business class and it’s worth it to us because our vacation starts the minute we get on the plane, instead of after we deplane and have recovered for a day or so.
Senior Attorney
And yes, it’s stupidly expensive.
Anonymous
i agree with the just book it biz class comments and I too can never sleep on long plane rides and can eek out a few hours in biz class. Another idea is to split the flight up into 2 segments and stay overnight somewhere in between. We did this for attending a wedding in bombay from the west coast – flew into Singapore, stayed 2 nights, then onwards. It helped me a lot with the time difference too.
Cat
Buy the economy seat, upgrade with miles
Anon
MUCH easier said than done. These days, airlines don’t let you upgrade instantly with miles. You’re put on a waitlist and it’s very hard to get off the waitlist unless you have high level status with the airline and are seated in a premium economy cabin. When I say “premium economy,” I don’t mean Economy Plus/Main Cabin Extra which is just a little bit of extra legroom. This is a separate cabin ahead of economy that’s only sold on international flights and often costs almost as much as business class. Definitely you are looking at thousands of dollars more per person for premium economy vs economy. I have Platinum status with United and I’ve never cleared an international upgrade with miles even though I get (free) domestic first class upgrades a lot. It was a lot easier to use miles for international upgrades 5-10 years ago, but things have changed.
Anon
You usually can’t do that sadly. Sometimes airlines will let you upgrade for a discounted rate BUT that rate is available first-come first-served at check-in. So, the person on the flight who has a super long layover before the international flight or is coming in via a distant airport gets the upgrade and the people with shorter overall flights don’t get the chance.
BB
It depends on how much value you put on your own time for me. If I take a 15 hour flight sitting in a tiny seat, I will need minimum 1.5 days on the other end to recover. That’s a day and a half I could be using to experience my destination. That’s worth a decent amount to me. That being said, my max for a 15 hour flight would probably be something like $6K per person.
Anon
Oh, please do it! I can’t afford it at all but I dream about it. You should do it! Let me live vicariously through you!
Anon
I refuse to fly anything but business anymore. I can afford it so we do it. It makes the whole trip better. Again, though, I don’t think frugality is a virtue.
wet.ink.sigs
I’ve now flown business class twice using cc points (to Japan and Singapore from the West Coast) and it has been TOTALLY worth it. To the point that I am ready to start paying cash.
Anon
Yeah business class seats are ridiculously expensive. We’re going to buy business class tickets to Australia next year. Looks like the cash price for business would be around $12-15k. But it really does make a huge difference it if the flight is overnight. I can’t sleep at all in economy, but sleep great in a lie-flat seat. On US-based airlines, you can buy business one direction and economy the other (European carriers generally don’t allow this, I believe, but I could be wrong). When we go to Europe we typically buy business for the redeye outbound flight, but come home in economy, since that’s a daytime flight. Business is always nice, but not worth $$$$ unless I need to be sleeping. For a daytime flight, it’s just a better seat and nicer food, and I can live with economy.
Paging size 16 dress pants to share!
Sorry, I was a late response on the other thread.
If you are still willing to send the pants, please DM me at plutus@opinionsbte.com
And–thanks again for the generous offer!
Anonymous
Sorry–that one expired. Please try derick.b92da5f1@nicoric.com
Thanks for the offer
Hollis
I missed out on reading for most of December and I’m trying to catch-up, but I’m not getting the references to Tradwick? I googled it because I thought it might be a character from a show I haven’t seen, but it’s not coming up. Can someone explain who Tradwick is and why we’re talking about him? Is he an actual or a fictional person? Thanks.
Explorette
He’s the Karen of men that everyone made up when someone (Dr. The Original I think?) was having a bad day and needed a laugh. I have never figured out how to search comments to find a thread so maybe someone else can post the link. I’d like to read it again, it was quite comical!
Curious
He is everyone’s least favorite co-worker, amalgamated by the genius of Dr. The Original.
Anon
As the others said, it started with a Dr. The Original thread. Someone said something about Trad, someone else said something about “Chad who never wants to be called Chadwick” or some such, and Tradwick was born.
Vicky Austin
I think we started out calling him “Trad” like traditionalist, then somebody said, “You know if his name was Chad he’d throw a tantrum that you had to call him Chadwick but not learn to pronounce Nguyen” (or whatever) and since Chad/Chadwick implies the existence of Trad/Tradwick, we all ran with it.
Anon
Literally the next day I had an Uber driver named Chadwick. Manifested here.
Vicky Austin
Oh no!! Did you ask him about his secret evil twin brother?
Ses
Yeah, this was a weird moment of hive telepathy which I love.
Dr. The Original invented a horrible colleague, I thought “hah this guy would be named something like a Chadwick but sound more a-holey” and called him “Trad” and she was like – his name is “Tradwick”… and now he’s joined The Skirt, the Professional Water Bottle, and the River S*te in our shared linguistic walk-in closet.
I think Vicky Austin gave him his worst characteristics IIRC
Anon
Don’t forget “gardening” lol
anonshmanon
more specifically, I think she said “help me take the sting out of this rejected job application by dreaming up the ultimate annoying coworker that I just dodged”, and it spiraled from there!
Ses
Oh, right! I hope the job search is going well Dr OG. It always takes a long time for me to find that “click” – best of luck
Tradwick Grammarian
Tradwick says “between you and I.”
Anon
Today is my birthday, as well as my anniversary at my job. Whenever it’s someone’s birthday or anniversary, the head of our department sends out an email to everyone wishing them well, and many people reply. Guess who didn’t get an email today…I’m trying to not let it bother me, but I’d be lying if I said it’s not a little disappointing…sigh.
Senior Attorney
Oh, man! I’m certain it’s an oversight and if it were me I would say “Hey, Dept Head! It’s my birthday AND my work anniversary so where’s my email???”
lifer
Happy Happy Birthday to you!
You are the BEST. Can I just tell you that?
Now be sure to go online tonight and buy yourself something that you have been wanting for a long time, order your favorite take out, and watch a favorite movie or show you have been waiting for.
And I encourage you to cough cough cough today as you are leaving work, and call in sick immediately. Enjoy your day off tomorrow. You earned it.
Anon
Aw happy birthday!! Hope you can do something fun today!
Anon
Happy birthday! Mine is this weekend. Early January birthdays suck! Hope you get some cake today. :)
Anon
happy birthday and you’re doing a great job! we appreciate your efforts even though your boss is behind in checking the schedule!
can you give yourself an extra treat today?
OP
Haha they really do! Everyone is so over celebrating at this point. Happy early birthday to you!!
Vicky Austin
Happy Birthday and Happy Anniversary! Of course you’re disappointed to not get the basic package, as it were. I’m sorry. Hopefully there’s an innocent reason, and whatever you find out, I say this is an excellent reason to Treat Yo Self.
OP
Thanks, all! I really appreciate your thoughts <3