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@1chicklette
Sunset
It's Last Call
Itâs time. Beyond time. I donât really blog now and yet I keep paying hosting and registration fees. But each time I google âhow to sunset a blogâ I get distracted and donât follow through. Sounds about right. Anyway, hereâs your Last Call. Itâs Quittinâ Time. My goal is to archive everything in the next few weeks. Thanks for the love and comments through the years! đ PS Iâd be most gratefulâŠ
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Dating While Old
Dating while old is pretty terrible. When it happens at all!
Recently I met a man on a flight back from LA* and it was notable enough that I tweeted about it.
The strangest thing happened on my flight home: I had a handsome seatmate!!
â One Chicklette (@1chicklette) May 1, 2019
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Meeting new people and having the interest be mutual doesnât happen for me asâŠ
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What's happening?
Whatâs happening?
I so admire bloggers who manage to post daily. I once was one of themâalthough the content was sometimes questionable at best. To have fresh ideas and the ability to shape them efficientlyâŠwhat a gift!
But so much of what I wrote over the last four years has been about lifeâs trials: experiencing my Dadâs swift decline and then his death; and my own bizarre tumor adventure in particular.
MoreâŠ
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I have long joked to my friends that if reincarnation ends up being real, I hope I come back as a woman who looks good in shorts.
Right now, I definitely do not. I have always been afflicted with blessed with thighs. My legs are somewhat long but no matter how fit I am (or how fit I am not) at various points in my life, I have always had thighs.
As proof, here are two photos of me when I was fit as hell and still studying dance of various styles at least three days per week. All I see are thighs. Thighs like giant hams.
 My dance studio was involved in a local fashion show
THIGHS like HAMS
 Those tights didnât do me any favors either.
I recently googled my affliction, looksbadinshortsitis. Apparently I was far from the only one to do so, but get this: the top result was about MEN. Can women have anything just for us?
This is a rhetorical question, men. Donât give me your mainsplaining comments.
So was the third. Whatâs that about?!
I remember feeling weird in shorts even in summers during high school. Short shorts looked good but I felt uncomfortable sitting down. To this day, I donât understand anyone who thinks short shorts are versatile or comfortable or practical. If you are an adult wearing short shorts, I assume itâs because you know you look good in them and donât care about how it feels. Short shorts are fine if all you plan to do is stand around. But Iâm not living like that.
I think what makes shorts extra uncomfortable for me is that I have a long torso and a somewhat short rise. So many trends that I have wanted to wear through the years â crop tops, overalls and jumpsuits most memorably â look weird on me. My body feels like a grotesque optical illusion sometimes. Go shopping with me and prepare to say âitâs not terrible but something isnât workingâ repeatedly.
Once in a while, Iâll wear longer shorts (like these), but I feel frumpy. More often, youâll find me in cropped pants (like these).
But mostly I just wait around counting the days until Fall and hoping against hope for reincarnation.
 Why do I look so bad in shorts? I have long joked to my friends that if reincarnation ends up being real, I hope I come back as a woman who looks good in shorts.
If you buy just ONE skincare product...
If you buy just ONE skincare productâŠ
Remember when I was striving to become higher maintenance? Mission accomplished, and then some. Part of my, ahem, success came from all of the downtime I had last year after this. I became very, very good at ecommerce. đ Recently I was chatting with some lovely Twitter friends about skincare likes and dislikes, spurred by a negative reaction I had to this eye roller, and they suggested a new blogâŠ
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Good Food: Where I like to eat (and drink) in Manhattan
I have posted here and there about some of my favorite restaurants in NYC but never done a full dining guide, per se. This also is not a dining guide â too overwhelming. Plus Iâm a somewhat picky eater and not what anyone would call a food expert. It is decidedly not a trendy listâlook elsewhere for that. But I do have my favorites so here are some of them. Best square pie GGâs in the EastâŠ
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We didnât go to Italy last year. About a month before we were supposed to depart, the tumor was discovered.
My doctor said I could travel, but Mom was reluctant.
âIâm not traveling with youâyouâre a ticking time bomb!â she said.
OK then!
We postponed, lost money* and I had surgery. There was a two month-ish acute recovery period. I survived. We agreed to figure out a new trip for 2017 once I was in the clear health-wise. And I more or less am. Yay.
But when we looked at the Abercrombie & Kent offering for 2017, the Italy tour dates werenât ideal. Mom wanted to stick with a Fall trip so she could continue her quest to make the LPGA tour win her golf clubâs ladiesâ league.
Guess what: she and her golf partner actually did win the league so the sacrifice was apparently worthwhile.
I had some Fall work commitments, though, that made scheduling tough. We bickered for a while. Mom put restrictions on places she would go.
She vetoed Croatia. âBut itâs like undiscovered Italy, kinda!â I said, but she was unswayed. I feel confident that within the next two or three years. all of her friends will be going to Croatia and sheâll ask me why we havenât yet gone there.
I advocated for France â wine! cheese! â but Mom still holds a grudge against the country for not supporting George Bush (I KNOW). Meanwhile she still drinks only Grey Goose vodka which is very much French.
In the end, I kind of got my wish: Mom approved a trip that visited Amsterdam, Paris and London. I felt triumphantâat least until Mom said, post-booking, âoh great. Two cities I never wanted to visit!â London was the one that interested her, but recent terrorist activity muted her excitement for that one too.
Time passed. We booked flights but otherwise didnât give much thought to our trip until Summer 2017 rolled around.
And then the tour company called to tell me that my mother and I were the ONLY TWO TRAVELERS confirmed for the tour.
