I am sort of working today. My little boys both have camp, which is great (though both under heat advisory — the 11-year-old is in a computer camp so this just means indoor recess/lunch but the 6-year-old is in an outdoor camp so they bring them into the cooled barn after noon each day). There seems to be a distinct slowdown in emails coming in by yesterday morning so I suspect a lot of people are making a long weekend of it!
Last night my family started our July 4th celebrations by going to Longwood Gardens for a fireworks + fountain show. This featured great American composers — my daughter hoped it would be pop composers but I told her I was pretty sure it would be Copland/Bernstein stuff and sure enough, it was. We opened with Rodeo. We got dinner at the beer garden before the show (though ate inside – the outside was packed!) and walked around. The little boys really got into catching fireflies outside which is kind of funny since we have them in our yard too and they haven’t been racing out every night, but I guess new places make things feel new. The show was exciting (I like the flames on top of the water from the fountains). The little guy got a little frightened of the loud fireworks and wound up on my lap. When you are very hot and sweaty I have to say that having a hot and sweaty child stuck to you is not nearly as nice and snuggly as it is when it is not 90 degrees and muggy. But we survived! We made it home at 11:30 p.m. (with the 6-year-old asleep in the car) so the morning started slowly but it did start eventually.
This week’s content: Over at Before Breakfast I interviewed the wonderful Alison Cheperdek, an etiquette expert. We talked about being gracious, and about her book Was It Something I Said? Please check that out!
In the short episodes, I talked about how “If they can do it” you probably can too. People take their cues from others like them, and so if you can find examples in your life of people doing things successfully, this can be motivating to you and others.
I also give the advice to “Pack for specific days.” This is my hack for packing light — don’t think about what you might like to have on a trip. Look at your itinerary and figure out what you will wear on each day. If you haven’t assigned something a day, it might not be worth bringing along (with the exception of, say, an extra pair of underwear and a clean shirt — trips can get delayed!).
Over at Vanderhacks, my Substack newsletter, I suggest we “Make compliments about the other person.” This is a tip from the interview with Alison. I write that “If you can’t get out of it, get into it.” If you’ve decided to do something, you may as well try to have a good time. It will be over soon enough, as everything is.
Behind the paywall I write about why we should “Embrace the second half of the week.” The week is only half over on Thursday at 5 p.m.! Seeing the second half of the week for the time it is can give us a very different perspective on work/life balance. I also suggest “13 ideas to add to your monthly routine.” A monthly cadence works for various things, so please check that out, and please consider a free or paid subscription.
