Monday Night on Someone's Stoop

I'm walking home from a meeting. I'm detouring to pick up sushi takeout (naturally) and talking to J on the phone (naturally). I get my sushi and now I'm almost home, but I know that I'll lose reception the minute I walk in the door. So I borrow someone's stoop and I sit, with my trench coat in my lap. I eat my tuna and California rolls and I talk with J about IPOs and consumer goods and equity and employer-sponsored MBAs.

This makes sense, I think. Because why would I go inside? It's a beautiful Boston night. It's a great night to talk business with one of my favorite people in the world and eat some sushi.

Today's To Do List: Read Listen Make

Read:

"You get to define success for yourself. It’s whatever personality you have that will probably affect how you define it. That’s the life you get to live."

Interview with Wharton Professor G. Richard Shell, author of Springboard: Launching Your Personal Search for Success. It's super refreshing to hear a b school professor talk about unconventional definitions of success and it made the goal-setter in me geek out hard.

Listen: 

Tegan and Sara - Closer, Sultan Ned Shepard Remix. It's five minutes and fifty-three seconds of dance party waiting to happen.

Make: 

Remember that time I meant to make ratatouille and made a tagine instead? Um yeah, me too. I may have made up the recipe out of necessity (it was dinnertime and I refused to go grocery shopping), but it's turned out be one of my most favorite and delicious dinners. My recipe, loosely inspired by Moroccan tagines, is also easy: chop, layer, bake. Let's keep it casual. When I say chop, I mean rough chop. And the recipe is forgiving too. Don't have squash? Use zucchini. Or eggplant. It's all good. And it's especially tasty with quinoa or couscous (whatever you've got kicking around). The only rule? When it's in the oven, just remember to give it a good stir once in a while. And play Tegan and Sara super loud. 

Ratatouille Turned Tagine

3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 small yellow squash, diced
2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
1 can garbanzo beans, drained
1 pound small new potatoes, halved
3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon Aleppo pepper
1/2 lemon
2/3 cup olive oil
Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Layer the chicken, garlic, and vegetables in a large glass baking pan. Pour the olive oil, sprinkle the spices, and squeeze the lemon evenly over the chicken and vegetables. Stir. Bake for 45 minutes and stir occasionally.

Serves three generously and makes awesome leftovers.

Some Things Are Going to Change Around Here

Goddamn it, some things are going to change around here. I am putting my foot down.

Let's be real. I didn't really sleep for a year. I have this disease. It's called workaholism. It's a real disease. There's even a Wikipedia article on it. The bad news? It's chronic. And incurable.

So, some things have got to change around here. I am setting goals, making plans, and living out those goals and plans. I am thinking about the life that I want to lead.

I am pretty sure that I've done more yoga in the last month than I did in the last year. This makes me want to do more yoga. Because, you know what? Yoga feels good. In the last month, I also set a half marathon personal record by eight seconds and I started running the stairs of Harvard Stadium with the November Project. My body hurts without yoga. So I'm Googling things like Scorpion Pose (putting it on my bucket list) and Mermaid Pose (crossing it off my to-do list). I dig Mermaid Pose real hard and, if someone wants to teach me how to do Scorpion Pose safely, I am game. I am just a little bit afraid because I like my spine the way that it is. But the pose is incredibly elegant and it also says "Hey, check it, I am a spiritual gangster." Which makes me want to do it. Like now.

I bought a basil plant. Because, as I told J, basil plants require watering, sun, and attention. So, by buying a basil plant, I'm saying that I am a person who can provide a plant with all of those things on a regular basis. I am taking a goddamn stand with this basil plant. I'm pleased to report that that the basil plant is doing very well so far.

I'm out on the road, y'all. In the last month, there have been three weekend trips. THREE. WEEKEND. TRIPS. This is stupendous! And - get ready to high five me - two of those three trips have been out of the country. (Canada counts. Don't give me any attitude. It counts.) I'm ready for that high five now.  I'm also itching to buy plane tickets. I read an article about Valparaiso, Chile last night and now I'm all "Chile, Chile, Chile, when are we going to Chile?" I have this adorable habit of calling up M and saying, "When are we going to Spain/India/other faraway location?" I know. I'm precious.

I am buying ri-goddamn-diculous things like five kinds of bourbon and cowboy boots. A few weeks ago, everyone came over and we drank a lot of bourbon. My friends drank a bottle of Wild Turkey, a bottle of Bulleit, and a bottle of Knob Creek. I have never been prouder to call those people my friends. And, then, folks, I got up the next morning and went to vinyasa yoga with a voice that sounded like I'd been pounding bourbon for days in a room filled with cigar smoke. Namaste, y'aaaaaaaall. Oh, and the cowboy boots? Well, every girl needs a pair of shit-kicking cowboy boots. Duh.

I'm not cooking much. But, with all of this basil (please see aforementioned basil plant), there is about to be a whole lot of caprese salads around here. Caprese salad for you! And you! And you! Caprese salad for everyone!

Do I sound punchy to you? Well, I am a little punchy. I am still crazy exhausted and I am still not really sleeping (I may have been born without that gene). But I am happy. So there it is. I am happy. Granted, I am staring down some super-soon, super-intense deadlines that will have a major impact on The Future (From now on, I am capitalizing The Future for dramatic effect). But that's okay. It's more than okay. I'm reading, learning, thinking, taking meetings, getting excited - if I don't make the bed for a few days, it is not uncommon for me to find highlighters and copies of the Harvard Business Review between the sheets. If that isn't a glowing endorsement for the HBR, I don't know what it is.

Andy Warhol once said, "Being good in business is the most fascinating form of art. Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best form of art." Business absolutely is an art form. I can't paint and I sure as hell can't sing and, let's not joke around, my short-lived career playing the flute mercifully ended at the age of 11. But, if I'm an artist, well then business is my medium. Let's get together and talk business, okay? And, while we're at it, let's drink some bourbon. I take mine on the rocks.

Things are changing around here.