May’s been a curious month. It’ll be both Friday and I not know where the week went, and 9pm on a Tuesday evening that’s dragged for hours. When I’m not filling time it drags, and after filling enough, I drag.
This last Memorial Day weekend I realized that when not filling my time, I have a difficult time enjoying relaxation. There’s a discomfort—if not anxiety—in being still.
In the interest of working on this, I’m starting a month-in-review routine.
April 24 through 27, Darien and I visited her brother Ryan in Tupelo, MS, where he and his wife Anna just bought their first house. Ryan’s a pediatric dentist and had to work the Friday after we arrived, and I kid you not, welcomed us with free teeth cleanings.[1] A week later, we took May 2 through 4 in Pasadena for my niece’s wedding, and when Darien returned to Texas that Sunday, I flew to San Francisco for Config. I worked remotely from SF the full week—attending Config Tuesday through Thursday while bookending the week with social visits, good food, and long walks through my favorite city. Finally, May 10, I arrived home.
Three weeks in motion rolled directly into Ariana’s—my brother’s girlfriend’s—graduation dinner. She completed her Masters in Social Work and graduated that day.
The following week I spent hurriedly catching up at work, and purchased a new personal computer. My last personal device was a 2019 Intel MacBook Pro and died mid-2023, and I wasn’t going to the expense to replace it while saving for our wedding. We also finalized our Paris and Bordeaux hotels, leaving little left to reserve for our honeymoon.l
That weekend of the 17th we attended SOCO Women’s ChorusSprint concert, and then celebrated Ari’s graduation with her family in Houston and squeezed in a visit to Darien’s sister, Casey.
This following workweek was dense, but was highlighted by successfully hiring my replacement. I’m stepping into a staff design role as Darien and I plan our move to France, contingent on brining in new managerial talent to allow me to work from the E.U. I’m excited for this next chapter, and the buffer provided by hiring my replacement now.[2] I think I’m done with management for now, and while I look forward to returning to a leadership trajectory in the future, I need a break and a return to foundations and craft.
Last weekend I killed at my first competitive USTA tennis match in a decade, and spent the rest of the weekend trying to relax. The exhaustion was there, but being able to enjoy relaxing, less so. I set the new laptop up for gaming—I hadn’t in years—and was shocked to find I was uncomfortable spending that time without an overtly productive output.
This week’s been calmer, and I’ve enjoyed lightweight gaming. We’ll see if that sticks. Ari passed her ASWB exam yesterday, and now looks forward to vacationing stress-free. We celebrate my dad’s 86th birthday tomorrow, and he and my mom travel to Auzon for the summer on June 4. Simon and Ari, now both on school schedules, following a week later. Darien and I depart on June 14 and among other destinations, will spend five days with them in Auzon between Paris and later Bordeaux.
I work the first two weeks of this coming month, and then I’m back to work in July. This is a reset, and I both look forward to it, and a healthier normal starting in July.