FEATURED STORY: Considering the financial investment and the impact of our home environment on our personal well-being, it’s important to get it right. Comstock’s consulted several prominent interior designers in the Capital Region to get their take on current trends, as well as how they create a home that feels both timeless and fresh.

These days, it seems like hating on the trends of yesteryear has become a trend all of its own. Or maybe it’s always been this way. As we get older, we observe the comings and goings of avocado green and bell bottoms and the dreaded perm, and we may deduce that these are byproducts of a capitalistic drive toward a trinity of contradictions: novelty, conformity and status. And while overconsumption accelerated by social media deserves criticism, there is more to aesthetic trends than the youth trying to look cool, the rich trying to look younger (and richer), and the rest of us trying to look rich.

Sometimes, I try to remember what the year 2005 looked like. In my mind’s eye, I see a friend’s mom cooking Kraft mac and cheese in a kitchen that has more grape motifs than a Tuscan bottle shop. My childhood playdates were enveloped in that fleshy tan everyone painted their living rooms (apparently the color of that year was bold turquoise, but these parents were not exactly risk-takers), and there was always a high-pile carpet for me to bury my face into. In my memory, there’s no judgment of our moms’ low-rise bootcut jeans — that’s just how they dressed in 2005, an altogether different time. And how do we mark the passage of time if not for changing trends?

Do you remember what your childhood looked like, sounded like? We can look at photos and instantly know the decade from the style of dress and hair and the wall color. We hear an old song and feel what we felt when we first heard it. We can look back and see these different iterations of our loved ones, ourselves and our environment, not only getting older but changing to greet the present, the now.

It makes me wonder, where are we now? And what will we see when we look back?

- Dakota Morlan, Managing Editor

Some stories you may have missed: Hydrologic Engineering Center in Davis to Keep Federal Government Lease

Behind a nondescript door in downtown Davis exists a little-known but vitally important piece of infrastructure, the Hydrologic Engineering Center. A recent threat to this center’s existence appears to have passed.

A (Feminine) Touch of Tuscany in Amador County

Teneral Cellars winery in Plymouth is an award-winning, women-owned and self-proclaimed disrupter in the industry. It’s also an oasis in the Shenandoah Valley that’s less than an hour’s drive from Sacramento, though reminiscent of a picturesque wine region in Italy.

Doris Matsui Just Won Her 10th Full Term in Congress. What’s Her Secret? (Hint: It’s Not Just Having a ‘Safe Seat’)

This age-irrelevant leader may be 80 years old, but she absolutely percolates with ideas, energy and a profound sense of herself. Elected last November to her 10th full term as a U.S. congresswoman, Matsui remains an emphatic believer in legendary Democratic lawmaker Tip O’Neill’s admonition that “all politics is local.”

Dilemma of the Month: Does the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act Cover Cramps?

What if a worker’s menstrual cramps are so bad they need to take a day off every month? Do they need to use PTO? Evil HR Lady answers. 

Recommendations from our staff:

Jennifer: I haven’t gotten into that many television series, but I am completely enrapt by “The White Lotus.” Set on an exclusive resort in Koh Samui (the Thai island where I happened to do a marketing internship the year after college), the eight-episode series is like a classic Agatha Christie mystery in reverse — instead of figuring out which of the impossibly rich people did a murder, you wait to learn who is going to be murdered. What especially impresses me is how every item the characters own and interact with is carefully chosen for them, from the glittery resort owner’s $18,500 monkey brooch to the bookish Southern girl’s souvenir tote bag from the Roman Baths in England. (For a second I thought it was my own, now discontinued Sacramento tote by the same artist, Julia Gash.)

Judy: With spring chores here, I found a way to make them pass quicker: listening to podcasts. Last weekend, as I weeded my overgrown garden, I listened to Jeff Holden’s “My Imperfect Heart” podcast. He was my former boss at KFBK and was the fittest person I knew, doing Eppie’s Great Race every year until he unexpectedly had a heart attack. Another former co-worker Rachel Belle has an entertaining foodie podcast “Your Last Meal” where she interviews celebrities and asks them what their last meal would be. And I also enjoyed our latest “Comstock’s Talks” podcast episode where Managing Editor Dakota Morlan interviewed two women from our Women in Leadership issue. Cassandra Jennings and Yvonne Pire offered a lot of quality advice for women in business. 

Odds and Ends

Each year, Comstock’s selects up-and-coming leaders throughout the Capital Region to feature in our Young Professionals issue. Nominate a mover and shaker age 40 or under who inspires you. Deadline for submissions is April 30.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the magazine to stay up to date on the region’s business trends, and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, X and LinkedIn for daily stories and extras.