This is a great quote. Here’s my twist on it: Travel. As much as you want. As often as you can to unique experiences.

Be open to every moment as a new possibility or chance to learn something you didn’t know ten minutes ago. Grab a cup of coffee or chat with someone new at work - it might open the door to a cool new project or offer a fresh perspective that totally shifts your outlook for the week.

Consider your daily habits. Check the view from the window, ask an extra question, find the adventure in ordinary interactions ❤️.

Check the view from the window :) Video by @czikkcakk

This week, I’m taking a brief intermission from my Pre-Tirement series. I think I’ve officially exhausted my capacity for new “climb” projects, at least for the next seven days. Between the full-time job and being a semi-reasonable partner who contributes to household chores, I’m leaning into a different kind of restorative activity this week.

I want to tell you about a great Sunday night dinner, which is usually the one night I cook. (Otherwise, I’m strictly on dish duty. That’s an ironclad deal I made with my husband. I’ve found that strategic deal-making is a key ingredient for serenity in marriage 🧘🏻‍♀️ 🤝 )

On the menu: Alison Roman’s shallot pasta and a giant herby salad.

It’s good, it’s simple, and it’s a crowd pleaser. The anchovies add an umami tanginess to the red sauce that’s delicious and shallots and parsley make it unique. The recipe usually makes more sauce than you’ll need for one sitting. I save the extra for really good toast and eggs the next morning. My only other tip is that I find caramelizing shallots takes longer than 20 minutes (as per the recipe). I usually spend 30-40 minutes to get totally softened and caramelized shallots.

That’s the post for this week!

Wishing you a week of simple joys and a very light dish-duty rotation! :)

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I’m spending my retirement money now, in the form of time, and it’s the best investment I’ve ever made.

In my last post, I teased a concept I call Retiree Hobby Roulette: the art of picking up a complex, high-effort skill purely for the joy of it, with zero financial motive.

Today’s spin of the wheel has me conducting a “climb” toward fluency from the comfort of my couch. I’ve taken up learning Portuguese. While it’s a blast, I am currently locked in a daily psychological battle with a persistent green owl on Duolingo. (If you’ve used the app, you know exactly which owl I mean. If you haven’t, please imagine a tiny, feathered supervisor who pops up on your sleeping screen to warn you it’s getting late and you have exactly 59 minutes to not miss your lesson.)

The “High-Performance” Brain Workout: Why Portuguese? Aside from always wanting to learn it, I have family roots in the language. My dad’s family spent time in São Paulo before coming to the U.S. (Rooting for Brazil during The World Cup is a non-negotiable in our house. Bora Brasil!)

Beyond the family connection, like physical exercise, learning a new skill can keep your mind agile and flexible. Cue better problem-solving and creativity:

• Building Cognitive Reserve: Learning a language is an ultimate way to “Never Stop Learning”. It keeps the mind sharp, adaptable, and active.

• The “Flow” State: There is a specific type of personal triumph that comes from learning something new. Successfully navigating a sentence like “Eu sou a «insert your name», muito prazer” or “tenha um ótimo fim de semana!” (‘I’m «insert your name», nice to meet you’ or ‘have a great weekend!’) provides a mental high that can fuel productivity for the rest of the day. Such as I crushed that, what else can I knock out? 😎

The “climb”: Let’s be real though: the process of taking up anything new is a “climb”. My current situation involves a lot of confused expressions and struggling through Portuguese verb tenses. But I welcome these struggles as signs that I’ve knowingly taken on the role of “Beginner”. As they say, the most important part of starting any worthwhile journey is just starting.

So, what’s your Hobby Roulette spin? What is a skill you’ve been deferring for “later”? Stop deferring that joy and start the climb today. Adventure and intellectual curiosity are within reach, and your brain will thank you! 🩵

I’m spending my retirement money now, in the form of time, and it’s the best investment I’ve ever made.

I’m launching a new section on the blog called “Stuff I’d Do When I Retire, But Doing It Now.” This is my first post in the series. My delivery is mildly tongue-in-cheek, but I’m also 100% serious.

The standard advice is simple: Grind out the next forty-ish years, then cash in for the idyllic future state called retirement. We’re told we’ll finally earn the right to the good stuff like travel, hobbies, and long afternoons of sitting in sunshine, after four decades of work. That’s nice and all, but I’m calling time-out on this model. Why defer joy, vitality, and intellectual curiosity til our later years? The key to staying young at heart is integrating the best parts of retirement into life right now. I call it “Pre-Tirement.” I didn’t invent that phrase, but I am happily co-opting it.

