Ah July. You were a real piece of work, mostly in that working was elusive. 

Right now I’m “cramming” for the book, which is weird but strangely comforting. I know enough to immediately discard what won’t work for me –– but it’s a lot of digging into process and timelines and good structures.

Writing Without Rules was the best work-related book I read this last month. It’s fun, it’s good permission, it’s silly, it’s the book of someone I’d love to sit and listen to and buy a beer or a whiskey for. It is good mentorship cover to cover. In some ways, I’m trying to mentor myself (good mentors are hard to find!), trying to imagine where I will be 6 months, 12 months, 18 months from now and it’s all very weird and time-travelly and probably sounds nuts, so let’s just leave that alone for now.

But future Jackie is pretty cool, guys. I wish I were more like her.

Struggling with what writing books to read. It’s like selecting courses for an MBA. I want the right amount of encouragement, gravitas, experience, useable timelines, explanation of process, and humor. I usually get three those in any one book. Suggestions welcome.

There is an unrelenting need to get it “right” or at least not do so much that is wrong that errors could have been avoided if I were just paying attention, just read the right book.

I seek to know how to plan. What to put in. Scaffolding in the construction sense and also in the education sense.

And now the real work begins. August will be the final few weeks of prep, then once the kids get back to school, I dig down and dirty and do the work.

July Highlights:

• Great British Baking Show. I know I’m super late on this one, but I started with Season 1 (which I believe was not the first season aired in Britain.) I’m going by what Amazon calls them.
• We also watched in reverence Parts Unknown. Every brilliant line, every curious question, every meal, every venture witnessed made us mourn Anthony Bourdain all over again.
• I just enjoyed reading this so very much.
• And I enjoyed watching this many times.

Here’s to August and to taking that final deep breath before cannonballing into the deep end.