Coffee Break: Tile Stickers

75 Comments

1. Any specific recommendations for mens undershirts that women can wear? I want to buy a multipack of Hanes or Fruit of the Loom or something to just have a uniform for the rest of the summer. Has anyone else done this? What did you buy?

   1. I forgot that I used to buy those in college for lounging in and pajamas… my husband has the 100% cotton Hanes Premium undershirts from Target and they’ve held up pretty well.

   2. Why? So weird. Just buy shirts. Wearing men’s undershirts every day is ugly.

      1. Seriously, what was the point of making this comment?

         1. Well, it’s kinda true. I bought a pack of Hanes on the recommendation of some beauty mag. They do not look on me like they do on the model in the mag – I’m assuming because they were pinned and styled, etc. for the photos. I’d just find some cheap women’s shirts that are cut to be for women.

            1. Yeah, but you didn’t say that because you weren’t actually trying to be helpful, you were trying to be a jerk. Also, it’s not true.

            2. Different poster, but thanks!

      2. No, making jackass comments just for the sake of meanness is ugly. OP, rock those undershirts!
         I prefer the heavier fabric of a t-shirt, so I’m a Hanes pocket T fan, myself.

         1. I’ve noticed a lot of mean comments for the sake of being mean on here lately. Maybe it’s COVID crankiness or just that everything is anonymous.

   3. I have some from Muji that I absolutely adore. I use them to sleep in and they are super cozy — no reason they couldn’t be worn outside. I wear an XS in women’s clothes and the XS mens is pleasantly loose but not enormous.

      1. I don’t understand why the hate on men’s shirts from some commenters. I’m the commenter with the Muji shirts. You don’t know what OP looks like — for some body types, men’s shirts can look great — or what her personal style is. And they are softer yet thicker than any women’s shirts I’ve seen. If I needed t-shirts for outside wear I would definitely buy these again for that reason — mine are heather gray and I just don’t like to wear that color except for sleepwear/loungewear.

      2. Here’s the ones I have, OP. https://www.muji.us/store/apparel/men-s-innerwear/undershirt.html

   4. I think you can buy cheap cotton women’s Tees at Hanes.com. Is there a reason to choose men’s?

      1. Not the op; but I have swimmer shoulders and frequently buy men’s Med shirts. Women’s sleeves require fitting a size 8 chest/waist into an XL shirt.

   5. I’m too small to wear a men’s size without being swallowed, but I buy boys’ cotton or athletic t-shirts. I’ve gotten them at Target and Costco. Costco’s 32 degrees brand athletic blend is my favorite and I like that the boys’ cut doesn’t leave my chest exposed to the sun when I spend time outside. They have multi-packs in men’s and women’s sizes all year and children’s sizes seasonally.

      To all the h@ters: it’s a pandemic. If someone wants to wear non-fitted clothes in their home, more power to them. In addition to men’s shirts typically being made of a less-sheer fabric than the comparable women’s style, they also genuinely fit some women as well or better and are easier to find in stores.

   6. Karla Welch did a collab with Hanes … xkarla dot com. My uniform is The Crew. Runs small – size up.

2. Ha! I could have used that Tile sticker so the Fire Stick remote for the bathroom TV (I know, I know) wouldn’t have been able to hide in the drawer under my makeup for a month…

   1. Now that I don’t have a home phone anymore, I won’t be able to call my phone when I leave it on a shelf in the pantry. Twice in the past two days, I have left the house without my phone. I could only know for sure because there was nothing connected to the bluetooth in my car. I swear, I would lose my head if it weren’t attached. But I did find the bracket for my U lock!

3. Has anyone done an RV trip with family? We are considering a New England tour with our family of 5 (two parents and three kids ages 10-14). I like the idea of roughing it a bit and being able to travel in our own little bubble. But I’m also intimidated by driving such a big vehicle and all the tubes and cords and switches. I’m certainly not a fancy person but also not an avid outdoors-woman or anything. Would appreciate any happy stories, horror stories, or tips. TIA!

   1. Right now? Just remember that unlike the western states, a lot NE requires you to quarantine when you come in from outside. Which could make this impossible.

   2. I like the idea too, but everyone else already had the same idea. They’re next to impossible to rent or buy right now.

   3. Respectfully, now is not the time to tour New England if you don’t live here. As mentioned above, there are strict quarantine expectations in place and travel is only allowed without doing so among the Northeast corridor.

