Portland, fall, and the Northern Lights

I spent a delightful few days last week in Portland, Maine. I got together with several old friends/colleagues and strategized about my career. It was an amazing opportunity. Among the highlights:

• Staying in a cute little AirBnB with people! While hotels are nice, I’ve been in a lot of hotels, and it was kind of fun to share a kitchen with people and do some casual networking while hanging out at night or going to grab coffee in the AM.
• Running and walking around the sound. All the trees are changing color, so my 5 mile run down to the water and along the park was just gorgeous. We later went for a long walk along the same route.
• Eating. Portland has amazing restaurants. Among my favorites: Terlingua (BBQ), Lucky Cheetah (Dim Sum, mostly), and Thai Tree.
• Drinking. Portland has good beer and I enjoyed trying some interesting cocktails – such as this one at Lucky Cheetah that had tequila and cilantro. It was good.
• The northern lights! Apparently they were visible in Philadelphia too but it was quite cool to see the sky be so red above the city. And the camera in the iPhone makes the lights more clear.

Now it is back to normal life, which is fine, but sometimes it’s nice to take a little break from all that to try to think more strategically. I really hope to do this again!

In the meantime, my content round-up:

Last week, Vanderhacks looked at why one might “Mull it over” — your first idea might not be your best idea. The post behind the paywall shared “21 ways to make the world a better place.” Please consider subscribing to my Substack newsletter, which features 5 short tips per week.

The Before Breakfast podcast noted that “You don’t have to let uncertainty hold up your life” — it’s fine to make plans even if they’re tentative. The interview episode (I run a longer episode every Wednesday) was with Kathleen Paley, and talked about doing random acts of kindness (among other things!)

Over at the Best of Both Worlds Patreon community page we discussed what time people are up on weekday mornings, and any rules people have for how much can “fit” reasonably in a day (based on energy levels). Sarah turns out to have a particular limit of how much time she can be “on stage” (usually on Zoom, as it were). Join us to learn more about that! Our next Zoom monthly meet-up will be Oct 22 at noon, eastern, and we’ll be talking all things meal planning. This is always a popular topic. (The recording will be posted after for those who can’t attend.)

photos: Running along the water, and BBQ!