September 2020 Shopping Reflections

September has been a strange month. 

In most ways, I'm reasonably well-adjusted to our COVID-era "new normal." Since late July or so, I haven't had any disturbances to my sleep schedule, which is a relief. The only downside is that -  probably because I now get a solid seven to eight hours of sleep a night, due to not needing to commute to the office before I start work - I can't really sleep in on weekends anymore. I haven't had more stress-induced slight tightness in my throat or chest, unlike in the first two months of COVID-19 shutdowns. As an introverted homebody, it's never been a real emotional hardship to be stuck at home, even if I'm now trying to process the daunting prospect of Americans potentially needing to continue taking serious COVID precautions through late 2021. 

But I don't feel quite like myself. At the moment - outside of the political situation in the US - I don't have any major stressors in my life. For now, I only have a reasonable, manageable workload "at the office." My family and friends are doing as well as can be expected. Yet I still find myself feeling unusually irritable at times. I also generally still have trouble focusing on reading for fun, no matter how good or engaging a book is. 

I'm sometimes tempted to describe life these days by saying that a "veneer of unreality" hangs over everything, because life changed so drastically and so quickly from the old, pre-COVID normal. With that, I feel like my judgment and ability to make decisions - whether about small, relatively un-serious things like shopping or about bigger, important things like future job transitions and career development - simply isn't the same as what it used to be. I'm probably being overly dramatic to describe life in the "new normal" this way, but I just can't shake the feeling that I don't feel like myself, because things are currently so sad and strange and - politically speaking - more than a little scary. 

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Turning back now to the lighter topic of shopping: If you read my recent "COVID-era staycation" money diary, you've already had a spoiler for this month's post. I've long been a fan of the London-based jewelry brand Alighieri, designed by Rosh Mahtani. One of this month's purchases is an Alighieri design I'd been thinking about for a long time. During the six-day period covered by my recent money diary, the brand had a surprise one-day sale and I just couldn't resist. 

Fashion - (TOTAL: $411.12)

• Cuyana French Terry Boatneck Sweatshirt, deep ocean - $85.00 - (sold out, other colors available) - These days, I'm really into the idea of matching lounge sets, something I'd never before had any interest in until COVID-19 caused me to start working from home full-time. There aren't a lot of bright teal sweatsuits out there, and the "deep ocean" color of this Cuyana set was what first caught my eye. (I have a bit of a thing for teal, to put it lightly.) I ordered a size L because I like a relaxed fit for things I wear around the house and because of where my chest measurement lands on Cuyana's sizing chart. I think I'd have done better with an M instead, though, because the cotton-modal-spandex blend has a very soft, comfortable stretch. The boatneck, slight balloon sleeve, and back pleat details also magnify the oversized feel even more. Put all those together with a sweatshirt that's already a little big on my short-ish frame, and it starts looking a bit too oversized in the mirror! But I decided to keep this anyway since it's still comfortable, I'd only ever wear it to lounge at home, and none of the details make it less functional for that purpose. 
• Cuyana French Terry Tapered Lounge Pant, deep ocean - $95.00 - (limited sizes available) - I got a size M in this based on the size chart, and that's the right size for me. The lounge pants in this Cuyana set are more typical-looking, I don't think there are any unusual design details, unlike with the sweatshirt. The cotton-modal-spandex material is, again, very soft and comfortable and quite stretchy. I'm not sure, however, that this particular material is better - whether in terms of comfort and function, or durability - than the cotton-polyester-spandex blends commonly found in sweatsuits these days. The cotton-modal isn't very warm, even if it's soft and nice to wear. I've only been wearing this set off and on for two weeks and have only washed it once, so it's too early to say if the material is actually durable or not. (In the past, I've sometimes found modal to start looking worn out sooner than some other materials with regular machine-washing.)
• Alighieri Fractured Cloud Necklace - $231.12* - I've been interested in this particular Alighieri necklace design for quite a while. I just think it's really cool looking, like a wax seal on a letter! For a few months, this design was out of stock on the brand's website, but it popped back earlier this summer. I was still going to hold off on purchasing this necklace because I don't wear much jewelry while I'm social distancing at home. But when Alighieri announced their surprise one-day sale on Instagram, I couldn't resist. The design is as beautiful as I thought it would be, the pendant has a very intriguing, organic shape. 

*Indicates that price includes international shipping charges. 

Do you have any favorite lounge clothes for wearing at home? How has your September been? Maybe I'm not the only one who feels like a "veneer of unreality" hangs over everything now, with all the uncertainty associated with long-term COVID-containment policies in most places and jurisdictions, and with all the other not-so-great things happening in the world. 

Getting Into Fountain Pens

Featuring the Sailor Pro Gear Slim, Yuki-tsubaki pen. I now have... a few more pens and inks now than I did back in July. Most of these inks are samples though, I don't own many full bottles.