I felt guilty for being horrified by the idea of traveling with just my mother and a guide for almost two weeks. What in the world would we talk about for all of that time?!
But when I told my mother the news, along with the option we were given to change to another tour, Mom didnât hide her feelings. She too was looking forward to the company of other travelers.
Whew. Can you imagine?
A&K even sweetened the offer if we were to switch: they offered to waive any price difference if we chose a more expensive tour and refund the price difference if we chose a cheaper tour.
Would it have killed them to have been this flexible and kind when my tumor was found?
I tried to use the latter provision to get Mom to reconsider Croatiaâwe would have received at least $4000 backâbut no dice.
And thatâs how we ended up going to Italy after all. Even with a credit toward flight change fees, the trip got even more expensive.
But we had fun, mostly. While we did a lot of mutual eye-rolling, we never had a blow-out fight.
Welcome dinner in Rome
Truffles, obviously
Florence
La Giostra
Eataly (I think?)
We stayed in Rome, Florence, Cinque Terre and Venice, and made stops in Siena, Pisa, Lucca, Modena and Verona (thatâs a lot of ground covered).
We walked about 10k steps per day according to the many FitBits on the trip and yet I still somehow gained approximately eight pasta pounds that I am still trying to lose.
I would do it all again if I could.
*To be honest, Iâm still angry with Abercrombie & Kent for how they treated us when I shared my news. They put on terrific tours (and our guide Emanuela was FANTASTIC), but if you book with them, you NEED travel insurance in case anything like an incidentaloma shows up.
The worldâs most expensive vacation We didn't go to Italy last year. About a month before we were supposed to depart,Â
One of a thousand #MeToo posts I could write
One of a thousand #MeToo posts I could write
This story is gross and upsetting and I have long been embarrassed about it. I could have sworn that I wrote a post about the incident, but searching âChrisâ and âgrossâ didnât produce any results. Even now, many years later, I feel uncomfortable typing the words. But the story is timely and in sharing it, maybe I can help someone feel less alone while they consider their own #MeToo moments. IâŠ
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Jumpsuit Nation
I had always assumed jumpsuits werenât for me. This long torso of mine would ruin the look, I figured. My natural waist is at least two inches lower than where clothing wants it to be. Approximately two years ago, I bought a jumpsuit on a whim. It fit, but I fussed with it the whole first wearing, tugging the waist to where I wanted it. Unsurprisingly, said jumpsuit largely languishes in the backâŠ
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29 Things That Enrage New Yorkers
29 Things That Enrage New Yorkers (@buzzfeed said 23)
This post made me say growl YESSSSS. For example, #12. Itâs not just the waiting. Itâs the heat (often) and the lack of cell service or wifi (always). The lack of available seating (sometimes) and the not-afraid of humans rats, particularly at First Avenue (far too often). I would add: 24. Subway escalators that are broken more often than functioning. Especially at Grand Central. Youâre walkingâŠ
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A lighthearted post about food
A lighthearted post about food
In an effort to lighten things up from this, that and the other thing around here, letâs talk about food. You like food, right? Of course you do! (Gag) During my time in LA this spring, I had the opportunity to sample some meals from a local private chef. I was staying in an apartment in busy, noisy Hollywood so there wasnât any room service and I dreaded walking around the tourist-packedâŠ
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I miss him
Tomorrow is Monday. For most people, it will be just another work week starting. But for me, it is the worst anniversary: two years since we lost Dad. July 17 used to be just another summer day, but now it looms like an exam I didnât study for or a long, painful dental appointment. As this summer approached, I didnât think about lounging by the pool or trips to the beach. Instead I thought âwasâŠ
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Four things I love about LA (and one I don't)
Four things I love about LA (and one IÂ donât)
This spring, I have had the opportunity to spend lots of time in one of my favorite cities, Los Angeles. My most recent trip, a long one of just over two weeks, is about to wrap up which has me thinking about what I will miss. First, the brightly colored flowers and trees. Even in the scruffiest neighborhood, there are beautiful jacaranda trees and wildflowers. Second, the weird news. A few weeksâŠ
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Good news. And yet...
Good news. And yetâŠ
Yesterday was my most recent CT scan. As I mentioned before, Iâm slated to have scans every three months for a year. I prepare myself for the waiting, and yet I still find myself bewildered by the actual experience. In situations like mine, appointments are more suggestion than commitment. Itâs the trade-off for accessing a world-class specialist, and for him offering to review your raw testâŠ
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I'm not myself right now
Iâm not myself right now
I should do something. But Iâm so tired. I should go to the gym or write or something. Itâs Saturday and Iâm lying on my bed wearing gym clothes. I didnât make any plans for the weekend with the exception of Sunday brunch and Iâm semi-OK with that. On one hand, I am tired from a lot of recent business travel. On the other, I miss my friends and know I am going to be traveling a ton these nextâŠ
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How I spent my President's Day Weekend
How I spent my Presidentâs Day Weekend
Hello friends, Iâll get back to the blog soon â promise! How was your holiday weekend? While I, like seemingly a lot of people, am not celebrating #45, I did have an enjoyable Presidentâs Day Weekend. I stuck a literal toe into the foot peel realm, using this one from Boscia. Yes, I am nervous about the gross-out potential in the coming week. No, I wonât be sharing pics on social media. I grabbedâŠ
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Before and After
Yesterday was my first abdominal CT scan since the tumor was removed in late September. The results were good: no sign of any tumors elsewhere. Yay! If youâd like to hear more about the scan, thereâs more beneath the fold, including not-gross before and after pictures. (the gross pic is here) (moreâŠ)
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