Copa

I’ve been dreaming of making a roasted tomato and red pepper soup to use up the end of seasons tomatoes. I’m a big soup person, but don’t make it in the summer, so I always celebrate the return of “soup season” once temps cool off a bit.

I often make guacamole and cheese boards when entertaining. We stick to things that are pretty easy. In the summer, we’ll grill and do things like burgers, hot dogs, veggie skewers. I will say, though, I like making cocktails at home and will go out of my way to make those for anyone who comes over if they want one. I discovered a new-to-me cocktail over the weekend, the kew garden, which might be my fave new refreshing summer drink.

@hfantods I’d wear a dress to a networking picnic. Good luck with the TSwift tickets. I think I became a late in life Swiftie this summer and am now sad I didn’t even try to get Eras Tour tickets.

My boyfriend’s oldest niece is 17, turning 18 next spring. She’s a HS senior. I’ve heard my boyfriend’s bro and SIL talk about her IG and was briefly shown a couple pics once, and they slammed their sister’s parenting over that. Short/tight dress and swimsuit pics with her friends. And IDK. I doubt the niece is doing anything worse than what her peers are doing, or that any other generation’s teens did. She just needs to be smart about social media. I was in, I think, the first incoming college freshman class to have FB when it was still very new and exclusive to certain schools, so I feel like it’s the folks my age who made ALL the mistakes with it. One of my college roommates almost had an internship offer rescinded over something she put online.

@BM Direct but polite is always appreciated in dating. “I’m flattered, but I’m still processing my divorce and not in a space to be dating right now. I’d love to get to know you as a friend if you are interested.”

@Ver Hi! You’re like a guest star among us. Lots of sunscreen talk in the years that you missed. 😛

I’m not yet old enough to be the age of my coworkers’ parents, but old enough to notice when someone is still learning work norms and age/generational differences in the office.

The same work trip where my coworker wore her yoga clothes, a different coworker (recently promoted from behind-the-scenes admin work to an outward-facing role, but has been with us for something like 15 years… I think she’s in her 40s if not 50s) chose to wear a t-shirt that read “QUEEN: Only a queen can attract a king” on our travel day. For both women, I’d have noticed their attire but maybe not thought much of it if we’d been going straight to the hotel on arrival, but we went straight to our HQ. Even with strictly social events that are casual, I still put some thought into what I’m wearing and will try to opt into something more elevated. Our official dress code is business casual at a minimum, but particularly at the director level (at the highest level, this is all men still), the expectation is shirt and tie for day-to-day. I try to take note of what our one woman mid-level director wears whenever I see her in person. She’s in her 50s and always looks great.

On which note, I’m in the market for a new blazer or two if anyone has any recs.

My boyfriend’s parents were young parents/grandparents. They were HS sweethearts and married at 18, started having kids at 19. His mom said they were so young that everyone assumed they got married because she was pregnant. Then his sister also married younger (24) and had kids not long after. His parents would’ve been in their 40s when they became first-time grandparents. I know things have changed but I can tell my boyfriend’s mom thinks it’s WILD that my parents were in their 30s having kids in the mid/late 80s.

Earlier this year, we hired someone at work who drives me nuts. I recently found out she’s 24. We’ve had to go down to our HQ for off-site training a few times this year. The first time we went, they reminded us of the business casual dress code multiple times. On our travel day, we were heading straight to our HQ offices for the afternoon, and she wore yoga pants (“flare leggings”) and a hoodie, both of which were covered in pet hair. She wore the exact same thing the next day to our training. And at the staff social the first night, she was surprised to learn ordering a drink-drink is okay, then had like four mimosas on an empty stomach (she said she was “scared” to go to the buffet and I offered to go up with her). So I’m pretty sure she ended up drunk cause at one point she was holding a piece of broccoli in her hand that she’d grabbed from the buffet and was laughing? It was weird. The second time we went for off-site training was maybe a week or so after Fourth of July, and she was telling everyone how lit she got on the Fourth. But she at least wore business casual attire the second time… I think her supervisor must’ve said something. I know our executive director, he cares how we present ourselves, and there’s no way he didn’t say something to someone re: attire. I know I made some mistakes when I was newer in office settings, but I find her grating.

So I like some of her music but am not what I’d call a fan — I generally like her but only know radio hits, have never followed her, doubt I’d pay to see her perform — and haven’t been following the situation too closely. I was surprised to hear the allegations and think it’s a shame since at least some of her platform is based around anti-bully and body positivity. But then again, she’s in a position to curate her public image. Since I don’t follow her, I haven’t read her statement yet. I assume she denies it, and also suspect this will follow the similar pattern we’ve seen with other scandals where more people will feel emboldened to come forward if they haven’t already.