What's Up This Weekend 7/20/25
Greetings from Buffalo, New York!
Weekend Reads is up on Wardrobe Oxygen and worth checking out. My daughter rants about Yung Gravy, I review three current movies that all have strong stories and varying levels of delivery quality, and as usual plenty of interesting articles. A few folks DMed me on Instagram saying they were must-reads, which felt good, especially since I finished Weekend Reads on Thursday and with the speed of 2025 news cycle…
Friday morning, we got into our rental minivan with my husband, daughter, my sister, and our two dogs and headed to Buffalo, New York, where we’re staying for a few days before heading to our next New England destination. This is a true family road trip - visiting the hometowns of our parents, cleaning off gravestones, taking tours, going into the same restaurants and shops we’ve visited for many summers of our childhood. This time we’re sharing it with our daughter, and my sister gets to experience my husband’s childhood haunts.
On this trip, we will be burying the second half of our mom’s ashes in her family plot. This past November, we had a ceremony at Arlington Cemetery where half of her ashes joined my dad in his columbarium (he was in the Navy and served during Korea). This burial is at her family plot with her parents, siblings, and the other half of my dad’s ashes.
I packed light, and as usual, have more than enough for whatever we do, but wish I brought more because my outlook and vibe don’t always match who I was at home. At home, I am way more creative and colorful and fancy. On the road… well, I am wearing the same shirt I wore on the drive up here with the same shorts I wore to dinner the night we arrived, and I have yet to brush my hair, which kinda looks like an outgrown mohawk (I’m heading towards a new hairdo for fall…).
We’ve had great food, we’ve had mid food, we’ve seen where my husband’s mom grew up and he spent his summers, we bought a very fancy ice cream scoop at the Roycroft Campus and my husband found a badass turquoise ring in an antiques/resale shop that we researched online once back at our rental house and found it’s worth quite more than he paid. We also stopped by a consignment shop last night and he got a totally radical gag me with a spoon 80s rayon party shirt from the brand Bonjour that I of course deep dove on and found went from selling French jeans to investing in real estate. Da wha?!?!?
Twice I have worn the shirt I mentioned in this post, and as I mentioned in that post, I did a full review of it over on Wardrobe Oxygen. It makes it glaringly obvious how shittastic apparel is, especially PostPan. It sits in my closet next to button-front shirts from Chico’s, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Madewell, J. Crew, and Polo Ralph Lauren and puts them all to shame with the fabric, the construction, and the attention to detail. I believe this shirt came into my life to remind me I deserve better.
I love your shirt but sadly for this fat chick (which I say with self-love and body neutrality), they don't make it in my size.
Alison, on a serious note, I want to say that you & your family are in my thoughts as you continue to honor and mourn your mother.
My family was just in the Niagara Falls, Canada area in June & enjoyed our visit! It’s such a beautiful place & we were impressed with how clean the area was. We drove up to Niagara-on-the-Lake twice; such a beautiful town. It was like being dropped in the middle of a Hallmark movie.
Clothes and travel: UGH! I’m currently on a trip, and I completely overpacked! I’m irritated with myself for doing this because we travel several times a year and you’d think I’d be better at narrowing down what to bring. But, no, I’m not. Now, your comment about wanting options is something I understand completely, and I think that’s what got me this time. For the first 5 days, we were in a hotel and knew the area would be dealing with extreme heat. So I packed a lot because of that, knowing laundry was not an option. But, but, but, I knew we’d then move to a much better area, as far as weather is concerned, and would be in a rental with a washer/dryer! Oh, let’s not forget that I also love to shop when traveling and knew I’d end up buying a few (😉) things! As I’m typing this, my husband is working on our suitcases to see what all will fit! Wish us luck!