Today began very early. My two older boys needed to catch a charter bus to a competition in Nashville — with the bus leaving at 3AM from a nearby parking lot. I’m not entirely sure why the team decided to do a bus instead of flying, though this is the same competition where my now 15-year-old got stranded in Orlando for two extra days last year when all the flights north were canceled. Maybe the chaperones were traumatized from that experience!
So I and they were up around 2:15. I didn’t sleep all that well before as I wanted to make sure I was up. I dropped them off and went back to bed, and slept much better after that, but still. Here’s hoping there aren’t too many more 3 a.m. buses in my life!
(And I’m sure they are happy to be most of the way there now, by mid-morning.)
I am also still jet-lagged, which is probably not helping matters. I’ve been flung back into life here, so I’m trying to remember to take a few minutes to process France memories. I am reminded, having been home for 2.5 days now, that time moves a lot faster when you are home and not traveling than when you are on the road. Travel means new experiences, and your brain doesn’t know which information it will need to hold on to, so it holds on to more of it, making time feel more vast. The pace of memory making goes up. It seems like a lifetime ago that I was walking around Aix-en-Provence, listening to the church bells on a Sunday morning. But of course it was less than two weeks ago.
I normally do a content round-up on Fridays, but I didn’t last week. So here are a few pieces from the last two weeks.
In my Before Breakfast podcast, I ran an episode called “After 5 p.m. it’s Friday,” about how to cultivate a weekend mindset during one’s downtime. I interviewed Juliet Schor about her new book, Four Days a Week, and Mike Vardy about giving time themes. I did a series of short episodes based on I Know How She Does It, my time management book that turned 10 this month — this included that “Life is stressful and life is wonderful” and that we should “Rethink what’s family friendly.” A lot of jobs can allow for a good work/life balance if you choose to pursue that.
Over at Vanderhacks, my Substack newsletter, I wrote about How not to procrastinate bedtime, (behind the paywall), and how to Stay motivated when progress is slow — a recount of my recent weight loss efforts. I also wrote about how you can Do the best job you can today. Sometimes our best is not the best ever, but we can still keep moving forward.
And I didn’t do a post about Best of Both Worlds…but we’ve had two episodes while I was gone there too. Last week I interviewed Rachel Fuld Cohen about tech and parenting, and this week Sarah and I devoted an episode to “Skip the misery, please.” No one wins in the Misery Olympics. I like the idea of consciously adding little pleasures into life. Our Best of Both Worlds Patreon community will be discussing I Know How She Does It on Monday at noon, eastern (via Zoom).
Thanks for supporting me and my work.
In the meantime, here’s the third sonnet in my Golden Hours series! (AKA Golden Hours #3):
This golden hour, when the shadows stretch
like taffy, and the sky’s so full of pink
above the water, sees the airplanes etch
their trails right through the clouds. Now who would think
to go to Joe’s because the banner said
to go? And yet I lie here on the beach
so tempted, but I know — a ways ahead —
a place where sometimes all the lines will reach
outside at night, where sounds of summer thoughts
and longings blend with scents of chocolate shakes.
One never knows what happens at these spots,
or where the night will lead. A seagull takes
its time examining a piece of string,
just nothing — at the same time, everything.