      1. Should have clarified — we are coming from a state with a low infection rate and would test before we left. Most of the time would be in Maine, which allows travel with a negative test within 3 days. We have done our research and would follow all rules. And while I appreciate that RVs are hard to find and that we are hardly unique in having this idea, we have located one that we can rent. So I’m really looking for people’s experiences.

         1. The rental place will orient you to how the RV works. Ask for checklists for setting up when you arrive at camping place and breaking down when you depart – it’ll help you remember to retract the stairs before you drive away! Also, keep in mind that New England towns are small, with tiny little streets and parking lots, so driving a very large vehicle through them can be a challenge. See if there will be a bike rack on the RV – it’s fun to bring bicycles for everyone so you can travel farther than walking distance while the RV is parked for camping.

         2. We went to Colorado in a camper earlier this summer and loved it! It was so relaxing and peaceful – just a great escape from the mess of the world right now.

4. I posted this on the weekend thread but too late for any responses so trying again.

   I recently learned that a co-worker is living with an equity partner. Without re-posting the whole thing, she is the senior associate on his team. Apparently this is widely known but the firm is ignoring it despite it being a clear violation of our policies and procedures. Partnership does not care because he has a huge book of business. Other associates at least claim not to care because she is both super nice and runs interference between him and the rest of the team (he is kind of a jerk).

   I am not complaining. It does not really impact me (and she very nice). But I am curious on how other firms handle this kinds of thing (when there is a romantic relationship between partners/associates, particularly on the same team).

   1. We all ignore it because it is not our business.

   2. I don’t think my big law firm has any policies that prohibit romantic relationships between colleague. I know of at least two partners (different practice groups) who have married colleagues (one was a junior partner at the time and stayed at the firm for a while, and the other was a paralegal who quit fairly shortly after they got married). It doesn’t seem like that big of a deal to me to be honest.

   3. IANAL, but I’ve never worked anywhere with these policies and I was always curious about how they get enforced. Every workplace I’ve had as an adult (all with 50+ employees) had people who dated and married. I feel like most of my friends who didn’t meet their SO online met them through work, because that’s where we spend so much of our time. While I understand that workplace relationships CAN be problematic, I think it’s better to address the situations that are problematic rather than trying to have a blanket no dating policy that will probably be broken no matter what you do.

   4. Unless the pairing is or negatively could impact someone else’s work, so long as it’s “known” no one seems to care. Obviously there is a potential for workplace harassment but that doesn’t seem to be an issue that comes up in a consensual relationship, especially between senior team members. It’s side eyed if a senior partner starts sleeping with a junior in his own group but otherwise, no one seems to care.

   5. I don’t work in law. At my state government, you just have to disclose it to your supervisor and they may then put you on different teams but it’s not prohibited.

   6. To be clear – what my firm’s policies prohibit are romantic relationships between a supervisor and a direct report. There would not be an issue if this was two partners or two associates or even a partner and an associate in a different practice group. What our policies technically prohibit is a relationship between a supervisor and subordinate.

      We are all in the same practice group and she works directly for him on his cases/clients. It is not impacting me at all and I am not complaining – to the extent that he favors her (and he does) nobody else wants that job. I was just curious about how other firms handle this kind of thing and how common it is that the black letter rule is ignored.

      1. Yeah that was clear. We all ignore it.

   7. It seems problematic on several levels that she works directly for him. There are so many ways this could go and most of them disproportionately hurt her as the person with less power in this power imbalance. It’s also gross that people are expecting her to do the emotional labor of managing/mitigating his unpleasant behavior.

5. So . . . Where is Toronto going to play its home games?

   1. Nashville! (I say this only with enthusiasm only because my DH is super excited about the idea. And it’s the wild west here – why not bring in more people?)

6. After someone outed me here (they did it lovingly, no upsetness on my part), I thought I’d share that my first book comes out in print tomorrow. The book was meant for educators but since parents and loved ones are now also educators, it has become a book meant for everyone who works with or has or loves a child and wants them to grow up understanding that learning about and celebrating diversity makes us all better people. It’s called”The Educator’s Guide to LGBT+ Inclusion.”

   The publisher dropped all publicity plans when covid started and all of my speaking and events were canceled, so I haven’t had any celebration or anything over it. Though budget is tight, I am debating the idea of trying to do something nice in honor of the date. I have thought about tiny tanzanite studs but fear they’d shred my satin pillow case. I thought about somehow framing a cover but I’ll have the actual book so that seems unnecessary. I’m not creative enough to think further outside the box haha Any ideas?

