Have a Lovely Weekend.

I want to hear/read Anna’s love story! I’ve been reading romances with older protagonists lately- they call the men “Silver Foxes” in this genre. Also read one about an older woman and a younger man. I can’t relate to the college age/young adult heroines anymore!

Shit. Is 42 middle age??

great list as usual. I like the swimsuit article a lot, as it reinforces my own belief that women’s swimsuits should be cute, functional active wear, because playing and frolicking is way more fun then sitting on the sidelines in a tiny wimpy little swimsuit that can’t go the distance.

I got sucked in to Cheer last week! One night I stopped watching at 2:30 am (my bedtime is like 10 ha) not because I was too tired to go on but because the phone I was watching it on ran out of juice! It’s so good first because it’s just well done! But there are so many layers. Like at first the coach comes across as this heroine but then you start to think about it on a broader level and how these young athletes sacrifice their bodies but for what? To further someone’s career? On the surface it’s all jolly and fascinating but it’s actually super complex. That’s why I loved it! So effing good!

We love Codenames! We’ve played it a lot.

For Toby and Anton, maybe check out Calliope Tsuro – a really creative game kids and adults can play together and enjoy, without any reading skills necessary on the part of the kids. Totally different from anything else you’ve played.

I just got this game last weekend and really enjoyed it. The cards are beautiful, it’s competitive but not attack your friends competitive. Good conversation starters as well as you look at the cards/parks.

https://www.amazon.com/Keymaster-Games-KYM0501-PARKS/dp/B07SVNZXY4/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2CK593YTU2JAD&keywords=parks+board+game&qid=1580125675&sprefix=parks++%2Caps%2C228&sr=8-1

I made the banana toffee cake and it is phenomenal!

Thanks for the bathing suit post. Those suits were great and it really hit home the reality if I want to good swimsuit I’m really going to have to increase my budget.

Moreover I wanted to chime in on swimsuits in general. I’ve been wearing bike shorts and sports bras for the last two summers and it’s been great. I also added a full body “swim skin” (think of a full wetsuit but made of bathing suit material). I feel so comfortable and unselfconscious. I feel totally empowered to run, bend, play, swim, and USE MY BODY in/near the water. I used to go to the rivers in my town and stand there in my bikini and think “I’m basically in wet underwear in front of all of these people.” Now I I feel powerful. BTW, the body suit swim skin makes me look amazing.

When I was pregnant with my first child, my husband couldnt bring me donuts to work when he was working from home and I began to weep uncontrollably at my desk until he came with donuts. It was awkward and people pretended not to notice lol.

I completely understand the “I love you” link. I’m not one to express love or affection freely in most relationships, but with my preschooler I can’t seem to hug him or tell him I love him enough. I want him to know that I love him, but I also feel like I have to say it all the time for myself. It’s like a pressure valve to release the intense amount of feeling I have for him and around motherhood.

That bathing suit article was so great. It shouldn’t be so hard to be comfortable in our bodies but it often is (at least for me). Thanks for sharing!

I’m usually a really cheerful person, but once I was having a particularly hard personal week, and a designer I was working for was being pretty terrible, and after a phone call with her I hung up the phone and I just started weeping at my desk (in an office I shared with several other people). My coworkers immediately went in to “Who hurt our sweet cinnamon roll!? THEY WILL PAY!” mode in a way that was endearing and hilarious and instantly made things a little bit better.

I can totally relate to the New Yorker cartoon. I say “I love you” to my 3 teens all the time and have since they were born. I feel you can never say it too much even as a response to “I hate you.” My mom who died 8 years ago always said it to me and it still fills me with love knowing how much she loved me.

Disappointed to see not so much as one sentence wishing a happy Chinese New Year to those who celebrate the Lunar New Year ? this weekend, being that it is the most significant cultural celebration of the year for Asian communities around the world. I know I can’t expect CoJ to be everything to everyone, but after all their efforts to be inclusive to all, including the Asian-American community — especially in the period around the release of Crazy Rich Asians, showcasing writers like R. O. Kwon, etc — I’m surprised that CNY got zero mention here. Representation matters, and it shouldn’t taper off just because the big cultural zeitgeist moment (the release of big Asian-American led Hollywood movies like CRA) has seemingly passed. Heck, even Disneyland is making a huge deal out of the upcoming Year of the Mouse.

To any fellow Asian-Americans reading, may the year of the mouse bring you and yours lots of prospe-Rat-y, health, wealth and blessings galore! Gong Xi Fa Cai! ???

I gave NY bagels as favors at our New England wedding and guests went crazy…

Aaaah, our wedding favor was a bagel & a copy of the Sunday Times for the next day! (we got married on a Saturday night at BAM!)

Code Names is pretty good, but the current obsession (of my sons and husband)at our house is Taco vs. Burrito. They LOVE it. It is pretty fun, I have to admit. Your boys would probably like it, too, Joanna.

Technically it’s not my workplace, because I’m an intern, but I’ve cried in front of my supervisor in session not 1, not 2, but 3 times. It’s okay though, because it’s at mental health clinic, where we’re not only allowed to have feelings, but can talk (and even, on occasion, cry) about them. Feelings. So many many feelings ha ha.

Codename Duets! I love board games but my husband is not a fun person to play a competitive game with, though he has many other lovely qualities! Duets is collaborative…so all the fun of Codenames, none of the stress!

As a young intern fresh out of college I once cried during a review with my supervisor. He’d informed me that he had received feedback from higher up leadership (men) that I came across as uninterested and aloof – I was devastated. What these men didn’t realize is that was that as a 22-year-old woman, I’d been taught for years to sit quietly, to not assert myself, to know my place. It was a catch-22. Years removed from this situation I know that in addition to silently dealing with mental health challenges, my tears were rooted in years of gender conditioning and repression. At the time I was ashamed and embarrassed for showing emotion, now I think it’s a shame that workplace culture continues to be defined by men. Feel your feelings; don’t be ashamed to cry at work.

I cry often at work, haha. I’m a lawyer, and it just gets super stressful sometimes! I’m so sensitive that I wouldn’t be able to tolerate the job if i couldn’t release the pressure from time to time. Lots of lawyers have substance abuse issues, but i can’t really tolerate alcohol or drugs so I just cry instead, lol. It really does the trick! My law partner is an older man and hasn’t cried since he was a child, so he was alarmed by my crying at first, but now he knows it’s no biggie. I don’t think people should have to kill off the emotional or sensitive parts of themselves to be professionally successful. Women OR men. It’s only human!

I’ve never cried at work but I have often been so angry or else overwhelmed that I’ll take multiple 10 min meditation breaks, either in an empty office or a bathroom stall. But if I did feel the urge to cry I hope I’d pull a Tina Fey:

Tina Fey — ‘Some people say, “Never let them see you cry.” I say, if you’re so mad you could just cry, then cry. It terrifies everyone.’

Ahhhh!! Code words is the BEST! My wife had to ask me to take a break from it becuase we were playing it at every dinner party. Have you tried the picture version?

Code names!!! We’re going to our friends’ next weekend to play it :)

1) just started cheer last night! 2) I cry at work every couple of months lol. I have a high stress job but thank god my own office as well. Having a door to shut is a godsend