Have a Lovely (Long) Weekend.

Happy Valentine’s weekend! What are you up to? I’m going on a dinner date with six-year-old Anton, who mentioned the other day that he wants some one-on-one time. I’ve been looking forward to it so much. Hope you have a good one, and here are a few fun links from around the web…

The best advertisement.

Love this article about our shared workspace. (Come join us, if you’re looking for a spot!)

What? Not everyone has an internal monologue!

These fake excuses for flaking on plans made me laugh.

What a beautiful poem.

$0 trick to make any bottle of wine taste better.

Amaaaazing places to sleep around the world. (New York Times)

Who wants some no-bake lime cheesecake?

Golden retriever doing okay after Westminster loss.

A same height party seems kind of fascinating.

Cannot wait to read this book.

Plus, two reader comments:

Says Lydia on a date night top: “I work in the apparel industry and went to a conference where the speaker said something that really struck me — the U.S. is one of the few places where the social norms dictate we wear a completely different outfit every day. When you think about this, it is a bit bonkers.”

Says Jamie on the anxiety of new parenthood: “I never really had anxious thoughts until I became a mom. For the first 6 months, I woke up every night panicking that I had lost our daughter in our duvet cover…except that she has never slept in our bed.”

(Photo by @yasminemei. Friends Work Here article via Swissmiss.)

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Joanna

March 4, 2020 2:52 pm

The comment from Lydia regarding the social norms of american clothing is so spot on! I remember how baffled I was the first time I went to china and saw people wearing the same outfit multiple days in a row. But then I realised that washer/dryers are not super common in homes so it makes sense!
Now that I’m pregnant I have one pair of jeans, three pairs of leggings and probably ten tops that I rotate through. I’m totally over buying maternity clothes because it seems so wasteful when I’ll only wear them a few more months, so I’m not buying anymore. This has really hit home the beauty and simplicity of a capsule or minimalist wardrobe.

Andrea Charles

February 26, 2020 1:24 am

I hear you, Jamie. I used to check my daughter’s breathing while she slept. I used to be scared if I overslept. Maybe we fear we overslept or something! Those are lovely flowers, Joanna. I hope you had a great dinner with Anton. As Maria said, I would love to know the dressing norms around the world.

Maria

February 20, 2020 1:49 pm

I would love a whole post on the social norms of dressing around the world. Like many other readers, I was really struck by this. I recently bought two pairs of the same black pants because they fit so well and I can just get by on those plus maybe jeans for the work week. I also struggle with shoes. I love how some women have different shoes for different outfits, but I have a lot of trouble finding one pair of dressy shoes or boots to wear for work, much less 3 or 4. This really is eye opening in light of recently wanting to reduce what I own, consume and spend. It seems it would just free up so much head space and actual time not thinking about what to wear.

The Analog House

February 19, 2020 1:15 pm

As a “vertically challenged” person, I don’t even bother trying to talk to people at parties who are a lot taller than I am. If you are 6’4″ forget about it!, unless we are both sitting down. I don’t want to try and yell my words, and have the awkward tip-toe while you bend down moments. I wonder if normal height people ever think this!

February 18, 2020 8:39 pm

I feel immense anxiety trying to figure out whether or not I have an internal monologue. I don’t think I do, but then as soon as it’s suggested I’m like, but what are those giant swathes of thoughts???? Sometimes they’re words, sometimes they’re movies, sometimes they’re just…thoughts??? Arghhhh

Katha

Reply to K

February 19, 2020 3:40 am

Yep. It is so hard. Ever since I read about it I’m trying to figure out how I think. How?! How do you?
No voice in my head tough…

Sarah

February 18, 2020 3:43 pm

Omg I had the same duvet cover anxiety for the first 2 months of my daughters life!! It was so bizarre– I would actually wake up looking for her in our bed. She had never once been in our bed.

Lauren

February 18, 2020 8:45 am

I do not have a proper internal monologue (in the sense that I don’t talk to myself), and I’m a writer! I do “write” in my head, especially when I’m running or walking around the city – I never, ever use ear buds, so I have a clear mind for puttering with phrases and ideas I might put into drafts. Flip side: I verbalize the mostly-concept-and-sound-based stuff that flits through my head. This is one of the many reasons I love living with my two cats and working with animals: they don’t speak English anyway, so I feel free to spout conversational and affectionate word salad at them, aloud, as it occurs to me. (A non-infant human, e.g. my husband, subjected to the same nonsense at length would think I’m insane.)

Possibly related: Since I have no internal voice that will say “Oh, FFS!” or “Thank god that’s finished!” to me, I was DEFINITELY the coworker who sighed audibly and dramatically at my desk all the time when I worked in an office. I owe my cube neighbors some drinks, probably.

Ngoc Huong

February 18, 2020 2:10 am

As a person with no inner monologue, still anxious af.

I had absolutely no idea that some people are not constantly talking to themselves in their head!! I thought everyone did it, all the time.

Alex Pearl

February 18, 2020 12:20 am

I am blown away by the internal monologue link. The comments on that article are the most fascinating thing I’ve read in years!

Kristy

February 17, 2020 11:21 pm

I also constantly woke up looking for my baby in bed when I had my first child, despite her never sleeping in the bed. Someone told me that after carrying the baby for 9 months, on a physiological level your body knows that something is missing and somehow translates that to your mind. I found that fascinating.

Carrie

February 17, 2020 5:43 pm

Would’ve loved to see my man Stevie Wonder on that commercial but pretty perfect otherwise :)

Annelies

February 17, 2020 3:32 pm

I live in France and nobody decants here but they do always open the bottle of red in advance to air it… must be something to it

Emma

February 17, 2020 7:00 am

The inner monologue thing is interesting (and along with the mind-pictures version has been blowing up all over social media for weeks so not exactly news) but geez that article you linked to is obnoxious af – some people don’t think exactly the same way I do and it’s “causing irreversible brain damage”, people looked at me “as if I had schizophrenia” … seriously?! And yes, I get that it’s supposed to be ‘tongue-in-cheek’ or whatever, but it really misses that mark. By several miles. I have an active internal monologue, for the record, as well as the ability to see images in my mind’s eye, and I have zero trouble grasping the fact that some other people do not. I also have zero troble grasping the fact that those people have an equally full and varied inner life to mine.

delete apps

February 17, 2020 2:19 am

That same height party is such an unique idea, haha! How could they think about it!