Summer Sabbatical

I'm hitting the snooze button until the Fall

Bubelahs, I’m tired.

Like approaching total burnout and unable to write another sentence, shoot another video, make another sarcastic comment, tired.

(Ok, ok, I’m probably medically unable to NOT make sarcastic comments. But that other stuff is all true.)

This wasn’t my plan.

My plan was to write three (or maybe even four!) beautiful newsletters for you to enjoy over the summer while I hid in a secret lair to work on a secret project.

(Ok, ok it’s a novel; I’m attempting to write a novel, as perhaps many of us must do at some point in our lives. Also, I’m terrible at keeping secrets.)

But I can’t.

I’m tired.

So instead I’m here to say I’m taking the summer off.

And by ‘taking the summer off” I of course mean decluttering my house (umm I acciddentley wrote hearse instead of house and that was NOT a fun Freudian slip to make, good lord!), schlepping my kids to their various activities, sneaking in time to work on that not-so-secret-novel, applying for the fourth time for a digital storyteller’s fellowship, throwing my grandmother’s 85th birthday party (with slideshow!), performing on stage whenever I can, hosting a summer reading salon with fellow post Soviet writers, and maybe possibly starting to training for a Hyrox (why oh why?!?)

It feels…impressive that in a job where I am my own boss, I make my own hours, I dictate what and when and how I do things, I can still get to this place. This place of weary exhaustion. Where instead of juicy little ideas percolating first thing in the morning, I have a strong desire to pull the covers up over my head and wish it was bedtime all over again. But alas, I am here, and all I can do is hit the snooze for the summer and hopefully come back refreshed this fall.

I’ll miss you all.

And if you need something to read/watch/listen to (while you await for my return with baited breath, Im sure) here is what I have enjoyed this year so far:

Books

• The Lion Women of Tehran, Marjan Kamali

• Storybook Ending, Moira Macdonald

• Lady Tan’s Circle of Women, Lisa See

• So Old, So Young, Grant Ginder

• Oona Out of Order, Margarita Montimore

• The Guncle, Steven Rowley

• Into the Blue, Emma Brodie

• Wreck, Catherine Newman

• Pineapple Street, Jenny Jackson

Audiobooks

• I Must Say, Martin Short

• Born Standing Up, Steve Martin (though this is entirely focused on his stand-up career and nothing else, so you know, be warned)

• Famesick, Lena Dunham (that one’s a real thinker)

New Shows

• Pluribus, Apple TV

• The Way Home, Netflix (final season on Hallmark Channel but will eventually make it’s way to Netflix)

• Paradise, Hulu

• The House of the Spirits, Prime

• Off Campus, Prime (be warned it’s very sexy)

• Heated Rivalry, HBO (duh, you’ve probably already seen this and it’s also very sexy)

• ANTM Documentary, Netflix

Re-watching (because this is what my ADHD brain does)

• The Nanny- really holds up, the episode where Ray Charles sings Yiddishe Mama had me in tears, especially now

• Mad About You, with my older daughter

• Boy Meets World, with my younger daughter

• Charmed, also with my younger daughter, I didn’t think she’d love it but she is

• Travelers, which I’ve seen like four times at this point

Movies, I guess I don’t watch a lot of movies

• Eternity

• Devil Wears Prada 2

Have a beautiful summer, bubelahs!

PS if you need a little dose of laughter, I did manage to make some silly little reels, which you can currently find over here on Instagram until I eventually launch that YouTube channel