7.31.24
Summer Sabbatical
Well, that was a COMPELLING pitch on Summer. Wow wow wow. Everything you wrote sounded so delicious and perfect …. For you. For you! In your little linen pants that you don't CARE if they get wrinkly, in your perfect bathing suits and perfect sunglasses! You do summer looking like god damn Grace Kelley. Me? I wouldn't even know how to conduct myself at a farmer's market let alone what to cook with the vegetables when I got home. I can barely bring myself to eat a vegetable!
That said. I am happy for you that you are enjoying your happiest time of year. In the meantime, I will be working on my dissertation on Autumn.
Alas, I have taken a bit of a summer sabbatical after about five months of nonstop work and travel, and so I decided to take 2 ½ weeks off to regroup and refresh. I am not sure I can say I accomplished either of those things (being a mom in summer is a whole job in itself), and I didn't check every little thing off of my list entitled "to do when not working" BUT I did manage to participate in a few slithers of relaxation and culture.
Top of mind for me to share with you is I just watched the Diane Von Furstenberg documentary on Hulu and I kind of can't stop thinking about it. It's titled "a Woman in Charge" and honestly - so fitting. DVF is a powerhouse and a feminist of the ultimate standing. A couple of things I have to say:
DVF's relationship with her mom is so unique and interesting and as her story unfolds you really see how it defines every aspect of her life.
Her mom survived Auschwitz and had Diane 18 months after she was released, which is bonkers. Her mom referred to her as her "torch of freedom" which I think, for Diane, took on deeper and deeper meaning as she grew older and began to truly understand her mother's story.
I think the next thing to discuss, which a large part of the documentary covers, are all of Diane's love affairs. OK this woman knew how to l-i-v-e. As thrilling as it was to hear about how she could just fall in love with a Brazilian man on the beach at the drop of the hat, and not 11 months later move to Paris to be in a relationship with a writer (and on and on it went), there was also this juxtaposition with cut-to interviews with DVF's daughter, Tatiana, who very clearly felt uncared for (in the traditional sense) by her mother during all of these lovescapades.
From the outside looking in, it feels like Diane loved her kids immensely, but she engaged in a very unconventional lifestyle. So, her kids lacked the consistency that most children thrive on.
However, on the flipside, their mother was living out her life as her truest self, leaving nothing on the table when it came to love and business, and she was living this big, giant, exciting, stimulating, adventurous, wild life.
All I could think about the entire time was how it's so cruel that women really cannot have it all.
In Diane's case, she had *almost* all of it, right? She was able (and still does) live fully and completely in her womanhood. But her children suffered for it. Ugh it's so annoying!
One more thing I will say and then I'll move on: Diane visits the spot she is going to be buried almost every day on her walk with her dogs. When asked if she thinks about death often, she replies "all of the time". She continues to say "but not with fear. I can't live without thinking I could die any time because it allows me to have more gratitude and enjoy life".
Profound!!!!
Anyway, I highly recommend watching this documentary - I think you would also find all of the stuff about how she initially started her business, and how it evolved (spoiler alert, it didn't really "take off" the way we know the brand now until she was in her mid 40s) which is so interesting to me!!!
Moving on, a few other things that filled my free time over these past couple of weeks of drifting around without the anchor of work and life at the office …
I read Gary Janneti's new book We are Experiencing a Slight Delay which was the perfect thing to read while sitting in a beach chair with my feet in the water at conomo point (by the way I dropped this at your house, I can't remember when - did you get it?. I love Gary's dry humor, and I follow both him and his husband Brad on instagram so I can imagine his voice telling these stories and their antics together as a couple.
I also spent a day in the city with Alisa visiting the ICA and we saw the Firelei Báez exhibit, and we took the water taxi out to the watershed which was fun.
I binged Owning Manhattan on netflix, which totally captivated me for some reason. I really liked the mix of reality TV drama with the behind the scenes (albeit, staged) scenes of how the deals actually go down. However, the ONLY thing I could think about the entire way through was - realistically, how do these people get around NYC and make it to their appointments throughout the day? I feel like I can't drive from Essex to Boston and arrive somewhere on time to save my life.
Before our shopping ban went live, I bought this and this from reformation - both the perfect thing to throw on in this crazy hot weather - really takes the thinking out of getting dressed but with a kewl little sandal you still feel polished. Earlier this summer I discovered these hair clips and bought the brown and red, and they are just the perfect little thing!!!
Also of note: zara did a kids collection with sea new york and it's so cute. I got Audrey a shorts / tee shirt set that I cannot wait to see her in.
Sigh, I think that's all for now. Back to work over the next couple of days …. Slowly easing back into it …. See you at the office!