“The Dog” Journal
Welcome to the Dog Journal, a blog where I periodically share my best finds for taming those puppies that gnaw at your planner.
Could be a quick time management tip, a smell-the-flowers moment, a comment overheard on the elevator. Whatever the inspiration, I hope you’ll blog right along with me by commenting and sharing your tips and stories for taming an overbooked life.
Book Is Balancing Act
How long could it take, putting together a collection of columns? After all, they’re already written. At least, that’s what I told myself in late February, when I started down the road of self-publishing a book.
Apparently, the phrase “24 to 72 hours” stuck in my mind as the time it would take to have a book up on Amazon via Kindle Direct Press (KDP). I hadn’t focused on the first three words “when the book is done.” Done turns out to happen after all the columns have been located, after someone else has proofread it and someone else has designed a cover and formatted the interior in book-like fashion.
This is not to say that DIY efforts are out the window – only that I’ve never found a typo or grammatical error of my own that I could catch (and there may still be some – sorry) and that I have absolutely no graphic arts talents. For these tasks, a friend suggested Reedsy and Fiverr, budget-friendly online marketplaces of eager freelancers around the world.
After keeping them all straight on a chart, I found a proofreader in NYC, a cover designer in Austria, and a formatter in South Africa. It is now an international project! Happily Austria and South Africa are in the same time zone. Happily, KDP has a phone and chatroom, and these freelancers are very patient. On the verge of being ready – I think – to start the 24 to 72 hour clock, I keep remembering my tech-y friend who said, “It’s not brain surgery. Everyone is doing it.”
Too bad. I was planning to feel absolutely brilliant at the moment of publication.
The Pandemic Ate My Planner – And Now What?
Today is my Two Plus Two: – two COVID shots + two weeks – and voila! The CDC, with whom I play Mother, May I, has decided that now fully vaccinated, I can be a freer woman.
I am grateful and thrilled. I can hug my grandchildren! We can play games and cook and do craft projects in person and mask-less.
I can gather with a few also fully vaccinated friends in my new (to me) home. We can eat dinner together.
And with a mask, I can get my hair cut in a salon or buy groceries in person – something I chose not to do even when Mother CDC said I could.
So I am thrilled and grateful. But also unsettled.
Deprived of schlepping – to the store, to in-person gatherings – I’ve developed my own structure, my own rhythm for what a day looks like. It sounds pretty boring, but the predictability is comforting, the priorities clear.
Coffee, journaling, oatmeal, the Reuters podcast, the daily paper – all at leisure before dressing, making the bed, writing, And then at some point at least 30 minutes of exercise and 30 minutes of reading, usually in preparation for some online workshop I’m taking, and a romp through my daily to-do list of business and personal calls. Around 4:30 I call or hear from my church pandemic conversation partner, then on to dinner, the NewsHour, and often another Zoom call.
I hesitate to say I feel like a prisoner on the eve of release. I am, after all, moving back toward an old life that is safe and welcoming. And yet, the adjustment feels huge. I wonder whether the grocery store will feel overwhelming and how well – with so many choices – I’ll keep my priorities straight.
Already, trying to fit in 1:1 coffee next week with a fully vaccinated friend, I struggle to find a slot. I’ve waited till I’m fully vaccinated to schedule a plumbing inspection, to have my carpet cleaned and stain-proofed, to have my hair cut.
I cancel an acupuncture appointment because the acupuncturist will not allow me to be maskless with any outsider – CDC guidelines notwithstanding – for a week before the appointment.
Can I trust myself to book sensibly? To hang on to the forced pleasure of undistracted reading and leisurely neighborhood walks? Will I still exercise each day come hell or high water?
What have I learned from all this?
Music! Music! Music!
At a time when the world feels increasingly polarized, finding happy sanctuaries is important. Thanks to the recommendation of a Lyft driver, I bumped into one this month visiting my son in Phoenix: the Musical Instrument Museum.
Brainchild of retired Target CEO Robert Ulrich, MIM is the world’s only global musical instrument museum. It displays about 6,500 musical instruments from 200 countries at any one time. Visitors are allowed to play some of them. Others are on display through a walk-through arrangement, continent to continent, where visitors can see and hear and read about each country’s culture and music.
What a joy to experience this common denominator where there are no language or political barriers. Four hours at MIM reminded me that when life feels out of balance, we can still count on music. 2017 may be a good time to bring more music into our everyday lives.
Let’s Play
The Spiderman cake was nice, and so were the piles of presents. But the real excitement at my grandson’s third birthday party centered around “the show.”
“We’ll be up here, and you’ll be out there,” announced his six-year-old sister , who as usual was in charge.
With that and a little Miley Cyrus rock, the two jumped on and off the wooden “stage,” rolled in the grass and literally kicked up their heels. Afterwards, they treated the grandparent audience to souvenirs – seashells they’d collected at the beach.
They didn’t doubt for one minute that theirs was the greatest show on earth. And of course, the adoring audience agreed.
I couldn’t help but think how creative the world would be if more of us threw our inhibitions aside and played like little kids. Maybe the best way to celebrate birthdays is to remember not to get old.