   PS Thanks to those who cheered the news when a friend posted about it here and to those who spoke up to protect me when the friend forgot to mention that I was okay with being outed (though I am not posting my usual handle here so there’s still maybe a bit of privacy haha)

   1. There are a lot of artists on Etsy who you can commission artwork from, maybe a painting of the cover or something else symbolizing your book?

      Congratulations! I’m a school administrator and will definitely be taking a look at your book

   2. Congratulations!!!

   3. Congrats!!

   4. Congratulations!!!!

      I met you last year and sort of fell off the earth with life crazy – mea culpa. You’re such a lovely person and this is an incredible achievement – so, so happy for you!

   5. Wonderful! Congratulations!

   6. Dude, you are a BOSS. Great stuff!

   7. Congratulations!

   8. Oh wow! How exciting! Will have to find your book. We had some wonderful Inclusiveness training this summer given by a favorite colleague and I’m sure she’d love to have your book.

7. I’m fortunate to live in a province in Canada where the cases are low and we have carefully reopened. Today first thing when they opened, I went to Anthropologie wearing a mask and tried on two items in the fitting room. I was careful how I tried them on, the fitting rooms were cleaned and carefully organized, yet I still fell as though I did something frivolous. I showered and changed when I arrived home, but I feel as though I should not have done this. My city has adapted to COVID, people are careful, and there are safety measures and social distancing everywhere, yet I still feel apprehensive. Stores have been open for about a month now and a few other people were shopping and keeping their distance. I have popped into a few stores before today, mostly for food and a few times for gifts. I’m on holiday, so I figured I would be careful and do something from before times. Not sure what I’m asking, except I did not expect to react this way as I know I am careful, and know that most people are trying hard to stay safe where I live.

   1. I hear you, but I really don’t think you did anything wrong.

   2. It doesn’t sound to me like you did anything wrong – and given what we seem to know about COVID, the chances that you exposed yourself seem low. But if you’re not there yet with shopping in a store, I would just not do it. I’m certainly not there yet either.

   3. Well, yeah, clothes shopping at Anthropologie is frivolous during a pandemic. I wouldn’t beat yourself up about it, but you probably shouldn’t do that again. It’s not just about your health and safety, it’s also putting the people who work in retail stores at risk.

      1. So it’s better for the retail employees to risk their lives to take transit to work, show up to their job…and then not make any commission or worse, get in trouble for not hitting their hourly sales targets because no customers come in to shop? And then I guess it’s better for them to go file for unemployment (which won’t be “enhanced” after next week!) when they get fired because there are no customers? Man, I love your #quarantinelogic!

      2. I think the employees would probably like her to come spend money so they have a job. The risk of catching it there is so, so low if everyone is masking, which I am sure they were. There is literally no reason to tell her not to do that. Of course, if the store is crowded, you don’t go, but here, it wasn’t.

      3. Way to intentionally miss the point, guys. The solution is obviously a shut down with government paying people to stay home, so we can get over this virus quicker, like every other country has figured out. But go on, do the mental gymnastics you need to to justify your desires to go shopping. Knock yourselves out.

         1. “The solution is obviously a shut down with government paying people to stay home” – if you really think there’s a snowball’s chance in heck that this will actually happen – bless your heart.

         2. Sure. I’d absolutely love to see that. But that’s not going to happen here in the next few weeks (or really ever). So whine all you want about mental gymnastics, but you’re just straight up not living in reality.

         3. I really enjoyed this article from the NYT that talked about how Europe also totally screwed up their pandemic response, hope you do as well! I have sent it to all my friends who keep insisting that “every other country” has just NAILED their pandemic response by doing things like “paying people to stay home.” Actually that really didn’t happen anywhere but hey, Anon at 5:58, thanks for playing and better luck next time.

            https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/20/world/europe/coronavirus-mistakes-france-uk-italy.html

         4. Well OP doesn’t have the power to make that the governmental policy so I’m not sure why it’s relevant. It can be true that the better solution would be for the government to pay people to stay home while it also being true that the reality is that if no one goes to stores, companies will lay people off and the government won’t do squat.

