This weekend I had a socially distant backyard BYOB hangout with a middle school teacher friend of mine, and I asked her what she wishes parents knew about return-to-school. She said:
My heart.
When we found out we were expecting our first child nearly nine years ago (!) I was unprepared to the point of near-lunacy. I ended my club-girl partying days approximately one second before we decided to try for a baby, lived in a one-bedroom fourth-story walkup with holes in the floor and an oven that wanted to kill us, and had exactly zero friends with children (in addition to having no siblings or immediate, close-by family members with kids).
The second time around, I was better prepared. I knew to advocate for myself. I knew that PPD was a real thing, and that I was likely to have it. I knew what I needed (diapers) and what I did not (10,000 newborn-sized onesies).
My absolute favorite/least favorite thing about my job doing marketing for Malibu's mobile home parks: The fact that I spend every day looking at houses that I would very much like to own, but do not.
Case in point: This house, which actually made me gasp the first time I stepped foot inside. The view! The ridiculously perfect styling! The walk-in closet of my actual dreams!
Learn about the ins and outs of owning a Malibu mobile home here, and click here to see everything that's currently on the market in Paradise Cove and Point Dume Club.
OK, so going forward I will 1000% be doing my best to spend all my dining-out dollars at smaller, locally-owned establishments, but if you've ever had the bread basket at The Cheesecake Factory, you know why my children (and, okay, me) chose it for our first restaurant meal in...four months? Twenty years? Several decades?
It's been awhile. I was ready for some food that I did not cook myself.
So for this post, let's answer all your burning questions about what a Cheesecake Factory experience is like in Covid Times.
If you buy one thing I recommend in your entire time reading RG, it should really be this chair. It's so comfortable I literally sleep in it. Like, overnight.
Based on Jamie Stone's rec, I tried LaNeige's Lip Sleeping Mask. I was initially skeptical, because isn't it basically just...lip balm? But it's WONDERFUL. Absolutely the perfect texture, with zero stickiness or gloppiness, and leaves your lips so soft. I see no reason to only wear it to sleep.
If you're looking for a Father's Day gift, these memoirs sound so lovely. (Six Gift-Worthy Memoirs About - and for - Dads, via LA Times.)
