November 9, 2025

I had a lot of meetings this week — between work, a board meeting, and a trip to the lawyer’s office, there was a lot of context switching, which made the cognitive load heavier than usual. The next week and a half will also be fairly packed, so this is a reminder to pace myself.

The week was heavily front-loaded, and I was wiped by Monday night, so I was pretty good about carving out down time during the rest of the week:

I took some intentional breaks during the work day. Mostly I took proper lunch breaks and had some quiet time away from my laptop.
The kid and I went to the library’s used book sale. Afterwards, we hung out at the library, which was nice. I love our library, but we often run in and out to pick up books that are on hold or to return books. This time we spent time browsing. I purchased a book I know nothing about and am looking forward to reading it. I also found the debut novel of an author whose second novel I loved, so I'm excited about this book, as well.
I took a night off to read a book that I already had checked out of the library. I'd renewed it twice and needed to actually read it. I'm glad I did.
I went out to dinner with a couple of neighbor friends. We try to go once a month, but people's schedules are packed right now, so only a couple of us were available. But we decided to go out anyways instead of canceling because we all needed some time off from work/parenting/etc. and it was fun!
I finished my slow read of the fall – Swann's Way. I'm glad I read it, but I preferred my previous slow reads of War and Peace, the Wolf Hall Trilogy, and the Roland Barthes / Kate Briggs paired readings. I still haven't read Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan novels, so maybe I'll set up my own reading schedule for those next year. And I just picked up Carlos Ruiz Zafón's Cemetery of Forgotten Books, which might be another good slow read? I know nothing about it, so I don't know! I'm now realizing that aside from the Wolf Hall trilogy, these other books were all in translation or about translation. I like the idea of sticking with this.
Speaking of languages, I listened to LUX by Rosalía, as well – and I mean really listened – in one sitting from beginning to end for the experience. This is how I listened to music in high school and in college – immersively – but at some point music became more of a backdrop to other things like driving or housework or whatever else. This is more recent, actually. I was still really listening to albums in Switzerland.
I did not rush around and cram in every errand imaginable over the weekend but gave myself a lazy Saturday morning. After making breakfast, I went back to bed with a cup of coffee and a book. That was quite lovely.
I went to the kid’s final soccer game of the season, hung out with family and friends there, and then went out to dinner with the family.
M & I watched some bananas soccer games, which was also fun.

I still need to get to bed earlier and to sleep more. I should also attempt fewer things per day. But I did manage to not touch my laptop for two entire days over the weekend, which was probably both necessary and good.