“LONDON. Michaelmas Term lately over, and the Lord Chancellor sitting in Lincoln’s Inn Hall. Implacable November weather.”
– Charles Dickens, Bleak House

November was kind of an awful month in a pretty awful year, news-wise and the first couple of days of December don’t make me feel much better or safer. But there were still good things to celebrate which should be celebrated so here is my monthly round of up what I loved last month both petty and profound. Share what you loved in November in the comments, with links if you can! Let’s spread some of the good things around.

Glossier You
My fangirling for this brand is a matter of public record, but their new perfume is truly gorgeous. It’s by no means the longest lasting fragrance I’ve ever tried or owned, but I have gotten compliments every single time I’ve worn it. The concept is that it’s based on traditional basenotes so that all the scents adhere to the wearer’s skin; there are topnotes but they are a nice break from all the floral and sweet stuff out there.

Alias Grace, on Netflix
This show is aggressively female and doesn’t flinch away from the fact. Unreliable narrator or no (and boy is the main character unreliable), it is fascinating to watch men in the story interact with her. They dismiss her, analyse her, abuse her, sexualize her, medicalize her, mistrust her, believe her…but are they really listening to her, or do they all just hear what they want to? The narrative is shown through her conversations with a doctor in the early days of psychology trying to figure out if the main character is guilty of the murder for which she’s been convicted or just a very good liar. No one in this story comes off a hero and you’re never sure who you are supposed to being rooting for.

Pat McGrath Lust 004 Lip Kit in Venom
This is old hat and was a limited edition purchase from a year ago, but I’ve been using the darker Venom matte lipstick from Pat McGrath almost daily this past month. There’s something about the weather turning cold that calls for gold eyeshadow and devil-dark lips to me. PmG has launched a permanent makeup line since that I enjoy looking at from afar (the Sublime palette in particular) but genuinely cringe at when I consider the prices. I’ll stick with a dangerous looking lipstick for now!

Best Friends
I have two BFFs, both of whom I’ve known for nearly 20 years. They are very different woman, but both entirely necessary to my happiness and I’m privileged to have them in my life. One of them is basically my adopted older sister and we have been watching out for one another for two decades now with no signs of stopping. She was able to come visit for Thanksgiving this year with her boyfriend and it was one of the highlights of my year. A lot of bad news went down while she was visiting but, much as it was when we were 13 years old, just being around each other made it a bit easier to bear and it was good knowing someone was in our respective corners.

Thanksgiving
I love this holiday. I love the food, I love the spirit of gratitude it’s meant to engender and celebrate, I love the notion of gathering with friends and family…and again, I love the food. It was wonderful to have friends in town to celebrate it with this year. We did our usual thing of heading to The Mayflower pub for dinner before a night out on the town and stay up until the wee hours talking about life, the universe, and everything.