This isn’t about not doing your work; it’s about high-grade restoration that fuels productivity. For example, I recently spent two hours working at a complex project with zero meaningful progress. I called a “Pre-Tirement” time-out, went for a hike, and the solution hit me before I reached the switchback. That’s the “return” on my investment.

Here are the first two pillars I’ve put into place:

1. Time/Location Freedom: The Mid-Week Adventure: Retirement means having the freedom to go where you want, when you want. Why wait for a three-week vacation window? My goal is to reclaim high-value, high-impact blocks of time during the work week. I block my calendar off for a challenging hike, sailing, or an afternoon jaunt to my favorite coffee shop. Admittedly, this usually happens on a Saturday or Sunday [we’re practicing freedom, not miracles] but I consider it essential maintenance to happiness. I use it to clear my head and solve complex problems, so I can return to my desk with energy and perspective that my desk simply cannot provide. The point is to practice freedom while we still have to work. Squeeze it in where you can.

2. Working Out: The Physical Independence Fund: I genuinely love working out, and it’s a nice perk that it has benefits for longevity. My focus is on functional fitness over intense gym routines. My routine works for me:

   1. Strength Training: I’m convinced this helps with mental clarity.

   2. HIIT Workouts: I like the challenge; I follow GrowingAnnanas videos.

Treat your workouts today as a deposit into your future physical independence fund. The energy and focus you get back is the best return.

Next time, we’ll dive into a concept I call Retiree Hobby Roulette—the art of picking up a new, interesting skill just for fun, without any financial motive. See you then!

I’ve been having some fun adding 'Pre-Tirement' captions to these incredibly adorable photos by @patricias_books ❤️. Why does this cat’s royal pose resonate so much with me? 😄 Here’s to treating our time like royalty.

Which raises a question worth sitting with: in all this optimization, where do we put human connection? What happens to creativity that can’t be benchmarked?

I spent some time last week with a low-level sense of doom. Nothing serious: EVERYTHING IS ABOUT TO BE OPTIMIZED, AUTOMATED, AND STREAMLINED INTO OBLIVION. Just a passing Tuesday night thought.

The antidote? Cake. Twelve cakes. Let me explain.

When my sister was getting her PhD at the University of Michigan, one of her friends carved out time annually, while pursuing her PhD, to host a legendary cake party. We’re talking 12 scratch-baked cakes: a cloud-soft tiramisu, a berry cake that tasted like summer, a Black Forest Cake that meant business. I was floored then. I’m still floored now.

An AI could generate 12 recipes in half a second. But could it replicate the generosity of that act, the perfectly non-optimized effort, or the spontaneous joy of 15 megawatt-minded grad students plus one very impressed younger sister visiting from California?

More of this, please. A new language, a physical book, a walk outside for no optimizable reason. You get the idea.

Let AI have the spreadsheets. The PowerPoint decks. The stuff that drains the clock. But let’s hold onto the rest: the acts of generosity that can’t be automated, the effort that doesn’t make logical sense but makes someone’s day. Or their whole year. That's the part worth protecting and I’m gonna try in my little corner of the world! 🍓 🙂

Cake party optional. Highly recommended.

Triple Berry Cake recipe, a delicious rendition of Sweet Lady Jane’s popular Los Angeles cake

Illustrations from one of my favorite childhood authors, Maurice Sendak

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Grab some sunshine :) My illustration based on a photo from IG.

A smile is a heart is a smile is a heart is a smile is a heart is a smile is a heart is a smile

Imagination rules

Reposting Instagram featuring ‘A Moon or a Button’ by Ruth Krauss and Remy Charlip (1959) 🌝🌞

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🌝 🌞

Before the eight Oscars and EGOT status, Alan Menken spent the 1970s and ‘80s writing shows for New York’s theater scene that often went nowhere. He created his “Disney Renaissance” and reputation the world knows of him today by staying in love with the work and putting in the hours ❤️ Source: The Talks.

Below: my ai-generated art using the. prompt “create a complex non-linear luminous pure white system trajectory image”. I love the result 🤍 #nonlinear success

My illustration of flowers that I created for A Right Brain Assessment of the MTA

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Just finished this illustration ♥️

California pup, hazel eye & blue eye, out and about in Santa Monica.

In The Doors of Perception, Aldous Huxley describes the brain as a “reducing valve”— a mental gatekeeper that limits our consciousness to keep us from getting overwhelmed. It gives us what we need to function, not everything that’s available.

Our brain rations thought the way we’d ration water on a long, hot hike: just enough to keep moving. Over time, we start to believe this careful drip is all there is. Huxley asks: what if our daily experience is only a fraction of what’s actually possible?

