Weekly Good Things 2024 - Week 19

Good Things, and the Weekly Meal Plan.

Hello! Hello! Welcome to another weekly episode of Good Things where I give you a peek into my everyday life during the week, and roundup my good links, ideas, books, and more.

Night Sky Photography 10 second exposure - Aurora Borealis

Happy Weekend!

This week is my birthday week. I’m a lifelong birthday-ambivalent human, who is dedicated currently to changing my perspective on that. Mostly it’s the celebration part that I’m allergic to - I don’t do well with surprises or big events, but turns out as an adult you get to… decide what good looks like. I feel grateful to be alive, in relatively good health, doing the things I get to do in the world, surrounded by people I love and care deeply about! Good looks like spending a little extra time this week connecting with my people in small and meaningful ways.

🎁 I have two small birthday wishes: I’d love folks to give in some way to a cause that’s important to them. You don’t have to tell me about it, but if you do, I’d love to hear about what is important to you right now. Also, if you’d like to send me a note with a favorite recipe or meal you love to eat (I add these to my list of foods to eat that remind me of friends!) or a book that you adore, I’d be pleased to hear from you!

Topics of the Week:

1. Apple’s dystopian, despair filled and rage-inducing iPad ad that is everything wrong with the world. Apple put out an iPad ad that featured a range of instruments, creative tools, and toys being slowly destroyed by a crushing hydraulic press. I found this thread by Amy Hoy, dissecting what was wrong with it to be absolutely fascinating. (I was also amused by the folks who made it better by playing it in reverse.)

2. Stress Management Workshop Prep: AMA. This week, I’m leading a stress management workshop for entrepreneurs in the NATO Diana program. I’ve had a fun time prepping for this. To start, the assumption that stress management’s goal is the absence of stress is a misconception - the workshop will mostly be about how to manage and harness energy (to get things done, rest better, and recharge). We’ll talk about how to self-assess and pick what kind of personal growth areas will make the most impact. And we’ll talk about building support for yourself, and curating your inputs. (I’m crowdsourcing questions about stress management in preparation. If you have any burning stress related questions/challenges, I’d love to hear them.)

3. Find more funny people to follow. For some needed levity. If you are in HealthTech, you should be following Stuart Blitz on Twitter. Layered observational humor to the extreme.

4. A bucket list for cooking: do you prefer a technical challenge or a labor-intensive project? this week my friend Daria and I had a conversation about bucket list cooking, that came with an a-ha! She’s super interested in the process, and doesn’t care as much about the final flavor. In contrast, I’m super interested in the final flavor, and care much less about the process. I’d rather find and eat someone’s perfectly crafted thing they have invested tons of time and energy in honing over decades than make a passable one-time version myself. But I *do* love cooking projects that are labor intensive that will result in something great. (Perhaps why I prefer cooking to baking!)

5. A cleaning tip I thought were useful: starting by picking a room. Approach the room left to right; if there’s anything that needs to leave the room, simply put in a pile at the exit, and stay in the room while you work. (I was surprised at the effectiveness of directionality.) The other tip I learned – we hosted a workshop with Amelia Pleasant on Decluttering, and she mentioned picking a task and setting a timer for an odd amount of time, like 17 minutes.

Bertram, Gremlin-Mode Activated

On Vulnerability:

This week, someone thanked me for sharing something vulnerably – it struck me as a very weird in the moment: we had signed up to talk about our feelings/experiences, and I don’t find that to be personally to be challenging. I wanted to scratch a little deeper as to why I found it jarring. I think it’s because I don’t find talking about feelings and personal experiences to be vulnerability – in the sense that I worry about being judged. (If you judge, that’s on you.) In many ways, actually feeling the feelings in community is harder. Vulnerability for me is existing in the moment without masking – letting people vibe my vibes at the pace/complication/brain constellation without making it more palatable or presentable or look a certain way.

From the garden

This Week in Good Things

1. People who naturally facilitate light touch connections with others. At reunion in NH, I found out that a few folks were going to be staying for the week with their siblings or families who happen to live near me in Newton. I thought it would be nice to get together again during the week if we could, but an extra shout out to Steve who started the text chain and nudged our decision making! Steve, Alex, Courtney and I ended up having coffee at Tatte (the halva house latte is so good!). Credit also to Steve who asked if it might be nice to actually stop on by the house for a few minutes to actually meet his sister Sarah who he thought I’d enjoy while he was there. (I’m thankful for everyone in my life who can facilitate connection, but there’s something really special about people who can facilitate light touch connection which takes into account the needs of others, rather than say, people who are great at planning events for people to attend which is a different skillset.)

2. Now, with more libraries! Work-Related Good Things! Watertown Library was our first library we started working with, and they renewed for next year! We also converted our monthly check-outs (like museum passes) into an all-access digital service for folks. I love getting to work with libraries in general! We’re also launching a community corner, where folks can sign up to take a free community class each week without a membership.

3. The Second Week of GVRAT going strong! I’m up to 88 miles for the month so far, and enjoying the added outdoor activity! I’ve crossed Delaware on the Transcon map, and am about to hit Point Lookout, Maryland. (Best two miles were in the woods in Groton after our team meeting, and getting to see Skelly in her Mother’s Day outfit.)