I bought my first ever fountain pen - a Pilot Metropolitan - back in early July, after seeing Adina post about her favorite fountain pen inks. Since then, I've been completely enamored with writing and journaling with fountain pens. Though I've only been part of the fountain pen hobby for three months, the size of my collection is already formidable. And judging from various comments and posts in the many super-active online fountain pen communities out there, I'm far from the only person who started their participation in this hobby - and then escalated very quickly - during these recent months of COVID-19 social distancing! 

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Just the pens and bottled inks I mentioned in late July, including the ones sampled in the photograph - plus a converter for each pen that needs one, so I can actually use bottled inks - totals to a retail value of approximately $240 (including the dozen ink samples at ~$2 each). Everything discussed in that post was purchased at the US retail price. (Some Japanese pens and inks can also be readily obtained more cheaply from gray market sellers, including on Amazon, because they retail for significantly less in Japan.) And, ah, I now have... at least a few more pens and inks than in late July. In short, fountain pens can be a fairly expensive hobby. I'm even omitting the not-insignificant cost of fountain pen-friendly notebooks and paper! 

It's interesting to me to think about how this hobby and its associated online communities are similar to - but also different from - my fashion hobby and its relevant online communities. Though I can't exactly say I'm an expert in either hobby, of course. 

To tell the truth, I can barely even claim to be that knowledgeable about the relevant online communities either. Outside of keeping this blog and responding to comments here, I'm basically just a "lurker" or observer. I'm extremely shy - even when online and mostly anonymous - and only rarely interact directly with other people in any of these hobbies, whether on Instagram, Reddit, or otherwise. So my thoughts do need to be taken with that grain of salt.

Similarity: Lots of Small Businesses and Independent Creators to Support

Much like with fashion, there are many small businesses and individual creators and artists in the fountain pen space. Fountain pens are a fairly specialized, niche interest after all.

I mentioned in my recent money diary that I've been shopping online for some of my fountain pens, inks, and fountain pen-friendly notebooks from Yoseka Stationery, a small independent shop that's local to me. (They're great, and I highly recommend them!) From looking at Yelp, I understand there aren't many other brick and mortar stores in NYC that stock a wide range of fountain pens and inks. Fountain Pen Hospital may be the only dedicated fountain pen shop in the city. 

Super-large companies like Amazon do sell fountain pens and related supplies. Target even has a limited selection of slightly below-retail Pilot Metropolitan fountain pens and Pilot Iroshizuku fountain pen ink (only four colors, and only Take-Sumi and Asa-Gao are below retail at the time of this writing). Though it may generally be best to avoid such non-specialist retailers, at least for ink. When ink is not packed properly - as the specialized retailers generally all take special care to do - disaster can ensue. But I should note that most new fountain pens come in very secure packaging, generally in small padded boxes, so buying the pens themselves from a big-box retailer probably doesn't carry particular risk of damage in transit. I've read anecdotal comments about counterfeit Lamy pens on Amazon, however, so that's something to be aware of. 

There are also larger stationery or fountain pen online retailers that are still relatively small businesses, in the grand scheme of things. In addition to Yoseka Stationery, I've enjoyed shopping from Goulet Pens, Jetpens, and Goldspot. 

On Justice Ginsburg

A photograph of Justice Ginsburg with other members of the Harvard Law Review. She was the first female member of the Law Review, and one of only nine women in her Harvard Law School class of over 500 students (archive.is link, if needed). Due to family reasons, she ultimately moved to New York City and completed her 3L year as a graduate of Columbia Law School instead.

I was devastated to learn of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's passing last Friday. Justice Ginsburg was a trailblazer in the profession, entering it in a time when women were, by and large, unwelcome. 

Three years ago, in July 2017, I wrote a blog entry discussing some of Justice Ginsburg's personal writing, focusing mainly on her opinion piece about her "Advice for Living," which she wrote for the New York Times in October 2016 (archive.is link, if needed). In that entry, I made sure to emphasize just how extraordinary she was, just how extreme the obstacles were against her and against all women who sought to become attorneys in her day:

I had to search hard for a readily accessible online citation for how things were: "Upon graduation from Columbia Law School with top honors in 1959, [Justice Ginsburg] received no job offer from any law firm in New York City, presumably because white shoe law firms were aghast that a woman, a mother and a Jew would dare think she was qualified for the job." She has also written that, back then, law firms simply "would engage no women" as a matter of absolute policy. [See Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, The Changing Complexion of Harvard Law School, 27 Harv. Women's L.J. 303, 307 (2004).] 

So I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that all women attorneys practicing today - regardless of political views or preferred judicial philosophy - should reasonably consider Justice Ginsburg to be a role model, someone who helped make it possible for us to participate fully in the profession today.  We are all, in a way, part of her legacy to the profession. While the legal profession remains an extremely challenging one for women and minorities to navigate, it has come a very long way since the early days of Justice Ginsburg's career. 

By now, you've probably also seen that, long before she was appointed to the Supreme Court, Justice Ginsburg was a brilliant attorney. In that time, she argued several key cases before the Supreme Court that developed our gender discrimination jurisprudence under the equal protection clause of the United States Constitution, practically from the ground up. 