We live by routines and habits, mistaking the map for the territory (as Korzybski famously put it). Huxley suggests there’s a world of more imaginative terrain out there: unknown, vivid, unexplored. The goal isn’t to squeeze more from the brain like it’s underperforming, but to stop assuming “enough” is the full story. I love Huxley’s invitation to look past the frugal scaffolding of ‘enough’ and explore the extraordinary. The everyday suddenly shimmers with possibility.

♥️

(Video above by @aleksmutated)

Writer’s block (or “Jenny” as her friends call her) decided the most creative thing she could do that day was… absolutely nothing.

She didn’t fight it. Instead, she grabbed a coffee, packed up a six-pack of premium half-baked ideas, and headed straight for the lake.

She cast a line into the water, and waited. Surprisingly She didn’t catch a thing. She spent four blissfully unproductive hours admiring the shimmering water. No nagging sentences, no demanding to-dos. Just the sound of nothing much happening.

When she finally packed up, something shifted. The pressure was gone. She came back to her desk lighter, clearer— like her brain rebooted while she wasn’t looking. And just like that, she was ready to write.

Turns out, the old saying holds up: silence really is golden.

Take the break when you need it. Your best ideas are probably out there… just waiting to be hooked :) ✨

Life got busy, and my workout routine slipped onto the back burner. If you’ve managed to avoid that, I’m impressed. If not, I 100% relate. Either way, today I’m officially getting my tush back into the gym.

We all know the usual perks of exercise like better sleep and more energy, but I recently read an article by MindBodyGreen, Strong Muscles, Strong Mind, that takes it a step further. It describes exercise as a sort of cheat code for the brain.

Movement helps regulate cortisol, our primary stress hormone, while boosting endorphins, those feel-good chemicals that lift our mood. Regular exercise can actually reshape the brain by building new neural pathways. In other words, working out doesn’t just make us feel better, it helps create the ideal conditions for our brains to perform at their best.

Pretty cool, right?

If you’re restarting too, here’s the game plan I’m sticking to, modified from the article:

• Mix it up: I’m aiming for 2-3 HIIT workouts and 2-3 strength days. It keeps the body adaptable and the brain building “resilience pathways.”

• Anti-Boredom List: Life is too short for workouts you hate. I’ve got a list of a few activities that don’t feel like a chore (like dancing and hiking) to lean on when my energy is low.

• Don’t skip rest: Sleep, good food, and downtime are part of the plan. I include these to avoid burnout.

• The Buddy System: Everything’s better with a partner-in-crime. It’s a lot harder to hit the snooze button when you know someone is waiting for you to show up.

What’s your go-to workout for busy days?

I find this funny. #positiveAffirmation. 🧑🏻‍🎨

I tried a different drawing technique for this illustration, and I really like how it turned out. I usually start by outlining everything in black ink, but this time I painted the color first and added the outlines afterward. It’s a subtle shift, but I think it gives the illustration a more realistic feel.

♡✨

Fishermans Bay Garden

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I like how everyday stuff can open small windows into mindfulness. Take your feet, for example. Right now, notice how they’re touching the ground. Four points. Yep, I’m borrowing a yoga exercise: heel, outer edge, ball, inner edge. Feel how the ground meets you back. It feels good to be where your feet are.

It could be other things too like tasting your coffee in the morning before getting to your computer or enjoying a walk after lunch without mentally composing emails.

Seen this way, mindfulness and presence become a habit of noticing and appreciating what’s already here. Kind of like remembering to look up at the trees instead of down at your feet when you’re exploring a city. True story. Discovered in Shanghai with my aunt. Story for another time. Your whole view changes.

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🐶 Photo @maison_flanuer

There is a steady rhythm inside your chest. 🎶 It expands and contracts all day long. Each breath can impact your mood or mental state.

Pay attention to it and you can notice a connection. If you are nervous, your breath might become jumpy. When you are focused, it smooths out. If you are upset, it can feel short. The mind influences the breath. I recently started yoga, and what I love is realizing this relationship runs both ways.

If a stressful thought can tighten your breathing, intentional breathing can loosen the grip of that thought. Slow the inhale and stretch out the exhale. Your body gets the message to relax and your mind usually follows.

You may not control every thought that pops into your head. But the ability to influence the atmosphere those thoughts move through is pretty awesome. Shift your breath, and you start to shift your mental state.♡

Flower 🌸 @car__lotta via @ad_magazine

Flower 🌼, Irving Penn

On a beach walk: Me, Mom, Sister, and Kaia (same that I illustrated recently)

Flowers🌷via @ad_magazine