Skelly, for Mother’s Day. (She’s about 12 feet tall for scale.)

Good Questions

What is your flavor of motivation?

Are you motivated by setting a high bar and expanding to it, or setting a low bar, and exceeding it? We chatted about this in our executive workshop this week. I always think it’s fascinating to unpack personal motivation. I’m mostly motivated by setting a lower bar I know I can achieve, hitting consistently, and then exceeding. I also find consistency to be deeply motivating: streaks are particularly helpful for me to keep the actions top of mind.

Do you respond better to the carrot or the stick? I work best through positive coaching, and being told that I’m capable. Buy-in and belief by others is also deeply motivating. I work well with the School of Ted Lasso.

More Good Things:

• 📖 Reading: (Still) working my way through the 1200+ page book series The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson. I’m on Oathbringer, now about 600 pages in! I toggle between reading and listening with Whispersync which keeps your place between e-book and audio book.

• 🌺 Flowers of the Week: this weekend I remembered to go out to the front of the house and actually trim some of the fragrant lilacs to bring in the house.

• ✍️ Explore: congratulations to

  Tracy Benjamin+Dr. MC McDonald
  for kicking off their first podcast episode of Keep Grief Weird. As part of the worst club (losing a parent in an untimely way) and not really knowing how to feel about it, I find this mantra of keeping grief weird to really resonate. They also have an Instagram.

• 📺 Watching: I finished up party watching ‘Renegade Nell’ on Disney+, which was quite a lot of fun! Tried a few episodes of the ‘Dead Boy Detectives’, but it isn’t hooking me yet. I’m watching a little bit more TV while I walk inside in the evenings to kickstart my summer race series. ‘The Artful Dodger’ was SO captivating and I’m looking for something with similar vibes. Taking suggestions! I also discovered that there’s a Roku channel that just shows Midsommer Murders, one of my favorite British cozy mystery series, 24-7!

• 🐾 Dog Walks with Friends: Lots of puppos in the neighborhood this week. We went on a walk with Bruno, said hi to Bernie, Gus the Pug, played in the pen with Mr. Mocha, romped twice with Bento the corgi pup. (I got some solo snuggs with Penny the pupadoodle while her mom was out for her birthday dinner.) Bonus Sawyer the Corgi spotting just a few minutes ago!

• 🤣 Memes and randomness of the week: I am a Thought Leader: thought leader gives four minute talk that will inspire your thoughts.

Spring leeks and beans with lemon, oregano, and lamb

The Weekly Meal Plan:

Why do I do this? I’ll note, my meal plans tend to be more of a directional support for me than what I actually end up eating in my week. (I think a lot of people who do meal planning feel obligated to actually eat the things they come with rather than just using as a placeholder/inspiration.)

Bean of the week: Cranberry beans to make barbunya pilaki with olive oil, tomatoes, and carrots.

• Sunday: takeout with the family for Mother’s Day we’ll probably get CAVA salads, possibly something fancier.

• Monday: Caribbean Banana Curry Fish over rice with lime. Another comfort food that reminds me of my mom’s kitchen. It’s a super simple combo of butter, bananas, and curry powder from the cookbook ‘From Sea and Stream’.

• Tuesday: Birthday Dinner starting with some cheese at an event - followed by? (I’m leaving this open to my whims!)

• Wednesday: Tacos.

• Thursday: Montreal Smoked Meat, pickles, bright cabbage slaw salad (this one from Smoked Meat Pete)

• Friday: Pork tenderloin with asparagus.

Lunches: Salmon with red peppers and marinated artichokes and beans, lamb vindaloo, tadka dal and yogurt. Trader Joe’s Kimbap. Smoked Salmon and Montreal bagels.

Snacks: Yogurt and berries, yogurt with lemon and nuts, eggs, cottage cheese, cheese sticks. Turkey Chomps.

Treat options: Been working my way a tiny slice at a time through my Tokyo Gateau. It’s a flourless chocolate cake/bar with eggs, sugar, and chocolate. Mini mint chocolate chip ice cream sandwiches from Trader Joe’s. Apple Tartines. Fro-yo season? Too early? The new Japanese Soufflé Cheesecake from Trader Joe’s if I can find it.

🥑 Good Eats from this past week: Blueberry muffins! Anna’s Chile Verde Burrito. Managed to snag a Trader Joe’s Kimbap. I love cold salads – this week I enjoyed a mango jicama lime salad with cooked shrimp.

Didn’t love: Crispy Jalapeño Wontons from Trader Joe’s.

What are you eating this week?

Previous Years:

Something I really enjoy doing is flipping back in my journal or my blog to the week of the year over the past several years. When I write it out in a list like this, it feels like a nice accomplishment!

Observing the data: lots of time outside, I tend to really enjoy meals in this season. (Also, this week, I *started here* - doing a quick peek at the past before writing out my meal planning, Good Things, etc.)

• 2020: Good Things Week 19

• 2014: Del Frisco’s Grille

• 2012: Bowls of Warm White Food (back before I learned about sensory eating and mono-eating)

• 2009: Rancho Gordo Flageolet Bean

That’s all for now! Hope you have a great week!

xo, Sam