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Here is the DIRECT LINK, please do share and also say nice things in the FB comments bc everyone on FB is a monster person who will hate me: https://www.facebook.com/21516776437/videos/810756199408856/

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Apr 16, 2020Liked by Nicole Cliffe

I just dropped my spouse off yesterday morning for a 20-to-30-day stay at an eating disorder center. I was totally freaked out by the idea of a residence during COVID but the people who run it seem on top of their shit so I'm less concerned now about that. My spouse needs it, so I'm over it. I'm kind of freaked about the long-term work that this is going to be; we'd already been in couples counseling for some other things. Not that I can't handle putting the work in, but it just feels like so much and life has already been bonkers.

The house feels so weird to be alone with the dog in. I think the dog misses my spouse quite badly but maybe I'm projecting? Probably both.

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Apr 16, 2020Liked by Nicole Cliffe

Oh my word, that mom of the 5-month-old child. Her MIL is a horrible person, her husband needs to step the fuck up (how did he let his mother go to court to get custody?), and your advice was spot on. I hope she finds her inner strength because she needs every ounce of it with these adversarial people in her life.

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Apr 16, 2020Liked by Nicole Cliffe

Hi! I hope everyone is doing well. I just learned that my mother's coworker has tested positive for Covid-19 and while I'm proud of her for continuing to work at the homeless shelter during this time I am also scared. My mother is 68 and in very good health however she is also a person who believes the herbal supplements she is taking will protect her so it is sometimes difficult to feel like she really appreciates the seriousness of this situation. I realized this morning that it is her life and she gets to choose how to risk it. I'm trying not to think about how scared I'll be if she does get sick since I don't live anywhere near her and I doubt my brother or sister will be able to keep me adequately updated in the advent of her having to be hospitalized (I am an anxious eldest child and my siblings are a little more relaxed). But I'm trying to keep it together and breathe. A lot of people are sending their loved ones out into this nightmare, I am not special in my fear. It comes in waves and it is awful. Hugs to everyone who is going through something similar.

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Apr 16, 2020Liked by Nicole Cliffe

Everything is so hard. I'm happily medicated for clinical depression but I am NOT BUILT for isolation. I am in grad school and have assignments do and lack the motivation to do anything and despite hefty lexapro I am crying every stupid day and cannot keep a normal wake/sleep schedule. I genuinely miss striking up conversations with strangers, and talking to people I barely know, and having unscheduled conversations with people I do know. I am painfully extroverted and this is just SO HARD!

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Apr 16, 2020Liked by Nicole Cliffe

So, I'm less than one year divorced and just realized the other night that I may have missed the window for casual dating. Like, when will we be able to kiss again without a ridiculous amount of trust and commitment ahead of time??

THE VERY NEXT DAY, I got a facebook message from my ex-husband's girlfriend's ex-husband (I do not know this man) saying that, since our exes are having our respective kids all hang out and have sleepovers, our four households are now sharing collective germs. Would I like to go for a walk, or get coffee and get to know each other?

Coronavirus just gets weirder and weirder, man.

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Nicole, I could easily add horses to my list of special interests. Please keep the pony content coming (although tbh I enjoy every newsletter)!

I'm currently pricing tiny houses from afar and, welp, looks like my budget is more in the skoolie / caravan conversion line. I can't build, so I have to buy. Some people are doing gorgeous work with, guess what, horse trailers, so maybe I will have more in common with ponies than I ever imagined!

Hope you and loved ones are all doing ok.

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Apr 16, 2020Liked by Nicole Cliffe

I keep thinking about this poor mom dealing with her MiL, the wannabe baby thief.

If she and her husband don't come together and cut her out of their lives, OP is going to live in fear. When the kiddo falls off the porch and breaks his arm, she'll worry that it's more fuel for an eventual case against her.

Additionally, what the hell was MiL doing trying to take custody when her son was a healthy, present parent? That's the biggest red flag for me. She wants that baby regardless of the ACTUAL circumstances.

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Apr 16, 2020Liked by Nicole Cliffe

My current favorite outfit is a white giant sweatshirt that says WILD ALOOF REBEL that I got on Etsy, black leggings and woolly socks. Last week was awful and this week I'm back home, alone in my apartment and that's sometimes ok and sometimes hard.

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I just CANNOT with that poor lady's mother-in-law!!! Between her and grammar Dad last week I am going to spend my refunded Skymiles on fighting people's parents when the country opens up again.

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Apr 16, 2020Liked by Nicole Cliffe

A rough week here too. No foals nor nakedness on zoom calls, but just emotionally draining for no reason besides the current realities of life. I almost cried the other night when I let myself dream for just a moment that a year from now, we could have a vaccine for the 'Rona and a brand-new president.

I just have to add that your newsletters and columns (and Danny Lavery's, too!) are such bright spots in my week. The vulnerability, humor and insight you both share is so, so important to me, especially during this time, and I'm very grateful. <3

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That novel sounds incredible and I may pick it up. Outfit: today I'm wearing double denim (light blue jeans, dark blue linen tee, getting-faded-dark blue denim jacket). I may start sashiko embroidering on the jacket because yesterday I had to DRIVE INTO MANHATTAN. If there was ever a time for a rookie driver who had to take the exam seven times over ten years before passing to drive into Manhattan, now's the time - the streets were emptier than I've ever seen, but the whole rigmarole still involved me scraping my wheels against the Holland Tunnel and TURNING ONTO THE ONCOMING TRAFFIC LANE. I'm a disaster. Anyway I snapped and ordered embroidery supplies after that.

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Apr 16, 2020Liked by Nicole Cliffe

Someone is going to have to explain to me why it's on the table that "East Goes West" is more dated than "Oriental Yankee," lol.

Your column was ... a lot. That poor woman, and what is going on with her husband? He "sided" with her while she was in the hospital but now he's making her take on all the conflict, it sounds like? Ugh.

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Apr 16, 2020Liked by Nicole Cliffe

HORSIES (I’m sorry I apparently turn into a small excited child when I see them - I had riding lessons for a year as an adult (before that I um, was a ballet dancing child not allowed to horse ride) and I loved it mostly (the instructor not so much) and it helped with my CPTSD.

I continue to get ballet back (anorexia had meant I had to stop) and now also miss my foam roller. And apparently I still hate battements.

Much love and thank you for this space. (Also I dressed up and wore the Princess Meghan Supported/Co-Designed Dress and my femme girly girl bi heart was very happy)

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Apr 16, 2020Liked by Nicole Cliffe

This week I had the most satisfyingly cathartic dream: my high school best friend (who ended our friendship senior year with no real sense as to why--something that has haunted me for years) and I were in some weird/cool dream that was kind of stylish and just fun and who knows what we did at this point, but in the dream, we had the chance to talk it out and I forgave her. And I woke up feeling fundamentally healed.

This newsletter was a very cherished pick me up on a physically exhausting work day. Thank you as ever, and also I'm so glad your well-ish. I was getting close to emailing to make sure you were okay. So, Nicky, thank you for modeling boundaries, for sharing such good things, for loving horses, and for just being you.

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Apr 16, 2020Liked by Nicole Cliffe

I figure it would make you happy that my wife and I were both cooing over your excellent skin and taste in haunted jewelry.

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