This is a packing list for VACATIONS. The ones where you aren’t really doing anything, just reading a ton of romance novels between dips in the ocean and playing board games while drinking wine at night.

One of the most popular requests I have gotten for this column is “What do I wear to work?” And I get it! You have to get dressed for work, and the kinds of clothes that are typically deemed “workplace appropriate” are absolutely racist, classist, ableist, transphobic, homophobic and sexist. Not to mention, no two workplaces are the same!

As a woman who has been known to describe herself as a “coatsexual,” it was incredibly challenging for me to not select upwards of twenty coats and jackets here.

Is pretending I am the protagonist in romance novel a fun way to tamp down some of my nerves about being back out in the world? Yes!

It’s mid-November, and where I am on the east coast, that means it is time to swan about dramatically in various kind of outerwear!