Currently: October & November 2025
October was full of tricks and treats. This was been one of the more difficult Octobers for me, and I’m not entirely sure why. It was busy with work, heavy with work, and I just wasn’t able to get in a great head space most days. November was fast and furious with a lot of work travel during the chaos that our government created… and then it was time for the holidays, which carry their own complications and weight. I have been trying to imagine what I want December to look like, and I’m really struggling.
On one hand, I’m yearning to break out the mental rut that I’m in. I feel like I’m constantly trying to figure out how to handle my burnout problem, and I just paralyze myself with choice. Is it that I need a quiet, cozy place to rest, relax, and reset? Or is it that I need to reawaken my adventurous spirit with new energy? Is it both? (It’s probably both.) Weirdly, I think this is one of those strange things about being high achieving and high functioning. It’s hard to discern what slowing down should look like because it’s no longer in my nature.
But, enough with the non-poetic waxing, and let’s get to the monthly wrap up.
Wearing:
I don’t feel like I can start talking about the positive parts of the last two months without starting the post with a discussion about my closet! In early October, I cleaned out my back closet, which contains most of my formal clothes and some holdovers from my life before Tom. Generally, I swap these things in and out of my closet depending on the season. This year, I just decided to let a lot of them go. I mailed 3 boxes of clothes to TheRealReal, and I’ve already sold quite a bit of what I sent. I am thinking about using the Poshmark listing service to handle anything that wasn’t accepted by The RealReal. The hands off approach works really well for where I am in my life right now.
I used that as an excuse to do a bit of a shopping for the CdB Members Event we attended in October! I bought the La DoubleJ scarf top I’ve been lusting after. It pairs perfectly with my Lafayette 148 Gramercy pants in olive and acorn that I bought on clearance last year. (I also love it with my J Brand Maria skinny jeans!) When the Kallmeyer Jocelyn draped top went on sale, I bought it in black and aqua. I’m obsessed and it’s SO comfortable. It’s also perfect with my skinny jeans and looks great under the Akris Punto blazers I bought a few years ago. And, I bought the Ralph Lauren Eldred dress, which ended up being absolutely perfect with a scarf I bought in Italy 15 years ago.
I brought out the Bach Mai dress I bought last year for the CdB gala dinner and for a fundraiser I attended at Sotheby’s again this year.
Between Italy (x2), London, NYC (x2), and Paris, I’ve gotten a lot of uses out of the tops already, and I’m already looking forward to summer in France with the Ralph Lauren dress.
Eating & Drinking:
The highlight of October was a quick trip to Castiglion del Bosco for the annual members event at our wine club. This was our first time participating in the full weekend schedule, and we loved every minute of it. Not only did we get to see some familiar faces and friends, but we also were able to visit a few wineries and revisit a few favorite restaurants, too. We spent 3 nights at the Rosewood Tuscany and 2 nights at Drogheria Franci in Montalcino. This was our second stay at Drogheria Franci, and it’s a solid option in Montalcino.
One of the absolute highlights (outside of the members event) was returning to Caffe San’Angelo. This tiny restaurant was one of the first restaurants we truly enjoyed in Tuscany in winter 2018. It’s a tiny place with a handwritten menu and a lot of heart. We popped in for lunch on Sunday afternoon, and it was UNREAL. The pici alla gricia was life changing. And, they had an IGT wine from Sesti, one of our favorite producers that is (almost) impossible to find and proving even more difficult to visit. We also went back to La Grotta in Montalcino for our last meal.
I did a blind tasting with Sergio from Enoteca la Fortezza. 18 wines from a variety of vintages. We try to do this every time we go to Montalcino, and Sergio always surprises us. It’s really such a treat. He is extraordinarily kind. And, at the end, Tom found that they had a very special bottle from my college graduation year… and we bought it. (He negotiated well!) And, so now we own a very, very special bottle of wine.
Travel Planning:
As I write this, we’re wrapping up our Thanksgiving family trip. This year, we took my mom and my cousin on a trip to Cortona, Florence, and Venice. (My cousin wanted to go new-to-her places (Cortona and Venice), and my mom loves Florence.) This is the first year that the Monastero di Cortona is staying open for the winter season, so I was thrilled to support them! We took some cooking classes in Cortona and Florence, and we hired private guides in Cortona in Venice. It was a lovely trip, though a bit chilly.
True to form, I’ve had very little down time to catch up on planning for our winter trip. The most I’ve done on our winter trip was a few extra moments in the airport when I was flying between DFW and NYC for work (twice) in November. We’re toying with making it a road trip from France. The only thing I know is that this trip needs to be more of a balance between places we love and places we’ve been.
The one thing that is always on the calendar at this point is our tradition of spending New Year’s Eve in Florence. We’ve toyed with spending Christmas in Croatia at one of our favorite wine resorts. I’ve thought about renting a house for a week in Piedmont. However, I’ve also considered going back to the Loire Valley resort I loved this past summer, visiting Lyon for the first time, or spending a couple nights in Nice because I doubt we’ll go in the summer. The world is truly my oyster, I just need to settle down and plan it!
