A digression.

I have no words!

Hi all,

I had promised you a part 2 to the dining chairs guide, but I gotta say — I’m just not up for it.

This week, some insane stuff went down in my life that honestly turned my world upside down. I’m in a state of shock. I have no words.

It’s one more thing to add onto my pile of anxiety and uncertainty, which has been steadily mounting over the past two+ years.

I was recently passed over for a job I really, really wanted. I had made it to the final round and it had been months, like literally four months — much of it radio silence — until a final no came into my inbox. And the amounts of times I’ve been ghosted over opportunities or partnerships…it’s a lot.

I have had some good stuff happen though. I’ve been writing for the New York Times, and my first piece for the WSJ comes out next week.

Still, this stuff doesn’t pay the bills.

If something doesn’t turn around ASAP, we are selling the house. The realtor has been over, we’ve discussed prep, etc. We are holding out until the end of summer.

I love being immersed in the world of home and design, but it can have the effect of making you really feel like a “have-not.” A constant feed of beautiful rooms so far off from your own reality. The things I favorite on 1stDibs that represent nothing but fantasy. The pieces I’ve been researching and writing also deal with America’s wealthiest — a demographic I’m drawn to because I can’t seem to understand it. Who are all these crazy rich people building $10 million houses willy-nilly? What do they know that I don’t? And why can’t one of them just pay off my mortgage?

What I find really puzzling is how each jobs report the government — sorry, “government” — puts out describes growth, when most people I know are hovering in a state of semi-employment and making cutbacks to things because their baseline expenses have risen thousands of dollars because of inflation. I’ve pretty much stopped applying to jobs on LinkedIn because it all feels like a ruse when you know your resume is literally being forwarded to the Internet’s trash can. I’ve already been replaced by AI once and, not to sound like a conspiracy theorist — I suspect it’s taking away many of my would-be opportunities.

Sorry, sorry, sorry for the doom and gloom. All of this is has felt doubly awful because my daughter is out of school until next week and we’ve been trying to balance the meltdowns of a 4-year-old with actually trying to get work done.

I’ll be more fun next week, I promise.

Feel free to sound off in the comments if you’re going through IT.