One nuance that isn't always fully headlined in non-lawyer discussions about gender discrimination law is that - based on their facts - the landmark cases that Justice Ginsburg argued also made clear that women's rights are everybody's rights. Just as the law must not restrict the rights of women based on antiquated stereotypes about a woman's "proper" role in the home or in society, the law is also not to burden men based on those same stereotypes: husbands of those serving in the United States military should be entitled to the same dependent spouses' benefits as the wives of those in the military, Frontiero v. Richardson, 411 U.S. 677 (1973); widowers should be entitled to the same Social Security survivors' benefits as widows, Weinberger v. Wiesenfeld, 420 U.S. 636 (1975); and boys should be entitled to purchase alcoholic "near-beer" beverages at the same age as girls, Craig v. Boren, 429 U.S. 190 (1976).

After hearing about Justice Ginsburg's passing last Friday evening, I am currently staying off Twitter and limiting the time I spend on news sites in order to protect my mental health. Up until now, I've never before in my life felt the need to separate myself from social media or from the news like this, but last Friday pushed me over that edge. I simply cannot tolerate hearing about what the President or Mitch McConnell are saying right now, for at least a few more days. 

I have also made donations to the Biden/Harris campaign and to the "Get Mitch or Die Trying" fund. (Sadly, I understand that the polling data shows Amy McGrath probably has no real chance of unseating Mitch McConnell, so the latter fund donates to other Democratic senate campaigns that have a better chance.) With regards to the Supreme Court as an institution, and regardless of how Justice Ginsburg's seat is filled, I don't really see any way around needing some radical change to the structure of the Court, such as by court-packing. This was true even before last Friday, and it remains true now. 

Social Distancing Life Lately: Six Months and Counting

via Unsplash

When my colleagues and I abruptly rushed home from Luxembourg in mid-March, none of us could truly have imagined that, six months on, life would still not be anywhere close to normal. As we transited through Heathrow that day - after having booked new tickets last-minute in the wee hours of the morning, upon being woken up by concerned friends and family back home following the President's sudden announcement of a proposed Western Europe travel ban - the pandemic didn't feel real yet. Barely anyone at the airport was wearing a face mask. Things still looked almost normal, even if we knew they were not. 

Local Policies in NYC 

Now, six months later, NYC has - since June or so - controlled the spread of COVID-19 better than many other places in the US. Yet the prospect of resuming any substantial new indoor activities here - things bringing bigger groups of people together in closer quarters than the retail stores or museums that are currently open with drastically limited capacity - still feels potentially perilous. For the attorneys amongst us, participating safely in in-person court proceedings - particularly jury trials - and in-person depositions still feels like an impossibility. (Especially when we keep in mind that at least some participants or attorneys typically need to travel from out-of-state for such events.) 

Our state and city government are generally moving slowly and cautiously to gradually allow more significant indoor activities. In-person schooling at NYC public schools may restart in phases starting next week, on a partial schedule for the families that opt-in. Restaurant dining rooms may be allowed to open at the end of the month, at 25% capacity. 

Personal Comfort Levels

Completely separate from the issue of what's legally allowed, there's also the question of my personal comfort level with additional activities. I would not be happy about being forced to attend in-person court proceedings anytime soon. Nor am I willing to put others and myself at risk by partaking in indoor restaurant dining before a vaccine becomes widely available. Nothing short of a court order - and the fear of being in contempt of court - or a serious family emergency would get me on a plane before I'm vaccinated. 

I am somewhat apprehensive about when my workplace might start requiring attorneys to come into the office more often. New York officially allowed white-collar workplaces like law firms to reopen with certain safety precautions back in early July. But up to now, state law has also required that categories of employees who can perform the vast majority of their duties from home - attorneys included - be offered the choice to continue working from home, something I've availed myself of to the fullest extent. I'm not sure when that state policy might change.

K and I have loosened up somewhat since I last wrote about our ongoing social distancing experience in late July. We've both had our long-overdue haircuts now, and we each felt quite safe with all the new safety precautions at New York salons. In the next month or so, we'll probably both go to our first routine doctor's appointments since the COVID-19 shutdowns began. As mentioned in my recent money diary, we also ended up needing our building's superintendent and then a contractor to come in to our apartment for some repairs, across a few different days. And that also felt just fine, with everyone wearing masks and given NYC's continuing trend of favorable COVID numbers. 

While we've applied for absentee ballots, we may yet decline to use them and choose to vote in-person instead - most likely by early voting - knowing there were... some issues... with absentee ballots actually getting counted during the recent New York primary. To be fair, our election procedures have changed to directly address these problems, including to allow voters to track their own absentee ballots and have an opportunity to cure alleged defects instead of the ballot just being thrown out.

But I think it's fair to say our household is technically still practicing fairly strict social distancing. Outside of the errands described above, we are still staying home except for essential grocery and pharmacy trips, which we continue to limit to approximately once every three weeks. And our friends in NYC are still not quite ready to socialize yet, even outdoors.