On cardigans

I often refer to Summer as the queen of cardigans, because she has great cardigans and she wears them very well and always looks so cozy and cool in them. I’ve spent, like, years wanting to emulate her cardigan vibes. I finally got my dream cardigan—navy, slightly oversized, huge buttons—and I’ve been living in it, feeling like Summer.

– Jillian

I think if I was a cartoon character, my base outfit would be this one cardigan that I have—it’s beige, black, and grey color blocks and is so fun in such a subdued way. I’m someone who, when I wear color, people remark on it. I’m trying to incorporate things besides black and grey into my wardrobe these days, and found that outerwear was actually the most comfortable way to do it; I took a bright yellow jacket from my mom that a friend lovingly called my “Freddie Mercury jacket”; she’d been trying to give it to me for years and I never felt ready until after nearly two years inside with very little reason for outerwear. It’s cold in my apartment and so I wear cardigans during every work day; I alternate between the multicolor one and this orange-red-ish one that many a coworker had privately messaged me to ask about. For Christmas, I got a mostly-pink knit that I haven’t wanted to take off since. It feels like such a cheat, in a way, to be noticed by something that envelops my body; I am seen without being seen, complimented without the discomfort of having to contend with having a physical form (which, as someone with body dysmorphia, is kind of fucked up!). I love to be cozy and warm and kind of feel automatically stylish with something oversized and pretty, still getting to stick to a black-shirt-and-black-linen-pants combo underneath. I can wear any earrings with a big cardigan. I can make it fancy, make it smart, wear it on a bad day. My signature.

– Summer

We recommend

📺 The Witcher TV Series

I asked Jill, is it ridiculous to recommend two Witcher related things? And she said no, it’s cool, it gives you an opportunity to talk about why you like them both. And so here I am! In December, I finally watched the first season of The Witcher on Netflix with my roommate. It’d been on my radar since its release in 2019 but I hadn’t been in the right mindset. Luckily, this time around it activated that obsessive part of my brain that turned rabid when I was 12 years old and first exposed to Glee. Perhaps my love of BBC Merlin is well documented, and my distaste of GOT’s saturated sexual violence is, too; Witcher has a great balance of FUN!!!!!!! with a mysterious/serious-ish plot. I Henry Cavill! What a beautiful man! It’s a fun show about found family and colonialism(?) with an undercurrent of Polish mythology. So good! Watch seasons 1 and 2 on Netflix.

– Summer

📺 Get Back

It’s a little embarrassing to admit to going through a Beatles phase in 2022, but it is real and it is happening to me. I wish there were about 30 more hours of footage in Get Back, the new Peter Jackson Beatles documentary on Disney+, but I’ll settle for the wonderful 9ish hours that we got. I don’t think you necessarily need to be a Beatles fan to enjoy this—I found it really calming, comforting, and interesting just to get to watch some dudes hang out and write music.

– Jillian

🎮 Witcher 3

And now onto the video game! Notoriously, media adapted from video games is NOT GOOD, but watching The Witcher and seeing the little quirks that were definitely game mechanics made me want to PLAY even though it really isn’t my ~type of game (read: not Nintendo or indie). But! It is SO FUN. It’s gigantic and immersive and the morality/choice mechanics are incredibly compelling (and stressful). I really like playing so firmly as Dad Geralt. The game takes place far out from where the show is, so it’s cool to see the characters I know from one medium far more developed and also different in this other one. Nothing better when spending a global pandemic as a bitter-insane-asthmatic than escaping into the life of gigantic, terrifying man who is also terribly soft.

– Summer

💡 Lava lamps

My boyfriend gave me a lava lamp for Christmas and I love it so much!!!! It’s so nice to look at, to get up and turn on in the morning, to have in the background of work meetings, etc. He picked a blue one with white lava because he said it reminded him of clouds, which makes me very happy. If you don’t have a lava lamp, I promise they are very fun to literally just sit and look at. Vibes!!!!!

– Jillian