What I'm Up To
​Volume 87

Hey friends,
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Here’s what I’ve been up to since Vol. 86…
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1. September Happenings​
One of my favorite parts of the month was gazing at our hummingbird feeder. It hangs from the eaves of our back porch where Wendy and I can see our avian visitors from the couch. We’ve had a lot of traffic as they bulk up before their long trek to Mexico for Winter.
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While Calcifer the owl has been AWOL, a red-shouldered hawk has frequently visited the utility pole behind our house. The weather dipped into the 60’s. Mornings are glorious. Football is back. Wendy and I visited the ranch, not once but twice! Fall is my favorite season by far.

Wendy surprised me with a late anniversary gift. She is a big fan of artist Heather Gauthier, and commissioned a painting of our late ostrich, Elda. Heather delivered it herself. I was blown away. She calls it “The Running of the Boids.” The guinea hens were also a feature of our ranch. See if you can spot the emu egg. If you follow Heather, you get the added bonus of her weekly funny memes.
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Here are some fun highlights from September:

• Wendy and I played our very first game of pickleball! Thanks, Kim Z. and Allie for giving us a tour of the “kitchen.”
• New level unlocked! Did you know that on a Mac, you can hit “Control + Command + Spacebar” in almost any application and get an emoji menu? 🤯
• I got to speak at my friend Stu McClaren’s Impact Mastermind event for entrepreneurs running 7-figure communities. Really powerful to share The ONE Thing with a room full of thought leaders.
• Wendy got a random text from a friend asking her to buy raffle tickets for a charity event. We try to always say yes to these requests and Wendy bought five. The next morning, she noticed she missed several calls. Turns out she won a 20-year-old bottle of Pappy Van Winkle! For the uninitiated, that’s a $3000+ bottle of Kentucky’s finest.
• Wendy and I attended the Red Oak Hope annual gala. We helped raise $288,000 to provide hope and support for trafficked women and children. 🩷
• I made my best pastrami yet. I cured it for 9 days, slow-cooked it in a sous vide for 24 hours, and smoked it for 4 more. It was 11 days from start to finish and worth every second. Added bonus: If you vacuum pack pastrami, you can reheat it with virtually no loss of flavor or texture. Next time, I’m making twice as much!

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I’ve been working furiously to complete the manuscript for my next book. (The title is still top-secret. More to come!) At the start of September, I had about 5 weeks to finalize 89,000 words. Feeling good about hitting the finish line on October 31 and gorging on “fun size” candy bars.
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On the family front, Wendy’s Her Best Life event was a massive success. I’m seriously jealous she got to hang out with Brianna Wiest, one of my favorite authors. Every Saturday morning, I read 7 entries in her book, The Pivot Year. It’s 365 super short essays. Wiest knows how to soothe the troubled soul. Gus decided he had too much unstructured time at college and joined a creative writing club and a co-ed leadership and service “fraternity,” Alpha Fi Omega.
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My team road-tripped to Houston to celebrate the life of our late teammate, Allison. I won’t call it closure but it was progress. Thanks to everyone who reached out via email and texts to offer support. ❤️
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Speaking of support, I leaned hard on one of my oldest friends, Monroe. We were born four days apart in the same hospital and became life-long friends in 8th grade. (Fun fact – We both have unique names on a planet of 8 billion people!) Monroe led the counseling center at the Catholic University of America for over two decades. He just launched his private practice ( www.MonroeRayburn.com) based in Greater DC but he can work with clients in most states through PSYPACT (Map of coverage here). Go Monroe!
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​2. What I’m Reading​
Thanks to my intense writing schedule, I only completed one book in September, A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas. Our team is reading the series and I’m woefully behind. The book dragged for me with way too many breakfast and dinner conversations. The last quarter rocked. I hear the series really takes off in book two…I’ll report back.

3. What I’m Watching​
Between writing and watching college football, we didn’t see much this month either. We took my sister-in-law Heidi to see Beetlejuice Beetlejuice for her 48th birthday. The original is her favorite movie and she was thrilled. I also wrapped up Peaky Blinders, Season 5 (Netflix). Cillian Murphy smokes nonstop in the show, sometimes multiple cigarettes in virtually every scene. He doesn’t actually smoke so they used herbal cigarettes. It’s reported the cast smoked 3,000 fake cigarettes each season. Fake or not, that’s still a lot of 🚬. Talk about commitment!

That’s it for this month. Please reply back and let me know what you’re up to!

Be well, do good deeds, and eat tacos!
Jay

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