Currently: June 2026
After more than 3 months of professional hell, I am finally on the other side of my big presentation. In one way, it went exactly how I thought it would. It was never about the work. In other ways, it served the biggest surprises, proving a few things to be true. One, when I am authentically who I am, I can create cognitive dissonance that transcends political pressure. Two, some adults want good things for kids and were willing to make that happen.
However, these positive surprises completely changed my plan for the summer. Nothing this year has been what I expected it to look like. I have a couple of weeks to reset, redesign, reimagine, and then start again. I had originally planned to try and take the last week of June-beginning of July off completely, but interviewing called. It feels like the greatest opportunity of my life, AND I wish I had been given more time to prep for it. At any rate, I’ve done this all before… so I know I can do it again.
This grown up thing is hard – choosing between what you want to do, what you need to do, and what is the right thing to do!
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Wearing:
This summer has been hot and humid. As much as I’ve wanted to dress up, I constantly find myself grabbing the Hill House Daphne dresses. They have an extra 20% off sale this week, so it’s a great time to stock up for next summer. I am living for my all my cotton poplin tops that breathe and my Oscar de la Renta cotton shorts. (I’m definitely obsessed with this Ann Mashburn striped top.) I did take advantage of the Net-a-Porter sale discount code FLASH15 to save 15% on the La DoubleJ foulard top. I’m really excited about it because it matches a pair of my Lafayette 148 gramercy pants so I’ll be able to wear it into fall and next spring!
One of the things that I’ve noticed this year is how much more humid Dallas has gotten and how that makes me feel like it never really cools down. It definitely drains my energy for everything – from getting dressed up to working out. My summer self is constantly thanking me for picking up an extra of anything strong enough to withstand a heatwave.
Travel Planning:
As I mentioned above, work completely changed my plan for the summer. Every summer since 2021, we’ve spent a few weeks in France. Each summer has been a little longer than the last. We’ve had some incredible experiences in France that just continue to open the country up to us in new ways. And, each summer, we’ve tried to visit some new cities, towns, or villages in France. I was really excited about the prospect of a new-to-us summer trip through France this year. I was hoping for some seaside vibes. A quiet resort. The opportunity to focus on wellness. That is not what happened this summer. And, I’m struggling with it… because I was really looking forward to some reset time that made sense for me.
I think I’ve mentioned this previously, but we’re spending our anniversary in London. I’ll be taking my WSET wine exam during that time. Fortunately for us, our wine club will be hosting a dinner in London while we were there… so we’re going to get to celebrate our anniversary with some of our favorite people from the CdB wine team! I am also hoping to see Hamilton again, especially since Leslie Odom Jr. is back for a limited run.
So far, I have work travel to Philadelphia, DC, Minneapolis, and Las Vegas this fall. I could not be less excited about that line up right now. I’m sure I will feel better about it when it gets closer.
One of the things that I really need to push us to do later this year is go new places. We’ve had to cancel a lot of new-to-us trips in the last year. Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE how many friends we’ve made, how we’ve become regulars at restaurants around Europe, and that we know exactly how to navigate certain places. AND, I miss the excitement and awe of experiencing somewhere new. This past winter, we did a few quick stopovers in new cities in between familiar places. It was fun, but it also didn’t feel quite long enough to gain a sense of place.
I think part of me is still grieving the perfect round the world trip we had planned for March, knowing we won’t be able to plan the same trip at the same rate ever again. I need to push us to do more. Tom’s brain loves patterns and familiarity with everything. That means that planning a trip that we will both enjoy in the different ways can be challenging at times.
I’m super behind on blogging and editing photos. Every waking moment for the last few months was consumed with figuring out a strategy for work… so now I’m back to looking for balance right before everything gets crazy again.
