Both of my choirs have paused their regular rehearsal schedule for the summer. This means that my weekday evenings are a little more open. I was in Dallas for Monday night this week, but I was home Thursday. So what did I do? I took my 14-year-old to the KOP mall. We have been on a quest to find a good graduation dress. We have not found the perfect dress, though we have found some shorts and shirts in the process. But we have an acceptable dress that was ordered on Amazon, so that’s probably going to be worn barring some shopping miracle.
My mall excursion was a reminder that I am really not a shopper. I spent some time while things were being tried on reading an ebook, and some other time sorting out a childcare issue for the weekend. I had something on the calendar for Saturday morning that turns out to be on Sunday morning. I’m not sure what happened there but Sunday requires more drivers than are available. However, we have a weekend sitter who has come through for us several times in a pinch and she can help on Sunday too so that was all worked out.
Also on yesterday’s to-do list: putting in a giant fried chicken catering order for the church choir picnic, which I am hosting — not this weekend but the next.
In Big Time publicity news — the book was featured in the Globe and Mail yesterday! That’s behind a paywall, but in case anyone is a subscriber, it was a great write-up. I also found out yesterday that I sold a fair amount of audiobooks in May, so that’s good.
My own content from this past week…Over at Before Breakfast I interviewed Ron Friedman, author of Super Teams. He’s found out that high performing teams actually protect quiet focused team for people to do their own work. He’s got lots of tips for better collaboration, so please check that out.
In the short episodes, I suggest we “Send show notes for life” and “Make space for possibility conversations.”
Over at Vanderhacks, my Substack newsletter, I noted that “They’ll probably be happy you asked.” If you’d appreciate an invitation, the odds are good someone else would too. I ran a guest post from Dr. Gillian Goddard about “How to be a savvy patient,” with three tips for making the most of any doctor visits. I also ran an ode to satisficing: “Just pick one.”
Behind the paywall I wrote about “7 systems I rely on to ward off chaos.” Complexity and chaos are not the same thing at all, and there are fairly straightforward ways to make sure that life mostly stays on track. Please consider a free or paid subscription.
Also, I want to put a plug in here for the Best of Both Worlds Patreon community. We’ve been having great discussions this week on travel hacks and our favorite “loves of the week.” Our next Zoom meet-up will be on June 17th, and we’ll be discussing travel hacks. It’s a great community, and a good alternative to social media. Membership is $9/month. You could try joining for a month just to test it out and see. Thanks for considering it!
Photo: Honeysuckle along the trail
Good heavens I can’t think I much I want to do less than wander around a mall. My daughter feels the exact opposite and I remember being her age and just loving time spent trying on clothes and popping in and out of shops.
These days—no thank you!
I’m delighted with all the amazing publicity Big Time is getting. It’s a great book, Laura!
@Elisabeth – thank you! Some good publicity for sure. And yep, there was a lot of time at the mall. I wish we’d been more successful in our pursuit of the perfect dress though!
Im not much of a fan of in person shopping but one of my favorite things is spending time with my daughter who does enjoy it, so I got over my mall aversion pretty quickly.
@Omdg- I think it would have been better if she’d found what she was looking for. This hunt for a white dress has been kind of brutal. We have another one arriving from an online place this week, so fingers crossed…