   4. I know what you mean about feeling apprehensive. I’ve had a couple of weird dreams lately where I suddenly find myself in old world and panic–like I find myself on the train and none of us are wearing masks or I’m waiting in line for something and suddenly realize I’m not in a good situation.It’s really weird for me. I’m not normally a stress dreamer.

   5. Thanks for the kinds words. We have very few cases here and a majority of stores want people to return, yet I still don’t feel quite right about things yet. I thought I was ready to return to a careful ‘normal’ like many others have done! I was excited when our city slowly reopened, but I’m still remaining cautious. It’s just a whole other Alternate reality / world out there where some people are acting like it’s all alright, while others remain so cautious!

      1. Then don’t! It can take a while to feel okay.

      2. This is such a weird time and I’m anxious too. I drove my Grandma to a doctor’s appointment on Friday after not being in an enclosed space with her since March. I kept the window rolled down and it was a necessary appointment but I woke up in the middle of the night convinced I had a sore throat and that I had probably gotten her sick.

   6. I don’t think this is a problem if you were shopping with the intent of purchasing. Perhaps we all need to roll back our casual in-person browsing, but we will need to buy things. Personally, I intend to in-store shop for clothes soon. None of my clothes really fit right now and I have no idea what will (i.e., what size I am in any given brand). In a panic for something to wear for a professional appearance, I online shopped blind over the weekend. I had to buy a lot in the hope of finding one to three things that I will keep. Thinking about it, I should have just gone to the stores. It would have been better from an efficiency perspective, from an environmental perspective, and from a pandemic perspective. Now lots of people and materials are going to be involved in packing and delivering and then redelivering and unpacking these items.

      1. FWIW, I have been shopping a couple o ftimes, and that just is not how people are getting Covid. It just isn’t. The stores were empty so anyone there was more than six feet apart, everyone masked, there was hand sanitizer everywehre. The only time I interacted iwth people closely was at checkout, but like I said, we were both masked, and we both used hand sanitizer after the interaction. Bars and home get togethers are where people are getting it, not empty stores.

         1. Respectfully, you have no evidence for that.

            1. Oh go away.

            2. But it is consistent with every evidence backed thing I have read that says two people wearing masks have a very low incident of spread, and two people wearing masks while six feet apart (like all of the shoppers and workers except when I was checking out) have a very, very low incident of spread, and that two people wearing masks and face to face for a matter of minutes have a very low incident of spread. Clearly I didn’t conduct a study while I was in the store but we are allowed to use logic and apply scientific principles to our daily lives, right?

            3. There is still SO much we don’t know about airborne transmission. We cannot possibly draw conclusions about whether being in a store with an AC system and no open windows is “safe.” For stuff that is non-essential like an Anthropologie shopping trip, why assume that science is on your side? You’re not going to do the cashier any favors if you get her sick.

      2. These were some of the reasons that prompted me to go. I over purged, and lost a bit of weight so I was hoping to pick a few things up on sale, rather than ordering and returning online and so on. I figured if I walked to the store, proceed cautiously, and try in person, I could be more efficient than ordering online.

   7. I went to the beach this weekend (with my live-in partner) and stayed at least 15′ away from everyone while sitting down, wore a mask when walking. It felt… scandalously reckless.

      1. Yes… that’s it…I felt reckless – even though if you saw me masked, walking slowly, avoiding the few people inside, I would not have appeared reckless. It will take time to adjust to things open, just as it did when things were closed. Wrapping my mind around this has been a shift!

   8. I’ve gone into a store and tried on clothing (I’m in Chicago). As long as you are following appropriate guidelines, the store is empty or near-empty, etc. and you’re not dilly-dallying, I think you’re fine. Showering afterwards was a good idea, though most importantly would be sanitizing your hands promptly after leaving the store (such as a spray or wipe in your car if you’re unable to wash your hands).

   9. I’m in NYC, and the first time we took a driving trip to a secluded park out on Long Island in May after not going farther than the park half a mile from our house for 2 months I felt so transgressive – it was surreal. (And we packed food and didn’t even stop anywhere to use a bathroom). It has gotten easier, but nothing is simple right now and it is all so exhausting.

8. Money Diaries is back y’all!

9. “Moms of elopers”??

   1. I know, right? I’ve been entertaining myself thinking what that was supposed to be. Moms of slopers bc she lives in Brooklyn?

   2. “Eloping” is a term associated with autistic children who wander/run away from their homes.

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