Sometimes The Little Things Mean More Than We Think

I'm going to share something that brings me a bit of joy, and you’ll likely have one of two reactions: “This person seriously needs a life,” or “OMG, this person is my people, and we should totally try out for The Price is Right together.”

I absolutely love filling a pill container for a trip—so much that I have two of them. You might wonder if I'm 84 years old, but no, I’m 46. Inside, though, I’m a real-life Sophia Petrillo. I only started this habit on a recent trip to NYC, and it was life-changing. It didn’t stick when I got home (probably thanks to the hurricane), but the joy of having my medications organized was real.

I have to say that one of the best, if not THE best thing about aging is that you give fewer and fewer fucks as you get older. For instance, do I care if you’re judging me right now for my love of pill containers with days of the week labeled on them? No, not at all. You could comment on this post and tell me to I’m a loser and I’d just shrug it off. You’re not acquainted with one of life’s greatest pleasures yet. Perhaps sometime in the future you’ll be thanking me and I won’t even tell you, “I told you so.” I may say, “Say Yes To Jess,” but that’s about it. 

The other great thing about getting older is finding joy in the small things in life, especially when you take the time to do things for yourself that make your life easier. This is why I enjoy the pill containers. It means I took the time and energy to make sure I am taking my supplements and medications as I normally would in my daily routine. We all know it’s hard to keep up healthy habits when traveling, so taking the time to make that happen for myself feels like I am making myself a priority. 

Honeymoon or bust.

I’m currently on a plane to Fort Lauderdale (or "Fort Liquordale," as I call it), ready for a break, yet feeling strange about leaving. The past few days were packed with work and preparations for our 18-day trip, leaving my head spinning.

This morning, Charlie and I couldn’t remember who booked our flight to the Caribbean. It was actually quite comical. He’s trying to change the sheets on our bed for our dog sitter while feeding the dogs and I’m trying to cram everything into our suitcase and not forget my toothbrush…I forgot my toothbrush. In between trying to finish all these things before our ride shows up, we are searching our phones to see who has the flight information. Our flight doesn’t take off until Saturday, so we at least have today to book our flight if neither of us ended up doing it. Charlie is looking up flights from Ft. Liquordale to Beef Island or St. Thomas when I find our flights I had booked through Spirit Airlines. Ha. We are both on the hot mess express over here and we’re not mad about it. 

Our dog sitter that we had scheduled for our honeymoon is not currently in Asheville due to the hurricane, so we’ve had to piece together coverage through some friends and our neighbor. We realized this morning while sitting in the airport that our neighbor misunderstood that we needed them to stay the night this Sunday for coverage. I’m pretty sure we have this worked out but will fully confirm once we land. 

We are all tired. 

Everyone in WNC is exhausted. Each call and meeting echoes the same sentiment. It’s hard not to be.  Making sure you have clean water to drink is something you have to do every few days and it’s something you’re always thinking about. One of the things I did before we left was to make sure our friends who are staying at our house have enough water to not have to worry about it. 

Any commute you have in Asheville currently takes longer than usual due to so many roads being damaged. I don’t really mind it if I’m being honest. We’re all being forced to slow down. Maybe we all really need it. Seeing the destruction and debris day after day takes its toll on us emotionally and maybe that also forces us to not be in such a rush.

Empathy abounds right about now because everyone has hurricane brain. While we’ve learned not to sweat the small stuff we’re all a little on edge. We’ve been feeling this rawness for 40 days now. It’s easy to take things personally or misinterpret a text even if we’re not usually inclined to do so. The balance of this is that hugs last a little longer and smiles have a lot more meaning behind them. 

As much as I need this break, I’m worried about being gone this long. I can’t remember the last time I took a vacation of this length. I do plan on doing some work on this trip, not because I have to, because I want to. I am in the thick of working on this youth event in February called WorkWonder Con. I have 5 young people working with me and they just started and I want to keep the momentum going. They energize me. I’m working on a benefit for our community and I’m working on my festival, Connect Beyond in April. These are my focuses on this trip. All of these things are life giving and there will be long stretches of time on the beach, being a sloth, and reading between working on them.

My plan was to work for 2 hours on the plane down to Ft. Liquordale. When we get to the hotel, I was planning to have a drink at the hotel bar before jumping on a work call scheduled for later this afternoon. But apparently Allegiant does not have internet on their planes. Silly me. Charlie is already drinking a bloody mary while I just drank a Celsius so I could crank out some work. So now I’m sitting here all jacked up on the plane writing a Substack post. Yeah!

I admit I’m not great at “unplugging,” and people telling me to turn off my phone on my trip only makes me more resistant. If you know me, you know I am as stubborn as a mule and telling me to do something will mean I will do the exact opposite (Charlie is sitting next me reading this and I wish I could tell you what he whispered in my ear after reading this, but it’s…inappropriate). I am as Aries as it gets sometimes.

What I will do is listen to my body. If it tells me to lie in bed and watch a Below Deck marathon then I’ll do it. If it tells me to get on the phone and call someone because that feels right, I’ll do it. One of the great gifts of aging is trusting your instincts. So, my goal is to go with the flow, taking things as they come. I’ll be gentle with myself.

I hope, wherever you are, you find a little time this weekend to do something just for you. If nothing else, listen to “Mercy Now” by Mary Gauthier—a song that feels like exactly what we all need.

And now I’m off to prove my existence to an airport bathroom sink. Wish me luck.