Favorite thing I read this week

Last year, I finally read Paul Kalinithi’s posthumously published When Breath Becomes Air. This week, I was so tickled to read that Kalinithi’s wife, Lucy, has found love with John Duberstein, widower of The Bright Hour‘s Nina Riggs. You really can’t write this stuff. Life is so funny and beautiful. Lucy is also blogger Joanna Goddard’s sister (did you know?), and she featured some additional behind the scenes photos of the pair together. Is it creepy to be so delighted by this family? Meh, I don’t care — I couldn’t love the twists and turns of this story more!

Craziest thing(s) I read this week

I mean, by now you’ve probably heard alllll about the latest political drama. I clicked into this excerpt of Michael Wolff’s book on Wednesday, expecting it to be a political article like any other. Oooh boy, did I underestimate it. Have you read this yet? Here’s a follow up column on how the interviews were obtained, plus an article with some background into the author (with more here). PS, in response to a lawsuit, the publisher moved the release up by 4 days (to today!), which I find hilarious. Ugh, what a mess.

What I’m reading IRL

I came across this Instagram post on Garance Doré’s feed several weeks ago, and immediately ordered the book Women Who Run with the Wolves. It’s dense, but fascinating, and if you can observe your own mind while reading it, it’s interesting to see which myths and analyses you connect with the most. If you’re in the mood for something enlightening, spiritual, and thought provoking, pick up a copy.

More to digest

ALL IN BLACK: Are you going to watch the Golden Globes this weekend? I’ll be interested to see how the red carpet and speeches play out this year, given all the buzz around the new Time’s Up movement.

LATTE LAYERS: You ever seen those awesome latte layers in a clear glass? An engineer who studies fluid dynamics figured out why it happens.

SMARTY PANTS: Ok, file this under articles I wished I’d seen before the holidays, because I would’ve totally put a few of these in Joe’s stocking. How cool are these “smart plugs” that run on wifi? You sync them with your phone and can very easily make your home a smart house.

CONFESSION: In the fall, Joe and I rewatched every single episode of Gossip Girl, which culminated in a season six binge session over Thanksgiving weekend. Here, Vanity Fair takes a look back at the series, with updates on all the actors and the possibility of a reboot (?!).

IN BLOGLAND NEWS: Daaaang, guys. WWD reported that last year, LiketoKnow.it drove a billion dollars in sales from influencers. And that was a 100% increase from 2016. Whoa.

MORE FROM BLOGLAND: Over on <em>press, we’ve shared a totally free 2018 Blog Plan Guide/Workbook! You can download it here.

SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL: It was mesmerizing to watch the behind the scenes craftsmanship of these Chanel runway pieces. Consider this short video your Friday moment of zen. Truly beautiful!

THE SECRETS OF RESILIENCE: What it takes to overcome anything (I’m linking to a FB post which links to the article, so you guys can get around the WSJ paywall!)

DO APPS CREATE WORSE TRAFFIC?: Well, duh. I could’ve told you this anecdotally, from the sheer fact that a) the volume of ridesharing drivers on city streets has gone up and b) in large cities, I find that many Uber and Lyft drivers aren’t from the cities they drive in, which creates traffic slowdowns since they often have no idea where they’re going. But interestingly, there’s a new wrench in the traffic formula: apps like Waze and Google Maps are also making traffic worse. Is it time to go back to 1998 yet?

THIS IS GENIUS: Do you have bluetooth in your car? If you do, you might’ve experienced one of the most annoying downsides of an otherwise awesome bit of technology — the unwanted autoplay of the first song in your iTunes playlist. Ugh! I can’t tell you how many times Lady Gaga’s “Alejandro” has come blasting over my car speakers, scaring the shit out of me and otherwise starting off my journey on an unwanted musical note (I said 1998, not 2010). Anyway, some joker came up with the best idea ever: a 10 minute silent track that will always be the first to play. You can buy it for $.99!

ON ADOPTION: Stephanie wrote a great post about adoption back in November. I share many of her sentiments and experiences. While attending my first ever Korean Adoptee conference back in October, it was interesting to see how common these feelings are among many adoptees (though obviously, everyone’s experience can be very different!).

TYPE NERD STUFF: Can’t go a single Digest post without talking about fonts, duh. I bought A Visual History of Type back in the fall and it’s easily one of the best typography books I’ve seen. The author, Paul McNeil, did a piece for CNN on 6 typefaces that have changed how we see the world. Also, some other type geeks had a discussion about whether the words font and typeface can be used interchangeably.

shop digest

Anthropologie is having a big sale right now, with an extra 40% off all sale items. It’s always such a good opportunity to stock up on kitchenware and other home decor stuff you might’ve had your eye on!

I mentioned this on Wednesday, but M. Gemi is currently running their Twice Yearly Sale, with more styles just added.

Have you checked out Serena & Lily’s winter tent sale yet? Crazy good deals on storage bins and tabletop items, and of course, the best sheets! We have this set Joe won’t sleep with anything else.

Sweet & Spark’s semi-annual sale is on now, and just today, everything on sale is an extra 30% off! Use code WINTERSALE to get the extra discount.

Over at <em>press themes, we’re currently running a New Year, New Blog promotion. If you’re a blogger who’s been thinking about making the move to WordPress, this is a perfect time! All this month, we’re offering $25 off of migration services. So for just $300, we’ll migrate your blog and all its content from Blogger or Squarespace, throw in the theme of your choice, and set it up for you. Get more details here!

PSA: The Friday before Christmas, Joe and I went out to a fancy dinner at Gary Danko, one of the best restaurants in San Francisco. It was kind of our Christmas gift to each other, slash, a belated anniversary celebration (despite having a great vacay in Kauai, we actually never had any kind of formal celebration or extra nice dinner there). Anyway, feeling like I had nothing to wear for such an occasion, I sent Joe a link to this black jumpsuit while he was at Nordstrom the day of our dinner, and asked if he could pick it up for me. If it worked great; if not, I’d return it. YOU GUYS. I hadn’t owned a single jumpsuit before this, but consider me converted. I couldn’t believe how great it looked. Super flattering, super comfortable, pockets, and made you look tall(er) and lean while still hiding the sins of the holiday season. Can’t recommend enough. They also have this similar version that’s currently on sale, though this is the exact one I got. I’m 5’2″ and I definitely need to have it hemmed, but for our dinner, I winged it with black pins. :)

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That’s all the news from here! Wishing you a happy first weekend of 2018 ahead!